# H. H. Holmes

> Herman Webster Mudgett, who used the name H. H. Holmes, was convicted in Philadelphia in 1895 of murdering his associate Benjamin F. Pitezel, whose life was insured for $10,000. He was hanged in 1896. It is the only murder of which a court convicted him. Much of what is told about him today comes from newspapers, his own confession and later books rather than from the court record.

- Case: Commonwealth v. Mudgett · Philadelphia, Pennsylvania · 1895
- Section: historical case (closed; the defendant has died)
- Outcome: Executed. Hanged at Moyamensing Prison in Philadelphia on May 7, 1896, for the murder of Benjamin F. Pitezel, after the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania affirmed his conviction. He was convicted of that one murder only. He was never tried for the deaths of three of Pitezel's children, or for any other death.
- Died: May 7, 1896
- Last updated: 2026-10-17
- Editorial review: approved 2026-10-17
- Web page: https://criminalbackstories.com/history/h-h-holmes/
- All defendants are presumed innocent until found guilty by a court of law. Charges and allegations described on this site are not proof of guilt.

## Why this case is remembered

The case is known to many readers through Erik Larson's 2003 book *The Devil in the White City*, a National Book Award finalist, whose catalog summary describes a "World's Fair Hotel" built as a "torture palace."[21] In 2017 his grave in Holy Cross Cemetery in Yeadon, Pennsylvania, was opened at the request of his descendants, in connection with the History series *American Ripper*, which examined rumors that he had escaped the gallows; the remains were identified by their teeth.[13][12] Historians have since challenged much of the popular story.[9][10] May 7, 2026, marked 130 years since his execution.[6]

## Case at a glance

- Charge: Murder of Benjamin F. Pitezel, in Philadelphia[3][1]
- Victim: Benjamin F. Pitezel, his associate, found dead in a house on Callowhill Street in Philadelphia in September 1894[1][19][11]
- Arrested: Nov. 17, 1894, in Boston[19][11]
- Trial: Oct. 28 to Nov. 2, 1895, in the Court of Oyer and Terminer for Philadelphia, before Judge Michael Arnold[3][11][2]
- Prosecution: District Attorney George S. Graham and Assistant District Attorney Thomas W. Barlow[11]
- Defense: William A. Shoemaker and Samuel Rotan; for a time during the trial he dismissed them and conducted his own defense[11][1]
- Verdict: Guilty of murder in the first degree, early November 1895[2][6]
- Sentence: Death by hanging, imposed by Judge Arnold after he refused a new trial[4]
- Appeal: *Commonwealth v. Mudgett*, 174 Pa. 211, 34 A. 588 (1896), affirmed March 4, 1896[2][1]
- Died: Hanged May 7, 1896, at Moyamensing Prison, Philadelphia[6][11]

## The backstory

### The insurance policy

On Nov. 9, 1893, the Fidelity Mutual Life Association, through its Chicago branch, issued a $10,000 policy on the life of Benjamin F. Pitezel, according to Frank Geyer, the Philadelphia detective who investigated the case.[19] A Pennsylvania paper summarizing the case at the time of the execution reported that Mudgett and Pitezel had conspired to defraud the company of the $10,000 by faking Pitezel's death.[6] The Commonwealth's theory at trial, as the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania described it, was "that the motive for the killing of Pitezel was to secure the insurance money."[1]

### The death on Callowhill Street

In early September 1894, a carpenter, Eugene Smith, found a man dead in a house on Callowhill Street in Philadelphia.[19][11] Geyer wrote that the first-floor store bore a sign reading "B. F. Perry, Patents Bought and Sold."[19] Smith later testified that Mudgett had keys to the premises, according to Joseph Tyson's account of the trial.[11] The body was identified as that of "B. F. Perry" and buried as an accidental death; the insurer later learned it was Pitezel's.[2] Geyer wrote that the coroner's inquest found death due to congestion of the lungs from inhaling flame or chloroform or another poisonous drug, and that the coroner's physician believed chloroform caused it.[19] Tyson gives the date of death as Sept. 2, 1894, the date Mudgett himself gave in his memoir.[11][20]

Geyer wrote that the company paid $9,715.85, the policy less its identification expenses, to a lawyer acting for Pitezel's widow.[19]

### The arrest and his account

Mudgett was arrested in Boston on Nov. 17, 1894, on a telegram from Fort Worth, Texas, charging him with horse stealing, according to Geyer.[19][11] He was then brought to Philadelphia and tried there for Pitezel's murder.[3][11]

By his own account to R. J. Linden, superintendent of police, as the Supreme Court summarized it, he found Pitezel "on the floor of a third story room in the Callowhill street house, dead," after a note directed him to "search for a letter in a bottle in a closet."[1] He told Linden he moved the body, "scattered some inflammable liquid over the face and beard of the dead man and set it on fire," because "he felt that the appearances of suicide should be removed or a defense might be made to the policy upon that ground."[1]

### The trial

The trial was held from Oct. 28 to Nov. 2, 1895, in the Court of Oyer and Terminer for Philadelphia, and the full record was published in 1897.[3] Judge Michael Arnold presided.[11][2] District Attorney George S. Graham and Assistant District Attorney Thomas W. Barlow prosecuted; William A. Shoemaker and Samuel Rotan defended him.[11] Tyson writes that the defense lawyers asked for a postponement, saying they had not had time to prepare, and that Arnold denied it.[11]

The Supreme Court wrote that "at one stage of the trial" he put himself at a disadvantage "by his own conduct in dismissing his counsel and assuming the responsibility of conducting his own defense."[1] According to Tyson, he told the court on Oct. 31 that Rotan and Shoemaker would represent him for the rest of the trial.[11]

**The cause of death.** The Supreme Court wrote that "the fact that the deceased came to his death by chloroform poisoning was practically conceded by the prisoner."[1] The question was who gave it. Medical experts gave "two reasons why the chloroform could not have been self administered in the manner alleged by the prisoner," the court wrote, one being that it had not affected the lining of the stomach: "it had been introduced into the stomach after death."[1] According to Tyson, the coroner's physician, Dr. William Scott, testified that Pitezel could not have died from an explosion, and Dr. Henry Leffman, a toxicologist, testified that Pitezel was dead when the fire burned him.[11]

**Against suicide.** Witnesses testified that Pitezel had seemed in good spirits before his death, countering the claim that he took his own life.[11] The trial judge told the jury to acquit if the suicide theory was as consistent with the facts as murder, and the Supreme Court held that instruction adequate.[1]

**Georgiana Yoke.** Georgiana Yoke testified for the prosecution, placing him in Philadelphia on Sept. 2, 1894, according to Tyson.[11] The defense objected that she was his wife and could not testify against him.[4][1] The Supreme Court wrote that she "had been married to the prisoner by a clergyman in the city of Denver in January, 1894," but that the "fair effect" of her testimony "was to show that no legal marriage had taken place, that Miss Yoke had been cruelly deceived, and that the legal wife of the prisoner lived at Gilmanton, N. H."[1] It held that he bore the burden of proving a lawful marriage and that the trial judge, by leaving the question to the jury, gave him more than he was entitled to.[1]

**Mrs. Pitezel.** Pitezel's widow, Carrie Pitezel, testified that Mudgett falsely assured her that her husband was alive, took three of her children and took most of the insurance money, according to Tyson.[11] In the district attorney's opening, as the Supreme Court described it, Mrs. Pitezel, three of her children and Georgiana Yoke traveled in separate groups, "housed at the same time in the same city, but always without meeting, until one by one the three members of one group disappeared."[1] The Supreme Court held her account of searching for the children admissible as part of one connected story bearing on motive: "She saw them, or their remains, at last."[1] Tyson writes that Judge Arnold sustained an objection to evidence about the children's deaths as irrelevant to Pitezel's.[11]

**The defense.** "It must be borne in mind that the defendant called no witnesses," the Supreme Court wrote.[1] Rotan argued to the jury that the prosecution had not proved guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.[11]

### The verdict and sentence

The jury found him guilty of murder in the first degree; Tyson writes that it deliberated about three hours.[2][11] A Pennsylvania paper later summarized that he was "convicted early in November, 1895."[6] Judge Arnold refused a new trial, ruling that because Mudgett was already married when he wed Miss Yoke, that marriage was "null and void, and the evidence was admissible," a wire report said.[4] Asked whether he had anything to say, he answered, "I have nothing to say," and Arnold sentenced him to be "hanged by the neck until you are dead."[4]

### The appeal

The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania heard argument on Feb. 3, 1896, and decided the case on March 4, 1896, in an opinion by Justice Williams.[2][1] "This is a voluminous record," the court began.[1] It rejected each of the thirteen assignments of error: on Georgiana Yoke's competence and testimony, on the district attorney's opening (to which, it held, the defense objected days too late), on Mrs. Pitezel's testimony, and on the judge's instructions about chloroform, suicide and reasonable doubt.[1] Of the charge as a whole, it wrote, "we cannot agree that it is inadequate or that it is wanting in fairness of spirit."[1] It overruled all the assignments of error, and "the judgment appealed from is affirmed."[1]

### The Pitezel children

Three of Pitezel's children, Alice, Nellie and Howard, were in Mudgett's care in the fall of 1894 and disappeared.[1][11] The Commonwealth's theory, as the Supreme Court described it, was that "the killing of Alice and the two children who were with her grew out of his desire to prevent Mrs. Pitezel from knowing of the death" of her husband.[1] The court did not rule on that theory; it decided only the questions raised on appeal.[1]

On July 15, 1895, Geyer, working with a Toronto detective, found the remains of Alice and Nellie in the cellar of a house at 16 St. Vincent Street in Toronto, Spacing reports from Geyer's account.[16] Remains later identified as Howard's were found in the chimney of a cottage Mudgett had rented in Irvington, near Indianapolis, and Mrs. Pitezel testified before the Marion County coroner, according to the Indiana State Library's Hoosier State Chronicles.[17] He was never tried for the children's deaths.[9] *The sources reviewed for this page do not establish what charges, if any, were filed against him in Toronto or Indianapolis.*

### The execution

He was hanged at Moyamensing Prison, the Philadelphia county prison, on May 7, 1896; the *Pottsville Republican* reported that the trap fell at 10:12 a.m.[6][11] On the gallows, the *Pine Grove Press Herald* reported, he said, "I am not guilty of taking the lives of any of the Pietzel family."[6] Newspapers reported that he acknowledged responsibility for the deaths of two women after operations he performed.[6][11] The *Philadelphia Times* reported that, by his instructions, his body was encased in cement in a grave at Holy Cross Cemetery.[6]

*The sources reviewed contain no statement from Pitezel's family about the execution.*

## Personal backstory

### Early life

Herman Webster Mudgett was born on May 16, 1861, in Gilmanton, New Hampshire.[18][15] *Smithsonian* notes that reliable documentation of his childhood is sparse.[10] In his own 1895 memoir, written while he awaited trial, he described his parents as "loving and religious," and wrote that he attended the village school and later taught while preparing for college.[20]

### First marriage

At 17, in 1878, he married Clara Lovering before a New Hampshire justice of the peace, and the couple had a son, the New England Historical Society reports.[18] He later married twice more without divorcing her: Myrta Belknap, whom Tyson describes as his second "wife," and Georgiana Yoke, in Denver in 1894.[18][11][1] The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania's account of the trial evidence put his "legal wife" in Gilmanton.[1]

### Medical school

By his own account, he spent a year at the University of Vermont and then transferred to the university at Ann Arbor, Michigan, where "in June, 1884, our examinations were passed."[20] WDIV reports that he entered the University of Michigan's medical school in 1882.[15] He is reported to have stolen bodies from the school's anatomy laboratory to collect on false life insurance claims; WDIV reports that he later admitted it.[15] *The sources reviewed contain no court record of those claims.*

### Chicago and the frauds

He moved to Chicago, took the name H. H. Holmes and built a building with shops and apartments that he said would include a hotel for the 1893 World's Fair.[15][9] Historian Adam Selzer describes the hotel plan as a way "to swindle suppliers and investors and insurers," and *Smithsonian* reports that he hid furniture from creditors.[9][10] The theory of the Pitezel case, as Pennsylvania newspapers summarized it in 1896, was an insurance fraud that he and Pitezel planned together.[6]

### Mental health

*The sources reviewed contain no trial testimony or court finding about his mental health.*

### In custody

While awaiting trial he published *Holmes' Own Story*, an account of his life written in his own defense.[20][10] On April 22, 1896, he was baptized into the Roman Catholic Church, the *Lykens Register* reported.[6] On April 12, 1896, the *New York Morning Journal* published a confession over his signature describing "the twenty-seven murders."[5] Selzer writes that different versions appeared in different newspapers and that the *Philadelphia Inquirer* printed a note from him calling the other versions false.[22]

### The grave

In 2017 his great-great-grandson obtained a judge's permission to open the grave, Penn Today reports.[12] The work was tied to the History series *American Ripper*.[13][12] Penn Museum scholars found the coffin encased in concrete and identified the remains in part by their teeth, which matched a prison medical report.[12][13] The remains were reburied at Holy Cross Cemetery in Yeadon.[13]

## The victims

### Proven in court

- Benjamin F. Pitezel, Killed Sept. 2, 1894 (the date given at trial), Callowhill Street, Philadelphia (Convicted). A Philadelphia jury convicted him of murdering Pitezel in the first degree, and the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania affirmed the judgment on March 4, 1896.[3][1][2]

### Other deaths attributed (not proven in court)

- Alice Pitezel, Remains found July 15, 1895, 16 St. Vincent Street, Toronto (Attributed by authorities; not proven in court). The Commonwealth's theory at his Philadelphia trial, as the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania described it, was that he killed Alice and the two children with her to keep their mother from learning of her husband's death, and Philadelphia detective Frank Geyer found her remains beneath a Toronto house, but he was never tried for her death.[1][16][9]
- Nellie Pitezel, Remains found July 15, 1895, 16 St. Vincent Street, Toronto (Attributed by authorities; not proven in court). Geyer found her remains with her sister Alice's, and the Philadelphia prosecution's theory, as the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania described it, attributed the deaths of Alice and the two children with her to Holmes, but he was never tried for her death.[16][1][9]
- Howard Pitezel, Remains found late August 1895, Irvington, near Indianapolis (Attributed by authorities; not proven in court). Detectives including Geyer found the boy's remains at a cottage in Irvington, and a wire report said Indianapolis would "demand Holmes for trial," but no trial followed, and the Philadelphia prosecution's theory also attributed his death to Holmes.[7][1][9]
- Julia Conner, Last seen 1891, Chicago (Attributed by authorities; not proven in court). Detective Frank Geyer's account, published the day after the execution, said Holmes insured her life "and then killed her," and newspapers reported that she was one of two women whose deaths he acknowledged on the gallows after operations he performed, but her body was never identified and no court tested either claim.[8][6][23]
- Pearl Conner, Last seen 1891, Chicago (Attributed by authorities; not proven in court). Geyer's account, published the day after the execution, said Holmes killed Julia Conner's daughter and destroyed the body; historian Adam Selzer writes that bones found in the building's basement were likely hers but could not be identified with the forensics of the time.[8][23]
- Emeline Cigrand, Last seen 1892, Chicago (Attributed by authorities; not proven in court). Geyer's account, published the day after the execution, said Holmes killed her (it spells her name "Emiline"), and the *Pottsville Republican* named "Emily Cigrand" as one of the two women whose deaths he acknowledged on the gallows, but her body was never recovered.[8][6][23]

## Myth and record

- Claim: His Chicago building was a "Murder Castle" or "World's Fair Hotel" fitted with trapdoors, secret rooms, gas pipes, a "gas chamber" and a crematorium, where guests of the 1893 fair were killed.[9][21][15]
  The record: The building had stores on the first floor and long-term apartments on the second; the third floor, added in 1892 and announced as a hotel, was never finished, furnished or opened, according to HISTORY and *Smithsonian*.[9][10] Historian Adam Selzer calls the hotel plan "just a vehicle to swindle suppliers and investors and insurers," and HISTORY reports that the trapdoor and gas-pipe stories had no evidence behind them.[9] His only trial concerned a death in a house in Philadelphia, and no court tried him for any death in Chicago.[3][1][9]
- Claim: He killed as many as 200 people, a figure HISTORY traces to a line in Herbert Asbury's 1940 book *Gem of the Prairie* and that later accounts repeat.[9][10]
  The record: A court convicted him of one murder, that of Benjamin F. Pitezel.[1] Selzer told HISTORY of the 200 figure, "Nobody had actually suggested that, in fact," and *Smithsonian* reports that he could confirm only nine deaths.[9][10] The court record does not establish any count beyond the one conviction, and this page does not offer one; it lists separately the deaths that a prosecutor or detective attributed to him at the time, none of them proven in court.[1][8]
- Claim: By his own confession, published in April 1896, he committed "the twenty-seven murders" it described.[5]
  The record: Selzer has noted that several of the people named in it "were still alive."[9] He writes that more than one version was published, and that the *Philadelphia Inquirer*'s version mentions only 24 or 25 victims.[22] A Pennsylvania paper reported days before the execution that he had been paid $7,500 for the confession, and on the gallows he denied killing any of the Pitezel family.[6] No court tested the confession.
- Claim: He was America's first: headlines have called him "America's 1st serial killer" and "America's 'First' Serial Killer."[14][10]
  The record: He was convicted of a single murder, and the courts made no finding about any other death.[1][9] *Smithsonian* itself puts "first" in quotation marks, and the label rests on the claims and counts described above, not on the record of his trial.[10]
- Claim: He escaped the gallows and someone else was buried in his place, a rumor reported when his grave was opened in 2017.[14][10]
  The record: Newspapers reported his hanging on May 7, 1896.[6] In 2017 the remains in his grave were identified by their teeth, and a Penn Museum scholar said the team was "very, very confident" they were his.[13][12]

## The two sides

- Prosecution: The Commonwealth's theory, as the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania described it, was "that the motive for the killing of Pitezel was to secure the insurance money."[1] Medical experts testified that the chloroform could not have been self-administered in the way the defendant claimed, and that it had been "introduced into the stomach after death."[1] Witnesses testified that Pitezel had seemed in good spirits before his death.[11]
- Defense: By his own account to the Philadelphia police superintendent, he found Pitezel dead, with a letter pointing to suicide, and set fire to the face so that suicide could not be raised as a defense to the insurance policy.[1] The defense called no witnesses and argued that the Commonwealth had not proved guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.[1][11] On appeal he argued, among other things, that Georgiana Yoke should not have been allowed to testify because she was his wife.[1]
- Later historians: Historian Adam Selzer told HISTORY that Holmes probably killed "about nine" people, all of whom he already knew; author Harold Schechter has called the stories of guests murdered in his Chicago building "complete sensationalistic fabrication by the yellow press."[9] Neither count is a court finding.[1]

## Timeline

- May 16, 1861: Herman Webster Mudgett is born in Gilmanton, New Hampshire.[18][15]
- 1878: At 17, he marries Clara Lovering in New Hampshire.[18]
- June 1884: By his own account, he completes his medical examinations at Ann Arbor, Michigan.[20]
- Nov. 9, 1893: The Fidelity Mutual Life Association issues a $10,000 policy on Benjamin F. Pitezel's life.[19]
- January 1894: He goes through a marriage ceremony with Georgiana Yoke in Denver.[1]
- Sept. 2, 1894: Pitezel dies in a house on Callowhill Street in Philadelphia.[11][20][1]
- Nov. 17, 1894: He is arrested in Boston on a telegram from Fort Worth, Texas.[19]
- July 15, 1895: Philadelphia detective Frank Geyer finds the remains of Alice and Nellie Pitezel beneath a house in Toronto.[16]
- Oct. 28, 1895: His trial for Pitezel's murder opens in Philadelphia.[3][11]
- November 1895: The jury finds him guilty of murder in the first degree.[2][6]
- Late 1895: Judge Arnold refuses a new trial and sentences him to be hanged.[4][11]
- March 4, 1896: The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania affirms the conviction.[2][1]
- April 12, 1896: Newspapers publish a confession in which he claims twenty-seven murders.[5][22]
- May 7, 1896: He is hanged at Moyamensing Prison in Philadelphia.[6][11]
- 2017: At his descendants' request, his grave is opened and the remains are identified as his.[13][12]

## What came after

The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania overruled every assignment of error and affirmed the judgment in March 1896.[1][2] In April, newspapers published a confession under his name; days before his execution a Pennsylvania paper reported that he had been paid $7,500 for it.[5][6] He was hanged on May 7, 1896, and, by his instructions, buried in cement at Holy Cross Cemetery.[6][12] He was never tried for the deaths of Alice, Nellie and Howard Pitezel.[9][11] Rumors that he had cheated the gallows lasted until 2017, when his grave was opened at a descendant's request and the remains were identified by their teeth.[10][12][13]

## Sources

1. [Commonwealth v. Mudgett, 174 Pa. 211, 34 A. 588 (opinion of Justice Williams)](https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/6374621/commonwealth-v-mudgett/). Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1896 (via CourtListener, Free Law Project). (court or official record)
2. [Commonwealth v. Mudgett, 174 Pa. 211, 34 A. 588 (Pa. 1896), No. 136, Jan. T., 1896](https://case-law.vlex.com/vid/commonwealth-v-mudgett-136-900346213). Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, decided March 4, 1896 (via vLex). (court or official record)
3. [The Trial of Herman W. Mudgett, alias H. H. Holmes, for the Murder of Benjamin F. Pitezel (Court of Oyer and Terminer, Philadelphia, Oct. 28–Nov. 2, 1895)](https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/102762776). George T. Bisel, Philadelphia, 1897 (HathiTrust Digital Library catalog record). (archival record or trial reporting from the time)
4. [Holmes Hears His Doom: Judge Arnold Passes Death Sentence (wire report)](https://historicnewspapers.sc.edu/lccn/sn86063771/1895-12-02/ed-1/seq-1/ocr.txt). The Florence Daily Times (Florence, S.C.), Dec. 2, 1895, via University of South Carolina Libraries. (archival record or trial reporting from the time)
5. [Full confession of H. H. Holmes](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/69/Full_confession_of_H._H._Holmes.pdf). The New York Morning Journal, April 12, 1896 (scan via Wikimedia Commons). (archival record or trial reporting from the time)
6. [The Hanging of H. H. Holmes, 1896](https://www.lykensvalley.org/the-hanging-of-h-h-holmes-1896/). Reports from the Pottsville Republican, Philadelphia Times, Pine Grove Press Herald, Lykens Register and others, April–May 1896, reprinted by Norman Gasbarro, Lykens Valley: History & Genealogy. (archival record or trial reporting from the time)
7. [Boy's Body Found (wire report from Indianapolis, Aug. 29)](https://aadl.org/node/132651). Ann Arbor Argus, Aug. 30, 1895, via Ann Arbor District Library. (archival record or trial reporting from the time)
8. [Detective Frank Geyer's account of the Holmes case (reprinted)](https://chicagology.com/notorious-chicago/mudgett/). Chicago Tribune, May 8, 1896, reprinted by Chicagology. (archival record or trial reporting from the time)
9. [Did Serial Killer H.H. Holmes Really Build a 'Murder Castle'?](https://www.history.com/articles/murder-castle-h-h-holmes-chicago). Becky Little, HISTORY (A&E Television Networks), Jan. 23, 2020 (updated May 6, 2026). (news report)
10. [The Enduring Mystery of H.H. Holmes, America's 'First' Serial Killer](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/enduring-mystery-hh-holmes-americas-first-serial-killer-180977646/). Meilan Solly, Smithsonian Magazine, May 7, 2021. (news report)
11. [H. H. Holmes' Murder Trial](https://svjlit.com/features/h-h-holmes-murder-trial-by-joe-tyson-new-material-history-law-new-material-svj-online-december-2018). Joseph Tyson III, Schuylkill Valley Journal Online, December 2018. (news report)
12. [Did serial killer H. H. Holmes fake his own death?](https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/did-serial-killer-h-h-holmes-fake-his-own-death). Katherine Unger Baillie, Penn Today, University of Pennsylvania (first published Sept. 28, 2017). (news report)
13. [Tests confirm gravesite of 1800s serial killer H.H. Holmes](https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/tests-confirm-gravesite-of-1800s-serial-killer-h-h-holmes). Associated Press, via CBS News, Sept. 1, 2017. (news report)
14. [Grave of H.H. Holmes, 'America's 1st serial killer,' to be exhumed amid rumors he escaped execution](https://www.foxnews.com/us/grave-of-h-h-holmes-americas-1st-serial-killer-to-be-exhumed-amid-rumors-he-escaped-execution.amp). Fox News, 2017. (news report)
15. [The U-M graduate who maybe built a murder castle](https://clickondetroit.com/features/2024/10/22/the-u-m-graduate-who-maybe-built-a-murder-castle). Dane Kelly, WDIV ClickOnDetroit, Oct. 22, 2024. (news report)
16. [The Toronto link to America's bloodiest serial killer](https://spacing.ca/toronto/2015/07/22/toronto-link-americas-bloodiest-serial-killer/). Chris Bateman, Spacing Toronto, July 22, 2015. (news report)
17. [Trail of the Arch-Fiend: H.H. Holmes](https://blog.newspapers.library.in.gov/trail-of-the-arch-fiend/). Stephen J. Taylor, Hoosier State Chronicles, Indiana State Library, Aug. 18, 2015. (news report)
18. [Married to a Murderer, H.W. Mudgett](https://newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/married-to-murderer-h-w-mudgett/). Leslie Landrigan, New England Historical Society, Feb. 5, 2017. (news report)
19. [Frank P. Geyer, The Holmes-Pitezel Case: A History of the Greatest Crime of the Century and of the Search for the Missing Pitezel Children](https://archive.org/details/holmespitezelcas00geye). Philadelphia, 1896 (Internet Archive, from the University of Illinois at Chicago). (book)
20. [Herman W. Mudgett, Holmes' Own Story](https://gutenberg.org/files/64249/64249-h/64249-h.htm). Burk & McFetridge Co., Philadelphia, 1895 (Project Gutenberg edition). (book)
21. [Erik Larson, The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America (catalog record and summary)](https://eastgreenwichlibrary.oslri.net/Record/351829). Crown Publishers, New York, 2003 (via East Greenwich Free Library catalog). (book)
22. [Adam Selzer, H.H. Holmes Confessions: A Cheat Sheet](https://mysteriouschicago.com/h-h-holmes-confessions-a-cheat-sheet/). Adam Selzer, Mysterious Chicago, March 30, 2012 (updated Nov. 16, 2015). (book)
23. [Adam Selzer, New Master List of HH Holmes Victims](https://mysteriouschicago.com/new-master-list-of-hh-holmes-victims/). Adam Selzer, Mysterious Chicago, Nov. 10, 2016 (updated June 5, 2017). (book)