H.H.Holmes and Fred West

H H Holmes, born Herman Webster Mudgett, is considered one of the most notorious serial killers of all time. Born in 1861, Holmes was a late nineteenth-century con-man and murderer who is believed to have killed as many as 200 people in and around the Chicago area.

Though he initially lured victims with promises of false jobs and other unscrupulous tenants, Holmes then imprisoned them, allegedly after torturing and killing them. He opened a three-story hotel – now infamously known as “the Murder Castle” – in the Englewood neighborhood of Chicago. Holmes designed the hotel in such a way as to make it easy for him to carry out his crimes, adding features such as soundproof walls, secret passageways, and various hidden torture chambers.

In addition to his infamous castle, Holmes often moved from one city to another, choosing to set up temporary shops and hotels, where he could target unsuspecting victims. He had a habit of registering in each new hotel under a different alias, making it difficult for authorities to track him. It is believed that he was able to move throughout the country undetected and acquire his victims with relative ease.

Holmes was finally arrested in 1894 and put on trial for the murder of his business partner Benjamin Pitezel and his family. Despite admitting to the murders, Holmes was acquitted of the charges due to a lack of evidence. After being released from prison in 1895, he was arrested again in Philadelphia and charged with the insurance fraud. A jury found him guilty and he was hanged on May 7, 1896.

In the years since Holmes’ brief life of crime, he has become an infamous symbol of terror. His story has inspired a number of books, television shows, and films, which characterize Holmes in various ways as a sinister and calculating criminal. For many, Holmes stands as a reminder of the darkest aspects of human nature and the evils that men are capable of committing.

Fred West, a British serial killer, was born in 1941 in a rural area of Gloucestershire, England. He was the seventh child of Daisy and Walter West. His early years onward were characterized by a troubled home life and West's development of a fascination for sadistic behavior.

Throughout his adulthood, West was an avid collector of pornography and was known to have committed several offences, from petty theft to rape. He was even arrested in 1968 for the rape of his first wife, Rena. Not long after, he married his second wife, Catherine. This marriage saw West begin to commit more serious crimes and increase the level of intensity in his sexual impulses. In the early 1970s, West and his wife moved to Cromwell Street in Gloucester where the pair engaged in a string of abductions and murders targeting young women.

The scale of West's crimes were only discovered after he and his wife were arrested in 1994. During the investigation, West had initially insisted his role in the murders were solely in the assistance of disposing of the victims after they had already died, however testimony from several family members, including his daughter Anne-Marie and his stepdaughter Charmaine, revealed that West had been an active participant in the murders.

The discovery of dismembered bodies in the garden of West's home was considered one of the most harrowing discoveries in British criminal history. By the time of West's trial, there were 12 murder convictions against him. He remained uncooperative throughout the trial, and his wife received a whole life sentence. West was found dead in prison while awaiting the trial, in 1995.

In the aftermath of the investigation, it was determined that Fred West served as a catalyst for the introduction of more rigorous police research into missing persons cases, as well as more stringent child protection protocols. He became one of the most notorious figures in British criminal history, remembered for his heinous and sadistic acts towards at least a dozen victims.