H.H. Holmes, the murderer/insurance fraudster/bigamist at the center of our story, sold not only his memoir from his prison cell in 1895, he sold his own confession. He confessed to killing 27 people. We know for a fact that he killed 9 people. (Undisputed kills: Minnie and Nannie Williams from the Dallas area, the three Pitezel children, their father Benjamin Pitezel, Emeline Cigrand, plus Julia and Pearl Connor. Emeline was Holmes’ secretary at one time while Julia and Pearl Connor were mother and daughter. Julia developed a relationship with Holmes after he convinced her to leave her husband. As soon as she left her husband, Holmes killed her and her daughter.)
You might have heard that Holmes is suspected of killing roughly 200 people. This number was arrived at in newspapers that ran well after Holmes had been put to death. The number was calculated by collecting information on everyone who never returned home after a trip to Chicago for the World’s Fair. It is entirely possible that some of these missing people met with foul play, but most likely moved on with their lives, losing contact with their families. Others might have died of natural causes while in Chicago or lead lives they didn’t necessarily want their families back home knowing about (the stock market crash of 1893 left many people destitute and desperate).
