1 00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:03,640 Speaker 1: Hey, y'all, Eve's here. Today's episode contains not just one, 2 00:00:03,880 --> 00:00:06,720 Speaker 1: but two nuggets of history. These are coming from the 3 00:00:06,760 --> 00:00:09,200 Speaker 1: T D I h C Vault, so you'll also here 4 00:00:09,240 --> 00:00:12,280 Speaker 1: two hosts. Consider it a double feature. Enjoy the show. 5 00:00:13,760 --> 00:00:16,200 Speaker 1: Welcome to this Day in History Class from how Stuff 6 00:00:16,239 --> 00:00:18,400 Speaker 1: Works dot com and from the desk of Stuff you 7 00:00:18,440 --> 00:00:20,880 Speaker 1: Missed in History Class. It's the show where we explore 8 00:00:20,920 --> 00:00:23,079 Speaker 1: the past one day at a time with a quick 9 00:00:23,079 --> 00:00:30,240 Speaker 1: look at what happened today in history. Hello and welcome 10 00:00:30,240 --> 00:00:35,400 Speaker 1: to the podcast. I'm Tracy B. Wilson and it's November. H. H. 11 00:00:35,400 --> 00:00:39,519 Speaker 1: Holmes was arrested on this day in eight You probably 12 00:00:39,560 --> 00:00:41,800 Speaker 1: have heard of H. H. Holmes. He was the one 13 00:00:41,880 --> 00:00:45,600 Speaker 1: with the murder Castle. Sometimes he's described as being the 14 00:00:45,640 --> 00:00:48,239 Speaker 1: first serial killer in the United States, but really the 15 00:00:48,360 --> 00:00:52,400 Speaker 1: same could be said of other killers as well. He 16 00:00:52,479 --> 00:00:55,640 Speaker 1: was born Herman W. Mudget in New Hampshire on May 17 00:00:55,680 --> 00:01:00,200 Speaker 1: sixteenth of eighteen sixty one. His parents were very picked 18 00:01:00,280 --> 00:01:03,280 Speaker 1: and in many ways abusive, and his only childhood friend, 19 00:01:03,320 --> 00:01:06,200 Speaker 1: a boy named Tom, died in a fall while they 20 00:01:06,200 --> 00:01:10,679 Speaker 1: were playing in an abandoned house. At that time, this 21 00:01:10,800 --> 00:01:14,000 Speaker 1: was determined to be an accident, but there are people 22 00:01:14,000 --> 00:01:17,440 Speaker 1: who think this might have been his first victim. He 23 00:01:17,560 --> 00:01:21,200 Speaker 1: got married in eighteen seventy eight, although he eventually left 24 00:01:21,280 --> 00:01:24,520 Speaker 1: his wife, but stay legally married, and he started studying 25 00:01:24,560 --> 00:01:27,120 Speaker 1: medicine at the University of Vermont when he was nineteen. 26 00:01:27,920 --> 00:01:31,000 Speaker 1: He was not a great student in medical school, but 27 00:01:31,200 --> 00:01:34,120 Speaker 1: he did start up some crime while he was there. 28 00:01:34,200 --> 00:01:38,160 Speaker 1: He started using the school's cadavers to commit insurance fraud. 29 00:01:38,640 --> 00:01:41,520 Speaker 1: He would take out insurance policies on them as though 30 00:01:41,560 --> 00:01:44,720 Speaker 1: they were his family members, and then stage fake accidents 31 00:01:44,800 --> 00:01:48,480 Speaker 1: with their bodies to collect on it. It's not totally 32 00:01:48,480 --> 00:01:52,440 Speaker 1: clear whether he graduated from medical school or not, but 33 00:01:52,600 --> 00:01:55,960 Speaker 1: a child died after getting medicine from the drug store 34 00:01:56,000 --> 00:01:59,040 Speaker 1: where he worked, so he left and went to Chicago, 35 00:01:59,160 --> 00:02:01,880 Speaker 1: and that is where he's going. By the name H. H. Holmes. 36 00:02:02,800 --> 00:02:05,280 Speaker 1: He took over a drug store in Chicago that was 37 00:02:05,320 --> 00:02:08,359 Speaker 1: owned by a Mrs Holton. He bought it from her 38 00:02:08,400 --> 00:02:12,320 Speaker 1: after her husband died. Except he got the money to 39 00:02:12,400 --> 00:02:16,079 Speaker 1: buy the drug store by mortgaging what was in the 40 00:02:16,160 --> 00:02:20,880 Speaker 1: drug store before he actually owned it. He also stopped 41 00:02:20,919 --> 00:02:23,440 Speaker 1: making payments on his purchase of the store, and Mrs 42 00:02:23,440 --> 00:02:28,600 Speaker 1: Holton sued him before mysteriously disappearing. He told other people 43 00:02:28,720 --> 00:02:32,320 Speaker 1: that she moved, but couldn't give a Florarding address. He 44 00:02:32,400 --> 00:02:35,120 Speaker 1: got married again in seven even though he was still 45 00:02:35,160 --> 00:02:38,200 Speaker 1: married from before, and his new wife eventually left him 46 00:02:38,240 --> 00:02:41,160 Speaker 1: to give birth to their daughter, staying with her parents 47 00:02:41,200 --> 00:02:46,399 Speaker 1: after the baby was born. Then Herman Budget, now known 48 00:02:46,440 --> 00:02:49,440 Speaker 1: as eight H. Holmes bought some land and started building 49 00:02:49,800 --> 00:02:53,000 Speaker 1: his murder Castle. He was making it to be a 50 00:02:53,120 --> 00:02:56,560 Speaker 1: very good place to murder people. There were secret shoots 51 00:02:56,600 --> 00:03:01,400 Speaker 1: that went into the basement, an airtight vault, windowless rooms 52 00:03:01,520 --> 00:03:04,320 Speaker 1: with gas jets in them, with the controls to the 53 00:03:04,360 --> 00:03:07,720 Speaker 1: gas jets being in his office. There were also hidden 54 00:03:07,880 --> 00:03:10,600 Speaker 1: passages and to cover up what he was doing, because 55 00:03:10,639 --> 00:03:13,400 Speaker 1: this would probably seem really suspicious if you were the 56 00:03:13,480 --> 00:03:16,880 Speaker 1: lead contractor on this project. He worked with a whole 57 00:03:17,040 --> 00:03:20,560 Speaker 1: rotating series of carpenters and contractors, and he fired them 58 00:03:20,600 --> 00:03:23,200 Speaker 1: one after the other so that no one person had 59 00:03:23,240 --> 00:03:25,680 Speaker 1: a total sense of what this whole structure was going 60 00:03:25,720 --> 00:03:29,120 Speaker 1: to be like. He finished the Murder Castle in May 61 00:03:29,160 --> 00:03:31,720 Speaker 1: of eighteen ninety and at that point people were starting 62 00:03:31,760 --> 00:03:36,640 Speaker 1: to get excited for the Chicago World's Fair, so in 63 00:03:36,760 --> 00:03:39,720 Speaker 1: anticipation of that, he re outfitted his murder castle to 64 00:03:39,800 --> 00:03:42,680 Speaker 1: be a hotel while continuing to also run the drug store. 65 00:03:43,840 --> 00:03:47,000 Speaker 1: The hotel opened long before the World's Fare arrived, and 66 00:03:47,160 --> 00:03:50,000 Speaker 1: many of his employees, a lot of them young women, 67 00:03:50,120 --> 00:03:55,560 Speaker 1: started mysteriously disappearing. There was also a series of women 68 00:03:55,600 --> 00:03:58,560 Speaker 1: that he courted and in some cases became engaged to, 69 00:03:59,000 --> 00:04:03,360 Speaker 1: who also disappeared. So did a woman named Julia Conner. 70 00:04:03,480 --> 00:04:06,080 Speaker 1: He was the estranged wife of a man that Holmes 71 00:04:06,120 --> 00:04:08,280 Speaker 1: agreed to sell the drug store to, and when she 72 00:04:08,360 --> 00:04:13,160 Speaker 1: disappeared she was pregnant. Then, during the actual World's Fair, 73 00:04:13,440 --> 00:04:17,000 Speaker 1: he started selectively allowing women to stay in the hotel. 74 00:04:17,040 --> 00:04:19,039 Speaker 1: When a man came to rent a room, he would 75 00:04:19,040 --> 00:04:20,799 Speaker 1: say they were all booked up, but when a woman 76 00:04:20,880 --> 00:04:24,680 Speaker 1: came there was a room available for her. By this point, though, 77 00:04:24,760 --> 00:04:27,120 Speaker 1: he had started to get the attention of the authorities. 78 00:04:27,240 --> 00:04:29,880 Speaker 1: Some of this was because creditors had brought up the 79 00:04:29,880 --> 00:04:32,920 Speaker 1: fact that he had not paid them their money back. Also, 80 00:04:32,960 --> 00:04:36,320 Speaker 1: the families of these missing women had said, hey, they 81 00:04:36,320 --> 00:04:40,119 Speaker 1: were working for this guy named h. Holmes. He set 82 00:04:40,240 --> 00:04:44,480 Speaker 1: fire to the building, hoping to collect insurance, but failed. 83 00:04:45,200 --> 00:04:48,840 Speaker 1: He fled Chicago. He spent some time in jail for fraud, 84 00:04:48,920 --> 00:04:51,240 Speaker 1: and while he was in jail, he confessed some of 85 00:04:51,320 --> 00:04:55,200 Speaker 1: his fraud to another prisoner. After his release, that prisoner 86 00:04:55,279 --> 00:04:59,560 Speaker 1: alerted Fidelity Mutual Life Insurance Company about Holmes's crimes because 87 00:04:59,560 --> 00:05:01,960 Speaker 1: Holmes was supposed to pay him five hundred dollars and 88 00:05:02,000 --> 00:05:05,800 Speaker 1: did not do it. So when Holmes was finally arrested 89 00:05:05,800 --> 00:05:10,200 Speaker 1: on November seventeenth, eighteen ninety four, it was for insurance fraud, 90 00:05:10,560 --> 00:05:14,120 Speaker 1: not murder. He was finally connected to some of these murders, 91 00:05:14,120 --> 00:05:16,760 Speaker 1: though after he was arrested he was put on trial. 92 00:05:17,080 --> 00:05:19,960 Speaker 1: He was hanged on May seventh of eighteen ninety six. 93 00:05:20,600 --> 00:05:23,640 Speaker 1: There are, though, folks who insisted that he faked his 94 00:05:23,720 --> 00:05:26,640 Speaker 1: own death and that someone else was buried in his grave. 95 00:05:27,160 --> 00:05:31,200 Speaker 1: DNA tests have since concluded, though, that those remains really 96 00:05:31,240 --> 00:05:35,400 Speaker 1: did belong to him. We do not know his total 97 00:05:35,480 --> 00:05:38,960 Speaker 1: death count, in part because the Murder Castle was destroyed 98 00:05:38,960 --> 00:05:43,960 Speaker 1: in a mysterious fire on August eighty five. You can 99 00:05:44,040 --> 00:05:47,880 Speaker 1: learn more about all this on the January twelve episodes 100 00:05:47,920 --> 00:05:50,520 Speaker 1: of Stuff You Miss in History Class. Thanks to Casey P. 101 00:05:50,640 --> 00:05:52,960 Speaker 1: Graham and Chandler Mays for their audio work on the show, 102 00:05:53,040 --> 00:05:55,039 Speaker 1: and you can subscribe to the Day in History Class 103 00:05:55,040 --> 00:05:58,080 Speaker 1: on Apple Podcast, Google podcast, wherever rail to get your podcasts, 104 00:05:58,080 --> 00:06:00,280 Speaker 1: and you can tune in tomorrow for a landmark in 105 00:06:00,320 --> 00:06:11,400 Speaker 1: the world of film. Hello. Hello again, I'm Eves and 106 00:06:11,440 --> 00:06:14,400 Speaker 1: you're listening to this Day in History class, where we 107 00:06:14,480 --> 00:06:25,280 Speaker 1: examine the past from the present. The day was November 108 00:06:25,360 --> 00:06:30,120 Speaker 1: sev nineteen o three. Mary Alice Nelson, also known as 109 00:06:30,160 --> 00:06:32,960 Speaker 1: Molly Spotted Elk, was born on the panop Scott Indian 110 00:06:33,000 --> 00:06:38,040 Speaker 1: Island Reservation in Maine. Molly was a dancer, actress, and writer. 111 00:06:39,200 --> 00:06:42,560 Speaker 1: The panop Scott Reservation was near Old Town, Maine. The 112 00:06:42,600 --> 00:06:46,040 Speaker 1: panops Got are people's indigenous to the northeastern United States 113 00:06:46,120 --> 00:06:50,640 Speaker 1: and Maritime Canada. They are a federally recognized tribe in 114 00:06:50,720 --> 00:06:55,240 Speaker 1: Maine and are part of the Wabanaki Confederacy. Traditionally, their 115 00:06:55,279 --> 00:06:59,240 Speaker 1: subsistence was rooted in hunting, fishing, and collecting wild plants. 116 00:06:59,720 --> 00:07:04,000 Speaker 1: They moved seasonally to have access to food, but, as 117 00:07:04,040 --> 00:07:07,520 Speaker 1: with other indigenous peoples in North America, life changed for 118 00:07:07,560 --> 00:07:11,600 Speaker 1: the panop Scott when Europeans arrived on the continent. Disease 119 00:07:11,640 --> 00:07:15,680 Speaker 1: reduced their population and Europeans dispossessed them of their land. 120 00:07:16,800 --> 00:07:20,240 Speaker 1: By the time Molly was born, tourism and entertainment were 121 00:07:20,280 --> 00:07:24,239 Speaker 1: a big part of the pop Scot economy. Molly Dellis 122 00:07:24,360 --> 00:07:27,520 Speaker 1: was the name that her parents called her. Her mother 123 00:07:27,680 --> 00:07:31,160 Speaker 1: was a basket maker and practiced traditional medicine, and her 124 00:07:31,200 --> 00:07:34,640 Speaker 1: father was a political leader. He was also the first 125 00:07:34,640 --> 00:07:37,840 Speaker 1: pop Scott to attend Dartmouth College, and both of her 126 00:07:37,840 --> 00:07:42,520 Speaker 1: grandfather's had been tribal leaders. Molly had seven younger siblings 127 00:07:42,560 --> 00:07:45,760 Speaker 1: whom she helped raise. She and her siblings sold their 128 00:07:45,760 --> 00:07:49,880 Speaker 1: mother's baskets in tourist towns, and Molly learned traditional dances 129 00:07:49,920 --> 00:07:53,920 Speaker 1: to help support her family. Tourists often gave panop Scott 130 00:07:54,000 --> 00:07:58,920 Speaker 1: children changed to dance. Molly enjoyed dancing, and she took 131 00:07:59,000 --> 00:08:02,040 Speaker 1: jobs cleaning how Is so she could afford ballet lessons 132 00:08:02,080 --> 00:08:05,920 Speaker 1: in Bangor. When she was thirteen years old, she completed 133 00:08:05,920 --> 00:08:09,160 Speaker 1: her last year at old Town Junior High and over 134 00:08:09,200 --> 00:08:12,320 Speaker 1: the next few years she worked as a governess, joined 135 00:08:12,360 --> 00:08:15,240 Speaker 1: a vaudeville company, and worked as a counselor at a 136 00:08:15,240 --> 00:08:18,760 Speaker 1: summer camp for girls. She was in and out of 137 00:08:18,840 --> 00:08:21,720 Speaker 1: high school over the years, but after going to live 138 00:08:21,760 --> 00:08:25,720 Speaker 1: with Frank Speck, a University of Pennsylvania anthropologist. She was 139 00:08:25,760 --> 00:08:29,560 Speaker 1: able to go to Swarthmore Preparatory School and audit classes 140 00:08:29,800 --> 00:08:33,920 Speaker 1: at the University of Pennsylvania. She contributed to spec study 141 00:08:33,920 --> 00:08:37,400 Speaker 1: of the Panop Scott called Pannop Scott Man The Life 142 00:08:37,400 --> 00:08:41,520 Speaker 1: of a Fourth Tribe in Maine. It's not entirely clear 143 00:08:41,559 --> 00:08:44,760 Speaker 1: whether she graduated from the university, but when she left 144 00:08:44,840 --> 00:08:47,960 Speaker 1: she joined an Old West show, touring the country and 145 00:08:48,000 --> 00:08:51,480 Speaker 1: working at a ranch in Oklahoma. It was around this 146 00:08:51,559 --> 00:08:54,640 Speaker 1: time when she started going by the name Molly Spotted Elks, 147 00:08:55,720 --> 00:08:59,200 Speaker 1: but soon Molly turned back to dancing. To gain notoriety 148 00:08:59,240 --> 00:09:02,840 Speaker 1: and success, she moved to New York, saying that once 149 00:09:02,880 --> 00:09:05,400 Speaker 1: she became famous, her mother would no longer have to 150 00:09:05,440 --> 00:09:09,640 Speaker 1: make baskets. There, she worked as a nude model for artists, 151 00:09:09,800 --> 00:09:13,400 Speaker 1: gave dance lessons in modeled footwear. All the while, she 152 00:09:13,480 --> 00:09:16,160 Speaker 1: saved money for school, sent money back to her mom, 153 00:09:16,200 --> 00:09:20,040 Speaker 1: and read a lot. She joined the Foster Girls chorus 154 00:09:20,080 --> 00:09:22,480 Speaker 1: Line and worked with an all Native American troupe that 155 00:09:22,559 --> 00:09:26,360 Speaker 1: performed on the Keith Albie Vaudeville circuit. Between shows, she 156 00:09:26,400 --> 00:09:31,400 Speaker 1: wrote poetry and stories. Eventually she began doing solo performances, 157 00:09:31,800 --> 00:09:35,960 Speaker 1: mixing traditional Indigenous dances with contemporary ones like the Charleston 158 00:09:36,120 --> 00:09:40,640 Speaker 1: and the Black Bottom In. Molly landed a big role 159 00:09:40,640 --> 00:09:43,800 Speaker 1: in the silent film The Silent Enemy, which was released 160 00:09:43,840 --> 00:09:46,640 Speaker 1: in nineteen thirty, but it wasn't as big of a 161 00:09:46,679 --> 00:09:49,000 Speaker 1: financial hit as she hoped it would be, and it 162 00:09:49,040 --> 00:09:51,200 Speaker 1: didn't make her a huge star, even though it helped 163 00:09:51,200 --> 00:09:54,520 Speaker 1: her buy her family a new house. The year after 164 00:09:54,559 --> 00:09:56,880 Speaker 1: the film was released, she went to France as a 165 00:09:56,920 --> 00:09:59,959 Speaker 1: part of the ballet core of the International Colonial Exposition 166 00:10:00,000 --> 00:10:02,800 Speaker 1: and part of a Native American jazz band called the 167 00:10:02,880 --> 00:10:06,880 Speaker 1: United States Indian Band. She stayed in Paris for a while, 168 00:10:07,040 --> 00:10:10,520 Speaker 1: working with anthropologists, attending lectures at the Sorbonne, and she 169 00:10:10,600 --> 00:10:14,960 Speaker 1: taught ballet there. She met John Aschambeaux, whom she later married. 170 00:10:16,000 --> 00:10:18,600 Speaker 1: After the Great Depression hit and the couple had trouble 171 00:10:18,720 --> 00:10:22,200 Speaker 1: keeping work, a pregnant Molly moved to the United States 172 00:10:22,200 --> 00:10:26,040 Speaker 1: without John. She had her daughter there, and she landed 173 00:10:26,120 --> 00:10:30,079 Speaker 1: roles in several Hollywood films, including Last of the Mohicans 174 00:10:30,120 --> 00:10:33,920 Speaker 1: and the Charge of the Light Brigade. In nineteen thirty eight, 175 00:10:34,040 --> 00:10:36,400 Speaker 1: she and her daughter went back to Paris to reunite 176 00:10:36,400 --> 00:10:40,360 Speaker 1: with John, but her family's time there was turbulent. Work 177 00:10:40,440 --> 00:10:43,480 Speaker 1: was scarce. Her second child died as an infant in 178 00:10:43,559 --> 00:10:47,000 Speaker 1: World War Two was beginning. Molly went back to the 179 00:10:47,080 --> 00:10:49,960 Speaker 1: US and got a job dancing and maintaining costumes for 180 00:10:49,960 --> 00:10:53,280 Speaker 1: a touring company, but her husband's health was declining, and 181 00:10:53,320 --> 00:10:57,439 Speaker 1: he died in October of nineteen forty one. In the States, 182 00:10:57,480 --> 00:11:00,520 Speaker 1: Molly went back and forth between Indian Island New York 183 00:11:00,640 --> 00:11:04,959 Speaker 1: taking small jobs. She spent time in a mental institution, 184 00:11:05,120 --> 00:11:08,600 Speaker 1: and she wrote stories and made dolls. By the early 185 00:11:08,679 --> 00:11:12,000 Speaker 1: nineteen fifties, she had settled in Indian Island, where she 186 00:11:12,080 --> 00:11:15,400 Speaker 1: remained for the rest of her life. She died in 187 00:11:15,480 --> 00:11:20,000 Speaker 1: nineteen seventy seven. Molly left behind her diaries, a book 188 00:11:20,000 --> 00:11:22,920 Speaker 1: of traditional panop Scott stories, and the Dictionary of the 189 00:11:22,960 --> 00:11:26,880 Speaker 1: panop Scott Language. I'm Eve Jeff Coote, and hopefully you 190 00:11:26,920 --> 00:11:30,200 Speaker 1: know a little more about history today than you did yesterday. 191 00:11:30,640 --> 00:11:32,560 Speaker 1: To learn more about Molly, you can listen to the 192 00:11:32,559 --> 00:11:35,280 Speaker 1: episode of Stuff you missed in history class called Mary 193 00:11:35,320 --> 00:11:38,680 Speaker 1: Alice Nelson a k A Molly Spotted Elk. The link 194 00:11:38,760 --> 00:11:42,000 Speaker 1: is in the description. I want to impress your Internet crush, 195 00:11:42,360 --> 00:11:45,360 Speaker 1: show them your history smarts by sharing something you learned 196 00:11:45,360 --> 00:11:48,079 Speaker 1: on the show. Don't forget to tag us at t 197 00:11:48,600 --> 00:11:52,960 Speaker 1: d i h C Podcast, or you can go the 198 00:11:52,960 --> 00:11:55,680 Speaker 1: old fashioned route and send us an email at this 199 00:11:55,800 --> 00:12:00,280 Speaker 1: Day at I heart media dot com. Thanks again for listenning, 200 00:12:00,320 --> 00:12:06,560 Speaker 1: and we'll see you again tomorrow MHM.