You may have come across a lot of magnificent forts but have you ever thought about a castle of murder? Yeah! That is true. There is a strange history behind the building of United States Postal Service in Englewood, Chicago. The building was famous for the name of “Murder Castle” in the late 19th century. How it got that evil name? What is the story behind the building? Let’s discover here.
Who was H. H. Holmes?
The most wicked person of America, Herman Webster Mudgett (commonly known as H. H. Holmes or Henry Howard Holmes) was the owner of the Murder Castle. Moreover, he was known for his profession as a professor, physician, a con artist and serial killer of the 19th century. However, his devil image became an inspiration for various crime and literary writers of the time. Because of which, he was known as a well-known character in ‘pulp magazine’.
The idea of building Murder Castle
Mudgett never settled on one identity as he uses to move from place to place to run away from his deeds. In 1886, he moved to Chicago where he worked in a drugstore and later bought it from the owner. He built a two-story building which was used for the mixed purpose. That included apartments on the second floor, retail store, and new drugstore.
Although he declined to pay the architect and steel company, he built the third floor to rent it as a hotel at the time of World’s Columbian Exposition. However, the last floor level was never completed.
What was so unusual about the building?
Other than its name, the building holds some mysteries behind it. The ‘castle’ was used to murder many people to sell their corpses as cadavers. Moreover, these cadavers were used as a proof to claim money from a various insurance company as he was an insurance fraudster.
Holmes’s arrest
When he killed his friend’s daughters, he was arrested by the Police of Philadelphia. During his investigation, it revealed that he had murdered around 200 people throughout America and Canada. However, he was sentenced to death as the result.
As a confession before his punishment, he claimed- “I was born with the devil in me. I could not help the fact that I was a murderer, no more than the poet can help the inspiration to sing. I was born with the ‘Evil One’ standing as my sponsor beside the bed where I was ushered into the world, and he has been with me since”- H H Holmes.
Wrapping up
Even though he gave many contradictory statements for his sins, one thing was constant that Satan possessed him. No wonder what he did, he left the mark that signifies the height of the evil action.