H. H. Holmes

Herman Webster Mudgett, better known as Dr. Henry Howard Holmes or H. H. Holmes, was an American serial killer. While he confessed to 27 murders, he was convicted and sentenced to death for only one murder, that of accomplice and business partner Benjamin Pitezel. Despite his confession of 27 murders after the Pitezel trial awaiting execution, it is speculated that Holmes may have killed as many as 200 people. Victims were killed in a mixed-use building which he owned in Chicago, located about 3 miles (5 km) west of the 1893 World's Fair: Columbian Exposition, supposedly called the World's Fair Hotel, though evidence suggests the hotel portion was never truly open for business.