(this was first titled "The Lord Of Cahokia's Shadow ")

Herman Webster Mudgett was born on the Sixteenth of May and changed his name to  Henry Howard Holmes

(H.H. Holmes)  after graduating high school and starting on his college life at the U of M with a plan to become

a doctor of medicine  however he was more attracted to death and to that end stole

dead bodies and either burned them or altered their appearance in some fashion of course his aim

did not leave out financial gain and therefore he would often insure them in order to earn the claim. 

Given such drive, it was no miracle that he graduated and found gainful employment.  As many folk,

he was not entirely satisfied with his calling and in his case turned to architecture and real estate...

H. H. Holmes built what would soon be known as the "Murder Castle" - a marvel of engineering with several dozen 

rooms equipped with secret poisonous spouts which would fill these sound-proof places with venom

and eliminate the "guest".. As many as two hundred or more may be said to have perished at the hands of Mister Death, 

MD. However, it is rather notable that in one instance the demise manifested itself as if a side effect.

You see, he had emplyed some bloke named Ned and as many folk not entirely satisfied with monogamy he seduced

Ned's wife along with her sister when the second conquest was discovered she hauled ass out of there as embarrased

as a modern day American Democrat trying to name the accomplishments of that political party in recent years...

The point is, she -Gertrude- the sister -was mortified and expired not many months later.  Julia - the wife - became

pregnant and Ned ran out of the scene meanwhile H. H. Holmes promised to marry her (Julia) on condition of abortion. 

He could not resist taking  both the child and the mother out of this wolrd but how to cash in on that...Good

question, his ressponse was to strip off her flesh and sell the skeleton. Fiendishly wicked! From these few sentences

one might surmise that he was perhaps provincial despite the numerous victims but that would be far from the truth; 

 H.H. Holmes enjoyed travel and the short time racket but his luck ran out when a horse theft scheme backfired

landing him in jail. While being held he dreamt of faking his own death to collect the insurance money and shared his

scam with a cell mate which led to his final capture since the jail bird later found no monetary compensation and turned

rat...Doctor Holmes was hanged to death on the Seventh of May at Moyamensing Prison.  

(exhumed skull of H.H. Holmes -2017-)