“I was born with the devil in me. I could not help the fact that I was a murderer, no more than the poet can help the inspiration to sing.”

Welcome to Oddity Odyssey Stop #1

Weird, you think, approaching this bare green space, unaware of what lies beneath your feet.

There is no gravestone marking Herman Webster Mudgett's grave here in Holy Cross Cemetery, Philadelphia. In fact the only stone that commemorates him is the concrete which encases his body--specifically requested because he wanted to deter grave robbers, lest anyone violate his corpse.

Herman Webster Mudgett changed his name to H.H. Holmes when he arrived in Chicago in 1886. He bought an empty lot and built a three-story building finished in 1892, just in time for the World's Columbian Exposition. Guests of the World's Fair were able to rent a room from Holmes' hotel on the third floor. The first floor Holmes operated as a storefront. And on the second floor, Holmes constructed a space to torture other human beings. Into it he built gas chambers, fake walls and false hallways to confuse his victims, soundproofed rooms, and trap doors and chutes into the basement. There he stored vats of acid and set up a crematorium to better dispose of their bodies.

It is unknown how many people H.H. Holmes murdered, as he was only convicted of one--that of his busines partner, Benjamin Pitezel. Yet he is widely recognized as one of America's first serial killers (sorry, Columbus). Medical schools were happy to accept his donation of clean, intact human skeletons, conveniently stripped of their more fleshy parts that were dissolving in his basement's acid vats.

Holmes claimed innocence, then Satanic possession, then confessed to 27 murders, before circling back to virtuous. This penchant for lying defined other parts of his life--he was married three times, to three women, at the same time, and piled up lawsuit after lawsuit as he conned his way through cities. The quote at the top of the page is attributed to Holmes. It is rumored that he may have committed up to 200 murders.

In August of 1895, two men were seen fleeing his "Murder Castle" in Chicago shortly before it went up in flames, ensuring a muddied historical record of Holmes' crimes. In May 1986, he was hanged for the murder of Pitezel at Moyamensing Prison in Philly. He took 20 minutes to die.

Thank you for visiting the unmarked grave of H.H. Holmes. Your next stop is in 9 miles.