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Some were tiny with low ceilings, no bigger than closets. Most of these rooms were rigged with gas pipes connected to the same control panel in Holmes' closet, and equipped with special peepholes.
Many were fitted with alarms that sounded in Holmes' quarters if a "guest" tried to escape. The Castle's second story also contained trapdoors, secret passageways, hidden closets with sliding panels, and most terrifying, large, greased shafts leading directly to the cellar.
Brick-lined and dark, the cellar was comparable to a dungeon, and the various apparatus stored there only added to the terror. Holmes kept an acid tank, quicklime vats, a dissecting table and surgeon's cabinet, and eventually a contraption of his own invention. Holmes called it the "elasticity determinator" and claimed it could stretch experimental subjects to twice their normal height, eventually creating "a race of giants. Newspaper sketch of Holmes and a victim. Courtesy of Illinois State Historical Society.
Holmes eventually confessed to 28 murders, though the actual number of victims is believed to be as many as Holmes used two major pretenses to lure guests who checked in and never checked out. First, he advertised lodging for tourists visiting the World's Fair. Second, he would place classified ads in small-town newspapers, offering jobs to young women, or outright offering himself for marriage.
Holmes wedded several times, often to more than one woman at once, using different aliases. Because of the World's Fair and then-unsophisticated police procedure, missing persons were barely investigated.
Holmes' innate charm could smooth over any remaining questions from neighbors and families. The reality, of course, was much more gruesome. Upon investigating the Castle after Holmes was arrested for unrelated crimes such as insurance fraud, police found the rooms and apparati mentioned above, as well as a human-sized kiln that heated to degrees Fahrenheit and a wooden box containing several female skeletons.
In fact, one of Holmes' main associates, Charles Chappell, was also an "articulator," meaning he could strip flesh from human bodies and reassemble the bones to form complete skeletons. Holmes would frequently pay Chappell to articulate a cadaver, then either keep the skeleton or sell it for a profit to a medical school. One of the most disturbing stories was that of Emeline Cigrand, a bright young woman from Indiana who became Holmes' personal secretary.
After accepting Holmes' marriage proposal, Cigrand disappeared into thin air. Holmes claimed she ran off with another man, but around she went missing, Holmes asked two male guests of the hotel to help him carry a large, heavy trunk to the cellar. Soon after, Holmes sold a fully articulated female skeleton to a nearby medical school, and during their investigation, police found a woman's footprint clearly etched into the floor on the inside of the cellar's vault.
Holmes later confessed to locking Cigard in the vault and raping her before taking her life. He then shipped her trunk full of clothes and personal belongings to her family without explanation. At least one child perished at Holmes' hands: young Pearl Conner was chloroformed and suffocated in her Castle bed. Holmes was arrested twice in for insurance fraud. Investigator Frank P. Geyer of Philadelphia slowly began to uncover Holmes' more disturbing crimes, which eventually led to the Chicago police investigation and subsequent media coverage of what quickly became known as the Murder Castle.
Holmes' trial began in Philadelphia just before Halloween of Only six days in length, it was one of the most sensational of the century. People throughout the country, but especially in Chicago, were equal parts horrified and fascinated by Holmes' confessions of torture and murder. Though his tales may have been embellished, actual evidence ranks Holmes as one of the country's most active murderers.
In his confession, Holmes claimed: "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. Even after meeting with two Catholic priests, Holmes refused to ask forgiveness. After Holmes was hanged, his heart continued to beat for fifteen minutes.
As for the Murder Castle, it too met a violent and mysterious end. A man named A. Clark purchased the building less than two weeks after the police investigation. Clark intended to capitalize on the Castle's notoriety and reopen it as a tourist attraction. However, on Aug. Seconds later, explosions blew out the first-floor windows, and the fire was out of control by the time help arrived.
Ninety minutes after the fire was reported, the roof had collapsed and most of the building demolished. However, the first floor was salvaged and served as a sign shop and bookstore until the Castle was sold in
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