Most Terrifying Things About America’s First Serial Killer

Holmes’ Burial Site to be Exhumed

Since his 1896 hanging and bizarre burial request, rumors have swirled that H.H. Holmes had faked his own death. In his book H.H. Holmes: The True History of the White City Devil, author Adam Selzer claims that one of Holmes’ accomplices told the media that somehow Holmes avoided his own death.

According to the accomplice, Holmes was allegedly able to persuade a prison guard to swap out a corpse for his own body and then smuggle him out of the facility in a coffin. In 2017, some of Holmes’ descendants requested to have his grave exhumed and find out the truth once and for all. Three great-grandchildren, Richard and John Mudgett and Cynthia Mudgett Soriano, made the request and submitted their DNA for testing at the University of Pennsylvania. However, the family is not publicly commenting on the issue and is not expected to release the results of the investigation to the public.