1
00:00:00,560 --> 00:00:03,760
Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how

2
00:00:03,840 --> 00:00:13,640
Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.

3
00:00:13,640 --> 00:00:15,800
Speaker 1: I'm to blame a chalk reboarding and I'm fair Dowdy,

4
00:00:16,079 --> 00:00:19,079
Speaker 1: and this episode is about a character who almost needs

5
00:00:19,360 --> 00:00:22,880
Speaker 1: really no introduction. He's one of our most requested topics

6
00:00:23,079 --> 00:00:25,880
Speaker 1: and probably one of the most gruesome stories that ever

7
00:00:25,920 --> 00:00:29,800
Speaker 1: gets requested. It gets requested around Halloween a lot, a lot. Well, yes,

8
00:00:29,920 --> 00:00:32,320
Speaker 1: especially this Halloween, because we did Bell Gunnists, which is

9
00:00:32,360 --> 00:00:36,279
Speaker 1: sort of a similar Tarle story. So of course I'm

10
00:00:36,320 --> 00:00:39,760
Speaker 1: talking about H. H. Holmes, whose crimes and murderous exploits

11
00:00:39,760 --> 00:00:42,440
Speaker 1: were featured in Eric Larson's best selling book Devil in

12
00:00:42,440 --> 00:00:44,519
Speaker 1: the White City, which is kind of a chronicle of

13
00:00:44,520 --> 00:00:46,239
Speaker 1: what was going on in Chicago at the end of

14
00:00:46,240 --> 00:00:50,920
Speaker 1: the nineteenth century, particularly as it pertained to the World's

15
00:00:50,920 --> 00:00:55,080
Speaker 1: Columbian Exposition, also known as the Chicago World's Fair. The

16
00:00:55,160 --> 00:00:57,560
Speaker 1: time of the World's Fair is often thought of as

17
00:00:57,560 --> 00:01:00,800
Speaker 1: a kind is kind of the height of holmes mental activity,

18
00:01:00,800 --> 00:01:04,080
Speaker 1: which is why he fits into that story. And he's

19
00:01:04,120 --> 00:01:07,720
Speaker 1: also often called America's first serial killer, although we now

20
00:01:07,760 --> 00:01:11,160
Speaker 1: know from previous podcasts that others like Bell Gunnists may

21
00:01:11,240 --> 00:01:13,800
Speaker 1: have been close on his heels, But I think what's

22
00:01:13,840 --> 00:01:18,279
Speaker 1: really interesting about the home story isn't that the bone chilling,

23
00:01:18,319 --> 00:01:21,959
Speaker 1: gruesome nature of his crimes. It's how he how he

24
00:01:22,000 --> 00:01:24,360
Speaker 1: really pulled them off. I mean, that's what interests you too,

25
00:01:24,360 --> 00:01:26,400
Speaker 1: I think to blame it absolutely. I mean, when you

26
00:01:26,720 --> 00:01:30,399
Speaker 1: learn his story, you find yourself asking over and over again,

27
00:01:30,480 --> 00:01:33,280
Speaker 1: how did he not get caught? Why did people fall

28
00:01:33,400 --> 00:01:36,080
Speaker 1: for his schemes and fall into the traps that he

29
00:01:36,120 --> 00:01:38,840
Speaker 1: sat And why didn't more people report all of the

30
00:01:38,880 --> 00:01:42,000
Speaker 1: suspicions they were feeling exactly So it's kind of similar

31
00:01:42,040 --> 00:01:44,560
Speaker 1: to the Bell Gannist story in that way, because I

32
00:01:44,560 --> 00:01:46,640
Speaker 1: think you sort of ask yourself those kind of questions

33
00:01:46,640 --> 00:01:49,600
Speaker 1: whenever you how did it get so far? Yes, and

34
00:01:49,760 --> 00:01:52,280
Speaker 1: there are some ideas about why he was able to

35
00:01:52,360 --> 00:01:55,600
Speaker 1: get so far literally get away with murder for so long,

36
00:01:55,680 --> 00:01:57,960
Speaker 1: And we'll take a look at those as we tell

37
00:01:57,960 --> 00:02:00,520
Speaker 1: the story of his crime spree and the sort of

38
00:02:00,560 --> 00:02:02,720
Speaker 1: house of horrors that he built in Chicago in the

39
00:02:02,760 --> 00:02:06,160
Speaker 1: late eighteen hundreds, which came to be known as Murder Castle.

40
00:02:06,680 --> 00:02:08,680
Speaker 1: But first we're going to take a look at his

41
00:02:08,760 --> 00:02:12,160
Speaker 1: early days and take a look a little bit about

42
00:02:12,200 --> 00:02:15,800
Speaker 1: what the childhood of a serial killers like so. Holmes

43
00:02:15,919 --> 00:02:21,200
Speaker 1: was born Herman W. Mudget May sixteenth, eighteen sixty one

44
00:02:21,360 --> 00:02:25,240
Speaker 1: in Gilmanton, which was a small farming village in New Hampshire.

45
00:02:25,600 --> 00:02:28,880
Speaker 1: He had a brother and a sister, and his father, Levi,

46
00:02:29,160 --> 00:02:32,240
Speaker 1: was a farmer and a postmaster. His mother was a

47
00:02:32,360 --> 00:02:36,400
Speaker 1: very religious woman, and both parents were devout Methodist, but

48
00:02:36,480 --> 00:02:40,400
Speaker 1: the father was especially strict, and he doled out harsh

49
00:02:40,440 --> 00:02:46,240
Speaker 1: punishments for even minor misbehavior and his children. Consequently, Little

50
00:02:46,280 --> 00:02:49,560
Speaker 1: Herman Mudget was beaten quite a lot as a child,

51
00:02:49,639 --> 00:02:52,800
Speaker 1: and according to a History magazine article by Phil Jones,

52
00:02:53,240 --> 00:02:56,800
Speaker 1: Mudget's father would even use kerosene vapor on the children,

53
00:02:56,880 --> 00:02:59,959
Speaker 1: sometimes to make them be quiet when they were being

54
00:03:00,080 --> 00:03:03,120
Speaker 1: too noisy. As a child, Mudget spent a lot of

55
00:03:03,160 --> 00:03:06,519
Speaker 1: time on his own inventing things like a wind powered

56
00:03:06,600 --> 00:03:10,320
Speaker 1: device to scare birds off his family farm. A lot

57
00:03:10,360 --> 00:03:13,600
Speaker 1: of sources also suggest that another early pastime of his

58
00:03:13,720 --> 00:03:16,480
Speaker 1: was experimenting on animals, both dead and alive, which of

59
00:03:16,520 --> 00:03:20,200
Speaker 1: course basically mounted to torture, though Larsen's book suggests that

60
00:03:20,240 --> 00:03:23,440
Speaker 1: this might have just been speculation on the part of researchers.

61
00:03:24,160 --> 00:03:26,720
Speaker 1: His only childhood friend was a kid named Tom, who

62
00:03:26,760 --> 00:03:28,520
Speaker 1: died in a fall when they were playing in an

63
00:03:28,520 --> 00:03:33,000
Speaker 1: abandoned house. Obviously, this was considered an accident at the time,

64
00:03:33,080 --> 00:03:34,920
Speaker 1: but after learning what You're about too and the rest

65
00:03:34,960 --> 00:03:37,960
Speaker 1: of this podcast, it might seem more like Mudget's first

66
00:03:38,040 --> 00:03:43,080
Speaker 1: victims suspicious. So Mudget graduated from school at age sixteen

67
00:03:43,280 --> 00:03:45,920
Speaker 1: and initially went to work as a teacher in New Hampshire.

68
00:03:46,040 --> 00:03:48,640
Speaker 1: And while he was teaching, he met a woman named

69
00:03:48,720 --> 00:03:53,240
Speaker 1: Clara A laver Ling who he just totally won over

70
00:03:53,360 --> 00:03:56,640
Speaker 1: with his charm. And that's something important to consider for

71
00:03:56,800 --> 00:03:59,640
Speaker 1: these podcasts. To the sort of power he had over

72
00:04:00,080 --> 00:04:03,680
Speaker 1: women is really a recurring theme throughout this story. They

73
00:04:03,680 --> 00:04:06,360
Speaker 1: found him very good looking, of course, he had dark

74
00:04:06,400 --> 00:04:10,320
Speaker 1: brown hair and blue eyes and a thick mustache popular

75
00:04:10,360 --> 00:04:13,520
Speaker 1: at the time. But his manner too, was charming. He

76
00:04:13,600 --> 00:04:16,240
Speaker 1: was affectionate. He had a way of making them feel

77
00:04:16,320 --> 00:04:18,800
Speaker 1: like they were really the only women in the world,

78
00:04:19,000 --> 00:04:23,120
Speaker 1: and so he'd get close to them and not just um,

79
00:04:23,160 --> 00:04:27,120
Speaker 1: not just in a like charming them kind of way.

80
00:04:27,200 --> 00:04:31,080
Speaker 1: He would actually touch them and that wasn't exactly appropriate

81
00:04:31,120 --> 00:04:35,440
Speaker 1: at the time. But instead of being offended by this behavior. Um,

82
00:04:35,480 --> 00:04:38,920
Speaker 1: A lot of women who he met seemed excited by it. Yeah,

83
00:04:38,960 --> 00:04:40,800
Speaker 1: I mean, I think we've all met someone like that,

84
00:04:40,880 --> 00:04:43,799
Speaker 1: that person who just sort of really hangs on every

85
00:04:43,800 --> 00:04:46,600
Speaker 1: word you say, maybe touches your arm when you're having

86
00:04:46,640 --> 00:04:48,880
Speaker 1: a bad day and you're telling about it, and just

87
00:04:49,000 --> 00:04:51,480
Speaker 1: kind of makes you feel like you're the only person

88
00:04:51,520 --> 00:04:54,560
Speaker 1: in the world, or potentially creeps you out. Depends actually

89
00:04:54,640 --> 00:04:56,760
Speaker 1: creeps you out on how far they take it. Yeah,

90
00:04:57,120 --> 00:05:00,159
Speaker 1: I guess, depending on how observant you are. But and

91
00:05:00,279 --> 00:05:03,480
Speaker 1: I mean I can see I can see him crossing

92
00:05:03,520 --> 00:05:06,880
Speaker 1: that line with with some people. Apparently he didn't cross

93
00:05:06,880 --> 00:05:08,640
Speaker 1: the line too much. A lot of women were taken

94
00:05:08,640 --> 00:05:11,440
Speaker 1: with him and Mudget and Claire married on July four,

95
00:05:12,080 --> 00:05:15,680
Speaker 1: seventy eight, when Mudget was about eighteen years old, and

96
00:05:15,720 --> 00:05:18,479
Speaker 1: they had one child together, a son, But it didn't

97
00:05:18,480 --> 00:05:21,560
Speaker 1: take long for the romance here to die out. Mudget

98
00:05:21,600 --> 00:05:24,080
Speaker 1: started going away for long periods of time and then

99
00:05:24,120 --> 00:05:27,400
Speaker 1: finally just left, even though the two were still legally married.

100
00:05:28,040 --> 00:05:30,400
Speaker 1: Then Mudget decided he wanted to study medicine, and so

101
00:05:30,480 --> 00:05:33,600
Speaker 1: he went to college at age nineteen. He started out

102
00:05:33,640 --> 00:05:36,560
Speaker 1: at the University of Vermont and Burlington, where, according to

103
00:05:36,640 --> 00:05:40,640
Speaker 1: Jones article, he paid tuition with Claire's inheritance, so we

104
00:05:40,680 --> 00:05:42,760
Speaker 1: can see maybe a motive for marrying her in the

105
00:05:42,760 --> 00:05:46,000
Speaker 1: first place here. But after about a year he transferred

106
00:05:46,000 --> 00:05:49,039
Speaker 1: to the University of Michigan Medical School in ann Arbor,

107
00:05:49,120 --> 00:05:52,400
Speaker 1: which was, according to Lawcen's book, known for its emphasis

108
00:05:52,440 --> 00:05:56,440
Speaker 1: on dissection, picking a program that fit his strong fuits.

109
00:05:56,520 --> 00:06:00,760
Speaker 1: So Mudget wasn't remembered as an especially stellar student, though,

110
00:06:00,800 --> 00:06:04,200
Speaker 1: and this might have been because his mind was occupied

111
00:06:04,200 --> 00:06:06,599
Speaker 1: by a lot of other things, one of which was

112
00:06:06,839 --> 00:06:10,280
Speaker 1: making money. So according to an article in biography by

113
00:06:10,360 --> 00:06:13,560
Speaker 1: David Goldman, it was while he was at the University

114
00:06:13,560 --> 00:06:18,000
Speaker 1: of Michigan that Mudget took his first stab at insurance fraud.

115
00:06:18,120 --> 00:06:22,560
Speaker 1: So he'd steal cadavers from the anatomy lab at school

116
00:06:22,640 --> 00:06:25,400
Speaker 1: and then disfigure them so that they couldn't be recognized.

117
00:06:25,720 --> 00:06:29,000
Speaker 1: Then he would take out insurance policies on the cadavers,

118
00:06:29,320 --> 00:06:32,080
Speaker 1: setting them up as some kind of fictional family members,

119
00:06:32,120 --> 00:06:35,920
Speaker 1: and of course naming himself as the beneficiary. And then

120
00:06:35,960 --> 00:06:40,280
Speaker 1: he'd staged these accidents in various locations to make it

121
00:06:40,320 --> 00:06:45,560
Speaker 1: look like the cause of the accident caused the cadaver's death,

122
00:06:45,960 --> 00:06:48,880
Speaker 1: and then he'd collect on the insurance policy and get

123
00:06:48,920 --> 00:06:53,159
Speaker 1: the cash. After leaving college, and there's actually some question

124
00:06:53,200 --> 00:06:56,120
Speaker 1: I think about whether he actually graduated or not. Some

125
00:06:56,520 --> 00:06:59,320
Speaker 1: sources say yes, others say that he was expelled when

126
00:06:59,440 --> 00:07:03,120
Speaker 1: his cadaver ever stealing was discovered. But after he left,

127
00:07:03,200 --> 00:07:06,440
Speaker 1: Mudget traveled to various cities for the next six years,

128
00:07:06,480 --> 00:07:09,520
Speaker 1: basically scamming people wherever he went, trying to make a

129
00:07:09,520 --> 00:07:12,080
Speaker 1: buck however he could, even if it came down to

130
00:07:12,120 --> 00:07:14,640
Speaker 1: skipping out on lodging bills without paying. I mean, he

131
00:07:14,720 --> 00:07:17,080
Speaker 1: was really trying to get out of paying every last

132
00:07:17,160 --> 00:07:21,080
Speaker 1: dollar if he could. In Philadelphia, when he was working there,

133
00:07:21,120 --> 00:07:23,960
Speaker 1: a child died after taking medicine from a drug store

134
00:07:24,000 --> 00:07:26,480
Speaker 1: that he worked at, so he fled the city soon after.

135
00:07:26,800 --> 00:07:30,800
Speaker 1: So by six Mudget had landed in Chicago, and once

136
00:07:30,800 --> 00:07:33,000
Speaker 1: he was there, he started looking for a job in

137
00:07:33,480 --> 00:07:37,480
Speaker 1: a suburb of growing suburb Englewood, which was south of Chicago,

138
00:07:38,040 --> 00:07:40,880
Speaker 1: and since he had had that whole issue with the

139
00:07:41,200 --> 00:07:44,280
Speaker 1: child dying from the medicine, he changed his name. He

140
00:07:44,320 --> 00:07:47,600
Speaker 1: started going by the alias H. H. Holmes and went

141
00:07:47,640 --> 00:07:50,120
Speaker 1: into a drug store that was owned by an elderly

142
00:07:50,160 --> 00:07:53,880
Speaker 1: woman named This Holton, asking if she needed anybody to

143
00:07:53,920 --> 00:07:57,320
Speaker 1: help in her store. Basically, he told her his credentials,

144
00:07:57,360 --> 00:08:01,000
Speaker 1: which him pretty impressive, and he used that a magnetic

145
00:08:01,120 --> 00:08:03,960
Speaker 1: charm we talked about earlier that he'd used on young

146
00:08:04,000 --> 00:08:07,000
Speaker 1: women when he was flirting with them, and um, Mrs

147
00:08:07,000 --> 00:08:09,840
Speaker 1: Holton ended up opening up to him, you know, telling

148
00:08:09,920 --> 00:08:12,560
Speaker 1: him that her husband, who lived with her in the

149
00:08:12,600 --> 00:08:16,480
Speaker 1: apartment upstairs, was very ill. He was dying. She really

150
00:08:16,520 --> 00:08:19,200
Speaker 1: needed somebody like Holmes to come in and help her

151
00:08:19,200 --> 00:08:22,040
Speaker 1: out with the store, so she ended up hiring him,

152
00:08:22,080 --> 00:08:25,120
Speaker 1: and he eventually took over operation of the store pretty

153
00:08:25,160 --> 00:08:29,160
Speaker 1: much completely. After Mr Holton died, Holmes offered to buy

154
00:08:29,200 --> 00:08:32,640
Speaker 1: the store and to allow Mrs Holton to keep living

155
00:08:32,679 --> 00:08:36,200
Speaker 1: in the apartment upstairs. He got the money to buy

156
00:08:36,240 --> 00:08:38,560
Speaker 1: the place in a pretty shady way, though he did

157
00:08:38,559 --> 00:08:42,080
Speaker 1: it by mortgaging fixtures and merchandise from the store itself.

158
00:08:42,480 --> 00:08:45,320
Speaker 1: He also agreed to make payments of one hundred dollars

159
00:08:45,320 --> 00:08:48,320
Speaker 1: a month to Mrs Holton to cover the balance. According

160
00:08:48,360 --> 00:08:51,959
Speaker 1: to both Jones and Goldman's articles, though Holmes eventually stopped

161
00:08:52,040 --> 00:08:54,880
Speaker 1: making these payments and Mrs Holton filed a wall suit

162
00:08:54,920 --> 00:08:57,560
Speaker 1: against him before it could go very far, though, she

163
00:08:57,720 --> 00:09:00,840
Speaker 1: just disappeared. So loyal customer, you know, this lady has

164
00:09:00,880 --> 00:09:03,920
Speaker 1: been an institution in this neighborhood for a while. Loyal

165
00:09:03,920 --> 00:09:07,720
Speaker 1: customers started asking where's Mrs Holton, and Holmes just told

166
00:09:07,760 --> 00:09:11,079
Speaker 1: them that she'd gone out to California visiting a relative.

167
00:09:11,760 --> 00:09:14,440
Speaker 1: Uh and then well, lo and behold she decided to

168
00:09:14,480 --> 00:09:17,480
Speaker 1: stay in California to move there, but he couldn't give

169
00:09:17,520 --> 00:09:21,440
Speaker 1: them any kind of forwarding address. Meanwhile, though Holmes was

170
00:09:21,559 --> 00:09:24,920
Speaker 1: proving a bit of an institution himself. He built up

171
00:09:24,920 --> 00:09:30,000
Speaker 1: a following. People, especially female customers, really liked this charming

172
00:09:30,200 --> 00:09:33,760
Speaker 1: young single doctor who had taken over the drug store

173
00:09:33,920 --> 00:09:37,920
Speaker 1: and was running a pretty successful business. So not long

174
00:09:37,960 --> 00:09:41,599
Speaker 1: after buying the store, Homes started a courtship with Murda Belknap,

175
00:09:41,640 --> 00:09:44,319
Speaker 1: who he'd met before when he was living in Minneapolis

176
00:09:44,320 --> 00:09:46,599
Speaker 1: for a little while. He drew her in with that

177
00:09:46,800 --> 00:09:49,800
Speaker 1: charm that we keep mentioning, and with the allure of

178
00:09:49,840 --> 00:09:52,280
Speaker 1: the big city of Chicago. I mean, to a girl,

179
00:09:52,600 --> 00:09:56,240
Speaker 1: I guess the Minneapolis wasn't as hot a ticket as

180
00:09:56,320 --> 00:09:59,840
Speaker 1: Chicago was at the time, so she was really attracted

181
00:09:59,840 --> 00:10:01,400
Speaker 1: to the idea of living here in the big city,

182
00:10:02,160 --> 00:10:08,840
Speaker 1: intriguing Cancelman, and they got married on January seven, and

183
00:10:08,960 --> 00:10:11,280
Speaker 1: of course he didn't tell her that he was already

184
00:10:11,280 --> 00:10:14,400
Speaker 1: married to somebody else under a different name. But apparently

185
00:10:14,440 --> 00:10:17,160
Speaker 1: he did try at this time to petition for divorce.

186
00:10:17,240 --> 00:10:21,079
Speaker 1: He filed a petition with the Supreme Court of Cook County, Illinois,

187
00:10:21,520 --> 00:10:23,920
Speaker 1: claiming that his first wife had been unfaithful, so he

188
00:10:23,960 --> 00:10:26,680
Speaker 1: was going to totally destroy her reputation in the process.

189
00:10:26,920 --> 00:10:29,000
Speaker 1: But he never followed up on that petition, so it

190
00:10:29,040 --> 00:10:33,320
Speaker 1: was eventually dismissed. Meanwhile, Murda did come to Chicago and

191
00:10:33,360 --> 00:10:35,840
Speaker 1: lived and worked in the store with Holmes, and at

192
00:10:35,880 --> 00:10:39,640
Speaker 1: first everything was okay, it themed, but she started to

193
00:10:39,679 --> 00:10:43,440
Speaker 1: get jealous of the way the female customers flirted with Holmes.

194
00:10:43,520 --> 00:10:47,520
Speaker 1: They would, for instance, often ask for him specifically, and

195
00:10:47,559 --> 00:10:51,920
Speaker 1: eventually Murder became more possessive and also pregnant, and so

196
00:10:52,200 --> 00:10:55,840
Speaker 1: Holmes asked her to manage the stores books, which got

197
00:10:55,840 --> 00:10:58,600
Speaker 1: her out of the store and upstairs into the office

198
00:10:58,640 --> 00:11:01,400
Speaker 1: all day. And it's interesting seen the way this described,

199
00:11:01,960 --> 00:11:04,440
Speaker 1: It's not as though he was angry with her for

200
00:11:04,520 --> 00:11:07,280
Speaker 1: being possessive. He just saw her as kind of an

201
00:11:07,320 --> 00:11:10,800
Speaker 1: obstacle to what we're trying to do exactly. So she

202
00:11:10,920 --> 00:11:14,080
Speaker 1: was unhappy being stuck up in this office and ended

203
00:11:14,160 --> 00:11:15,880
Speaker 1: up going to live with her parents and will met

204
00:11:15,920 --> 00:11:19,080
Speaker 1: in Illinois where her daughter where she had her daughter

205
00:11:19,120 --> 00:11:22,720
Speaker 1: with Holmes Lucy, and Holmes would sometimes visit them and

206
00:11:22,760 --> 00:11:25,000
Speaker 1: bring money for them and gifts to his daughter, and

207
00:11:25,040 --> 00:11:27,679
Speaker 1: he'd even play with his daughter Lucy and seemed to

208
00:11:27,720 --> 00:11:29,760
Speaker 1: dote on her while he was there. When he was there,

209
00:11:29,800 --> 00:11:32,520
Speaker 1: he seemed like the perfect husband. That's how he acted.

210
00:11:32,800 --> 00:11:35,880
Speaker 1: But his visits started to become few and far between.

211
00:11:36,480 --> 00:11:40,040
Speaker 1: So by this point Holmes a k a. Mudget had

212
00:11:40,160 --> 00:11:44,440
Speaker 1: abandoned to families and he was running this booming business

213
00:11:44,480 --> 00:11:47,760
Speaker 1: and that was clearly the foremost thing on his mind.

214
00:11:48,000 --> 00:11:52,880
Speaker 1: So in the summer of thinking about expanding business even more,

215
00:11:52,920 --> 00:11:56,000
Speaker 1: he bought a whole block of land across the street

216
00:11:56,320 --> 00:11:59,680
Speaker 1: at the intersection of sixty three and Wallace in Inglewood,

217
00:11:59,679 --> 00:12:03,520
Speaker 1: which is undeveloped at this point, and he started sketching

218
00:12:03,520 --> 00:12:06,360
Speaker 1: out some ideas for a new building that he wanted

219
00:12:06,400 --> 00:12:08,080
Speaker 1: to put there was going to be a mixed use

220
00:12:08,200 --> 00:12:11,000
Speaker 1: development that's probably what people would call it now, But

221
00:12:11,200 --> 00:12:14,560
Speaker 1: he had some strange ideas about how he was going

222
00:12:14,600 --> 00:12:16,400
Speaker 1: to build it. To say the least, he did. And

223
00:12:16,400 --> 00:12:19,400
Speaker 1: we should mention why he was designing this place himself,

224
00:12:19,400 --> 00:12:21,400
Speaker 1: why he was doing the sketching. He didn't want to

225
00:12:21,400 --> 00:12:24,080
Speaker 1: work with an architect because then he would have to

226
00:12:24,120 --> 00:12:27,319
Speaker 1: reveal all of the secrets of the structure and its

227
00:12:27,360 --> 00:12:29,920
Speaker 1: intended purpose. It was very mixed use if you think

228
00:12:29,960 --> 00:12:34,040
Speaker 1: about indeed, and he needed to avoid this situation at

229
00:12:34,040 --> 00:12:37,000
Speaker 1: all costs, so he designed the whole thing himself. And

230
00:12:37,240 --> 00:12:39,840
Speaker 1: the plan was for the first floor to have retail

231
00:12:39,880 --> 00:12:43,720
Speaker 1: shops and the second and third floor to have apartments,

232
00:12:44,240 --> 00:12:47,640
Speaker 1: and that would include holmes own flat and his office,

233
00:12:47,760 --> 00:12:50,080
Speaker 1: which would be in a corner of the second floor.

234
00:12:50,720 --> 00:12:54,680
Speaker 1: And the apartments he was planning weren't exactly normal apartments either.

235
00:12:54,960 --> 00:12:57,720
Speaker 1: They weren't normal. In fact, they were really creepy and weird.

236
00:12:57,880 --> 00:13:02,040
Speaker 1: He planned, for example, to have a secret wooden shoot

237
00:13:02,160 --> 00:13:04,920
Speaker 1: that would stretch from the second floor to the basement.

238
00:13:05,080 --> 00:13:07,920
Speaker 1: That's unusual, not like a laundry shoot or a trash shoot.

239
00:13:08,760 --> 00:13:11,439
Speaker 1: Just yeah, and he planned to oil the shoot too,

240
00:13:11,760 --> 00:13:15,880
Speaker 1: that's weird. He also wanted another room fitted with a

241
00:13:16,000 --> 00:13:21,679
Speaker 1: large walk in airtight vault that had asbestos coated iron walls.

242
00:13:22,120 --> 00:13:25,240
Speaker 1: Some of the rooms were also designed to be windowless

243
00:13:25,280 --> 00:13:28,520
Speaker 1: and have and to have gas jets installed, the controls

244
00:13:28,520 --> 00:13:31,319
Speaker 1: to which were to be in homes office. There were

245
00:13:31,320 --> 00:13:34,920
Speaker 1: also plans for a hidden staircase or several hidden staircases

246
00:13:34,960 --> 00:13:38,200
Speaker 1: and passageways, and the large basement that it had was

247
00:13:38,240 --> 00:13:42,080
Speaker 1: intended to contain more hidden chambers and a sub basement.

248
00:13:42,640 --> 00:13:46,600
Speaker 1: So Holmes really seemed to like planning this building. It

249
00:13:46,640 --> 00:13:49,680
Speaker 1: was kind of a delight for him, but actually getting

250
00:13:49,679 --> 00:13:53,920
Speaker 1: it built with a really big challenge, because like an architect,

251
00:13:54,080 --> 00:13:57,680
Speaker 1: construction workers could just as easily become familiar with the

252
00:13:57,720 --> 00:14:00,280
Speaker 1: scope of his project. You know, start really, I think

253
00:14:00,480 --> 00:14:04,960
Speaker 1: secret staircases, shoots, airtight vaults, all of that, putting it

254
00:14:05,000 --> 00:14:10,040
Speaker 1: together and make some assumptions. So he wanted to keep

255
00:14:10,080 --> 00:14:13,880
Speaker 1: all of these suspicious details as secret as possible. So

256
00:14:13,960 --> 00:14:16,800
Speaker 1: he addressed this problem just as he had acted like

257
00:14:16,880 --> 00:14:20,160
Speaker 1: his own architect. He acted as his own contractor and

258
00:14:20,280 --> 00:14:24,160
Speaker 1: hired lots of different carpenters and other workmen to come

259
00:14:24,160 --> 00:14:27,320
Speaker 1: in and build little parts of the structure just by

260
00:14:27,360 --> 00:14:30,040
Speaker 1: putting ads in the paper for for guys to come

261
00:14:30,400 --> 00:14:33,040
Speaker 1: help him out, but when the workers would come to

262
00:14:33,080 --> 00:14:35,920
Speaker 1: collect their pay after finishing whatever small project they were

263
00:14:35,920 --> 00:14:39,880
Speaker 1: involved in, he'd act like he was displeased and tell

264
00:14:39,920 --> 00:14:41,800
Speaker 1: them they had done a bad job, even if their

265
00:14:41,840 --> 00:14:46,120
Speaker 1: work was fine, and fire them on the spot. Ironically,

266
00:14:46,280 --> 00:14:50,520
Speaker 1: it fulfilled another demand of Holmes, which was penny pinching.

267
00:14:51,000 --> 00:14:53,360
Speaker 1: It did. It helped him save money, and he was

268
00:14:53,440 --> 00:14:56,400
Speaker 1: able to continuously cycle through different workers so that no

269
00:14:56,520 --> 00:14:58,920
Speaker 1: one person knew the layout of the entire thing. So

270
00:14:59,000 --> 00:15:02,160
Speaker 1: one person would maybe install part of the gas jet

271
00:15:02,280 --> 00:15:05,000
Speaker 1: or something and then be fired, and another person would

272
00:15:05,040 --> 00:15:07,520
Speaker 1: maybe start the wooden shoot, and you know, a third

273
00:15:07,520 --> 00:15:09,640
Speaker 1: person would finish it or something. I mean, and I

274
00:15:09,640 --> 00:15:11,840
Speaker 1: think this is the first part where it surprises me

275
00:15:12,120 --> 00:15:14,880
Speaker 1: that word didn't get out. Not so much that this

276
00:15:14,960 --> 00:15:17,800
Speaker 1: is a really strange construction project that's going on, but

277
00:15:18,280 --> 00:15:21,360
Speaker 1: that don't go work for doctor Holmes because he never

278
00:15:21,400 --> 00:15:24,200
Speaker 1: pays his workers. Yeah, it is surprising that word never

279
00:15:24,240 --> 00:15:27,720
Speaker 1: got out. I guess that's the advantage of hiring individual

280
00:15:27,920 --> 00:15:30,640
Speaker 1: random workers rather than going with a company or a

281
00:15:30,680 --> 00:15:34,640
Speaker 1: group I suppose though. But also he supposedly would test

282
00:15:34,800 --> 00:15:38,680
Speaker 1: certain workers and asked them to do these really deplorable

283
00:15:38,680 --> 00:15:43,160
Speaker 1: things for extra cash. Yes. In his book, Larson mentions

284
00:15:43,200 --> 00:15:48,160
Speaker 1: a particular bricklayer named George Bowman. For example, Holmes apparently

285
00:15:48,200 --> 00:15:50,440
Speaker 1: pointed out a man to Bowman once and asked him

286
00:15:50,480 --> 00:15:53,880
Speaker 1: to drop a stone on the man's head for fifty dollars.

287
00:15:54,320 --> 00:15:56,320
Speaker 1: He said the man was his brother in law and

288
00:15:56,360 --> 00:15:57,960
Speaker 1: that they didn't get along, and that was sort of

289
00:15:57,960 --> 00:16:01,280
Speaker 1: his reasoning for asking Bowman to do this. So it's

290
00:16:01,280 --> 00:16:03,520
Speaker 1: also possible, of course, I mean, we're not sure. It

291
00:16:03,600 --> 00:16:06,880
Speaker 1: might have been that Holmes had an insurance policy on

292
00:16:06,920 --> 00:16:10,000
Speaker 1: the brother in law, the supposed you know, quote unquote

293
00:16:10,080 --> 00:16:12,680
Speaker 1: brother in law, But it might have just been a test,

294
00:16:12,720 --> 00:16:15,640
Speaker 1: as we mentioned. But Bowman ultimately he didn't do it

295
00:16:16,080 --> 00:16:18,400
Speaker 1: and he left the job soon after. But he was

296
00:16:18,840 --> 00:16:22,040
Speaker 1: really creeped out by the situation, but again didn't go

297
00:16:22,160 --> 00:16:24,520
Speaker 1: tell anyone about it. There were a few guys, though,

298
00:16:24,600 --> 00:16:28,560
Speaker 1: who passed these weird tests that Holmes would set up,

299
00:16:28,680 --> 00:16:32,000
Speaker 1: and over time they became his accomplices. One was a

300
00:16:32,040 --> 00:16:36,520
Speaker 1: man named Patrick Quinlan, who ultimately became the caretaker of

301
00:16:36,640 --> 00:16:41,120
Speaker 1: the murder House. Another was Benjamin Pitzell, who was a

302
00:16:41,200 --> 00:16:45,280
Speaker 1: carpenter who Holmes once posted bail for and he becomes

303
00:16:45,280 --> 00:16:47,880
Speaker 1: pretty important later in the story in the second episode.

304
00:16:48,160 --> 00:16:52,920
Speaker 1: So one disadvantage to working this way, to working rotating

305
00:16:52,960 --> 00:16:55,800
Speaker 1: through workers, I guess um and never working with the

306
00:16:55,840 --> 00:16:58,360
Speaker 1: same crew for the for ant extended period of time,

307
00:16:59,080 --> 00:17:02,040
Speaker 1: was that it just was really slow. The whole building

308
00:17:02,040 --> 00:17:05,320
Speaker 1: process was really slow, so homes building took years to complete.

309
00:17:05,560 --> 00:17:08,240
Speaker 1: It was finally done in about May of eighteen nine,

310
00:17:08,520 --> 00:17:11,239
Speaker 1: and Homes sold his drug store across the street, and

311
00:17:11,359 --> 00:17:14,239
Speaker 1: he apparently told the new owner, the person who bought it,

312
00:17:14,280 --> 00:17:16,919
Speaker 1: that he wouldn't have to worry much about competition in

313
00:17:16,960 --> 00:17:19,240
Speaker 1: the area. He'd probably assumed to me, don't worry, I

314
00:17:19,280 --> 00:17:22,080
Speaker 1: won't reopen my drug store. Yes, But of course then

315
00:17:22,160 --> 00:17:24,159
Speaker 1: he went across the street to his new building and

316
00:17:24,200 --> 00:17:27,600
Speaker 1: immediately opened another drug store, so I guess the joke

317
00:17:27,760 --> 00:17:30,760
Speaker 1: was on the new guy. He also opened several other

318
00:17:30,800 --> 00:17:34,000
Speaker 1: businesses on the building's first floor, including a restaurant and

319
00:17:34,080 --> 00:17:36,960
Speaker 1: a barbershop. But we're going to focus more on all

320
00:17:37,040 --> 00:17:40,120
Speaker 1: of those apartments that the second and the third floors

321
00:17:40,160 --> 00:17:44,040
Speaker 1: of Holmes This building. They had about seventy rooms initially,

322
00:17:44,160 --> 00:17:48,199
Speaker 1: but then as talk of the eight World's Fair started

323
00:17:48,200 --> 00:17:50,920
Speaker 1: to heat up, Holmes decided that he wanted to turn

324
00:17:51,040 --> 00:17:54,320
Speaker 1: his building into kind of a hotel for the fair,

325
00:17:54,400 --> 00:17:56,679
Speaker 1: and the Fair at that point was set to be

326
00:17:56,800 --> 00:18:00,520
Speaker 1: located conveniently right down the street from Homes Building, so

327
00:18:00,840 --> 00:18:05,560
Speaker 1: perfect location. Making this change, though from apartments to a

328
00:18:05,600 --> 00:18:08,440
Speaker 1: World's Fair hotel, would not only allow him to get

329
00:18:08,480 --> 00:18:11,760
Speaker 1: a better fire insurance policy, you know Holmes always after

330
00:18:11,880 --> 00:18:15,120
Speaker 1: the best insurance deal, but it would also attract more

331
00:18:15,400 --> 00:18:18,880
Speaker 1: clients to his building. So in eighteen e one, acting

332
00:18:18,960 --> 00:18:23,119
Speaker 1: again as his own architect, he planned the necessary adjustments

333
00:18:23,160 --> 00:18:26,920
Speaker 1: and employed his usual method of rotating through workers so

334
00:18:27,080 --> 00:18:31,040
Speaker 1: no one person would really catch on to the overall

335
00:18:31,160 --> 00:18:34,480
Speaker 1: planned what he was doing. But even though he was

336
00:18:34,480 --> 00:18:38,000
Speaker 1: still managing to keep his labor costs low by constantly

337
00:18:38,080 --> 00:18:41,240
Speaker 1: firing workers, he still needed some more cash to get

338
00:18:41,240 --> 00:18:44,480
Speaker 1: his project completed. So he took advantage of visiting his

339
00:18:44,560 --> 00:18:47,199
Speaker 1: second wife, Murder, who's still living in will met with

340
00:18:47,240 --> 00:18:51,119
Speaker 1: her parents when her rich uncle Jonathan Belknap comes to visit.

341
00:18:51,800 --> 00:18:55,399
Speaker 1: While Belknap is there, Holmes comes and he brings gifts

342
00:18:55,480 --> 00:18:58,200
Speaker 1: for everyone, and he makes this big show of being

343
00:18:58,320 --> 00:19:00,679
Speaker 1: a great husband, even though of course we know that

344
00:19:00,720 --> 00:19:04,920
Speaker 1: he's an absentee husband. Belknap was initially suspicious of Holmes

345
00:19:05,000 --> 00:19:08,600
Speaker 1: because he knew he and Murder had had a rocky relationship,

346
00:19:09,000 --> 00:19:11,520
Speaker 1: but over the course of a few days Holmes does

347
00:19:11,680 --> 00:19:14,560
Speaker 1: manage to win him over a bit. So when Holmes

348
00:19:14,640 --> 00:19:18,000
Speaker 1: later asked him to endorse a note for two thousand,

349
00:19:18,000 --> 00:19:20,679
Speaker 1: five hundred dollars which he claimed he'd used toward a

350
00:19:20,680 --> 00:19:23,880
Speaker 1: new house for him and Murder, Belknap complied, I mean,

351
00:19:23,960 --> 00:19:26,440
Speaker 1: he looks at this and he thinks, hey, maybe them

352
00:19:26,520 --> 00:19:28,520
Speaker 1: living together in their own house will be a good

353
00:19:28,520 --> 00:19:31,000
Speaker 1: thing for their marriage, and finally had his act together.

354
00:19:31,560 --> 00:19:35,000
Speaker 1: Holmes wasn't planning on building a house, though in Casey

355
00:19:35,040 --> 00:19:37,840
Speaker 1: didn't guess that, He went back to Englewood and forged

356
00:19:37,920 --> 00:19:42,040
Speaker 1: belknap signature on a second note to put toward construction

357
00:19:42,160 --> 00:19:44,679
Speaker 1: of his new hotel, and not long after that he

358
00:19:44,880 --> 00:19:49,280
Speaker 1: asked Uncle Belknap himself to come visit Englewood and see

359
00:19:49,359 --> 00:19:53,359
Speaker 1: his building, and Belknap couldn't quite put his finger on

360
00:19:53,480 --> 00:19:57,679
Speaker 1: why that he was really wary about holmes offer. For

361
00:19:57,720 --> 00:20:00,600
Speaker 1: some reason. He didn't want to offend him or offend

362
00:20:00,680 --> 00:20:04,119
Speaker 1: his niece, though, so he agreed to go ahead and

363
00:20:04,560 --> 00:20:07,480
Speaker 1: visit the new place. Once he arrived, he got this

364
00:20:07,640 --> 00:20:10,240
Speaker 1: full tour from Homes of all the shops on the

365
00:20:10,280 --> 00:20:14,720
Speaker 1: first floor and then the rooms upstairs. Belknap didn't really

366
00:20:14,720 --> 00:20:16,600
Speaker 1: have a great impression of the whole thing. He thought

367
00:20:16,640 --> 00:20:19,119
Speaker 1: it was gloomy and weird, which is a sense that

368
00:20:19,160 --> 00:20:24,359
Speaker 1: we'll also get from others who visit this place later. Finally, though,

369
00:20:24,520 --> 00:20:28,160
Speaker 1: Holmes invited Belknap to go on the roof of the building,

370
00:20:28,240 --> 00:20:31,760
Speaker 1: and Belknap just at this point did not feel good

371
00:20:32,119 --> 00:20:34,280
Speaker 1: about this offer at all. Yeah, I mean, part of

372
00:20:34,320 --> 00:20:36,400
Speaker 1: it is he just doesn't really like home still, even

373
00:20:36,400 --> 00:20:39,000
Speaker 1: though he wants to try for the sake of his niece.

374
00:20:39,200 --> 00:20:43,880
Speaker 1: But he also thinks the situation is kind of strange, strange,

375
00:20:44,080 --> 00:20:46,480
Speaker 1: getting stranger by the minute, So he makes an excuse,

376
00:20:46,520 --> 00:20:49,879
Speaker 1: saying that he's too old to take on that number

377
00:20:49,880 --> 00:20:53,040
Speaker 1: of steps, and Homes just keeps trying though, and trying

378
00:20:53,040 --> 00:20:55,560
Speaker 1: to convince some bragging about the view up there and

379
00:20:55,600 --> 00:20:57,439
Speaker 1: so forth, and telling and he can check out the

380
00:20:57,440 --> 00:21:01,680
Speaker 1: construction better from there, but Belknap wouldn't budge. So then

381
00:21:01,840 --> 00:21:05,040
Speaker 1: Holmes invited Belknap to spend the night. He didn't want

382
00:21:05,040 --> 00:21:07,920
Speaker 1: to do this either, um. He finally agreed with him though,

383
00:21:07,960 --> 00:21:10,680
Speaker 1: just because he figured I'm refusing so much, I'm really

384
00:21:10,680 --> 00:21:12,880
Speaker 1: going to offend him at this point. So to keep

385
00:21:12,960 --> 00:21:18,080
Speaker 1: things um just sort of you know exactly, he decides, Okay,

386
00:21:18,119 --> 00:21:21,119
Speaker 1: I'll stay the night. So that night, after Holmes shows

387
00:21:21,160 --> 00:21:24,240
Speaker 1: him to his room on the second floor, Belknap locks

388
00:21:24,240 --> 00:21:27,360
Speaker 1: his door. He still has that sort of uneasy feeling,

389
00:21:27,760 --> 00:21:30,919
Speaker 1: and after what happens later on, we find out that

390
00:21:30,960 --> 00:21:34,600
Speaker 1: he'll be really glad that he did that. So that's

391
00:21:34,600 --> 00:21:37,600
Speaker 1: it for part one of this podcast. But next time,

392
00:21:38,000 --> 00:21:40,680
Speaker 1: of course, we're gonna see what happens with Belknap's fate.

393
00:21:40,920 --> 00:21:43,280
Speaker 1: But of course we're going to check out some more

394
00:21:43,280 --> 00:21:46,560
Speaker 1: details also on holmes reign of terror during the World's Fair,

395
00:21:47,000 --> 00:21:50,560
Speaker 1: his eventual flight from Chicago, and we're going to discuss

396
00:21:50,600 --> 00:21:53,679
Speaker 1: how he ultimately gets caught, which is an interesting story

397
00:21:53,720 --> 00:21:56,680
Speaker 1: in itself, and the fate of the Murder Caspital too.

398
00:21:56,800 --> 00:21:59,359
Speaker 1: Don't forget that. Oh yeah, I mean, the Murder Castle

399
00:21:59,480 --> 00:22:03,600
Speaker 1: is like a character in itself and this whole story,

400
00:22:03,760 --> 00:22:07,400
Speaker 1: so we will absolutely find out what happens with that.

401
00:22:08,040 --> 00:22:11,200
Speaker 1: Until then, though, you'll have to enjoy some listener mail.

402
00:22:15,240 --> 00:22:18,119
Speaker 1: So we have an awesome postcard here from listener Lana,

403
00:22:18,640 --> 00:22:21,720
Speaker 1: and she says, Sarah, Deblena, I adore your podcast and

404
00:22:21,760 --> 00:22:23,920
Speaker 1: it came in handy on my recent trip to Prague,

405
00:22:24,000 --> 00:22:26,560
Speaker 1: where I came upon the grave of Chico bra Hay.

406
00:22:26,600 --> 00:22:28,879
Speaker 1: Thanks to your expertise, I was able to provide my

407
00:22:28,960 --> 00:22:31,600
Speaker 1: friends with tales of his drunk moose as well as

408
00:22:31,600 --> 00:22:34,919
Speaker 1: his metal nose. And in parentheses, she says, his relief

409
00:22:34,960 --> 00:22:37,439
Speaker 1: has a line at the nose to mark the prosthetic.

410
00:22:37,920 --> 00:22:40,240
Speaker 1: Keep up the great work, all the best. So her

411
00:22:40,240 --> 00:22:43,399
Speaker 1: postcard is a is a photo of his monument. And

412
00:22:43,720 --> 00:22:46,080
Speaker 1: I think Deblena and I looked pretty close. We were

413
00:22:46,119 --> 00:22:48,320
Speaker 1: trying to see the line, but I think it's something

414
00:22:48,320 --> 00:22:50,200
Speaker 1: you must have to be there in person. I can't.

415
00:22:50,240 --> 00:22:51,760
Speaker 1: I've been staring at it a while and now I

416
00:22:51,800 --> 00:22:53,200
Speaker 1: feel like I can see it, But I think I

417
00:22:53,280 --> 00:22:55,639
Speaker 1: might be just making it up in my head. I

418
00:22:55,640 --> 00:22:58,679
Speaker 1: don't know. Yeah, maybe maybe we should look around the

419
00:22:58,680 --> 00:23:01,440
Speaker 1: office for a magnifying awesome and see if we can

420
00:23:01,440 --> 00:23:04,160
Speaker 1: tell check it out. Oh, I trust Laana, So thank

421
00:23:04,200 --> 00:23:07,119
Speaker 1: you Lana. And that's the that's another good fact for

422
00:23:07,200 --> 00:23:09,480
Speaker 1: us to know about Tica, that the nose is even

423
00:23:09,520 --> 00:23:12,280
Speaker 1: on his tomb Indeed, and if you want to share

424
00:23:12,320 --> 00:23:15,320
Speaker 1: any details of your own travels with us or send

425
00:23:15,359 --> 00:23:19,000
Speaker 1: us some ideas for future podcasts, please write us or

426
00:23:19,160 --> 00:23:21,520
Speaker 1: History podcast at house to Works dot com, where you

427
00:23:21,560 --> 00:23:24,000
Speaker 1: can also find us on Facebook or on Twitter in

428
00:23:24,040 --> 00:23:26,480
Speaker 1: this in history and if you want to learn more

429
00:23:26,600 --> 00:23:30,639
Speaker 1: about other kind of creepy houses, potentially cool houses, they

430
00:23:30,680 --> 00:23:33,159
Speaker 1: don't all have to be murder castles. We do have

431
00:23:33,240 --> 00:23:38,320
Speaker 1: an article on eccentric homes with hidden passageways, so be

432
00:23:38,400 --> 00:23:41,560
Speaker 1: sure to check that out by searching for centric comes

433
00:23:41,600 --> 00:23:45,520
Speaker 1: with Hidden Passageways on our homepage at www dot house

434
00:23:45,520 --> 00:23:51,879
Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. Be sure to check out our

435
00:23:51,880 --> 00:23:55,159
Speaker 1: new video podcast, Stuff from the Future. Join House to

436
00:23:55,240 --> 00:23:58,199
Speaker 1: Work staff as we explore the most promising and perplexing

437
00:23:58,280 --> 00:24:02,680
Speaker 1: possibilities of tomorrow. The Househuffork's iPhone app has a ride.

438
00:24:02,800 --> 00:24:04,680
Speaker 1: Download it today on iTunes