Herman W. Mudgett

author

Herman W. Mudgett

1861–1896

Known to history as H. H. Holmes, he remains one of the most notorious figures of late 19th-century American crime. His life has drawn lasting attention because it mixes fraud, reinvention, and a grim legend that still shapes true-crime storytelling today.

1 Audiobook

Holmes' Own Story In Which the Alleged Multi-murderer and Arch Conspirator Tells of the Twenty-two Tragic Deaths and Disappearances in Which He Is Said to Be Implicated, With Moyamensing Prison Diary Appendix

Holmes' Own Story In Which the Alleged Multi-murderer and Arch Conspirator Tells of the Twenty-two Tragic Deaths and Disappearances in Which He Is Said to Be Implicated, With Moyamensing Prison Diary Appendix

by Herman W. Mudgett

About the author

Born Herman Webster Mudgett in Gilmanton, New Hampshire, on May 16, 1861, he later became widely known under the alias H. H. Holmes. He studied medicine at the University of Michigan and went on to work as a druggist and con man, building a reputation through scams as well as violence.

He is most closely associated with Chicago in the early 1890s, where his crimes became the source of sensational newspaper coverage and enduring myth. Modern reference works describe him as an American swindler and murderer, and he is often labeled one of the country’s earliest well-known serial killers.

Holmes died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on May 7, 1896, after being convicted in the murder of Benjamin Pitezel. Because later accounts often mixed confirmed facts with exaggeration, his story is remembered both for the crimes themselves and for the way they helped create the dark legend surrounding his name.