Feb. 28, 2026

True Crime Blueprint - Building a Murder Business: HH Holmes and the Industrialization of Death

True Crime Blueprint - Building a Murder Business: HH Holmes and the Industrialization of Death
Spotify podcast player badge
Apple Podcasts podcast player badge
Pandora podcast player badge
Amazon Music podcast player badge
Podchaser podcast player badge
Spreaker podcast player badge
RSS Feed podcast player badge
Audible podcast player badge
Castbox podcast player badge
iHeartRadio podcast player badge
Castro podcast player badge
Deezer podcast player badge
YouTube podcast player badge
Spotify podcast player iconApple Podcasts podcast player iconPandora podcast player iconAmazon Music podcast player iconPodchaser podcast player iconSpreaker podcast player iconRSS Feed podcast player iconAudible podcast player iconCastbox podcast player iconiHeartRadio podcast player iconCastro podcast player iconDeezer podcast player iconYouTube podcast player icon
WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:02.799
Hi, it's Joe, and what you are about to hear

2
00:00:03.000 --> 00:00:05.799
is a sample of an episode from a new podcast

3
00:00:05.839 --> 00:00:09.759
I created called True Crime Blueprint. Now, if you like

4
00:00:09.839 --> 00:00:11.880
it it vibes with what you're looking for in a

5
00:00:11.919 --> 00:00:15.039
true crime podcast, go over and subscribe to the new one.

6
00:00:15.320 --> 00:00:17.199
You can find links if you need them in the

7
00:00:17.239 --> 00:00:21.440
episode notes of this episode. I'll be releasing weekly episodes there,

8
00:00:21.800 --> 00:00:25.199
full deep dives, no ten minute restriction. So again, if

9
00:00:25.239 --> 00:00:27.039
you like this new podcast and you want to hear

10
00:00:27.039 --> 00:00:30.000
the full episode, it's very important that you search for

11
00:00:30.440 --> 00:00:32.479
or go to the episode notes of this episode to

12
00:00:32.479 --> 00:00:37.479
find the links for True Crime Blueprint. There's this assumption

13
00:00:37.679 --> 00:00:42.759
that serial killers are driven by compulsion, by sexual sadism,

14
00:00:43.039 --> 00:00:47.600
or rage, or psychotic delusions, that they're fundamentally broken in

15
00:00:47.640 --> 00:00:50.240
a way that makes them kill. But what if I

16
00:00:50.280 --> 00:00:53.600
told you about someone who started out as a straightforward

17
00:00:53.679 --> 00:00:57.799
con artist running insurance scams and frauds and sort of

18
00:00:58.039 --> 00:01:01.520
drifted into murder because it was more efficient than the

19
00:01:01.560 --> 00:01:07.280
cons that's H. H. Holmes. He had a business problem

20
00:01:07.439 --> 00:01:11.920
and murder became his solution. This is True Crime Blueprint.

21
00:01:23.599 --> 00:01:27.480
Before we get into who Herman Webster Mudget became We

22
00:01:27.519 --> 00:01:30.599
need to understand what he was trying to do. This

23
00:01:30.799 --> 00:01:34.560
was eighteen eighties America and the country was building systems

24
00:01:34.599 --> 00:01:39.120
faster than it could secure them. Life insurance is becoming standardized,

25
00:01:39.200 --> 00:01:41.879
but companies in different states don't talk to each other.

26
00:01:42.560 --> 00:01:44.799
Railroads mean you can be in three different cities in

27
00:01:44.840 --> 00:01:48.879
a week using three different names. The postal service is expanding,

28
00:01:49.000 --> 00:01:52.319
but there's no way to verify who's actually sending these letters.

29
00:01:53.000 --> 00:01:56.120
Herman Mudget looked at all of this and saw an opportunity,

30
00:01:57.000 --> 00:02:00.640
opportunity to make money. When he enrolled at the University

31
00:02:00.640 --> 00:02:03.640
of Michigan Medical School in eighteen eighty two, he was

32
00:02:03.719 --> 00:02:07.439
already running minor cons He'd take out small loans using

33
00:02:07.439 --> 00:02:11.800
fake names, buy things on credit, and skip town standard

34
00:02:11.879 --> 00:02:15.360
grifter stuff. But medical school introduced him to something new,

35
00:02:16.120 --> 00:02:20.599
the cadaver trade. Medical schools needed fresh bodies for dissection.

36
00:02:21.280 --> 00:02:24.960
Legal sources were limited, so there was this whole underground

37
00:02:25.039 --> 00:02:28.680
market for corpses. Mudget got involved, and somewhere in that

38
00:02:28.759 --> 00:02:33.280
process he had a realization a dead body was a commodity.

39
00:02:34.039 --> 00:02:37.719
It had value, and more importantly, it could represent anyone

40
00:02:37.759 --> 00:02:41.840
you claimed it was. His first insurance fraud was almost

41
00:02:41.840 --> 00:02:45.439
elegant in its simplicity. He'd take out a life insurance

42
00:02:45.479 --> 00:02:48.400
policy on a person who did not even exist, and

43
00:02:48.439 --> 00:02:53.240
then acquire a cadaver, disfigure it enough to make identification difficult,

44
00:02:53.719 --> 00:02:57.159
and then report that death. The insurance companies would pay out,

45
00:02:57.280 --> 00:03:00.639
and then he'd disappear with the money. This is a four.

46
00:03:00.919 --> 00:03:04.960
There's no fingerprint database, no forensic dental records, and no

47
00:03:05.120 --> 00:03:08.879
system for verifying claims across state lines. He was making

48
00:03:08.919 --> 00:03:12.840
money and nobody was getting hurt, at least not yet.

49
00:03:13.400 --> 00:03:17.879
Between eighteen eighty seven and eighteen ninety two, Holmes constructed

50
00:03:17.919 --> 00:03:22.039
his three story building at sixty third in Wallace in Inglewood,

51
00:03:22.680 --> 00:03:24.240
And I need to be really clear about what this

52
00:03:24.319 --> 00:03:27.840
building actually was, because the newspapers of the era, and

53
00:03:28.039 --> 00:03:32.319
honestly most retelling sense have turned this into a gothic

54
00:03:32.560 --> 00:03:37.319
nightmare castle with hundreds of rooms and torture chambers. What

55
00:03:37.400 --> 00:03:41.840
Homes built was a processing facility. The first floor had

56
00:03:42.120 --> 00:03:46.560
legitimate retail space, the pharmacy, some shops. That's where the

57
00:03:46.599 --> 00:03:49.280
money came in. The second floor had apartments where he

58
00:03:49.319 --> 00:03:53.080
could house employees and women he was courting. That's where

59
00:03:53.120 --> 00:03:56.680
he maintained control over people, and the third floor was

60
00:03:56.680 --> 00:03:59.800
supposed to be a hotel, but it was never actually completed.

61
00:04:00.560 --> 00:04:04.080
That was the future expansion of the operation. The hidden

62
00:04:04.120 --> 00:04:07.800
features tell you what this building was really for. Holmes

63
00:04:08.080 --> 00:04:12.520
constantly changed contractors during construction. He'd hire someone to build

64
00:04:12.599 --> 00:04:16.199
one section, then fire them and hire someone else. He'd

65
00:04:16.199 --> 00:04:20.240
claim there were mistakes, demand changes, refused to pay. The

66
00:04:20.319 --> 00:04:23.639
points was that no single person ever understood the full

67
00:04:23.720 --> 00:04:27.120
layout of this place. The second floor had rooms that

68
00:04:27.160 --> 00:04:30.240
could be locked from the outside and sound proofed. There

69
00:04:30.279 --> 00:04:33.480
were gas jets homes could control from his bedroom to

70
00:04:33.600 --> 00:04:37.439
asphyxiate people quietly in their rooms. There were huts that

71
00:04:37.560 --> 00:04:40.519
led from the second floor directly to the basement, so

72
00:04:40.600 --> 00:04:43.120
you could move a body without being seen by other tenants.

73
00:04:43.879 --> 00:04:47.079
And the basement was where the disposal happened. There was

74
00:04:47.120 --> 00:04:50.959
a dissection table, a furnace large enough to cremate human beings,

75
00:04:51.399 --> 00:04:55.800
vats of acid and quicklimeb for dissolving flesh. Some accounts

76
00:04:55.800 --> 00:04:59.680
suggest that Holmes had surgical equipment down there, though exact

77
00:04:59.720 --> 00:05:04.000
image was never fully documented. Here's the thing Holmes had

78
00:05:04.079 --> 00:05:08.639
learned in medical school that articulated skeletons had value. Medical

79
00:05:08.680 --> 00:05:11.600
schools would pay for them, so he was processing bodies

80
00:05:11.600 --> 00:05:15.560
for multiple purposes. The acid would strip the flesh, he'd

81
00:05:15.680 --> 00:05:19.360
articulate the bones, bleach them. Whatever he actually sold to

82
00:05:19.399 --> 00:05:22.480
the medical schools was debated by historians, but the equipment

83
00:05:22.519 --> 00:05:26.839
to do so was definitely there. This was infrastructure. The

84
00:05:26.879 --> 00:05:29.959
sound proofing meant that he could work without interruption. The

85
00:05:30.000 --> 00:05:33.079
gas jets meant that he could kill without physical struggle.

86
00:05:33.600 --> 00:05:36.839
The disposal system meant that he could eliminate evidence efficiently.

87
00:05:37.480 --> 00:05:41.360
Target identification happened in the pharmacy. Isolation happened on the

88
00:05:41.360 --> 00:05:46.160
second floor the apartments, execution happened in the soundproof rooms,

89
00:05:46.800 --> 00:05:49.720
Processing and disposal happened in the basement, and through it

90
00:05:49.759 --> 00:05:53.959
all he was generating revenue at every single stage. By

91
00:05:54.000 --> 00:05:56.839
eighteen ninety four, Holmes had been operating this way for

92
00:05:57.000 --> 00:06:00.680
nearly a decade, and then he reconnected with Binge and Pitzel,

93
00:06:01.160 --> 00:06:04.000
a carpenter and con artist he had worked with before.

94
00:06:04.519 --> 00:06:07.480
Pitzel was very good at forgery, good at playing roles

95
00:06:07.519 --> 00:06:10.759
in insurance scams, but he was also drinking heavily and

96
00:06:10.800 --> 00:06:15.480
became completely unreliable. Holmes decided they'd do one more job together,

97
00:06:16.160 --> 00:06:19.920
a big one. The plan was to defraud the Fidelity

98
00:06:20.000 --> 00:06:23.720
Mutual Life Association for ten thousand dollars, which would be

99
00:06:23.759 --> 00:06:27.680
over three hundred thousand today. They'd fake Pitzel's death, use

100
00:06:27.720 --> 00:06:30.600
a cadaver to stand in for his body, disfigure it

101
00:06:30.639 --> 00:06:34.120
to match Pitzel's description, and his wife Carrie would collect

102
00:06:34.120 --> 00:06:37.279
the insurance. Then Pitzel would disappear to start a new

103
00:06:37.319 --> 00:06:41.040
life somewhere else, and they'd split the money. Except Holmes

104
00:06:41.160 --> 00:06:44.240
changed the plan because why go through the trouble of

105
00:06:44.240 --> 00:06:47.759
finding a suitable cadaver when you could just kill Pitzel himself.

106
00:06:48.360 --> 00:06:52.639
It was cleaner, fewer loose ends. On September two, eighteen

107
00:06:52.759 --> 00:06:57.439
ninety four, in Philadelphia, Holmes killed Pitzel using chloroform and

108
00:06:57.480 --> 00:06:59.600
burned his body with benzene to make it look like

109
00:06:59.600 --> 00:07:03.399
an accidental lab explosion. And here's where the con artist

110
00:07:03.560 --> 00:07:07.759
fully becomes the monster. After killing Pitzel, Holmes went to

111
00:07:07.800 --> 00:07:10.439
his widow, Carrie and told her that her husband was

112
00:07:10.480 --> 00:07:13.560
still alive, but in hiding. He said they needed to

113
00:07:13.639 --> 00:07:18.160
keep moving to avoid insurance investigators. Holmes took custody of

114
00:07:18.240 --> 00:07:22.240
three of Pitzel's children, Alice, Nellie, and Howard claiming that

115
00:07:22.279 --> 00:07:24.439
he was taking him to meet their father in London.

116
00:07:25.120 --> 00:07:27.879
For months, he moved Carrie and her two remaining children

117
00:07:27.959 --> 00:07:31.240
through the northern United States and Canada, staying in different cities,

118
00:07:31.560 --> 00:07:33.920
always a few days behind the group with the other

119
00:07:33.959 --> 00:07:37.360
three children. The kids kept writing letters to their mother

120
00:07:37.480 --> 00:07:41.040
asking when they'd see her. Holmes would intercept these letters

121
00:07:41.120 --> 00:07:45.199
and write fake replies. He kept everyone separated and confused

122
00:07:45.360 --> 00:07:47.920
while he figured out what to do with them. He

123
00:07:48.000 --> 00:07:50.839
killed all three children. They were starting to ask questions

124
00:07:50.839 --> 00:07:53.759
about where their father was, and if anyone started investigating,

125
00:07:53.759 --> 00:07:56.680
they might be able to identify Pitzel's body. They were

126
00:07:56.720 --> 00:08:00.360
loose ends in the fraud scheme, and Holmes eliminated those

127
00:08:00.399 --> 00:08:04.160
loose ends. Alice and Nelly were asphyxiated and buried in

128
00:08:04.199 --> 00:08:07.680
a basement in Toronto. Howard was killed and his body

129
00:08:07.720 --> 00:08:11.480
partially burned in a chimney in Indianapolis. Those were the

130
00:08:11.519 --> 00:08:16.199
costs of doing business with H. H. Holmes. Holmes finally

131
00:08:16.199 --> 00:08:19.639
got caught because of a completely different crime. He was

132
00:08:19.759 --> 00:08:22.839
arrested in Saint Louis for a horse theft scheme, and

133
00:08:22.920 --> 00:08:26.560
one of his accomplices, Marian Hedgepeth, decided to rat him out.

134
00:08:27.040 --> 00:08:30.639
Hedgepeth told the police about holmes insurance fraud plans, which

135
00:08:30.720 --> 00:08:33.799
led investigators to look into the Pizel death more closely.

136
00:08:34.519 --> 00:08:38.279
They realized the burned body in Philadelphia really was Benjamin Pitzel,

137
00:08:38.679 --> 00:08:41.200
and once they figured that out, they started wondering where

138
00:08:41.240 --> 00:08:45.279
Carrie's three missing children were. The Philadelphia Police Department assigned

139
00:08:45.279 --> 00:08:49.159
Detective Frank Geyer to find them. Geyer's investigation is fascinating

140
00:08:49.200 --> 00:08:52.399
because he approached it like you'd approach a financial audit.

141
00:08:52.879 --> 00:08:56.840
He started with Holmes's paper trail, every train ticket, every

142
00:08:56.840 --> 00:09:01.200
rental agreement, every hotel registry. Holmes had been careful about

143
00:09:01.240 --> 00:09:04.279
using aliases to cover his tracks, but he'd also been

144
00:09:04.360 --> 00:09:09.360
keeping receipts because he was fundamentally a businessman. He tracked expenses,

145
00:09:09.399 --> 00:09:14.240
he documented transactions. Geire followed that paper trail across six states,

146
00:09:14.639 --> 00:09:18.759
visiting every city where Holmes had stayed. He used newspapers

147
00:09:18.799 --> 00:09:22.360
to spread information about the missing children, essentially crowdsourcing the

148
00:09:22.399 --> 00:09:27.519
investigation before that was even a concept, and slowly, methodically

149
00:09:27.919 --> 00:09:32.759
he reconstructed Holmes's movements. In Toronto, a landlord recognized the

150
00:09:32.799 --> 00:09:36.000
description and remembered renting to a man with two little girls.

151
00:09:36.679 --> 00:09:39.840
Geier searched the property at sixteen Saint Vincent's Streets and

152
00:09:39.879 --> 00:09:42.799
found Alice and Nelly's bodies in a shallow grave in

153
00:09:42.840 --> 00:09:46.720
the cellar. In Indianapolis, neighbors remembered a boy who stayed

154
00:09:46.720 --> 00:09:50.240
briefly at a cottage Holmes had rented. Geyer found bone

155
00:09:50.279 --> 00:09:53.639
fragments and teeth in the chimney. The discovery of those

156
00:09:53.720 --> 00:09:57.399
children's bodies was what broke the case open, because Holmes

157
00:09:57.399 --> 00:10:00.720
could explain away a lot of things he blame. Pitzel's

158
00:10:00.759 --> 00:10:03.440
death was accidental. He could say the insurance claim was

159
00:10:03.440 --> 00:10:07.360
a misunderstanding. But you can't explain away three dead children

160
00:10:07.480 --> 00:10:12.200
burned in your rental properties. Holmes is trial in October eighth. Okay,

161
00:10:12.240 --> 00:10:14.919
that's just a sample of what you can hear over

162
00:10:15.000 --> 00:10:17.879
at True Crime Blueprint. If you liked what you heard,

163
00:10:18.279 --> 00:10:20.360
you can look in the episode notes right now of

164
00:10:20.399 --> 00:10:23.759
this episode, or just search for True Crime Blueprint and

165
00:10:23.840 --> 00:10:26.399
it'll be right there. And thanks for giving it a try.