H.H. Holmes and His Murder Castle Quiz

Answer: Herman W. Mudgett

He was born in 1860 in New Hampshire and changed his name as a young man. He used the name H. H. Holmes when he attended medical school at Ann Arbor, Michigan. He had recently married and used his father in law's inheritance money for tuition.

Answer: Stealing and insuring cadavers

He stole cadavers and used the person's identity for life insurance policies, naming himself as the beneficiary. He then set the cadavers up to look like they had died in an accident and collected the money. After he was nearly caught he left medical school, abandoning his wife and newborn child. For the next five years he was virtually gone.

Answer: No one knows

Not even the Pinkerton agents investigating him could figure it out. Once he resurfaced, he tried to divorce his first wife but in vain. He remarried anyway and tried to con his new father in law by forging his father in law's name on property deeds. His wife filed for divorce and ended the marriage in 1889.

Answer: She moved out west.

According to him she left no forwarding address and handed the business over to him.

Answer: He never named it

He personally oversaw the construction and fired workers at will, refusing to pay them. He was telling everyone that he was preparing it for tourists attending the 1893 Columbia exposition to be held in Chicago. It was to become known as the "Murder Castle".

Answer: All of these.

The drapes were drawn to hide the iron plates from outside viewers. The doors were locked from the outside for obvious reasons. In addition he had trap doors in each room, some rooms were used as asphyxiation chambers, and some had blowtorch like devices fitted into the walls.

In the basement he had a dissecting table, crematorium, and quicklime pits. In addition all the "prison rooms" also had an alarm if one of the victims tried to escape. There were also a number of secret passages.

Answer: At least 50

At least fifty were traced to his hotel but no one suspected a thing about him for some strange reason.

Answer: All of these

The job opportunities came with free room and board along with a generous benefit package (for the time) and a handsome paycheck. If someone came for a marriage proposal, he would take their valuables first, then lock them in a prison room.

Answer: Horse swindling

This was his undoing. He was detained due to a warrant for horse theft in Texas, but the police grew doubtful of Holmes.

Answer: It burned down.

Between his arrest and execution someone burned it down. Neighbors heard three explosions and it was gone. No one knows who did it but rumors ranged from an accomplice trying to hide his implication to an outraged neighbor who wanted the crowds of the curious to stop. Today there is post office where the hotel once stood. It is said that when you walk your dog by it, the dog becomes nervous and doesn't want to go near it.

No one knows for sure how many people were killed at his Murder Castle.