H.H. Holmes, of Chicago ‘House of Horrors’ infamy, was executed at Moyamensing Prison on this week in Philly history

As the sun rose on May 7, 1896, gawkers crowded outside the high stone walls of Moyamensing Prison in anticipation of the execution of one of the United States’ first serial killers.

Policemen pushed the horde away from the gates, and the horde pushed back. Observers could neither see nor hear the proceedings, but they were nevertheless drawn to the fortress by a morbid fascination.

Herman Webster Mudgett is better known as H.H. Holmes, the man who built a “House of Horrors” in Chicago where he tortured and killed unsuspecting victims between 1886 and 1894. But it was not until he killed a business partner in Philadelphia that police would discover the extent of his crimes.

In written testimony, the 34-year-old confessed to 27 murders. But some biographers count more than 200 victims.

Blocks from the site where the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair was being erected, he built a three-story mazelike mansion that newspapers would nickname “The Murder Castle.”

The “castle” was designed as a death den, with trapdoors and sliding walls, airless vaults and dissecting tables.

Holmes targeted young women who were in town for the fair, or who worked for him. He would lure them with promises of fortune or marriage, and then intimidate them into signing a life insurance policy before he whirled them through his contraptions.

By 1894, Holmes had left Chicago — fleeing creditors seeking payment for that mansion. He returned to Philadelphia; a few years earlier, he had worked at Norristown State Hospital and a drugstore on what is now Cecil B. Moore Avenue.

For his second act, he set up a bogus patent office on Callowhill Street near 13th with a would-be accomplice, Benjamin Pitezel. Their scheme was straightforward: fake Pitezel‘s death and split the $10,000 insurance money.

Instead, Holmes waited until Pitezel was drunk, lit him on fire, and burned him alive at their office. Holmes made the death look accidental, and claimed the insurance money.

In fall 1895, Holmes went on trial for Pitezel‘s murder in Philadelphia. The jury found him guilty and he was sentenced to hang.

After the trial, The Inquirer published a written confession attributed to Holmes — a confession the paper purchased — on the front page of its April 12, 1897, edition.

“I have every attribute of a degenerate — a moral idiot,” Holmes wrote.

Standing on a scaffold in the bowels of the prison, Holmes proclaimed his innocence in a short speech. His lawyer and a few priests stepped off the scaffold.

Holmes was fitted with the noose and a black cap, and was asked if he was ready.

“Yes,” Holmes said. “Goodbye.”