H.H. Holmes - America's First Killer!

Never trust a dude with a creepy mustache, boys and girls.

Hello everyone!!

Today, we're talking about America's first serial killer. Herman Webster Mudgett, the one and only. So he started going by H.H. Holmes, (Henry Howard Holmes) that was just his killing people name, though. He changed his name to hide his identity, but let's be real. His name was pretty terrible, so maybe that had something to do with it, too. Regardless of Hermie's aliases, one thing is certain; he was a genius and a murderer.

Once upon time, in 1861, in a land not so far away... little Herms was born in New Hampshire. His dad was a farmer and a raging alcoholic who was reportedly abusive. Hermie was a smart dude, but he was bullied. Pretty severely. It is said that the little guy was afraid of doctors. His classmates found out, and like any good stereotypical children, they bullied him real bad. They locked him in a room with one of those fake skeletons. He was scared at first, but then was liberated and his fear became fascination. Cue dramatic music.

Oooooh!!

He became extremely obsessed with death. He began performing "surgery" on animals. Bro was SMART! He graduated high school at just 16 and became interested in medicine. He then took some teaching jobs, met a girl named Clara Lovering, fell in love and reproduced. They had one child, a boy named Robert. Fun fact! Bobby, unlike his dad, was not a psycho! He became a city manager of Florida. Good for Bob.

Anyway, back to the story! Herm became bored with his job so at 18 he decided to go back to school! He went to University of Michigan, in the medicine and surgery department and got right to it.

He started doing some weird stuff to the cadavers there, unexpected, right. However, he was always able to cleverly lie his way out of it. The snake!

Have I mentioned dude was smart? Well, he was super smart. He was. Genius. So he kept up with all his gross stuff and trickery then abandoned his wife and child. He moved to Mooers Forks, New York, which is up-state. Here, something weird happened.

So people in this Fork place kept seeing him out with this little boy. Kid disappeared and Hermie peaced out of town real quick. He travelled to Massachusetts where he worked as a pharmacist. This little boy, who got meds from there, died from medication complication. Hermie said bye felicia, again, and then went to Chicago. Here is where the real meaty part of the story goes down.

Alright, in 1886 he gets to Chicago and decides to build this castle, which is later referred to as his "Murder Castle." Neat! It was 3 stories with rooms dedicated just for torture. He opened up his castle as a hotel for people who came for the world's fair!! What a guy. You know where this story is headed! Do I have to say that he tortured and killed his guests? Because you already know he most definitely did. He wasn't picky when it came to his victims, (how refreshing). He killed men, women, children. The works! However, he did enjoy women a bit more, though. He liked to seduce them and get engaged even though he was still married. He was a player. Typical.

He also really enjoyed scamming people. What a time to be alive!

To wrap things up here, he was finally caught for fraud and one of the last murders he committed. Here's the deal. He buddied up with this life insurance dude, they were BFFs, basically. That didn't stop Dr. Murder face from killing him! Oh yeah, straight up murdered him. Then told his wife he was still alive. THEN he murdered their kids!!! What a d-bag, am I right?

Finally, the police caught on. Holmes was a pathological liar but first admitted to killing 27 people. More accurately, it's a range from 100-200. He was convicted for the murder of his friend, which is the only one they could pin on him.

He pleaded not guilty but he was already screwed. He was hanged May 7, 1986.

What a time to be alive!

Okay, I'm finished. The end!

Here's a female killer from way back in the day!

"Mary Ann Cotton,

Dead and forgotten 
She lies in her bed, With her eyes wide open.
Mary Ann Cotton is tied up with string
Where, where? Up in the air
Sing, sing, oh, what can I sing,
Sellin’ black puddin's a penny a pair." - Really old poem that no one is quite sure where or who it came from 

Hey everyone!

Let's dive right into this story of the psychopath who killed her children, step children, possibly her mother, and her husbands.

I suppose we should start with a name. Mary Ann Cotton, she was pretty cray. Saying that she was pure evil is putting it a bit lightly.

She was born Mary Ann Robson in 1832, in a village in Northern England. Her dad died when she was very young, so her and her brother were raised by her mom and step-dad, who she absolutely despised. She ran away when she was just 16 years old, then she was homeless, and had no money. Desperate times call for desperate measures, I guess.

So, she started to really buddy up with this dude, William Mowbray, who had just lost his wife. Naturally, they fell in love, married in 1852 and had NINE children. By 1865 eight of her children were dead, along with her husband, who mysteriously died from a stomach complaint. Mary Ann collected hella insurance $$$$. After this, she sent her last daughter left to live with her mother. Shortly after all this went down, she married another dude, George Ward. Then, he died from a stomach illness, all in the same year. Again, she accepted insurance money!
Notice a trend here?
After this, her mom died, and then the last of one of her eight children died. Both, from stomach aches! She started working as a house-keeper for a man, James Robinson, who had just lost a child. Guess who was there to comfort him?!
Oh, Mary Ann. So predictable. She had a child with him, who died, and when she was kept begging him to take out a life insurance policy, he started getting suspicious. He kicked her murdering a$$ to the curb! Yeah. Take THAT Mary!

Living on the streets, Mary Ann found a man. Or maybe I should say, victim. His name was Fredrick Cotton. Good ole Freddy was paying Mary to babysit his two kids. He had a sister, who died, of a tummy ache! Surprise, surprise. He then needed comfort and who came to his side?? No one other than Mary Ann! She became impregnated, again, but plot twist!! Home girl left him, for another man, Joseph Nastrass. Poor guy was killed before he even knew what he was getting into.

Eventually, to finally put an end to her reign of terror, home girl messed up. So, she was husbandless, her last child was becoming too much to handle, I guess because he was breathing. So she went to a town official and asked if he would put him in a work house. He said he'd help her, but only if she'd go too. She suddenly changed her mind and was basically like, "meh, he's gonna die soon anyway. So, whatevs, don't even worry about it."
He died a week later.
This made the officer pretty concerned. They tested his body and poison showed up as the cause of death. Shocker, I know.
Evidence suggests she was responsible for 21 deaths.

She was hanged, and a nursery rhyme was made about her. The end!

First Ever Serial Killer In History

Hello everyone!



Let's do some killer talk--Gilles de Rais.


Let's start with the facts, here. Gilles de Rais was known as the original Bluebeard, he was born in 1404 and died in 1440. It is believed that he murdered as many as 800 children. It's said that the murders started somewhere in the mid to late 1420s. This was a French dude. Before we get into this, I think we should go over his back ground. He, apparently, was a decorated war hero before he turned into a sadistic child-murderer. Here's what went down, (as I understand it). Bro was real rich. I'm talking richer than the king. He was lavish and all those other fancy words that just mean super filthy rich. He got this way because he was a knight and lord of France. He even fought along side Joan of Arc. After she was captured, he pretty much quit. He started squandering his wealth, he was very wasteful. He had many servants and castles. He was also married, fun fact, at just 16 years old, to a woman named Catherine.

Alright, story time. He would have some of his loyal servants bring him children, specifically boys, to his nearest castle. He would then do horrendous things to them; torture, rape, etc. In a biography of this freak, they say he began to dabble in satanism, because he was trying to conjure up more wealth, as he was wasteful and was beginning to have debt. Here's something super gross; he, like most serial killers, became sexually aroused from the act of killing. In this time, the church controlled the government pretty heavily. So when this was discovered, he was almost in more trouble for wasting semen than he was for actually committing the act of torturous murder. Ew. When he was caught, he denied it all. However, realizing he was being persecuted by the church and citizens, he gave up.

"I caused their bodies to be cruelly opened and took delight in viewing their interior organs." He is quoted saying this shortly before he was hanged. Ew again.

In short, he was one of the first serial killers noted in history. He was eventually caught, and hanged but unfortunately not until after the slaughter of hundreds of children.

Introduction of my blog!

Welcome, boys and girls! 

This is my first ever blog post! Killin' it with Katie will be a blog discussing specific serial killers throughout the years. I think I became interested in topics like this from my love to read in general, and mystery stories. I progressed to nonfictional stories about serial killers and found them extremely interesting. I am no expert, but I will include interviews and maybe some research if it isn't boring. We will see, I guess!

I'm sorry for this one, kind of. It made me laugh. 

I'd like to discuss different types of serial killers and specific people in history. This blog will also include some psychology talk, because, obviously, people who kill other people have some psychological issues going on. This blog will be interesting and probably a bit gory, but this should be fun!