Harman Mudgett Webster who was also referred to as Dr. Henry Holmes, is widely known to be the greatest serial killer. During his time in 1893, Holmes murdered around twenty seven women through the world’s explosion that took place in Colombia. Apart from murder, Webster also found his enjoyment in torturing and also mutilation in extreme ways those who fall for his trap. Just like other serial killers, during his childhood, Holmes was subjected to abuses both physically and mentally, he suffered cruelty to animals and also he found it difficult to interact with other peers. Webster had no specific seasons for performing crime therefore he carried out crime all through. He was engaged in naïve women swindling, fraud that had been insured, and also murdering just to mention but a few.
Herman was born on sixteenth of May 1861, in the city of Gilmanton located in the New Hampshire. Furthermore, it is believed that Holmes was born in a wealthy family, where he enjoyed his childhood with a lot of privileges and he was an extra intelligent child when he was young. Gilmanton was smallin size and was located in the concord north about twenty miles away. His year of birth bad found verification in the new birth Hampshire and the index of christenings. His parents were Methodists who were devoted therefore a lot of obedience was demanded from him. Alongside being married and a mother, Howard’s mother was also a teacher in a certain school. According to descriptions, the mother was a distant and cold individual was always used the religion in guiding her family especially her children. Furthermore, his father being a drunkard, was strict in giving discipline which in most cases resulted in physical torture and abuse. However, despite of all there, he showed signs of being a serial killer (Jenkins " Philip 378). During his early age, he showed a lot of interest in studying medicine which later facilitated his animal surgery practice. According to some sources, it is said that Holmes was counted responsible for the death of his own friend.
Sources state that Holmes received physical abuses and mental abuses from both his parents, especially from his father following his nature of being alcoholic. Examples of punishment that he was forced to encounter were thorough beatings, food deprivation and at sometimes prolonged isolation from his parents. Shockingly, his further would squeeze kerosene filled rags in the mouth of his children including Holmes especially when they cried as a way of shutting them. Whenever he was literally abused, Holmes would ran into the forest in search of refuge which was located near his home. While in the forest, he began to develop fascinating deviant of different thing which were dead or alive (Jenkins " Philip 379).
Jenkins and Philip (378) explains that there are possibilities that the Holmes who was known to be highly intelligent and a loner, made him become traumatized due to abuses which later made him unable to form any positive and healthy relationships. The abuses he received may also be the reasons for his uncontrollable lies, abusing others and even swindling. According to researches, those individuals who turn out to become serial killers are believed to have suffered abuses in their childhood life six times compared to the general population. Furthermore, Holmes not only got abuses from his parents but also he used to be bullied while in school by his fellow students due to high great performance and also following his odd that were slightly demeanor. An example of school abuses was when he was blindly forced by his classmates to enter the office of the doctor, and then the skeleton’s hands were place all over his face. The above action however was the source of his interest in anatomy and made him pursue a medical degree in the Michigan University.
Following his argue for animal experimentation he failed throughout his youth life to subdue. Near his childhood home, Holmes came across creatures from woodland on which he started carrying out dissection in exploring their biology. He started by dissecting reptiles and later he moved on to rabbits which are mammals. The operation not only provided Holmes with the cutting of skin skills but also facilitated his psychology with the urge of obsessing to the anatomy of human beings in his later days (Jenkins " Philip 380).
Jenkins and Philip (380) further points out that he was to some people referred to as the Chicago beast. He was known to have murdered twenty to two hundred people. Herman took his victims to house that had been constructed and was given the name murder castle, where he would brutally murder them. Henry Holmes began his crime life with little frauds and tricks. Since he was a medical student at the Michigan University, he had a clean opportunity of stealing dead bodies which he used to threaten the corpse family in order to collect cash from them. At sometimes, he used the dead bodies in carrying out his own personal interest experiments.
After moving to Chicago in the year 1885, Holmes by use of his tricks and unsuspected lies found a job as a pharmacist and there he was referred to as doctor. Later own, rumors went around that he had killed the original owner of the hospital and took the place of being the owner. He went ahead and built a three story building near the hospital whose main aim was to elaborate all the horror things that he had and was about to do. The room upstairs had living quarters of his where there were very many rooms that he used in torturing his victims and even murdering them (Jenkins " Philip 383). In the rooms were also trapdoors which he used in transporting the dead bodies to the underground rooms where he burned them to ashes or used other methods in disposing them.
In the year 1893, when there was an explosion in Colombia, Holmes opened his house and made it the visitor’s hotel. Holmes took an advantage of the rise in the tourist numbers and he used the opportunity in advertising rooms for lodgings and job vacancies in order to attract his victims. Sadly, most of the guests who boarded the house did not come out alive since the house was a castle for murder. The unknown number of the murder castle victims consisted of countless women who were seduced by Holmes, and then killed after being swindled. It is believed that Holmes had the character of engaging to women only for her to disappear after a short period of time. Furthermore, a lot of other victims were enticed by employment offers (Haggerty and Kevin 169).
After the world’s fair, Holmes came out of Chicago in order to carry on with his tricks which included a plan to fake the death of an associate known as Benjamin, so that they would collect around ten thousand dollars from an insurance company of life. However, he was jailed before the completion of the deal and therefore he was forced to confide to another inmate who a notorious outlaw was called Hedgepeth Marion, who had knowledge of Holmes as H.M Howard, concerning the insurance scheme plan. Unfortunately, Holmes was betrayed by Hedgepeth who opened up to the investigators and revealed to them their discussion details (Haggerty and Kevin 170).
Eventually, after identifying that Holmes was Howard, they caught up with him soon and prevented him from committing other killings. Later on, he murdered Pitezel and told the wife that Pitezel was alive and that he was hiding somewhere which made the widow to believe his lies and travelled to the place she was told along with her five children, who then became the victims of murder by Holmes. Howard escapes arrest severally but later he was arrested by authorities in November 1894. While in custody, he informed the police about very many stories after he had admitted that he was responsible for the murder of twenty seven people. In the year 1895 after being convicted, Howard filed an appeal on his case but he lost (Haggerty and Kevin 170).
After the failure of his appeal Haggerty and Kevin (171) advocates that Holmes made an announcement that he would confess all his actions especially the twenty seven people that he had killed. He made open that the first person he killed was known as Leacock was lived in New Baltimore. He confessed that Leacock was his close friend and also his mate in school. Leacock was killed because he had insured his life a lot of money, therefore Holmes tricked him to come to Chicago were he killed him immediately, by use of laudanum overdose. Furthermore, a confession that terrified a lot of people was when he accepted a crime that he presented a dead body in an insurance company in order to collect his money but in real sense, the dead body was not him. The corpse belonged to his school mate who was called Chum whom he had also killed. Every confession he made was published in a book and was named Holmes own story. After he had confessed his crimes, Holmes was hanged in the year 1896 following the killing of Pitezel and his body was buried in Philadelphia.
Conclusion
According to Holmes case provides examples between the connection of the trauma one suffers in their childhood life and the crimes or violence such as multiple murder. According to the above paper, physical abuses from the people close to us, bring about stress build up, and when they are not dealt with at an early age makes an individual to become intolerance. Due to the abuses and neglect that Holmes suffered at a young age, he become a predator who saw others as a source of his ends. His personality and that of s psychopath greatly resembled according to the above discussed paper, since he used to control others not forgetting his lies. It is important to note that from this paper, Holmes carried out murder since he wanted to get back to those who offended his indirectly. For instance, he killed his school mate so that he can revenge to those who used to take advantage of him and went further to bully him in school. He viewed the entire society as a cruel place with cruel people who mistreated him. Furthermore, since he never felt any love while still young, especially from his parents, Holmes could not stand other people being loved and that is why he murdered Pitezel together with his family.
Work Cited
Haggerty, Kevin D. "Modern serial killers." Crime, Media, Culture 5.2 (2009): 168-187.
Jenkins, Philip. "Serial murder in the United States 1900–1940: A historical perspective." Journal of Criminal Justice17.5 (1989): 377-392.
