Law ’n History: Dr. Holmes and Mr. Hyde

By R. Marc Kantrowitz

He was a catch. Handsome, of medium height and build, dapper in appearance and dress, exuding wealth. A doctor no less and young, in his later 20s, and with an affable manner that no one, neither man nor woman, could resist. When he focused his attention on you, it was as if you were the only person in the room. At least that’s what his innumerable murder victims thought.

Herman Mudgett grew up in a joyless environment on a farm in New Hampshire. A good student, he ultimately wound up in medical school in Michigan. Within a few years, he was in Chicago, after having made money scamming life insurance companies by faking the deaths of insured cohorts. En route to his new home, he read about a great detective in England, Sherlock Holmes.

It was a hot day in August 1886 when the nattily dressed H.H. Holmes, nee Herman Mudgett, stepped off his train in south Chicago. Ambling down 63rd and Wallace, he noticed a pharmacy, Holton Drugs. Soon he owned the business, signed over to him by its elderly owner, who shortly thereafter disappeared.

‘The Castle’

The newly named H.H. Holmes Pharmacy ran swimmingly. Patrons, especially younger women, overran the store. As the money flowed in, Holmes turned to his next grand adventure. Using a false name — he never intended to pay any of his creditors — he purchased the large empty lot across the street and built a mammoth structure, shortchanging all but a few who worked for him. Those few included the alcoholic Benjamin Pitezel, who was married with five children, and Charlie Chappell, who was most handy with a knife.

The first floor of the Castle, as it came to be known, housed various retail establishments. The 36 rooms on the third floor served as a hotel, bringing in the many young women Holmes craved. It was the forbidding second floor where many met their fate. An amalgam of oddly twisted and mysterious and hidden rooms, 35 in all, snaked through six corridors. There were dark rooms, a hanging room, a death room and, the piece de resistance, a gas chamber with a nearby shaft in which bodies were sent hurtling to the basement.

Once there, an assortment of devices laid in wait as Holmes decided the manner in which to dispose of his latest victim. Would he cremate her? Slowly and meticulously dissect her? Or merely chop her up and causally toss the remains into a lime pit.

Ned Conner, his wife Julia and their 8-year-old daughter, Pearl, had moved to Chicago and found work in Holmes Pharmacy. Ned admired the charismatic Holmes, while Julia simply craved him. Soon, Ned was divorced.

Christmas killing

When Julia announced she was pregnant and that they would have to marry, Holmes appeared overjoyed. However, he declared, having a child under these scandalous circumstances was out of the question. An abortion, at his skilled hands, was their only option.

On Christmas Eve, in the Castle, Holmes administered the chloroform that he always kept in large quantities. Soon Julia drifted off, reassured by the soothing words of her soon-to-be husband that all was well and they and young Pearl would joyfully celebrate Christmas.

As a holiday-spirited Holmes calmly explained that Julia and her daughter had left town to attend a family function, he awaited the arrival of Charlie Chappell, his former laborer, whom he had summonsed. When Chappell, who had mastered the ability to strip flesh from bone, arrived, the two ventured to the basement. The dissection Holmes had earlier started was masterly completed. So much so that a local medical school jumped at the opportunity to purchase the pristine skeleton of what had once been Julia Conner.

As for Pearl, Holmes had earlier tossed her butchered remains into the lime pit.

Women innocently ventured in and then violently left Holmes’ life. Emeline Cigrand, a lovely 24-year-old blonde employee, disappeared as did both Minnie Williams and her sister Anna. Prior to killing the short, plump and bland Minnie, Holmes conned her out of her very attractive inheritance.

With the opening of the World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago’s world’s fair, many guests, women mainly, stayed in the conveniently located Castle. Many never returned home.

In the end, the pressures mounted. Too many creditors and relatives of the missing were now asking too many questions. Holmes fled, taking Pitezel with him.

Soon, an old life insurance scam was resurrected. They’d insure Pitezel and then fake his death. Pitezel’s wife was in on the deed. Holmes added a twist. Why get a body that looked like Pitezel’s when he could merely kill Pitezel and use his? And to add to his pleasure, why not kill three of Pitezel’s young children along the way?

Epilogue

Holmes now had gone too far. Through the cunning of a dedicated police detective, the crimes were solved. The naked bodies of Alice Pitezel, 15, and Nellie Pitezel, 11, were found buried in a basement in Toronto. Three months later, the mutilated body of Howard Pitezel, 8, was found stuffed in an Indianapolis fireplace.

Repulsed and reviled by a nation that closely followed his notorious trial, Holmes was mourned by few when he was hanged for Benjamin Pitezel’s murder. Earlier, he admitted to having killed 27 people. The number was probably far greater. Of those who did miss him were his prison guards, who had found the glib and model prisoner to be irresistibly charming.

Marc Kantrowitz is a former prosecutor, defense attorney and trial court and appellate judge. He can be reached at [email protected].