This Notorious Serial Killer Once Had a Texas Murder House

The name "H.H. Holmes" is without a doubt one of the most well known serial killers in the United States; his reign of terror lasted between 1891-1895 as he would would travel from Chicago to Texas to Philadelphia. Yes while we know his crimes were committed in Chicago, turns out Holmes tried to have a 2ND home in Fort Worth, Texas.

Why did H.H. Holmes travel to Texas?

The reason why ANYONE would move...love. Well the love for a woman AND the love for her wealth. H.H. Holmes would meet Minnie Williams, a Fort Worth native who was going to school in Boston, when the 2 would meet. Minnie inherited a lot of property, some of it was sold to Alexander Bond, a friend of Holmes. He began building a house under the supervision of a man named Mr. O.C. Pratt.

The crazy part was...the story goes that they were all fake identities for Holmes, whose real name was Herman Mudgett. His final act in Chicago before moving to Chicago was killing Minnie by poisoning her and burying her under the hotel he owned in Chicago.

After that, Holmes (aka Herman Mudgett) would travel to Texas to began work on his own "Texas Murder Castle" in Downtown Fort Worth; his plan was to make a house almost exactly like his place in Chicago, complete with the gas chamber & kilns to burn the bodies.

After 4 months of staying there, however, this plan would never come to fruition as the local authorities were made aware that he stole some horses in Texas and Holmes refused to stay in Forth Worth to get caught. He would travel to Philadelphia, where was arrested and sentenced to death in 1896.

So where is H.H. Holmes' Texas Murder Castle now?

Well this is where things get a bit interesting. Many historians believe the hotel would change its name from The Pratt Building to becoming the St. Elmo Hotel. The place would be at the corner of 2nd St & Rusk St but it would be burnt down in 1907. Rusk Street would be renamed to Commerce Street in 1909, meaning the building would've been somewhere at this corner.

It's hard to know EXACTLY which building USED to be the old Holmes Texas Murder Hotel as there's a building at each corner between 2nd St & Commerce St. If you want to see what the corner looks like NOW, here it is.

It's believed that the hotel sat in the spot that the Waters restaurant is today, right across from the Fire Stations No. 1.

This is certainly not the only case of a killer living in Texas; you can read about the Texas criminal who blew up a plane here.

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