What type of burial does a serial killer request in the late 1890s? Well, if you are H.H. Holmes/Herman Mudgett, you request to be buried 10 feet underground, not six. Additionally, you ask to be entirely encased in cement.
Why? Because Holmes knew how valuable bodies were to medical schools. He used this exact method to dispose of at least a few of his victims – selling the articulated skeletons to medical instructors. Holmes also didn’t want to be the object of curiosity after he died. Our famous serial killer only enjoyed the limelight when he controlled it, demanding nearly a quarter of a million dollars in today’s money for his ‘confession’.
Y’all are in luck because they exhumed his body fairly recently (2017). There had been a rumor since he was hanged in 1897 that a ‘replacement’ stood in his stead at the hanging and that Holmes had never really been executed.
He really was down there, under a false empty coffin, 10 feet in the ground, encased in cement (pronounced see-ment in these parts). For a fantastic two part article about the science behind the exhumation, check out the Philly Voice.
https://www.phillyvoice.com/a-death-defying-dig-at-the-grave-of-a-serial-killer-/
