Timesuck with Dan Cummins - 25 - Serial Killer H.H. Holmes and his Murder Castle

Episode Date: March 6, 2017

Who has a murder castle!?! 19th century serial killer H.H. Holmes, that's who. Dubbed "America's first serial killer", Holmes' terrorized Chicago during the 1893 World's Fair, killing an estimated 200 women in his literal house of horror. Trap doors, a gas chamber, and a cellar full of torture devices awaited young women tricked into staying in Holmes' evil lair. A truly terrifying edition of Timesuck!

Google Murder Castle and all that comes up are articles about serial killer H.H. Holmes literal house of horse. How scary is that? A Murder Castle. Completed in Chicago in 1892, this giant structure 150 feet long, 50 feet wide, took up most of the entire block in the corner of 63rd and Wall of Streets. It was a massive drugstore, various little retail shops around the first floor, hotel rooms, H.H. Homes, private residents,

office around the third floor. Second floor appeared to be more hotel rooms and there were a few, but in reality, the second floor was a horrific prison where numbers of young women went missing, burned to death. Hung, it's fixated, suffocated, starved, sometimes released to the cellar through various trap doors and shoots,

where these poor souls could be subjected to more torture if they still lived before being dissolved in a quick limepid, burned in a kiln, or dissected and reduced to a literal skeleton, the meat and skin flayed from their bones. Unimaginable horrors were committed just a few feet from tourists enjoying the 1893 Chicago's World's Fair, shoppers at the drugstore, guests being entertained

by Dr. Holmes, a real life, Hannibal Lecter. That is, if Lecter was even more evil, more cunning and more prolific in taking human life than the character in the movies. And no one heard any of their many, many screams of agony and desperation because Holmes took great care to soundproof this private hell. Had Holmes been brought to justice last year,

10 years ago, even 30 years ago, he'd be more notorious and famous than the Green River Killer, John Wayne Gacy Dahmer, all of those people, heinous monsters, but their stories pale in comparison to the psychopathic savaginists of Holmes' crimes, if he even did half of what he was suspected to do. I didn't think it was possible to research a killer more charismatic, brutal, and soulless, more savage than Ted Bundy, but I was wrong. H.A. Holmes, he may have been even worse if such a thing is even possible. Skip this episode.

If you don't have a strong stomach, skip it if you're not among the morbidly curious, definitely skip it if you're home alone and easily spooked. Because we are about to go full evil on this bloody wicked and diabolical addition of Time Suck. You're listening to Time Suck. You're listening to Time Suck. You're listening to Time Suck. Welcome to a pretty dark and twisted Time Suck everybody. Thanks for choosing to hit play this moment

and to get sucked. Thanks for letting me suck your brain through your sweet, sweet ear hole for about an hour. So let's do it. Let's get sucked. Lots of requests for this week's episode. Everyone wants some H.H. Holmes, Joe Trumbauer, via time suck email, Adam King via the time suck email,

also Steve Heyman from that as well, Eric Brooks, John Heines, a few others, I'm sure I've missed Josh DeCruz via Twitter at Josh DeCruz. And yeah, I had some funny messages sent in from some Time Soakers this past week as well. Sometimes sucker updates. Updates, get your time sucker updates. All right, first update is another flat earth update. God, I love this. I never, I never get tired of this.

This was sent in from Jacob Sholen. Jacob sent me a link to an imageer post. That's a really fun website, by the way, imageer. If you have a messed around on it. And I'll post a link in the episode description. And it explains why the earth must be round and how even ancient Greeks knew this. And this is a very cool thing.

I wish I would have known about this when I would have recorded the initial episode, but that's why we have this update segment now. And basically, there's these two obelisks in Egypt, nearly identical, if not basically completely identical in size. Two towers, one in Alexandria, one further down south in Serene, and Eratosthenes, born in 276 BC,

I'll probably butcher in his name. He's got one of those fucked up old Greek names. Eratosthenes, I believe it says what looks like to me. He realized that if the earth was truly flat, both of these obelisks should have cast the same exact type of shadow at the same time of day, which makes total sense, right? If you get this flat disk and the sun's floating up above it,

the shadows should be the same, should be hidden at the same time. But they don't because the earth is curved. And he found out that the bigger the difference in shadows, the bigger the curve, and from this difference, this dude was able to calculate the circumference of the earth before the birth of Christ, right? Way back when he was able to use that and accurately calculate the circumference of the earth, right? Way back when he was able to use that and accurately calculate the circumference of the Earth, right?

So what you couldn't do, again, if the Earth was flat, it would have no circumference. This guy also invented modern geography and a whole bunch of other stuff. And you have people like that on the side of the Earth being round. And then you have people like Kyrie Irving of the Cleveland Cavaliers on the side of the Earth being round. And then you have people like Kyry Irving, of the Cleveland Cavaliers on the side of the Earth being

flat. He recently, probably many of you have already heard this, recently went out and just said that he was under this podcast. A podcast that was recorded, by the way, while he was traveling on a plane, sorry, I don't have the name over the podcast. I didn't pay attention to those exact details. I was just like, really dude. He was interviewed after it, some of his teammates,

LeBron James and stuff. We interviewed about car restarts on a flat earth and they basically were very diplomatic and said like, he's an interesting guy. That was sort of the kid of the 80s. He's an interesting guy. Well, when it comes to science, he's a dumb shit. I think he's a hell of a basketball player. He's a very intelligent basketball player. He has, that's what's interesting about humans to me. You can be very intelligent in some ways, and very, let's say at least uninformed in others, but he's just like, man, they lie to us.

That's what he kept saying. He's like, they lie to us. They lie to us. Why? Why are they lying to us? Right? Because of the, because of the NASA, the ice wall, listen to, listen to Billy the kid. Listen to that, listen to that update. If you want to find out how much the ice wall would cost,

it doesn't make any goddamn sense. Fuck me, these people. Okay, another update was about the alien extravaganza. And I really love this. This is from Andrew Petrov. Man, thank you, Andrew, so much for sending this in. This is just, he sent in a great example of how, you know, he thought he definitely

for sure had an alien encounter, actually two alien encounters, but then he found out what actually went on. I feel like this is true of alien sightings, almost 100% if not 100% of the time. Again, I am a believer. I do believe they're out there, but I just yet to hear one single story where I'm like, fuck yes, that makes total sense. Absolutely, I get it. So here's his. This is very nice. He says, how's it going, Dan? First off, love the podcast. Thank you.

Destructurally great. Definitely something different from the norm, especially for a comedian. And he says, so the UFO bonus episode was really great. And reminding me of this time, a couple of years ago, when I went on a road trip to this downhill skateboarding race with a buddy in Southern California, which sounds fucking badass by the way. I'd be terrified to do that. We were driving on South on the 5, passing Bakersfield around 11 p.m. It's pitch black out. We were the only car on the road for at least a few miles.

As you may know, the stretch of the 5 is nothing but farmland on each side. I do know that. I've taken that drive. I know exactly what you're talking about. It's very desolate. So lots of agriculture, you agriculture, just on each side. So as we're driving down the stretch of road, under the influence of a lot of weed and energy drinks,

I like the honesty. Stone and fucking pepped up. All of a sudden, this bright light was hovering directly next to us matching our speed. It was so dark out and the light was so bright, we couldn't decipher what the object was. We immediately freaked the fuck out. Totally get it, totally get that.

Then it sped up across the highway directly in front of us, matched our speed on the other side of the highway before pulling up to a higher altitude and disappearing. In the midst of freaking out, we agreed we were witnessing a UFO alien encounter. For the rest of the weekend, we put that in the back of our minds and enjoyed our trip. This was on a Friday night. Following Sunday, we're headed back on the five in the same area around the same time of night and the same shit happened again. We freaked out, we were basically tripping out on that for the rest of the drive back to the Bay Area. I probably told all of my friends what happened for the next week or so, which I love, you're telling everybody, you saw some

fucking aliens. And I wonder, I forgot to email you back, Andrew, and ask if you were smoking weed and hitting the energy drinks on the way back. Finally, it occurred to me that I should do some research and see if anyone else experiences. Within 30 seconds into my Google research, I found out that I should probably stop doing drugs. That's great.

That's so called phenomena was actually a crop duster plane. Apparently, apparently it's common knowledge that crop dusters spray at night so the chemicals don't evaporate in the heat. So yeah, just a little story that shows how easy it is for people to over-react to UFOs because they wanna believe there's something there. That are just a bunch of brain dead druggies

and they think they got probed in the ass last night. Anyways, big fan of the show and your comedy take it easy, Dan. All right, well thank you very much, Andrew. That was fantastic. I enjoyed that very, very much. Yeah, I wonder how many stories are too similar? Where it's like, yeah, yeah, I get it, man.

You're traveling down the road. It's dark, it's late at night, there's no one else around. You know, especially with little weed, you get some energy, so you're like that this weird mix of your stone, but also hyper alert. I feel like sometimes those energy drinks can make you a little paranoid, you get some energy, so you're like that's this weird mix of your stone, but also like hyper alert. I feel like sometimes those energy drinks can make a little paranoid even. You just so fucking jacked up on caffeine and I don't know, by radioactive rapists or whatever they put in that stuff. And then all of a sudden, yeah, you're seeing some weird lights and those little planes when they're lit up at night, you know, you don't even really actually see

the plane, you just see lights next year. Out absolutely. I would think that was a UFO for sure. And then you kid me, you're driving back a couple of years later and the same should happen again. Absolutely. But you know, it's a crop duster plane. Well that's enough time-sucker updates for one show.

Thanks for writing those into admin at timesuppodcast.com. Thanks time, suckers. I need a net. Thanks for writing those in to admin at timesofpodcast.com Thanks time suckers. I needed that we all did So H H homes who was he who was Herman Webster? Muget No wonder he changes guy didn't then What he's simply a cold-hearted businessman. I knew how to make money off dead bodies I mean he sold many the skeletons and sometimes even, I knew how to make money off dead bodies. I mean, he sold many of the skeletons

and sometimes even organs of his victims to contacts he'd made in medical school, tried to make money on just about all, if not all of his victims, you know, collecting on or trying to collect on a number of life insurance scams, stealing their life savings, et cetera. It was he a bloodthirsty sadist who delighted in torturing his victims

and the money was just a bonus. His murder castle did have torture devices in the cellar and a variety of rooms designed for a variety of different types of killing, some extremely slow and very painful, like literally starving victims to death. Was he both? I'm going to go with the firm yes on both. I'm going to check that box with a pen. There's no race in that one.

No take backs. Now, dude was a psychopath, a true psychopath. If you remember from time suck episode four, sociopaths and psychopaths, psychopaths are dangerous. They're violent and cruel, and oftentimes downright sinister. They showed no remorse for their actions, usually because of a lesion and a part of their brain, responsible for fear and judgment known as the amygdala. Psychopaths commit crimes and cold blood. They crave control and impulsivity. Possessed a predatory instinct, an attack proactively,

rather than as a reaction to confrontation. So you know, a sociopath may lack empathy for other people, but they really go out of their way to harm others. Holmes loved harming others. Definitely went out of his way to do that time and time again. He was a smart dude. He could have made money in a variety of ways. Murder didn't have to be his business. No autops he was ever done on his brain. Find out if you had a

lesion, but lesion or not dude was fucked up. He did not have a normal brain. A layer of mystery still and were will forever shroud the life of the man labeled often as America's first serial killer because a lot of details are lost to history. All the key players and eyewitnesses are long dead, but there is plenty of horrifying details that we do know. And before we get to the juicier, Macabre ones, let's jump into a little mini, just a little baby timeline,

little baby time suck timeline, by the standard of some other episodes. Let's paint a picture of an odd boy, who shortly before growing up and getting hung, told a news reporter he was born with the devil in me. Shrap on those boots, soldier. We're marching down a time-sub-time line. 1861, Herman Webster Mudgeett was born on May 16th. He was born in the center of a pentagram in the middle of a

Transylvania forest, stabbing his way out of the womb with a small dagger Satan himself would give him. Jumping to the ground as demons and dark priests chanted his name. Herman Majet Say Ten, loves it. say, 10, loves it. No, that didn't happen. By the time this episode is over, that scenario won't seem as far fetched, as it may have just now. He was born in Gilminton, New Hampshire, in the traditional way,

sliding out, kicking and screaming from his mother's newly destroyed vagina. Gilminton is a colonial town incorporated in 1727, and if you live there there got some news for you 2017 dog tags are in. Oh boy Get your 2017 dog tags Gilmintonians. They're here. I'm not kidding. They're finally here. It's okay That's the most important current news. That's actually the only news item listed on Gilminton's official city website that has an exclamation point It's it's a sleepy town go to go to Gilminton NH dot city website that has an exclamation point. It's a sleepy town.

Go to Gilmintonnh.org if you want to bore yourself. The website for this little burglist in 4,000 New Englanders fails to mention Herman Webster budget. No H.H. Holmes listed it all. Huh, wonder why? Gilminton also rumored to be the setting for the fictional town of Peyton Place, a novel that was on the New York Times bestseller list for 59 weeks, beginning in 1956, spawning a film, a soap opera, and a television series about Gossipy, sexually charged small town conservative New Hampshire

women. Probably not going to give that a read or watch any of that, unless I have trouble sleepy. Herman was born into a wealthy family and never suffered financially as a child. Holmes' parents were devout Methodists and demanded total obedience. They controlled him, a control he would mirror and later killings. His mom, a schoolteacher prior to marriage, was described as cold and distant, someone who used religion as a daily guide for parenting. The good old spare the rod and spoil the child, method of child rearing.

Does that ever affect him work? Ever. Is that ever-fucking work? Ever. Does that ever create happy, psychologically healthy adults? I doubt it. I've not a lot of people who survived in an intolerant, rigid, religious upbringing, and they are without fail always a bit more fucked up than the average bear. Herman's father, in particular, really didn't like to spare the rod.

And bonus, he was a drunk. Sweet. The abusive Christian father who's also a drunk. That's the kind of dad, everyone kid dreams of. Hey dad, can you please get drunk and babble on about some incoherent Old Testament scripture you don't understand and then beat me when I don't understand it either? Yay! Herman's father's harsh disciplinary tactics included prolonged isolation, even food, deprivation. Remember that? Herman would mirror both of those treatments and later killings as well.

Furthermore, his father reportedly held caracene soaked rags over homes and the other children's mouths to quiet them when they cried. This behavior would also show up in Herman's future killings. What the fuck? I actually, as a parent, I do get the urge. When you're just exhausted, and you're like, I just want to shut the fuck up. Like when you're kids at toddler, and you're like, God, if it didn't hurt him, just maybe a little chloroform, just to kind of knock him down a bit, quiet him up.

But who actually does that? H.H. Holmes' dad, that's who. During these instances of abuse by his father, Homes found refuge in the forest near his home, and it was in the forest that he began dissecting animals, killing them, developing his deviant fascination of things both dead and alive. That is a serial killer in the making right there.

Get and beat, and frankly tortured by a drunk abusive father, an emotionally distant mother who never helps you, just stands by, you know, he's having fire and brimstone, she's having his throat by both parents. And he knew how fucked up all this was because he was described as a hyper-intelligent child. You'll find out as this story progresses very, very intelligence. And then this kid, this really smart, beaten kid, sneaks off to the woods to treat some little woodland creatures like he's being treated at home, control to him like he's being

controlled. So now he's developing a taste for torture, control and death, a hardening of the heart towards the sanctity of life, all during his formative years. Dude is psychologically, FUBARD fucked up beyond all recognition for those of you not in the FUBARD know. So this abuse he suffers combined with his now shameful secret

of killing little creatures isolates young Herman from his peers. He becomes known as a very intelligent loner, the weird kid, the weird creepy kid from school. His early childhood experiences, no doubt led to an instability to form meaningful relationships. His own abuse must have contributed to his penchant for lies, swindling, abusing others as an adult. Side note, serial killers are six times more likely to have experienced physical abuse in their childhood than the average population. Inhermins abuse

wasn't just limited to his home life. He gets even better. As a kid, homes was bullied and abused in school for his good grades and slightly odd demeanor. I'm slightly probably super odd. Think about how much life sucks sometimes. You get beaten harassed at home, which creates a paranoia and distrust of others that causes you to behave differently than the other kids at your school. And then, because kids are dicks, you get beaten harassed by them at school too.

Anyone who thinks there is any fairness in life is a fucking moron. I still feel guilt over picking on some kids I went to school with because I thought they were super weird. And they were. They definitely were. But it was probably just because their home life sucked. You know, they were just cotton and never ending shit storm atorments.

I was just another spoke in the bully shit wheel of their life. Helm was recounting one of the most memorable torment of his childhood as leading directly to his fast nation with dead human bodies. One day after school, he's blindsided by some classmates who drag him, force him into a local doctor's office, or they took the force him into a local doctor's office Well, they took the hands of a skeleton doctors offices had a real skeletons these days forcing the skeletons hands kind of on his face, you know, just just tormenting with it Undoubtedly to his horrified little kid screams

Holmes later recalled that event and said it was the reason that made it what got him curious about anatomy was the reason that made it, what got him curious about anatomy, about human anatomy, and which later led him to pursue a degree at the University of Michigan Medical School in 1884. He also said it was the last time he'd be afraid of anything. Jesus. So this fascination with death may have also led to an early murder. He didn't have many friends grown up. You know, he did play in the woods with a local kid named Tom, though, who was a couple years older than he was. And one day, while exploring an abandoned home with Tom, Holmes recalled, witnessing Tom die by falling off a landing. They were the only two kids out there.

So of course, there's going to be speculation that Holmes was standing close enough behind Tom that he may have pushed him intentionally. And based on what he did later as a adult, I'm going to go 100% on young Herman Push and Tom just to see what the fuck would happen to him. I'm going to go 100% that he killed his little childhood friend. Okay, 1878.

1878, the young 17-year-old psychopath, Mary's Clara Leverine of Alton, New Hampshire, the daughter of a wealthy local farmer. Unfortunately for Clara, the marriage was probably just a way for homes to get some money. You can see this pattern later in his life. And just get the hell away from his horrible parents. They didn't have a son though. A Robert Muget. My Robert Muget, that name just cracks me up.

Muget. If your last name is Muget, that's terrible. Born in 1880. OK, well, a year later, after getting married, 1879, after graduating early from high school, Herman leaves Clara in roles in the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor. He uses Anna's family's money to pay for his tuition.

Eventually, Anna and little Bobby Muget, what they would join him. But then a short time later, after graduation from medical school, they'd returned to New Hampshire. It wouldn't see him for over 10 years. Man, that kid, I get that kid, man, that fucking shit. Hey, everybody's Bobby Muget. Isn't your dad a crazy murderer? Isn't he a crazy murderer, Bobby Muget?

It's a wonder with a serial killer for a dad in a name like Bobby Muget that Little Robert didn't also grow to be a murderer. Good thing they did go back to New Hampshire. They would have followed homes to Chicago. The odds of either one of them living for very long would have been extremely low. So, medical school, homes, fascination with the dead grows. Chicago, the odds of either one of them living for very long would have been extremely low. So in medical school, home's fascination with the dead grows.

As he studies to become a doctor, he also studies to become a scary as fuck real-life monster. He begins to personally procure cadavers to study, dissect, use in his own research. He also figures out how to monetize corpses. He begins robby local graves and morgs in selling the cadavers to medical schools or utilizing them to swindle insurance companies, or both. Any fear he had when those childhood

bullies forced him to touch a skeleton or long, long gone at this point. And selling skeletons is just a start of it, you know, how he makes money from the dead. You know, the insurance scans are the big one. He would con insurance companies by creating students for himself, then naming himself as the beneficiary of a life insurance policy He would take out on a fictitious individual Then he'd use a cadaver that he had just figured to render it unrecognizable and claim The cadaver was the fictitious person. He'd taken out the life insurance policy on I have said it before And I'll say it now and I'm sure many more times in this podcast

God it was easier to be a crook in the past than it is now You could not pull off that shit no matter how smart you are now, because there are dental records, fingerprint databases, birth certificates, social security numbers, all kinds of stuff used to identify a body. None of that shit existed about that.

Not that I could have pulled it off either. Holmes was, you know, back then. Holmes was considered a brilliant student and also considered very attractive, mysterious, charismatic. He was basically like an old-time American psycho Christian bail if you've seen that movie. Oh, man. So during his time in medical school, Holmes has begun to ignore his wife and son back

a new hamster, but not until he received nearly $12,500 on one of his most successful, early life insurance scams. He waits until he gets that money to abandon them completely. No longer needs the money. And you know, not surprisingly, based on his own childhood, which we've now heard about, he doesn't place a lot of value on family life. And he clearly doesn't enjoy just being beholden to anyone after being controlled as a kid. So now, 1884.

1884, Holmes graduates from the University of Michigan Medical School, receives his MD, just to find outstanding young doctor who uses corpses to scam insurance companies and probably kill the only childhood friend home out with him. Go Wolverines! Herman then uses his new degree to create the last-ing alias of Dr. Henry Howard Holmes, which I gotta say is way better than Dr. Herman Webster Muget. Dr. Muget, I gottahide for you to check out. Can you look at my butt, Dr. Mudge it? Who could claim, you know, blame this guy again. Yeah, HH way

better than Herman. I don't think you can be a criminal mastermind if your name is Herman. No one's been taking seriously, you know, you're not going to inspire the proper fear and respect. You know, if you're henchmen's, I can talk into some kidnapped victim, you wait until Herman gets here. You will be talking so brave, you have to face Herman. Get out of here. Being a doctor was the perfect facade for homes, gave him the access tools and resources he needed to continue killing for fun and profit. Dude would legitimately soon be in the murder business, like on a regular basis. 1885, he's in Chicago.

New wife in a new scam. Dr. Holmes moves to Chicago in 1885 to take a job as a pharmacist and quickly finds time too bigamously marry the daughter of a well-to-do family in Wilmot, a wealthy suburb, north of Chicago. Here he sets another pattern for himself, the pyramid in a fraud upon credit. The details vary a little bit,

but the main outlines of the scheme remained the same wherever Holmes was the rest of his life. He would borrow some money with some worthless banknote and some skilled smooth talk, enough money to buy some land. To repay the original loan, he would borrow against a lot from a local lender. Then he'd build a house or business

in a highly frenetic and unscrupulous fashion, discharging workman, wrathfully threatening litigation against subcontractors, cajoling those he could not frighten. cajoling, by the way, brings us to what may be my new favorite weekly segment, just a tiny little segment called the Time Suck, Fancy Pants Word of the Day. Kajoling, verb. To persuade someone to do something by sustained coaxing or flattery. For example, Tom Kajold Susan, and to give him a backseat hand job by continuously complimenting her on how soft her palms looked and how sexy her wrists were.

Until she finally jerked him off just to shut him up and get a ride back home from the movie theater, parking lot. So there you go time suckers. Now you know what could Joel means. Now thanks to that example, you probably never forget it. Anywho, let's get back into that timeline. It's 1885. Dr. Holmes is perfecting his new con.

You know, he tricked someone in the lending money by some land, repays the initial loan, by borrowing against the land, bills on the land, by taking advantage, and conjoling contractors. And then as soon as the roof was on, he would order huge quantities of furniture and other merchandise, all purchased on credit, of course, and then sell the furniture to pay off the contractors. And then by the time the furniture company gets around to repossess in the property, homes his sold the structure and the land the furniture was on and he's fucking out of there.

Again, how much easier was it to be a crook back in the 19th century when people just couldn't hop on the web and easily track you down? That is crazy. He builds this entire business by this land and just on a pyramid of frauds, then sells it to somebody, gets the real money and then just gone. And then when people come back, like, hey, man, I need to get paid for that building, or

hey, man, I need to get paid for the furniture in that building, or whatever, he's just out of there. Okay, 1885 to 1892, he just keeps working these scams. He's just, the scam after scam after scam. And he also has time to father three more kids and establish himself in the Wilmaet household as a solid citizen. His wife, of course, knows nothing about any of his

many criminal activities, which were rapidly becoming more numerous and more mysterious. How he explained to her his long absences is not recorded. But I guess, you know, it's probably a pretty simple task for a dude of his agile imagination. I mean, Jesus. 1892, a dude of his agile imagination. I mean, Jesus. 1892, a foundation of the murder castle. In 1892, Holmes transfers all his criminal energies to the Anglewood District of Chicago,

centering on 63rd Street. It's there he would build his dark and morbid masterpiece and achieve lasting infamy. It's here he would build his murder castle. So let's pop on out of this timeline, Take a closer look at Chicago in 1892 and explore the murder castle and fascinating detail. Good job, soldier. You made it back. Barely. All right, Chicago, 1890. Okay. So if you listen to Valentine's Day mask repspes at a time-suck that's episode 22, you already know that late 19th century Chicago is pretty corrupt.

You know you got early Chicago gangster Michael McDonald. I keep forgetting, I'm not in love anymore. Y'all won't be there. Taking it to the streets taking it to the Stratagga. Yeah, you it to the streets, taking it to the Stratagga. Yeah, you get the idea. All McDonald, he's selling the seeds of early organized crime. There's a lot of police, a lot of politicians, judges,

et cetera, on the criminal dole. Criminal payroll, payroll, fuel by a lot of vice. Tons of gambling halls, horror houses, and violence. So much so that after the world's Columbian exposition, better known as the World's Fair of 1893, a massive reform movement would begin against this crime-riddled city, but it would take until 1914 to temporarily clean up all the illegal brothels. Many of which were, I guess, fueled by underage sex slaves,

this is an important understanding, point out, because Chicago, at the end of the 19th century, not a good place for young women. They disappear all the time. They weren't as safe as they are today, not that they couldn't still be even safer. And it was just a place where they could just disappear unnoticed into sex slavery, into the murder castle, especially in 1893 during the World's Fair, when a shitload of people were pouring into Chicago

and the murder castle was in full force. So let's talk about the World's Fair. May 1st, 1893, that's when the gates opened on the world's Colombian exposition meant to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus, his first voyage to the new world. I'll also know this is the Chicago's world's fair. Over the next six months, more than 26 million visitors.

26 million people are flocking to the 600 acre fairgrounds, 200 plus buildings full of art, food, entertainment, technological gadgets, and the middle of a city that already had roughly 1.2 million people living in. It was the second biggest city in the nation behind New York. After having only 5,000 people 50 years before. So a lot is going on. This city is is frantically being built. A lot of buildings, homes, businesses are springing up all over the place in the 1890s Chicago. Chicago had locked up to fair on December 24th, 1890, resting it from the other candidates of New York,

St. Louis, and DC, with a presidential proclamation from President Benjamin Harris. And so from 1890 to 1893, you know, again, the city is just being built at a chaotic rate to prepare for this big event. I mean, think about like when the city's get ready for the Olympics. This is the same kind of shit.

It's maybe even bigger in a way. Yeah, and so hotels, new stores, exhibits, they're going over all over the city. And that's why he was able to kind of homes sneak in his little fucking disgusting building. So October 9, 1893, the day designated as Chicago Day, check this out, how many people are pouring in. The fair set a world record for an outdoor event.

They drew 751,026 people. And one day coming into the fair. That's a murderer's dream, man. It's only victims. The fair, by the way, produced a number of firsts. It was a kind of historic fair. It could probably be a time suck in and of itself. Among the well-loved commercial products

that made their debut with the Chicago World's Fair were cream a wheat. I love me some cream a wheat, by the way. Love a little cream a wheat. Make a little cream a wheat. Yeah, a little fucking milk, a brown sugar. And you just have a simple, just gruel, like a tasty gruel of a breakfast.

A lot of people find it disgusting. I find it comforting, cause my grandma, berry, maybe some cream, oh, it making me cream, or wheat. There's pap's blue ribbon beer,

PBRs. All right, I like a little PBR. It's a little hipster, I know, but I think it's some of the best cheap pills, like domestic pills, you know, on the planet. I like it. It's kind of sweet.

Maybe PBR and cream a wheat. Maybe that's a meal I should try. Rigley's chewing gum and cracker jacks. They were born at the fair. I was liking me a cracker jack. Getting my little fucking shitty magnifying glass or shitty little kid tattoo. And the bottom of the cracker jack.

Technological products that would soon find the way into homes nationwide, including the dishwasher, fluorescent light bulbs, the US government issued the country's first postcards. That's right, postcards, you heard of them. Commemorative stamps for you fucking dorky stamp collectors out there. You probably are, yeah, your stamp collector dork, you already know about the world's fair.

The first fairest wheel made us debut at the fair, the long awaited invention of Pittsburgh-based bridge builder and steel magnet George Washington Gale Ferris Juner. Fuck people out of the long name back then. What a pretentious dip shit that guy was. I don't care how successful he was. I, if he introduced himself that way, can you imagine? I guess it's a different era. Hello, I am George Washington Gale Ferris Jr. How about just George? Let's just go with George there. Calm down buddy. Well, George Washington Gale Ferris Jr. intended to rival the highlight of the 1889 fair in Paris, the Eiffel Tower. So it made a Ferris wheel. Ah, Ferris wheels are cool. I don't think it holds up to the Eiffel Tower.

You know, you got people, that's like a lifetime bucket list. Man, I want to go to Paris, check out the Eiffel Tower. I mean, I know people who like Ferris wheels, but you know, I've never heard anybody like, man, just before I die, before I die, I just hope I can take one ride in a Ferris wheel. Well, anyway, it was a big deal then. It was 264 feet tall.

It was an engineering marvel. It could fit 2,160 people at a time. That's a big Ferris wheel. Costs 50 cents to ride, twice the price of admission to the Ferris self. It was so popular, it was moved to Chicago's North Side, where it remained an operation for 10 years, before it was sold to the organizers

of the 1904 World's Ferris and St. Louis, Missouri. Oh, there's people flocking everywhere for this Ferris wheel. Over 120 years later, an American comedian would use the Ferris wheel, visual as inspiration for a dark, comedic bit about gun control involving a dead squirrel puppet reference to my own material.

Okay, but I digress back to the timeline, 1892. I guess we're not really in the timeline anymore, but back to the story, back to the narrative. In the middle of this hustling bustling somewhat vice-field pre-Expo Chicago of 1892, Holmes, he built his murder castle. He knew, you know, flocks of people, including lots of young women, it could be porn in the city.

He knew there was a lot of money to be made in their corpses. A lot of killin' to be done in the chaos. He had to have known. He's a sick guy, he's a smart guy. You know, the Exo provides the perfect backdrop to quietly build an evil layer. Hotels and other accommodations are being built all over town at a rapid rate.

His was just another new big building amongst many. So to get the money he needed to build what would be an elaborate estate of torture and death, he went back to his cons. You know, took his cons, took his cons, gave me the next level. Went full con, full swindle. Barred money from creditors to be getting construction, then borrowed money, you know, from other creditors to begin construction, then borrowed money, you know?

From other creditors to pay those first creditors back, like a young birdie made off, working some Ponzi schemes. From his drug store on the ground floor, which he completed first, he would sell just nonsense, sure fire, snake charmer, cures for like alcoholism, which was just fucking like water. Some other bullshitty throw in the water.

He sold, this is because this is before the pure food and drug act of 1906 and the beginnings of the FDA. You can sell fucking anything in a drug store in the 1890s. He opened up a restaurant, sold that before outfitting, before the outfitting company could repossess the fixtures after banking hours. One time a citizen came to the drug store to get large bills for $178 and small change.

Homes gave him a worthless personal check, stalled him off for two years. I mean, he's working every angle, man. He'll give you a bad check for a jar of nickels. He's working the jar of nickels, swindle. He's full swindle, grabbing that nickel money. Then he sold a drug store, a different one. He purchased through some other cons.

By misrepresenting the volume of business, he bought this one across the street. To substantiate his claims, he hired various people to stream into the store and make expensive purchases. How do you love to con, man? Another time he bought a large safe, moved it into a small room of the castle, narrowed the size of the room's door,

refused to pay for the safe, and invited the owner to repossess it. But warned him not to damage the house. I want to dick. He invented a machine which made illuminating gas out of water. He demonstrated successfully to an expert who could not discover in the rubed goldberg maze of pipes, pulleys, wires, and other gadgets.

The one pipe which tapped the gas company's mains was the one doing it, not the machine, aided by the expert's endorsement home sold his invention, which looked like a washing machine on stilts to some Canadian for $2,000. He's making that fake invention money. When the invention was removed from the basement,

a hole remained, and then homes decides that he's discovered a miraculous mineral spring. He piped the healing potion upstairs to his drugstore and retailed it successfully at $0.5 a glass. Talk about lemonade from lemon. Hold on the basement. Now, I don't even patch it up. It's mineral, laden, spring now.

Who knew? Ponce, daily owns, fountain of youth was in a Chicago drug store basement the whole time. Perhaps his most spectacular swindle during this period of building the murder castle involves some furnishings of the castle. This is this is some next level shit. This is unbelievable. Check this out. This dude, he buys truck loads of furniture mattresses bedsprings hardware gas fixtures gas fixtures the sinister item he would use again later it turns out. He has all this delivered to the castle at 63rd Street the Toby furniture company unpaid a week later to get a little anxious about losing all their money on this unpaid furniture.

They dispatch a collections agent to talk to him and to keep an eye on the house. Make sure he doesn't try and sneak out with the furniture as they're trying to get their payment back. You know, and Holmes, usual tactics of cajolary failed. Remember that word? Oh, he's cajoling them. And so the company, they send vans, some brawny, moving men to repossess their property. They get into the castle and they find the place

completely empty. Get the company's own agent, the collections agent, swore no furniture had been taken out. He's been doing a stakeout. And he was right, no furniture had been taken out. It had been taken in. He took it in. The castle would swallow the furniture

as it later swallled young women, all right? A janitor at the castle later gave up the con for a $20 to $5 bribe. And this is what happened. Home has had moved all of the furniture into one giant room, taken out the door frame, and bricked up the door, and papered the wall. So you go in there, and there's just fucking nothing.

He just, he hit it in a room that you can't even tell his room anymore. How much of a smooth talker was this guy? Yeah, I know. I know you gave me the furniture on credit. And clearly, you took it back. Because I mean, it's not here, is it? I mean, it's not here.

You're on collection agent. He didn't see anyone take it. If you didn't take it back yourself, you tell me what happened. I mean, what did the house swallow it up? What do you, unbelievable. It amazes me that he was able to keep some of the details of the castle of secrets and how he did this,

like all these trap doors and basically murder rooms, is he used a ton of different people to build it. So only he actually knew the layout of the castle. Because he just constantly, as we said before, and one of those cons, he just constantly fired people. He would just fire like contractors usually within a few weeks of hiring them. And there's even some rumors that he murdered a number of construction cons, he just constantly fired people. He would just fire like contractors, usually, within a few weeks of hiring them. And there's even some rumors that he murdered

a number of construction workers, and hid and got rid of their bodies and the very building they were working on. He was a master con artist. And how did he continuously run all of these scams? I guess a combination of just rapier wit and no morality. He just had no qualms about conning people, and he was hyper intelligent. He was born with charm and good looks. He just had no qualms about conning people and he was hyper-intelligent.

He was born with charm and good looks. He was a master manipulator. Eric Larson, a fantastic author, author of the book on H.H. Holmes, devil in the white city said, quote, you wouldn't know it from looking at him, but people thought he was incredibly handsome. Apparently, he had that magnetic thing that psychopaths have. And I will have a picture up of him again at TimeSuckPodcast.com, so you can see for yourself. He looks like an old timey handsome I guess. You know it's hard not to think about how creepy he was when you see the picture and so you're like yeah that looks like a killer. You also think that but if you just seen that picture and it wasn't a killer it looks almost kind of like a gunslinger. I don't know. Well even more

impressive in a stick and twisted way. The whole time he's running all these scams, building his castle, doing all these crazy things. He's also keeping his wife, who lives in another party of Chicago happy. Remember, he had the first wife, still back in New Hampshire. They have a loose relationship. They never actually officially get divorced. He has three kids with a woman in Chicago. So then he takes a new mistress on top of those two women,

who along with her eight-year-old daughter lives with him in the castle. Mrs. Julia Conner, a woman who will soon murder. Apparently, his mistress was jealous of the other women he's sleeping with. So think about that. He's got the wife and the suburbs. He's got the mistress in the castle.

He is sleeping with other women in the castle. Ah. And to keep him getting caught with these other women, he does stuff like he has a step removed from the stairs leading up to Julie's apartment and replaces it with this step that has a built-in electric-like buzzer underneath that quietly sets off an alarm he can hear in other parts of the home. How fucking crazy is that? He's like jigsaw from the saw movies. Just, would you like to play a game? Would you like to play a game? Oh my god he's got

booby traps. He's got booby traps for you goonies fans. And this was just the beginning of a whole system of alarms you'd have installed to keep his victims from escaping. Two wives, mistress, multiple other affairs, tons of scams, and pretty soon he'd be working murder into the mix like at a rapid rate. Unreal organization skills. If he could have just applied himself in the right way,

God knows what good he could have done. Also in 1892, H.H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. H. safe. He's a fucking evil mastermind. And then ironically, it would be his henchman Pytzel. It would be Pytzel's death that he would be sentenced for, convicted in Hung for, a crime completely unrelated to his murders at the Chicago Castle. So the castle was completed sometime in 1892. An actual record of the completion doesn't exist. I mean, dude wasn't really into keeping firm records of his torture chambers.

He's not gonna file that paperwork down in City Hall. Excuse me. I just finished building an elaborate murder factory on some property I stole money from to purchase using laborers. I also swindled. It has a bunch of torture rooms, it has a kiln, it has a quick climb pit for erasing any trace of my many, many murderous crimes. Where does that file go? Oh, the murder factory office on the fifth floor? Okay, thank you. Can I have one of these minutes? Oh, excellent, thank you. Well, his reign as King of the Murder Castle

won't last long. Holmes is going to slip out of town the very next year at the end of 1893, but not from police from angry creditors. But before doing so, some historians estimate roughly 200 souls left their bodies in hideous fashion in his terrifying house of death. And now let's explore this house of death

and some detail with some super scary stuff. Woo! Super, super, how did he, you know, get these future victims into the murder castle? How did he lure them? Holmes used two major pretenses to lure guests who checked in and never checked out. First, he advertised lodging for tourists visiting the world's fair. Second, he would place classified ads in various small town newspapers around the Midwest, offering jobs to young women, or outright offering himself for marriage.

And then when the job ads, for example were answered, he would describe several jobs in detail and explain that the woman would have her choice of positions at the time of the interview. When they accepted, the woman would be instructed to pack her things and withdraw all of her money from the bank because you know she needs some funds to get started in her new life. The applicants were also instructed to keep the location and the name of his company a closely guard secret because he had devious competitors who would use any information possible to steal his clients from him.

Gotta keep quiet. You know, when the young woman arrived and Holmes was convinced that she had told no one of her destination she would become his fucking prisoner. He was a sadist. Oh, this guy. I'm going to get into that very soon. Homes all placed a newspaper ads for marriage as well. Described himself as a wealthy businessman

who was searching for a suitable wife. Those who answered this ad, we get a similar story to the job offer. Homes then most likely just tortured these women to learn about the whereabouts of his and the valuables they might have. The young ladies would then remain his prisoners until he decided to dispose of them.

And one can only surmise you the same thing with guests, you know, traveling alone, didn't tell your family where you're staying. Oh, you're a young woman, I could easily physically overpower. All right, you're the perfect murder castle guest. And that's how this fucking predator lured victims into this murder castle. Also, again, working in a home's favor, you know, was the world's fair. The unsophisticated police procedures of the day, missing persons cases, for example, were barely investigated. Homes in a charm could smooth over any remaining questions from neighbors and families who

did figure out their daughter or sister came to the castle. He had all kinds of stories for the police and these families. He claimed that his female assistant went out of town to visit relatives and to abstain or his new fiancee just to loathe with someone else in the secret. Sorry, I don't know where she is. I think Europe, you know, maybe he said he'd administered a botched abortion to his girlfriend that unfortunately took her life, you know,

or took her life, excuse me, et cetera, et cetera, yeah, all kinds of stories, smooth, talk and do it. So that's how his woman got here, and that's how homes would cover up their disappearances. But how do they die? Let's talk about what we know, and then we can, and then talk about what we can reasonably speculate from what we know.

One thing we know is the layout of the second floor. I'll have an illustration of this layout available at TimesEckPotCast.com. We know how many pictures of the interior because of fire burned up the second and third floors in 1895, and then the building was completely torn down in 1938 to make way for the Inglewood Post Office that sits there to this day. But there were roughly 15 rooms dedicated to torture and death on the second floor, and then another 15 or so legitimate guest rooms. The death rooms, the police referred to as the dark room, the asphyxiation room, the

room of the three corpses, the black closet, the hanging room, the sealed room, the five door room, the maze, and the blind room. God, talk about a hotel you would never want to stay at. Would you care to upgrade your rooms, weekend? For only $20 a night, you can stay in the hanging room. Or perhaps you'd like to pay only $50 a night to stay in the room with the three corpses. It's the perfect room for those who don't like to spend the night alone. Ha ha ha.

Ah, all these rooms are soundproofed. The Asphyxiation room was equipped with gas lines controlled from the other side of the wall. One room, the sealed room was completely walled in with brick and could only be entered through a trap door in the ceiling. Doors to these rooms were rigged with alarms that alerted homes to the potential escape of a prisoner. Some of these rooms had peepholes, so he could listen to his new prisoners and watch him bake for mercy, watch him die. Man, you know, you know, you're fucked up. If you end up in a hotel, you wake up in a hotel room with no doors. You know, the maid is not coming up to let you out of that one. And again, if prisoners did somehow escape, you know, the alarm would, you know, set off,

be set off, so homes would hear about it. And they'd have a hard time getting away because there were staircases that led to nowhere, hallways leading to dead ends, mazes leading them back to where they started. The nonsense layout of the passageways was very hard to navigate. Plus homes had sliding walls to further, further confused and trapped victims. It was a nightmarish labyrinth he had very carefully constructed. In the Asphyxiation room, homes could have fixed his prisoners with gas, or he could ignite the gas and incinerate them, just burn them alive.

He could privately hang them, just watch them twist and struggle for their final breaths. He could leave them in the sealed room, just let them die of starvation or thirst. Some of the rooms were made completely airtight, so he could just let his victims run out of air. Once dead, the bodies were placed in a dummy elevator, dropped them in on a secret metal shoot, led to the basement, you know, homes, or his henchmen, pizzel, fucking throw him down there. God, so dark man. FYI, Leonardo DiCaprio signed on to play H.H. Holmes in a movie about the monster based on Eric Larsen's book Devil in the White City, currently allegedly being scripted and Martin Scorsese is rumored to be lined up to direct it. If that happens, this movie will be fucking huge. The guy's story is so darkly captivating. And think about, again, early like how he's just mirroring these childhood things.

Remember his dad did a lot of the stuff to him. You know, starved, isolated. Oh, man. Oh, God. Okay, so how did he get these women into the rooms? Here we have to speculate a little bit, because Holmes never gave an honest confession to his castle crimes. He just kept twisting the truth, manipulated and deceiving until the very end, and no one got to interview Pytesull, his henchman about the crimes, because Holmes killed him before he got the chance to talk, more on that later. In all likelihood, Holmes entered the guest's actual boarding rooms on the second floor, through a variety of secret passages, trap doors, sliding walls, and the like. The castle was littered with secret entries.

So as these women slept, he'd sneak and knock him out with some chloroform. Again, remember that from his childhood? Daddy used to quiet him down with a carousine rag. Not a coincidence, he'd do the same shit now to these victims. Exactly what happened to all of H.H. Helms victims will forever be a mystery, as will how many victims

there were. Because he had an incinerator, he had this kiln in the basement where he could turn their bodies to ash. And he also had a quick-lime pit for dissolving the bones. He also had various medical tools. He used to dissect cadavers and strip them down

to their skeletons. He'd sell the skeletons to universities, to doctors, this popular at the time, to display skeletons, doctors' offices. And he was doing that before, remembered medical school, except now at the time, to display skeletons, doctors offices. You know, he's doing that before, remembered medical school, except now he didn't go need, he didn't need to rob graves.

He had a skeleton assembly line going on. So how many skeletons around Chicago in the 1890s actually belonged to women who had been killed in the castle? Again, a few hundred women are estimated to have disappeared in Chicago around that time. And we'll never know the exact number, but guessing a lot of them ended up in the castle. Did he torture these women before killing them? I'm going to say probably. Again, there

was no confession. We won't know for sure. But why the fuck else would you have all these different rooms, these different sadistic methods of killing people? If it was just about money, all the rooms would be the same. Just be like in an asphyxiation room. Do it the most efficient way, open up the trap door, get your skeleton with course, whatever he needed downstairs, and then go make your life insurance or, you know, skeleton selling money. But no, man, he also had a homemade medieval torture rack, like a stretching rack for stretching victims down the cellar. That's that one of those things where like your hands or your arms are up above your head, you're just like laid out flat, and you have shackles on your wrists and shackles on your ankles, and then there's like a crank,

and you can just crank it, and just literally just stretch the person until you're just fucking rip somebody apart. Why did they have that? Speculation, they know that maybe he'd stretch women until they told him where all their money was. You know, was he doing it for fun? Did Pytel, his henchman, help with the actual killing?

Did he hear his henchman rape him? We'll never know for sure on that either, but I don't think so. He was never accused of rape. He never had any problems actually with women. None of his crimes ever seemed sexual. I feel like he was just motivated by money and morbid curiosity and control.

Again, mirroring the things of his childhood. You know, he was never molested or anything, but he was, you know, again, isolated, starved, that kind of stuff by his dad. And now he's fucking doing this to other people. What a weird cycle. Imagine you cut people up, hung them, it's fixated them.

Yeah, he just wanted to do a deserved control, man. But again, none of this is, no, this is complete armchair psychology going on here based on the facts that I've read. And Holmes is also suspected of killing more than women. This guy was such a monster. It's possible again, remember I said earlier he killed some of the construction workers who helped build the castle. You know, when they wouldn't leave Malone about that whole want to get paid for services rendered thingy.

He allegedly killed children as well. The first child he's suspected of killing as an adult. Remember that speculation about his boyhood friend, is the eight-year-old daughter of his first mistress to live in the castle, Mrs. Conner. Bones of at least one child were later found partially dissolved in the quick-line pit in the castle cellar.

Mrs. Conner and her daughter both disappeared forever, shortly before a new mistress, many Williams, the woman he met in Texas, a young orphaned woman who had a little family money arrived to replace her. Many had recently met a young doctored woman who had a little family money arrived to replace her. Many had recently met a young doctor, Harry Gordon. She described his wealthy handsome and highly intelligent down in Texas. That doctor, of course, was H.H. Homes.

And then, of course, a few months after many arrives in Chicago, her sister Anna joins her. Another woman who gets the money from, a few months after that, both Anna and many disappears forever. Never to be heard from again, either one of them. And they would be replaced by a series of new messages, such as Emily Van Tassel, Emily N. Segrande, all of whom would disappear forever, all of whom

would meet and be destroyed by the man who described himself. As quote, I was born with a devil in me. I could not help the fact that I was a murderer, no more than a poet can help inspiration to sing. That's fucking weird. That's, I don't know, I didn't know the poet's saying, but I get what he's saying. He's saying, and that is some super scary stuff.

Stop, stop, stop. Stop, stop, stop. Stop, stop, stop. Okay, so, you know, that's what we, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, of people who had finally figured out that he was full of shit and they met up with each other and then they confronted him in mass in late 1893 and he wasn't able to sweet talk his way out of anything anymore. And when they threatened to go and demand to warrant for his arrest, he knew he had to take off. The last thing he needs at this time was to police poking around the murder castle and

fingering him for a lot more serious crimes. So he initially fled to Denver where he quickly wed another beautiful young woman of wealth, Georgie and a yolk. I I mean dude moved fast with women So many ways gonna take advantage of them make that make mom a pay for never protecting him when he was a kid Just stand by what daddy beat him Women were gonna forever suffer his hands because what I think he had serious mommy issues again armed chair psychology there That's I think and then by June of 1894 Georgie Anna was using her money to try and get her new husband out of jail in St. Louis Where he'd been arrested for stealing horses in Texas, shipping them to St. Louis and trying to sell them there

Fucking cons this guy came up. He's like he just never ran across a swindle. He didn't like that horse thievery. Why not? He could have made a decent living as a doctor, but clear that didn't give him the adrenaline rush that these crimes did It was in jail for for horse thievery, where homes would make the mistake that would lead to its eventual complete downfall and death before he was released on bail. He tried to set up a scam with another inmate, Marion Hedgepeth. Homes said he would take out an insurance policy for $10,000, bake his own death, and then he could provide Hedgepeth with $500 in exchange for a lawyer who could help him if any problems arose with this particular scam in St. Louis. And then once Holmes is released from jail on bail, he attempts his plans, however, the

insurance company is suspicious and they don't pay him. So then he goes and decides to attempt a similar plan in Philadelphia. This time he's going to have a tension, and Pytzol fake his death. However, during the scam, Holmes, I guess, just decides, ah, fuck, I wanted to just kill him. I wanted to just actually kill him. I'd rather have this guy who knows all my secrets dead anyway. So he killed him, sets his corpse on fire,

tries to collect the money for himself. All that after the guy fled to continue to work with Holmes, so much for a henchman's enduring loyalty. Well, in 1894, so yeah, so he tries the Philly thing to collect the money. And in 1894, former Holmes, Selma tries the Philly thing to collect the money. And in 1894, former home cellmate, Mary and Hedgebeth, is angry that he didn't receive any money in the initial scam. He tells police about the scam homes that planned.

The police track home, was finally catched him in Boston, where they arrest him and hold him on an outstanding warrant for the initial Texas horse swindle. This guy does, all the scams he runs, and all the situations he talks himself out of, and it's just a couple of goddamn horses that, you horses that he took from Texas that he can't get away from. So, he's captured in Boston, and then the new charge of insurance fraud has thrown him

for the Pytzel murder in Philadelphia, because that one doesn't work either. The scam, the insurance company, is Larry, and then they do some investigation, and it just doesn't add up. So, he's transferred there, and then the story about Pytzel dies. Doesn't make sense. He's charged with the henchman's murder. Again, how strange. I guess it was something about how he tried to make it look

like the guy had knocked himself out before. It was something with chloroform, where the autopsy, basically, like he either put chloroform before or after, but it didn't make sense for the fire. I think it was that he got burned, and then after he was dead, had chloroform put on his body. And that was a little slip up, that got homes charged with murder.

All the people this guy kills, and the one murder he's actually charged with is the murder of the guy who helped him murder. This fucking henchman. The time of his arrest, homes appeared as if he was prepared to flee the country. Police became suspicious of him. Chicago Police investigate Holmes Castle.

Now they're tracking down previous places this guy has been. As they're trying to determine, did he for sure kill Pytzel? A lot of shit just seemed weird. They find the castle where they discover his strange and efficient methods for committing the tortures and the murders. Many of the bodies they found were so badly dismembered and decomposed. It was hard for them to determine exactly how many bodies there actually were, just bits and pieces of various people.

The police investigation spread through Chicago, Indianapolis and Toronto, some cities he'd fled to while hiding from various creditors, investigators, and check this nonsense out. While he was on the run before being captured, he traveled not only with his new wife, Georgie, and a yolk, but also with the widow of his recently killed henchmen, Pytzel, and the five Pytzel children. I guess Mrs. Pytzel had no knowledge of Georgie and vice versa, even though they would sometimes travel in the same train. Like he'd sit with his wife for a bit, then he'd go down to the next box car, sit with

Mrs. Pytzel, who I'm assuming very much wanted to know where her husband had disappeared to, and probably knew about the scam, wanted her chunk of change from the scam. Unbeknownst to Mrs. Paisel, he was still using her for some scams. He had deeded various properties to Mr. Paisel, his henchman, and then needed her help to collect on those because she was the beneficiary of some of those, you know, if he disappears, some of those properties and the beneficiary of the life insurance policy. He'd taken out on Mr. Paisel, you know, again, who he just killed. He's so fucking confusing. He's got so many scams all the time.

He also manages to visit his original wife and children back in New Hampshire at this time, spend a little time with them. They never got divorced, like I said. He also kills some of Paisel's kids before getting caught. Kills three of them. Kills three of the five during the travels. Investigators later find two other corpses

in the basement of Toronto home He had stayed in while he was there another one in an Indianapolis basement I guess the other two kids lived maybe they were the quiet ones who didn't give them any fuss and if you're fucking confused by all of this me too me too and so is anyone who attempted to write a record of his life the guy ran so many scams He was constantly involved with so many women. Continually, running Ponzi schemes and fucking swindles just constantly. I have no idea how he kept track of everything.

Clearly, again, as evil as he was, he was so intelligent, but also really stupid. Like, if you're capable of simultaneously deceiving so many people, constantly for profit. Couldn't you just make that much more money if you just focused all that intelligence in like one business plan, one consistent and legitimate direction? And again, it's like he just preferred to make his money nefariously.

He must have just gotten off on it. Well, Holmes trial lasts only five days in October of 1895 and H.H. Holmes, A.K.A. Herman, Webster Muget, has found overwhelmingly guilty of Pytzels murder and then hung in May of 1896. And check this out, his final moments. After a 10.30 AM on May 7, 1896, after a breakfast of boiled eggs, dried toast and coffee,

kept it simple. Holmes was escorted to the gallows at Moamensing Prison in Philadelphia. These fucking words, it's M-O-Y-A-M-E-N-S-I-N-G. Momencing. Until the moment of his death, Holmes remained calm and collected, showing very few signs of fear, anxiety, or depression. To his executioner, Holmes spoke his last words.

Quote, take your time, old man. Holmes' neck didn't snap. Instead, he was strangled to death slowly, how fitting is that? Twitching over 15 minutes before being pronounced dead, 20 minutes after the trap had been sprung. Oh, and that is roughly all we know about H.H. Holmes and the murder castle. Those are the highlights. If such a term is highlighted applies to such horrific acts. We can't learn any more about the murder castle itself, again, because it was badly damaged in a fire a year before Holmes death, and now long since completely destroyed.

Legend has it, the last caretaker of the hotel, which apparently remained in operation for a brief period after Holmes fled Chicago, committed suicide. His family claiming he was haunted for weeks prior to kill himself. And we can't learn much more about home because he never gave a decent honest interview before his death.

He never really given honest fucking confession about anything. He was constantly lying about everything. He finally admitted to killing 27 people, but some of the people he confessed to killing were later determined to still be alive. I mean, I'm guessing he was just working some con angle right until the bitter end, trying to you know, keep from getting hung. So that's it, man. That is HH Holmes, brilliant and stupid, but so, so, so darkly brilliant.

I mean, to pull off so many different things, but what a fucking monster, man. What a fucking, fucking, and so many mysteries will remain about him forever. What actually went on at that horrific murder castle? But just the fact that somebody had a murder castle and not back in medieval times. But in this country, not really that long ago, it's just terrifying. Man, he is one of the most terrifying people I have ever read about, for sure. So let's hit the most memorable moments one more time and then get the hell out of here. Get the hell away from this darkness

after some top five takeaways. Time, shock, top five takeaway. Number one, H.H. Holmes not only built a murder castle in the middle of Chicago, complete with trap doors in his fixation room, a maze, sliding doors, walled-off rooms, an alarm system, and shoots to the cellar where various body disposal resources awaited, he built it with money, he had scammed from

creditors, construction workers, and furniture salesmen. Number two, H-H- Holmes. And then he killed him. And then he was hung for killing him. Number three. The 1893 Chicago's World's Fair and not only gave a murderer a perfect backdrop for killing tons of newcomers to the city, it also gave us the Ferris wheel. So thanks. George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr. Number four.

If you don't want to raise a future circular, don't knock your kids out with a carousine rag when they're too noisy, don't beat them, don't lock them in a room, and don't starve them. And if you do end up doing all those things, don't then get drunk and ramble on about the Bible, like Holmes dad did. And number 5. DiCaprio and Scorsese are reportedly teaming up for another movie about none other than H.H. Holmes and the bloody summer of 1893.

If you thought the departed was good and I do, oh, I do. This movie is going to be off the charts. Please let me play the henchman. I'll be Spital. If you're listening, if you're listening, casting director or Squarsesi, I'll be a good Spital. I can be creepy, you know? Yes, Dr. Holmes.

Yes, anything you say, Dr. Holmes. Yes, I'll talk to the? Yes, Dr. Holmes. Is anything you say, Dr. Holmes? Yes, I'll talk to the furniture people, Dr. Holmes. As you wish. Happy to fix the trap door, Dr. Holmes. Yes, I'll put the body in the kiln, the air stock, Dr. Holmes. Time, shock, top five takeaway. Well, thank you for listening, everyone.

Hopefully that wasn't too weird there with the henchmen. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. I really appreciate you taking the time to listen. As always, I hope you're getting better. I'm definitely trying to make them so. Bonus episode coming out this Friday. Thanks to everyone who reviewed the podcast and iTunes and for pushing it over 300 reviews.

The rise of Hitler and the third Reich, fascinating and terrifying stuff. Not sure what the next bonus episode is going to be. I can tell you next week is not going to be about a murderer. I need a break. I need a break from the website. And if you haven't already picked it up, give my buddy Chad Daniels his new CD.

He has a great new CD out on iTunes and elsewhere called Footprints on the Moon. So funny man. And I'm excited time suck t-shirts are coming soon. They are coming soon, getting the online store set up at timepsuckpodcast.com. And they look great man, man soft sensual cotton blend luxurious even

these aren't those fucking cheapy Gliden t-shirts those shitty ones that you know you get it fundraisers. They say there's a good stuff soft. They'll form fit and even And if you want to uh if you want to know what the next episode of time suck will be before it comes out Please follow me on either twitter at the underscore commons on Facebook or Instagram at Dan Cummins Comedy. And I also post tour dates there and at www.dancomins.tv. You can link there from time suckpodcast.com. I'll be at Charlie Goodnights.

This week in Raleigh, North Carolina, March 9 through 11. I'll be at Hyenas in Dallas, March 16 through 18. Jacksonville, Florida at the new comedy club of Jacksonville. March 23 through 25th. And I'll be in Hyenas in Dallas March 16 through 18 Jacksonville, Florida at the new Commie Club of Jacksonville March 23 through 25th and I'll be in hilarities one of my favorite clubs in Cleveland, Ohio April 14 through 16 again full tour calendar available at Dancomans.tv or you can just link from time suckpodcast.com where pictures correlating to this episode will also be

located as will the archives of all the episodes. So have a great week everybody. Thanks for letting us some homes and keep on sucking. I keep sucking. I keep on sucking some more. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. Oh!