Herman Webster Mudgett

Mudgett was born in 1861, his father was said to be very strict and abusive at times. Mudgett was bullied at an early age by his classmates, little did they know this would turn his fear in to an obsession that would lead to murdering.  Mudgett started his deviant behavior when he started stealing bodies from University of Michigan where he attended medical school.  His deviant acts turned criminal when he started collecting insurance money, by saying that the bodies were killed accidentally. This lead to his serial killing.

After medical school,He changed his name to Dr. Henry Howard Holmes and started working at a pharmacy. He soon convinced the wife of the store owner, a man who was suffering from cancer, to sell it to him.  Shortly after buying the pharmacy he became very successful, which intern he started building and purchasing places.  He built one rather large  building people deemed "The Castle". The bottom of the castle was Mudgett's pharmacy and above it was a series of hallways and doors that were odd and sometimes lead to no where.  This is where Mudgett carried out his murders.  He lured people in by stating it was a hotel which it was simple not.  There were chutes, chambers and hidden torture areas.  He also had many female employees which he would make sure they had life insurance.  He would soon kill them but before that he would sign his life insurence of to him.  He then after would dissect or sell the bodies to medical research facilities.  He was finally caught when he created a plan to have a man fake there own death in order to collect insurance money for his wife.  Mudgett ended up truly killing the man and was tried and found guilty for the murder. He admitted to murdering up to 200 people.  When police returned to the castle there was remains of hundreds of people.  He was sentenced to death by hanging. 

Mudgett was a interesting serial killer because he did not only have a fascination with bodies that lead to murdering, he had a greed problem too.  He would always try and make money off the individuals he murdered.  He was also relatively smart about how he concealed his murders.  He made everything seem as if it was a hotel not a murders den.  Mudgett was on of the first documented serial killers.