As an adolescent, Holmes attended Phillips Exeter Academy before graduating high school with honors from Gilmanton Academy when he was 16. He was the third-born child of Levi Horton Mudgett and Theodate Page Price, both of whom were descended from the first English settlers in the area. Holmes was born Herman Webster Mudgett on May 16, 1861, in Gilmanton, New Hampshire. The murders weren't simply for love of bloodshed but a necessary part of furthering his swindling operations and protecting his lifestyle." Early life More often, it has to be a series of similar crimes, committed over a period of time, usually more to satisfy a psychological urge on the killer's part than any more practical motive." He added: "The murders we can connect to generally had a clear motive: someone knew too much, or was getting in his way, and couldn't be trusted. In his book about Holmes, author Adam Selzer writes: "Just killing several people isn't necessarily enough for most definitions. Since the 1990s, Holmes has often been described as a serial killer. His propensity for lying has made it difficult for researchers to ascertain the truth on the basis of his statements. Holmes gave various contradictory accounts of his life, initially claiming innocence and later that he was possessed by Satan. Many of these inaccuracies have persisted due to the combination of ineffective police investigation and hyperbolic yellow journalism of the period, which are often cited as historical record. Details about the building, along with many of his alleged crimes, are considered exaggerated or fabricated for sensationalistic tabloid pieces. Much of the lore attached to Holmes concerns the so-called "Murder Castle", a three-story building he commissioned in Chicago. It is believed he also killed three of Pitezel's children, as well as three mistresses, the child of one mistress and the sister of another. His most notorious crimes took place in Chicago around the time of the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893.ĭespite his confession of 27 murders, including some people who were verifiably still alive, Holmes was convicted and sentenced to death for only one murder, that of business partner and accomplice Benjamin Pitezel. By the time of his execution in 1896, Holmes had engaged in a lengthy criminal career that included insurance fraud, forgery, swindling, three to four bigamous illegal marriages, horse theft and murder. Holmes, was an American con artist and multiple murderer active between 18. Herman Webster Mudgett (– May 7, 1896), better known as Dr.
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