4.24 - Holmes, Pt. I (Chicago, IL) - Less Taken

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
This taking contains content that may not be suitable for
all audiences listeners, discretion is advised.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Yes, During the past few months, the desire has been
repeatedly expressed that I make a detailed confession of all
the grave crimes that have, with such marvelous skill, been
traced out and brought home to me. I have been

(00:37):
tried for murder, convicted, sentenced, and the step of my
execution upon the seventh of May, namely the reading of
my death warrant, has been carried out. It now seems
a fitting time, if ever, to make known the details
of the twenty seven murders, of which it would be

(00:57):
useless to longer say I'm not guilty in the face
of the overwhelming amount of proof that has been brought together,
not only in one, but.

Speaker 3 (01:07):
In each and every case.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
And because in this confession I speak only of the
cases that have been thus investigated and of no other,
I trust they will not give rise to a supposition
that I am still guilty of other birds which.

Speaker 3 (01:24):
I am withholding.

Speaker 1 (01:45):
It's difficult to pinpoint the exact moment he is overwhelmed
by bloodlust, but in terms of greed and desensitization, well
that's much easier to figure out. It begins in an arbor, Michigan,
long before he changes his name and starts slicing up
his victims. H. H. Holmes is surrounded by dead bodies

(02:08):
on a daily basis, still going by the name of
Hermann Webster Mudget. He's a medical student at the University
of Michigan throughout the early eighteen eighties, which comes as
little surprise after a youth full of experiments in gadgetry.
Just because he's always had a scientifically curious mind doesn't

(02:30):
mean Mudget is a good student. However, it gets by
all right for a while, part of which depends on
the difference between him and the average medical student. He
doesn't come from a long line of doctors or generational wealth.
These rich kids, they have it easy. All they have

(02:53):
to worry about is medical school itself. Meanwhile, poor SAPs
like Mudget must not only focus on their school work,
but also maintain a job just to scrape by. These
rich folks come into class bright eyed and bushy tailed
every day, while he's dead tired. No matter he knows,

(03:17):
he can get through the courses. Dissecting a cadaver becomes
easier each day he does it, but each year of
school runs him around two hundred dollars or a little
over six thousand dollars in twenty twenty five money. Despite
the three two hundred dollars is no poultry sum. For
Mudget over the last one hundred and four will be

(03:38):
obligated to work every free second he has around school
if he wants to pay for tuition and meet most
of his basic needs. I don't know that I want to.
His financial rows press on him, making him feel as
though the entire situation might be dire and his dreams
of becoming a doctor might be coming to an abrupt nd.
Then day he bumps into the janitor and learns about

(04:04):
his second job. This janitor is a familiar face to Mudget.
Every day he stands outside of the classroom and rings
a bell before and after class. To some, he's a
friendly face to those arriving late, he might as well
be the angel of death. To Mudget, the janitor falls

(04:28):
somewhere in between, especially after he learns what the janitor
does to get by. In eighteen eighty two, a dead
body is a precious commodity to almost every medical school.
If you're expected to be a surgeon. You'll need some
practice and there are no simulations or prosthetics to help here.

(04:49):
These pre meds have to perform real surgeries on real
human bodies. To these schools, the best body is a
fresh body. In an effort to inventory and protect the corpses,
they're kept in a well managed room or a vault.
This janitor, he's the keeper of corpses. He knows all

(05:11):
the details about each of the bodies, including how the
school got them, and it's not always on the up
and up. The reason bodies are such a precious commodity
amongst med schools is that, through legal means, most colleges
can only procure enough corpses to meet roughly twenty percent
of their overall need. For them to be considered successful institutions,

(05:38):
compromises must be made. Lightning tears through the nightscape as
Mudget walks through the cemetery, but he's not afraid of
the weather or being struck. His main concern is being seen.

(06:05):
He can't believe what the janitor told him. How the
college is willing to pay anywhere from twenty five dollars
to two hundred dollars per body. Coincidentally, the cost of
his tuition. It's too easy. Mudget knows he has to
get in on some of this action, which is what
leads him to the cold, damp cemetery in the middle

(06:26):
of the night. Somewhat blinded by the relentless rainfall and
burdened by the unruly elements and slick, muddy ground, Mudget
strives to remain low and small until he sees the
precise thing that he's been looking for there at the
east end of the cemetery. As a fresh large mound

(06:50):
of dirt, dry and looster is generally preferred, but Mudget
is certain he can make it work. Fresh mound, fresh body.
This is his best bet, but he needs to make
it quick before he's caught up in either the weather
or caught by the authorities. Mudget's arms grow weak as

(07:16):
he continues to dig through the muck with an old shovel.
He's perhaps underestimated the chore of unburying a corpse. He
might have been question whether his new business pursuit is
worth the effort and risk.

Speaker 3 (07:31):
But then.

Speaker 1 (07:38):
Mudget shovels the sludge away with ferocity, now eager to
find the gold he surely struck there and allowsy wooden
box is a man's freshly lain corpse, untreated and tucked
nicely away with his arms folded. There's still a dull,
pinkish color to the man's This isn't like most of

(08:03):
the bodies he's come across at the med school. A
body like this one is much nicer, and he assumes
much more expensive Scoping out the cemetery for both passers
behind the police, Mudget gets to work hoisting the heavy
makeshift coffin from its MUDs lick grave. But just before

(08:26):
he does, Mudget spots another fresh amount of dirt, no
more than a hundred feet away from him. He can't
help but wonder just how fast he could procure and
sell off multiple bodies in a short matter of time,
and how else might he profit off of another man's corpse.

Speaker 3 (08:57):
My mental power are perfectly clear. I have no delusion.
There's certainly no hallucination. I'm not the rain, but.

Speaker 2 (09:09):
Right as rain in regard to everything, my mind is
as active today as it has ever been.

Speaker 3 (09:18):
It's fun to be a vote.

Speaker 1 (09:40):
You're listening to Holmes Part one, the twenty twenty five
Halloween special from Less Taken Season four, hollow Lands There
are a couple of stories that get recommended as Less
Taken episodes in rotation, but none quite as often as
the gruesome and lore surrounding one HH Holmes, aka America's

(10:05):
first serial killer. We were never quite sure how to
cover this story, but this year we thought, hell, let's
just go with it. What you've heard is a snippet
from part one of our home series, which will drop
in full next Tuesday wherever you find your favorite horror podcast.

(10:25):
In this episode, we'll explore the origins of Herman Webster
Mudget as medical and grave robbing pursuits, and his evolution
to the infamous HH Holmes leading into the creation of
the Murder Castle in Chicago, Illinois. Be sure to let
us know what you think of this story, or any

(10:47):
of our stories by leaving a five star review wherever
you're listening. And it might sound like a tacky podcaster
thing to say, but please subscribe and tell a friend
if you enjoy Less Taken, it truly helps. We're currently
doing some maintenance on the website, but hopefully you'll be
able to leave reviews at less takenpod dot com again soon,

(11:08):
and you'll also find all things Let's taken there, including
our merch and new hoodies. Follow us before we follow
you on Facebook, Instagram and threads under the handle at
Let's Taken Pod. A quick note on our storytelling. While
we do our best to stick to the facts, we
sometimes take creative liberties to maintain narrative cohesiveness. I'm Seam

(11:33):
Humphreys and this is less taken Real life horror stories
from the Midwest. Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoy.
Homes are one long before he becomes h. H. Holmes,

(12:54):
Before all the murmurs of a murder castle in Chicago,
the yellow journalism, and his demise, Holmes is merely a
boy hiding out in the attic. Here he is Hermann
Webster Mudget ten years old, and he's elbowed deep and
a frog. There's a grease and a slime to the
lifeless amphibian, and it's not just from the primitive embalming fluids.

(13:18):
He caught this one himself. The attic is clammy hot,
the air is thick with both humidity and dust. It
reeks of mothballs and possibly moth wings. Mudgets pinned the
frog's limbs to a weathered and warped cutting board using
a spear and much longer needle, the slice open its chest.

(13:44):
There's much for Mudget to learn here, but he can't focus. Downstairs,
his father shouts something about spilled lamp oil, but Mudget
shakes it off. He has no time for his father's bowl. Besides,
Mudget's too busy wondering what happens when you wire a

(14:05):
frog's heart to one of those copper plates from the barn.
Part of Mudget seems to want to fully understand life,
while another just wants to know how best to rip
it apart. He's as curious as he is cruel, which
extends to his class work at school. He's quiet, shy,

(14:25):
or maybe just calculating. He's admitted, though, to not always
understanding other people. He watches the other boys in his
great play around the courtyard, participating in games he doesn't
fully comprehend. He can smile, he can study and reproduce
their mannerisms, but he doesn't truly understand them. Still, he

(14:49):
manages to get by, which for him is no easy task.
Although born to an extremely pious family, the more mudgets
teachers say about their lord and s behavior, the less
he wants to hear about it. He may excel in school,
but it's at home that he learns the most. To

(15:09):
a young Mudget, nooks like the one in the attic
are his laboratories. More importantly, they're his sanctuaries. His parents
are often too busy, too preoccupied to head up the
creaky old steps and disturb him. Most of the time,
he reads books on medical science breakthroughs, and tinkers with

(15:30):
anything he can get his hands on. Gadgets pile up
in nearly every corner. Sometimes, though, he takes things a
bit too far. He's fused a mouse to attend spoon.
He's buried a bird just to dig it back up
again and to study its decomposition. Of course, later when

(15:52):
he's asked about his childhood, Mudget will simply say it
was ordinary. Eighteen eighty two, Mudget works on a candaver

(16:14):
nearly every week during his tenure at the University of Michigan.
He must have known medical school involved working on real
human bodies, but the first time he makes an incision,
it's a little unsettling. Nowadays, it's no more conscious act
than brushing his teeth before classes. Being around so many

(16:34):
bodies all the time, the way his professors speak of
dissecting human flesh, organ, and bone, so uneffectually it all
serves to quickly desensitize Mudget. It's not only the class
work murdering what remains of his soul. It's also the
on campus morgue or body room, and the under the

(16:56):
table body trading business. The latter often involves an alleged
arrangement with body snatchers. To him, a corpse is just
a corpse. Whatever consciousness or personality harbored inside of the person,
it's immediately removed once they die. Then it's just a
fatty water stack, and a valuable one at that. Thus

(17:21):
the body trade becomes even more attractive to Mudget. These
aren't dead people, they're his meal tickets. In college, Mudget's
not a stellar student, and he barely passes his courses. However,
he's far from dumb. He begins to notice patterns in

(17:45):
the way the bodies arrive, which ones are fresh, which
ones disappear, which instructors and school board members look the
other way. He knows there's some kind of lucrative scheme
going on here. There's no way these bodies are getting
through all of the legal red tape. And Mudget wants in.

(18:30):
They meet over a corpse, not metaphorically but literally. After
scraping out a few hundred dollars off of the grave
robbing site hustle, Mudget is all too eager to brag
to one of his few close friends, Robert Laycock. It
all sounds too good to be true. Laycock struggles to

(18:52):
imagine a respected institution to be involved in an illegal
human body trade. The thought of his friend digging up
fresh grapes to payoff medical school completely blows Laycock's mind,
and he absolutely needs to hear more. Mudget and Laycock
work side by side for quite some time, so he's

(19:13):
willing to hear out whatever wild scheme his friend has
in his mind. Bus Mudget now has a way about
him that's rather persuasive, a silver tongue. When Mudget finishes
his story, the lab falls quiet except for the low
hiss of gas lamps and the scrape of metal against bone.

(19:36):
Mudget is elbowed deep again, but this time it's into
a cadaver's chest cavity with a strong cooker face. As
he awaits Laycock's response, Laycock doesn't respond right away. Instead,
he watches Mudget struggle to find whatever it is he's
looking for without tearing into the cadaver's lungs. He can't

(19:59):
believe just how bad his friend is at this. His
cuts are too shallow, his hands too shaky. The differences
between Laycock and Mudget are innumerable. Laycock's pretty much everything
Mudget could ever hope to be. He's patient, professional, methodical,

(20:21):
and right now he's also unimpressed. As they wrap up,
Mudget asked Laycock if he ever wonders what the schools
do with the bodies that they don't use. On the

(21:07):
way out of class that evening, Mudget steps to the
side so Laycock can light up a cigarette. He offers
one to Mudget, but his friend declines. While his colleague
takes a couple of long drags. Mudget spells out his
latest scheme and involves a family of three, a man,
a woman, and a little girl. Or at least they'll

(21:31):
need the bodies. A real, living, breathing family of three
also greatly helps. The idea is that they'll find a
family and a trio of doppelganger bodies. They'll claim the
mother and daughter were both brutally murdered right before the
father's eyes. He then takes his own life. All the paperwork,

(21:54):
especially the insurance docs, are all in order. The living family,
now allegedly deceased lays low while the body doubles are
cashed in. If necessary, Mudgeon Laycock can split off a
certain percentage to the family. Laycock doesn't see why else
the family would participate for anything less than half of the.

Speaker 3 (22:17):
Payout a real family.

Speaker 1 (22:20):
Mudget nods. He tells them that people are desperate. You
find the right kind of poor, and they'll be happy
to sell their soul, let alone fake their deaths.

Speaker 3 (22:33):
Where do we find the body?

Speaker 1 (22:37):
Mudget doesn't answer, because he doesn't know, not yet. Finding

(23:17):
a family willing to participate an insurance fraud and a
set of matching cadavers proves to be difficult. In general,
things aren't looking too great for her and Mudget. Again.
Despite his performance as a young man, Mudget isn't cut
out from ad school. He barely passes, His lab work

(23:38):
is shoddy, and he only receives his license on a
close second vote. He should feel lucky to have skated by,
but Mudget decides to throw it all away for simpler
life as a teacher, and he gets married to a
woman named Clara. The only issue is while still married

(23:59):
to her, he'll try to marry other women too. Marital
issues are hardly at task by the fall of eighteen
eighty five, though, when most people slip into financial straits
and starvation rates skyrocket across the nation.

Speaker 3 (24:14):
In the fall of eighteen eighty five starvation or staring
me at face.

Speaker 1 (24:23):
Face with poverty and famine, Mudget is absolutely crushed. What's
left of his ego from transitioning from a physician to
a teacher is shattered by the unfavorable economic times. It's
this immense pressure to not only survive, but recover and
thrive that leads Mudget down dark, insidious alleyways. All of

(24:48):
his abandoned insurance schemes come back to mind, as does
his good friend Robert Laycock. Perhaps it's time to dig
up somebodies again. Herman Mudget and Robert Laycock can't produce

(25:24):
three corpses and three living family members to pull off
their original scam, not without actually murdering anyone. Plus, how
could anyone call in their alleged deaths.

Speaker 2 (25:37):
No doctor could call three bodies at one time without
exciting suspicion.

Speaker 1 (25:44):
That doesn't deter them, though, Mudget has a new plan.
What if they could pull off his own death and
cash in on his life insurance. In eighteen eighty six,
is off to work setting the fraud in motion. It

(26:04):
makes ends meet by working at a corner drug store,
but most importantly, he maintains this job to pay the
insurance premiums. Meanwhile, he files divorce paperwork for his first wife, Clara,
and then marries a woman named Murta Belknap, although by
some accounts maybe he doesn't go through with all the paperwork.

(26:27):
Murta is not a victim of anything more than Mudget's
gift of gab. She's in on this game too, at
least that's what Mudget says. She'll play bald as long
as she gets to enjoy the fruits of their labor.
The wife is in on it. The paperwork is all
sorted out, and there's twenty thousand dollars on the line. Now,

(26:51):
all Mudget needs is a body double, a dead one,
a freshly dead one.

Speaker 2 (27:00):
I found it more difficult to obtain the body that
would substitute for my own.

Speaker 1 (27:09):
Plan B has the exact same shortcomings as Plan A.
He can't come up with any fresh corpse that would
pass for him. Teaching doesn't pay the bills they did get.
The drug story isn't helping much either. Mudget is in
desperate need of a windfall. He can't just pray money

(27:30):
into existence. Besides, no god would ever create such an
evil force as currency. He digs up fresh graves. He
searches fresh intakes at the college. Not one of them
resembles Mudget in the slightest of ways. By eighteen eighty eight,

(27:52):
Mudget has all but given up on life, and then
one day he steps up to a police officer and
quickly withdraws a handgun. Just as the cop lowers his hand,
his fingers dangling over his own piece. Mudget brings the

(28:14):
handgun to his own temple and threatens to take his
own life. Little does Mudget know how close to his
dreams this ill advised suicidal threat will bring him. Mudget

(28:55):
steps off the horse drawn omnibus into a light drizzled
near Philadelphia, before making his way into the asylum. Inside
gas lamps glow like opaque ghost against wet brick. Whatever
his motive behind the suicidal threat was, this surely isn't

(29:18):
the result he expected. Mudget knows he's made a misstep,
so he does whatever it is he needs to do
to get by for the better part of two years.
On his final morning, the deserted Ward library holds only
Mudget in his leather bound sketchbook. He spreads out two

(29:38):
years of penciled notes and draws a new plan upon
his release. If there's a lesson to be learned, Mudget
doesn't get it from his stay at the asylum. He's
ready to get back into the body trade. All he needs,
like always, is his friend Robert lake Cock. Mudget steps

(30:34):
into a faded hotel parlor. It's once beautiful plush carpet,
now threadbare and spotted with oil stains and ash. A
tarnish brass lamp cast weak halos along the scratched and
scarred mahogany tables. Mudget greets Laycock at the door with

(30:56):
a conspiratle grin one Laycock knows all too well.

Speaker 3 (31:02):
Good to see you, mister Laycock.

Speaker 1 (31:05):
Mudget says, as he leads them to the hotel room.
He ushers Laycock over to two stiff armchairs by the
heavy curtained windows. Mudget explains that he has a plan
to quickly make more money in a week than most
people make in a year. Laycock is listening, but he's

(31:26):
also watching close. As Mudget slides out a small vial
of laudanum, an alcohol tincture of opium around ten percent
of opium by weight and roughly one percent morphine dissolved
into ethanol for power, Mudget says.

Speaker 3 (31:45):
Or I'm sure the stuff is save.

Speaker 1 (31:48):
Laycock ass Mudget leans in and assures Laycock it's just
enough of a dose to calm their nerves. Mudget measures
a teaspoon or so and pours the substance into Laycock's ale.
They clink glasses. They bring their drinks to their lips

(32:08):
at the same time, but Mudget allows Laycock to take
the first sip. Moments later, Laycock's eyelids flutter in his
speech derails as he tries to shout out for help.
What did you give me?

Speaker 3 (32:25):
Just enough to make everything quieter?

Speaker 1 (32:30):
Budget walks across the room and then watches Laycock's head
slump forward. He can't help but notice just how much
Robert Laycock resembles him. The carriage slows down along a

(33:14):
deserted county lane at a little shy of midnight, A
small lantern eliminates a ditch beside the dirt road. The
hired wagging comes to a stop. Mudget turns around and
lifts the lid off of an ice chest. Inside Laycock's

(33:36):
body lies stiff, half frozen.

Speaker 3 (33:41):
Good night, mister Laycock.

Speaker 1 (33:45):
He straps a small envelope. The Laycock's lapel inside is
id paperwork for one Hermann Webster. Mudget keeping an eye
on the driver to make sure he's not looking back.
Mudget pushes his weight forward and shoves the cadaver out
of the wagon. He watches closely until what's left of

(34:11):
Robert Laycock rolls down into a ditch. Surprisingly, Mudget finds

(34:35):
success in one of his schemes. Robert Laycock's body is retrieved,
and for all intents and purposes, Herman Webster Mudget is dead.
With an extra twenty thousand dollars in his pocket, He's
now Chicago Mound to not only start his dream businesses
and to build his dream home, but to create a

(34:57):
completely new life under the name doctor Henri Howard Homes.

(35:26):
It's August eighteen eighty six and a man calling himself
Doctor Henry Howard Holmes steps off the train at Chicago's
Union Depot. He carries a single satchel, a forged medical diploma,
and twenty thousand dollars in insurance money earned allegedly from

(35:48):
the death of a man no one can quite verify.
He's twenty five, clean, shaven, a light, and he's already
planning for some far bigger than anyone around him can imagine.

(36:31):
Homes runs a corner lot at sixty third in Wallace.
At first, he opens a modest drug store, but within
months he begins drawing up plans for a three story building,
part pharmacy, part hotel, part something else. Blueprints show staircases

(36:52):
that lead nowhere, rooms without windows always that loop back
on themselves, a basement with a kiln, a dissecting table
in a shoot that drops straight from the second floor.
Holmes calls this his Castle.

Speaker 3 (37:13):
He'd fire us halfway through with the job.

Speaker 2 (37:17):
He'd they were being too nosy, and then he hires
someone new.

Speaker 3 (37:22):
The next day.

Speaker 1 (37:25):
Holmes pays in cash, he always does. He changes contractors constantly.
He does this so no one will ever see his
full plans. By eighteen eighty nine, the Murder Castle stands
three stories tall. The first story holds storefronts. The second

(37:48):
Holmes's office in a maze of guest rooms. The third unfinished,
mostly is rumored to be for the upcoming World's Fair,
but the basement the basement is finished. He lights a lantern.

(38:09):
The flame flickers against the brick walls. He walks past
the kiln, past the acid vats, past the table with
leather straps, and stops at a shoot door. He opens
it looks up.

Speaker 3 (38:26):
Her face face.

Speaker 1 (38:30):
By the time the World's Fair opens in eighteen ninety three,
thousands of people will pass through Chicago, and many will
surely check in to Holmes's new hotel, and if he
has his way, many of them will never check out.

(39:12):
It's late afternoon and the basement of the Murder Castle.
The walls are freshly bricked, the air is thick with
lime dust and damp mortar. Holmes hires a man named
Wade Warner to design and install a custom furnace in
the castle cellar. Warner is a tradesman, quiet, methodical, and

(39:35):
good with his hands. He needs money, so he doesn't
ask any questions. You want it to burn hot, You'll
need double insulation and a shoot that feeds straight in.

Speaker 3 (39:50):
Perfect making the screen.

Speaker 1 (39:57):
Warner builds the furnace to homes his exact specific vacations,
a reinforced firebox, events system that can mask odor, a
hatch wide enough for anything Holmes might need to dispose of.
Warner wipes soot from his hands, standing beside the finish furnace.

(40:22):
She'll burn clean. Just don't overload her.

Speaker 3 (40:27):
I wouldn't dream of it.

Speaker 1 (40:32):
Weeks later, Warner vanishes, no forwarding address, no final invoice.
No one ever sees him leave. Some say Holmes killed him,
that Warner became the furnaces first test. Others say he

(40:53):
skips town after seeing too much. But Holmes never denies
any of it. He never confirms it either. In the
basement home stands alone, lantern in hand, he opens the

(41:15):
furnace hatch and stares into the blackened chamber.

Speaker 3 (41:21):
She burns queen.

Speaker 1 (41:25):
Whether Wade Werner builds his own grave or simply walks away.
The furnace still remains, and Homes has only just begun
to use it. But that's next time. Unless Taken. Thank

(42:31):
you so much for checking out. The first installment of
Less Taken season four is Halloween's Special Homes Part one
and Part two. We'll continue exploring the history and laws
surrounding HH Holmes, the murder, castle is victims, and his

(42:52):
eventual demise. Stay tuned in the next couple of weeks
for a preview of part two, and then the full
episode shortly afterward. In the meantime, please let us know
what you think of the show by leaving at five
star rating wherever you're listening. You can also leave reviews

(43:12):
at less takenpod dot com, which should be up shortly
after a few upgrades. Please subscribe and tell a friend
if you enjoy Less Taken. It truly helps follow us
before we follow you on Facebook, Instagram, and threads under
the handle at less Taken Pod. A quick note on
our storytelling. While we do our best to stick to

(43:35):
the facts, we sometimes take creative liberties to maintain narrative cohesiveness.
I'm Seam Humphrees and this is Less Taken real life
horror stories from the Midwest. Once again, thanks for listening,
and I hope you join us soon for a review
of homes pr two. Oh and also be sure to

(43:59):
check out some of our plays from Halloween passed throughout
the month of October.

Speaker 2 (44:26):
Let's take into a Chase County production Chase County production

All Episodes

4.24 - Holmes, Pt. I (Chicago, IL)

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}4.24 - Holmes, Pt. I (Chicago, IL)