Dr. H. H. Holmes by Marissa Campobasso

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2nd Floor of the "Murder Castle"

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Birthplace of Holmes

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Tickets for the Columbian Exposition of the World's Fair

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Pitezel Children, Holmes Victims

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Works Cited

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Hawkins, Kristal. "Haunted Places: Murder Castle, Chicago, Ill.: H.H. Holmes' Serial Killings Hotel."Crime Library Criminal Minds & Methods. Crime Library, n.d. Web. 22 Nov. 2014.

"H.H. Holmes Biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 20 Nov. 2014.

Martin, John B. "The Master of the Murder Castle." Harper's Magazine Dec. 1943: n. pag. Harper's Magazine. Harper's Magazine. Web. 21 Nov. 2014.

Introduction

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Dr. H. H. Holmes was born on May 16th, 1861 in Gilmanton, New Hampshire as Herman Webster Mudgett. He was born to an affluent family and was unusually intelligent at an early age. He was interested in medicine and practiced surgery on animals. Eventually, he became a medical student at the University of Michigan. After medical school, he moved to Chicago in 1886 and worked in a pharmacy. He began calling himself Dr. Henry H. Holmes. Soon, he took over the pharmacy after the owner Dr. Holden died of cancer and Mrs. Holden suddenly disappeared.

Crimes/Norms

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Dr. H. H. Holmes opened his home in the pharmacy building as a hotel for visitors of the World's Fair during the 1893 Columbian Exposition. However, the "hotel" was actually a house of horrors that he built with a maze of death traps where he tortured and murdered his victims. He also lured victims into the "Murder Castle" by seducing women and lured others for offers of employment. People estimate that he killed between 20-200 innocent people. In addition to being a serial killer, he staged accidents with the bodies and collected payments from insurance companies on behalf of their deaths. He even tried to fake his own death and collect money as somebody else. He also was caught for cheating in horse trades. Murdering and staging accidents with the bodies to collect the money from insurance broke taboos. The norms he broke were that nobody should kill others and that one should earn their money with hard work, which makes him a negative deviant. It broke the law and are actions that are beyond repulsive and disturbing. When he lied to people saying he was offering them employment, that was breaking a more. He broke the norm that one should tell the truth, which also makes him a negative deviant. Finally, cheating in horse trades violates the norm that one should never cheat, which makes him a negative deviant.

Facts

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Dr. H. H. Holmes was one of America's 1st serial killers and nicknamed "The Beast of Chicago." His murder house had 3 floors. The upper floor was where he lived and there were many small rooms where he tortured and killed the victims. His house had bottles of poisons, quicklime and acid, stairs leading to nowhere, rooms with gas jets to asphyxiate the victims, secret passageways and walled-up rooms, a dissecting table, trap doors and chutes to move the bodies into the basement, kilns to burn the bodies, and coffins. Some of the skeletons of the victims were sold to medical schools. The man was described as being good-looking and charming, and even married a couple of times after his wives kept disappearing. After his house was searched, it burned down and no one knows who did it. In 2003, Erik Larson wrote about him in "The Devil in the White City."

Analysis & Perspectives

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a. Functionalist-Strain Theory: Dr. H. H. Holmes can be described using the Strain Theory, because he uses the deviant response of innovation where he finds illegal ways to succeed. To get money, he killed people and staged deaths (as well as faking his own death) to collect money from the insurance agencies. He also sold the skeletons to medical schools. Another way to get money was when he cheated with the horse trades.

b. Symbolic Interactionist-Labeling Theory: Dr. H. H. Holmes was labeled as a fraud as well as a murderer. However, being labeled as a murderer did not trigger his actions. Maybe being called a fraud led him to commit more crimes.

c. Conflict-He wasn't against any minorities, but a lot of his victims were women. Back then, women weren't as respected as much as men. Perhaps killing women gave him power over them.

Conclusion

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Eventually, his insurance scams led to his undoing. He ended up in a Texas jail and brought his fellow inmate Marion Hedgepath in on the scheme. Hedgepath ended up telling the authorities on him after he did not get his share of the deal. Holmes ending up killing his partner in crime, Benjamin Pitezel and 3 of his children. At first he was charged with the insurance fraud, and then he was on trial for Pitezel. Holmes confessed to killing at least 27 people. On May 7th, 1896 Dr. H. H. Holmes received a formal sanction: the death penalty. He was hanged in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the age of 35.