H. H. Holmes is often called "America's First Serial Killer," but if you say that, people will cite Albert Fish, Boone Helm, or the Bloody Benders as earlier examples. And there may have been others we don't know about. Be that as it may, Holmes was terrifying- once he got caught. That's when the secrets of a building he owned were revealed, and it became known as the Murder Castle.
But we still don't know the extent of Homes' crimes. He confessed to 27 murders, but not all those people were even dead at the time. Some estimate the total to be in the hundreds, but he was only convicted of one murder. Historians have since confirmed at least nine victims, and suspect many others. Homes had plenty of other crimes in his history, too, and the part of his story that may be the most shocking is how many red flags were ignored before he was finally stopped. Weird History tells us what we now know about Dr. Henry Howard Holmes, which wasn't even his real name.
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