Most Terrifying Things About America’s First Serial Killer

H.H. Holmes Mutilated Cadaver Scam

While Holmes was studying at University of Michigan, rumors started soaring about how not all of the cadavers were acquired legally, but it wasn’t anything for concern. This urban legend was (and still is) a pretty common ghost story that was told among students at medical campuses around the country.

In reality, Holmes had a weird link to the cadavers, but it wasn’t initially murder (yet, anyway). Years after attending university, Holmes admitted that he used the cadavers to commit insurance fraud. While he was charged with performing autopsies, Holmes would purposely mutilate the bodies and claim they were victims of accidents in order to collect insurance money. However, perhaps it was the gross acts of mutilation that caused him to become fascinated with the human body in an even more grotesque way that he was initially. While it can never be known for sure, his bloody obsession had to have started somewhere.