King of the Murder Castle - H.H. Holmes - The Torture Doctor - 1

"The Torture Doctor is in, back here to confess his sins..."
[ "The Torture Doctor"  by Alkaline Trio ]

Here at The Murder Scene Podcast, H.H. Holmes is one of our favorite subjects.  His story is entwined with a magickal time in the history of Chicago, the World's Fair held there in 1893, and his own growing mythos that he just might have been the OG Serial Killer - Jack the Ripper!

Episode #6 of The Murder Scene Podcast delves into the life, background, serial killings, scams & schemes and shenanigans pulled off by the murder-trickster, H.H. Holmes.  

In this Part 1,  we visit the historic backdrop of Gilded Age Chicago and her World's Fair, and look at the pre-Fair years where Chicago suffered birthing-pains of her rapid growth from scarred burn victim after the Great Chicago Fire, to her rise from the ashes as the beautiful, glittering jewel of the Mid-West, and the arrival of a dark, mysterious out-of-towner...

#DevilInTheWhiteCity #TortureDoctor #HermanWebsterMudgett #HenryHowardHolmes #HHHolmes #Chicago #WhiteCity #WindyCity #ChicagoWorldsFair #ColumbianExposition #MurderCastle #AmericasFirstSerialKiller #SerialKillerPodcast #JackTheRipper #VictorianSerialKiller #VictorianMurder #MurderPodcast

CREDITS / RESOURCES: For Video & Audio Versions of Episode #6, Parts 1 & 2 [Credits are truncated due to space - please see the episode's YouTube video for a full list in the end credits.]

"Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson - Vintage Books / Penguin Random House, NY / 2004 [PenguinRandomHouse.com]

Wikipedia Research : “H.H. Holmes” - “Chicago World's Fair” - “World's Columbian Exposition” - “Great Chicago Fire” - “Octave Uzanne”- “Paul Lindau” - “Antonin Dvořák” - “The Whitechapel Club” - “Finley Peter Dunne” - “George Ade” - “Brand Whitlock” - “Aaron Kosminski”

American Ripper - History Channel TV Series / 8 Episodes / 2017 with Jeff Mudgett [Great Great Grandson of H.H. Holmes,] and Amaryllis Fox [former CIA Agent.]  [History.com]

H.H. Holmes : America's First Serial Killer - Documentary by Waterfront Productions, 2022  [JohnBorowski.com]

“Does a New Genetic Analysis Finally Reveal the Identity of Jack the Ripper?” by David Adam - Science Adviser [Science.org] March 15, 2019

“Historian Who Discovered Jack the Ripper's Real Identity Says '100% him'” by Ashley N. Soriano & Ashleigh Banfield, News Nation [NewsNationNow.com] February 21, 2025

The Murder Castle of H.H. Holmes : Crimehub : A True Crime Podcast on Spotify  [https://open.spotify.com/show/3lDOVjujdwyLS5l3CTSas2?si=cdd7ab9d1b51461d