H. H. Holmes was a serial killer in Chicago who was publicly hanged in 1896. Holmes, despite (or maybe because of) years of dismembering his
victims, was deathly afraid of grave robbers, and requested that his
casket be filled with concrete. And so it was. However, rumor has it that Holmes was not the man hanged that day.
Following
the hanging, rumors spread far and wide that Holmes – a master con man
and manipulator – had paid off prison guards to hang a cadaver or some
unsuspecting fellow inmate in his place and let him slip off into hiding
in South America. Now, almost 121 years later and following a request
from a descendant of Holmes, a Pennsylvania court has issued an order to
have the alleged remains of the murderer dug up from his unmarked grave
in Holy Cross Cemetery outside of Philadelphia.
“Why are we
still fascinated by him?” John Russick, vice president for
interpretation and education at the Chicago History Museum, told Fox
News. “Part of it is the morbid curiosity in his crimes, but part of it
is the effort to confirm that he is dead and was not actually able to
outwit the law. There is the desire to confirm that legend is not true.”
We can all assume he
is
dead, whether or not he is buried in that specific grave. The
University of Pennsylvania’s Department of Anthropology will do the
forensics to identify whether the remains are those of Holmes. I'm sure
the exhumation has nothing to do with the
upcoming movie about Holmes.
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