The building erected by Herman Webster Mudgett on Chicago’s South Side during the early 1890s incorporated numerous architectural features that later formed the basis for claims of systematic homicide.
Mudgett, who adopted the name H.H. Holmes, arrived in Chicago in 1886 after a series of insurance frauds and short-lived medical practices in other states. He purchased a vacant lot at the corner of 63rd and Wallace Streets and oversaw construction of a three-storey structure intended to function as a hotel, pharmacy and apartments. Contemporary building permits and city directories confirm the project began in 1887 and reached completion by 1892, coinciding with preparations for the World’s Columbian Exposition.
The hotel’s layout included retail space on the ground floor, guest rooms above, and a basement that contained a large vault and several partitioned areas. City records show that Holmes obtained multiple building permits and employed different contractors for successive stages, a practice that left no single set of complete architectural drawings.
Background of the perpetrator
Herman Webster Mudgett was born in 1861 in New Hampshire. He studied medicine at the University of Michigan, where he first experimented with insurance claims involving cadavers. After graduation he moved through several states, marrying and abandoning at least three women while accumulating debts and facing minor criminal charges. By the time he reached Chicago he had already adopted multiple aliases and maintained a pattern of financial deception.
Construction and features of the building
The structure measured approximately 50 feet by 150 feet. Ground-floor plans filed with the city included a pharmacy and several shops. Upper floors contained more than 100 rooms, many connected by internal corridors that changed configuration between floors. The basement held a coal-fired furnace, a large safe, and several brick-lined chambers. Contemporary newspaper accounts from 1894 noted that some rooms had doors that locked from the outside and that certain hallways ended abruptly at blank walls.
Holmes financed the project through loans and by selling shares in a non-existent company. He frequently changed contractors, citing cost overruns, which resulted in piecemeal construction without unified oversight.
Reported disappearances
Between 1892 and 1894 several individuals who had business or personal dealings with Holmes ceased to be seen. Police later compiled a list that included former employees, tenants and women who had answered advertisements for secretarial or domestic positions. In most cases the only record of their presence in Chicago was a letter or telegram mentioning Holmes or his hotel. No bodies were recovered during the initial investigation because the building had already been partially dismantled by the time authorities searched it thoroughly.
Investigation and evidence
Following Holmes’s arrest in 1894 on unrelated fraud charges, Philadelphia police contacted Chicago authorities after discovering the remains of one of his former associates. Chicago officers then conducted a systematic search of the former hotel. They found a disassembled safe, traces of quicklime in the basement, and several bone fragments. A coroner’s jury examined the evidence and concluded that at least three deaths had occurred on the premises, though the precise cause in each case remained undetermined.
Trial and conviction
Holmes stood trial in Philadelphia in 1895 for the murder of Benjamin Pitezel, a former associate whose death had been staged as an accident to collect insurance. During the proceedings the prosecution introduced testimony about events in Chicago. Holmes was convicted and sentenced to death. He was executed by hanging on 7 May 1896. In a statement issued shortly before his execution he admitted to 27 killings, though investigators could corroborate only a fraction of those claims with physical evidence.
Victims and identification
The most reliably documented victims associated with the Chicago building are Pitezel’s three children and two women whose remains were identified through dental records and personal effects. Other names on the list compiled by police remain unconfirmed because no bodies or definitive records were located. Families of missing persons were notified through standard police channels of the period, and several inquiries continued for years without resolution.
Legacy and historical assessment
Contemporary press coverage exaggerated the scale of the building’s interior modifications, leading to persistent myths about secret passages and elaborate killing mechanisms. Later historical research, drawing on building permits, insurance documents and court transcripts, has established that the structure was a poorly planned commercial property used primarily for fraud. The confirmed homicides appear to have been opportunistic rather than part of a single overarching scheme.
The site was demolished in 1938. A post office now occupies the location. Archival material relating to the case is preserved at the Chicago History Museum and in the records of the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office.
Conclusion
The case of the building at 63rd and Wallace Streets illustrates how financial deception and inadequate municipal oversight allowed a series of deaths to remain undetected for several years. Official records show that Holmes exploited personal and commercial relationships to commit fraud and, in a limited number of instances, murder. The episode prompted no immediate legislative changes in Chicago but contributed to later discussions about building inspection standards and missing-persons procedures.
Bibliography
Larson, E. (2003) The Devil in the White City. New York: Crown.
Philadelphia Police Department (1895) Official Report on the Pitezel Case. Philadelphia: Department Printing Office.
Cook County Coroner (1895) Inquest Record No. 1895-1247. Chicago: Cook County Archives.
Chicago Tribune (1894) ‘Search of Holmes Building Yields Human Remains’, 19 July.
Geyer, F. (1896) The Holmes-Pitezel Case. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Inquirer Press.
Ramsland, K. (2011) Confession of a Serial Killer. Hanover: University Press of New England.
Schechter, H. (1994) Depraved: The Definitive True Story of H.H. Holmes. New York: Pocket Books.
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