The Haunting Case of H.H. Holmes
HISTORY This Week
The HISTORY® Channel | Back Pocket Studios
4.5 • 4.2K Ratings
🗓️ 27 October 2025
⏱️ 32 minutes
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Summary
October 28, 1895. It’s the first day of a murder trial in Philadelphia, and H.H. Holmes has been left to represent himself. His lawyers say they haven’t had time to prepare for his case, although they may just want to avoid defending the man some newspapers are already saying is “sure to grace a gallows.” Holmes has been accused of murdering his business associate, but rumors swirl that he may have killed dozens, even hundreds more.
A century later, some still call him "America's first serial killer." But how did H.H. Holmes earn this reputation? And why is it so hard to learn the truth about this legendary fiend?
Special thanks to Adam Selzer, author of H.H. Holmes: The True Story of the White City Devil, and Harold Schechter, professor emeritus of literature at Queens College and author of Depraved: The Shocking True Story of America's First Serial Killer.
** This episode originally aired October 25, 2021.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The History Channel, original podcast. |
| 0:05.2 | History this week, October 28, 1895. |
| 0:11.9 | I'm Sally Helm. |
| 0:14.5 | A Philadelphia courtroom. |
| 0:17.5 | Murder trial, day one. |
| 0:20.7 | 60 potential jurors are waiting to be vetted. First up is a street |
| 0:26.4 | car conductor named Enoch Turner. He stands, swears to tell the truth, gives his profession, |
| 0:33.1 | his address, and after the preliminaries, the lawyer's first question is this. Do you, Enoch Turner, |
| 0:41.8 | already have an opinion about the guilt or innocence of this prisoner? |
| 0:48.6 | The prisoner in question is sitting right there before the jurors. |
| 0:53.4 | Herman Mudgeett, alias H.H. Holmes. |
| 0:58.3 | He has a mustache and a pointed goatee. |
| 1:01.4 | He's pale, fidgeting. |
| 1:03.9 | He stands accused of killing one of his business associates, a man named Benjamin Pitzel. |
| 1:10.6 | But in the press, he's been accused of much, much more. |
| 1:16.2 | It's said that Holmes might have murdered hundreds of people in Chicago, that he built and |
| 1:22.4 | occupied a horrifying castle of death in the city, with rooms that people are calling the death shaft, |
| 1:29.6 | the black closet, and the room of the three corpses. It's been reported that bones were found |
| 1:36.3 | in his basement, that his castle contains a mysterious soundproof room. Many times a murderer, |
| 1:47.8 | said one headline in San Francisco, another in Nashville, |
| 1:56.5 | he sups on crime. So it's no wonder that some of the prospective jurors assembled in this courtroom may already have some thoughts about the case. Enoch Turner answers the question honestly. |
| 2:02.9 | Does he have an opinion about the guilt or innocence of H.H. Holmes? |
... |
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