Episode 373: In the shadowy annals of North American crime, few names evoke as much dread as H.H. Holmes, a master manipulator, a conman, and a predator who thrived in the chaos of a rapidly changing world and the man often called America’s first serial killer. Born Herman Webster Mudgett, Holmes’s reign of terror began in Chicago, where he constructed his infamous “Murder Castle”—a labyrinth of hidden rooms, trapdoors, and secret passageways designed to lure and dispatch his victims during the bustling days of the 1893 World’s Fair. But Holmes’s evil did not respect borders; his murderous path would ultimately stretch into Canada.

During his murderous career, in 1894, Holmes claimed the lives of his accomplice, Benjamin Pitezel, 38, and three of his youngest victims, Benjamin’s children: Howard Pitezel, 8, in Indianapolis, and, later in Toronto, Pitezel’s daughters, Alice Pitezel, 15, and Nellie Pitezel, 11. Their tragic deaths in a quiet Toronto neighbourhood forever linked Holmes’s legacy to both sides of the border.

Sources:

The Holmes-Pitezel case by Frank P Geyer | Internet Archive
H. H. Holmes: Master of Illusion — Swindler — Crime Library
Holmes' Autobiogrpahy | Library of Congress
Holmes' Own Story by Herman W. Mudgett | Project Gutenberg
Depraved: Schechter, Harold | Internet Archive
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson | goodreads
H.H. Holmes: The True History of the White City Devil | goodreads
Forensic-Scholars-Today-1.2-H.H.-Holmes-One-of-Americas-First-Recorded-Serial-Murderers
Benjamin Freelon Pitezel (1856-1893) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree
The Toronto link to America's bloodiest serial killer - Spacing Toronto
HOLMES - PITEZEL CASE: A History of the Greatest Crime of the Century and of the Search for the Missing Pitezel Children.
H. H. Holmes | by Rebecca Frost
A Book of Remarkable Criminals, by H.B. Irving

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