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| Leonardo DiCaprio will play serial killer H H Holmes |
HH HOLMES burned, poisoned, gassed and tortured up to 200 people. Leonardo DiCaprio plays the sadistic monster in Martin Scorcese's new film The Devil in the White City as new controversy surrounds his next film The Revenant.
Herman Webster Mudgett is one of the most notorious and prolific serial killers in history.
Better known as Dr. Henry Howard Holmes or just H H Holmes, he is accused of killing up to 200 people in a variety of extraordinarily horrific ways.
It is a staggering tale of unimaginable horrors and gruesome deaths that is already being tipped to give DiCaprio another shot at that elusive Best Actor Oscar.
SCROLL DOWN FOR DETAILS ABOUT HOLMES' HORRIFIC KILLING SPREE AND OWN DEATH
The Devil in the White City will bring the appalling true story to life, with Martin Scorcese directing his favourite leading man in the central role.
The superstar pair previously worked together on major hits like Wolf of Wall Street, Shutter Island and Gangs of New York, but their latest project is generating enormous buzz, due to the extraordinary nature of its subject matter.
Holmes didn't just kill his victims, he delighted in torturing them in many different and appalling ways.
In the end, his own painful death was just as terrible.
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| Newspapers followed the case of H H Holmes |
Holmes operated out of his Chicago hotel, dubbed The Castle by neighbours and opened in 1893 for the Chicago World's Fair.
A labyrinthine system of 100 windowless rooms hid his dreadful crimes.
Soundproof bedrooms fitted with gas lines let him asphyxiate victims and a room panelled in iron plates had blowtorches to incinerate them while the "secret hanging chamber" was the location for lynchings.
Other victims were simply locked in a huge soundproof bank vault near his office, where they were left to suffocate.
Holmes disposed of the bodies down a secret chute to the basement.
Some were dissected, stripped of flesh and sold to medical schools as skeletons. Others were buried in lime or acid pits while two giant furnaces were used to incinerate yet more bodies as well as incriminating evidence.
It was murder on a horrific and mind-boggling scale.
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| Floor plan of Holmes' Castle shows where he killed his victims |
Holmes himself never repented of his crimes, merely commenting that he was touched by Satan.
"I was born with the devil in me," he boasted. "I could not help the fact that I was a murderer, no more than the poet can help the inspiration to sing.
"I was born with the 'Evil One' standing as my sponsor beside the bed where I was ushered into the world, and he has been with me since."
Holmes' victims were mainly women (and primarily blonde), but included some men and children.
Only 27 have been verified, although police reported that many of the bodies were so badly dismembered and decomposed that it was difficult to tell how many there actually were.
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| The notorious 'Castle' where Holmes killed his victims |
In October 1895, Holmes was put on trial for the murder of his accomplice Benjamin Pitezel. He was found guilty and sentenced to death, aged just 34.
Holmes confessed to 30 murders in Chicago, Indianapolis and Toronto and six attempted murders but his faculty for lying has made it difficult for researchers to confirm the truth of any of his subsequent statements.
On May 7, 1896, Holmes was hanged at Moyamensing Prison, also known as the Philadelphia County Prison. Disturbingly, he remained calm and charming to the very end.
Fittingly, Holmes' own death was almost as gruesome as those he inflicted on others.
His neck did not snap when he was hanged. Instead, he was strangled to death slowly.
His body twitched on the end of the rope for over 15 minutes before Holmes was finally pronounced dead 20 long minutes after the trap had been sprung.
It's even more disturbing to think that he probably would have revelled in the news that his life story is being brought to life by one of the biggest stars in the world.
The upcoming film is based on Erik Larson's 2003 examination of Holmes' terrible crimes, The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America.
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