Today in History: A Serial Murderer Caught

On this day (November 17) in 1894 H.H. Holmes was arrested in Boston. He is one of the first serial murderers caught in the modern era. He confessed to murdering 27 people (some of whom, strangely enough, were still alive at the time of his confession). Authorities prosecuted him on the 9 murders they could prove. (Later, pulp writers of the 1940s would inflate the number of his victims to over 200.)

Holmes’ first two victims were his mistress, Julia Smythe, and her young daughter, Pearl. Smythe’s husband abandoned her when he learned of her affair with Holmes and she became dependent on him. A few months later she and her daughter “disappeared”. He was executed on May 7, 1896.