Herman Webster Mudgett was an American serial killer active from December 1891 to November 1894. Despite his confession of 27 murders, Holmes was convicted and sentenced to death for only one murder. His victims were killed in a mixed-use building which he owned in Chicago, supposedly called the World's Fair Hotel (informally called "The Murder Castle"), though evidence suggests the hotel portion was never truly open for business. Besides being a serial killer, Holmes was also a con artist and a trigamist, the subject of more than 50 lawsuits in Chicago alone. Holmes was executed on May 7, 1896, nine days before his 35th birthday.