Most Terrifying Things About America’s First Serial Killer

The Traumatizing Beginnings

H.H. Holmes proved to be a conniving and confusing character and perhaps this can be attributed to the way he was brought up. Sources say that a young Herman Webster Mudgett was terribly bullied as a child. Although, one could also argue that many children face bullying without becoming serial murderers.

Then again, for every bullied child that ends up leading normal and happy life, there is a killer like the Columbine shooting killers for instance. In addition to being bullied by his schoolmates, Holmes was also afraid of the doctor, as most kids tend to be. In order to taunt him, kids forced Mudgett to stand in front of the human skeleton at the doctor’s office. But the trauma must have sparked something in him because Holmes said that “the experiences exorcised him of his fears about death, and may have lead to his fascination with it,” according to Mental Floss.