Most Terrifying Things About America’s First Serial Killer

A Story Full Of Holes

While Lattimer’s story was full of holes, Holmes himself claimed to have killed Lattimer, which was obviously untrue since Lattimer was still alive to make claims years later. Holmes expert Matt Lake told NBC Chicago that the story of Holmes’s escape to South America was “quite a popular story at the time”.

“A cynical person might say this was just designed to sell more newspapers, and it did sell newspapers!” The reason that so many different theories and sensationalized stories popped up at the time of Holmes’s conviction and death was because this was the era that Yellow Journalism was at its height. Yellow journalism, of course, refers to stories that were highly exaggerated or based on sensationalism. One might argue that we have entered into another such period, albeit perhaps a bit milder, especially when looking at particular news networks for instance. Either way, a near legendary idea of H.H. Holmes definitely propagated itself.