MURDER HOTEL
Produced, written & directed by
David Monaghan
DAVID MONAGHAN PRODUCTIONS
In association with ITV West & Barcud Derwen for five (c) 2005

SCRIPT

CLICK PIX TO VIEW FULL-SIZE.

Part One

NARRATOR:
IN 1995, A NEW JERSEY COLLECTOR BOUGHT A BATCH OF 100-YEAR-OLD WAX CYLINDER RECORDINGS. WHEN HE PLAYED THEM, HE HEARD MORE THAN THE TUNES HE'D BARGAINED FOR. ONE RECORDING WAS OF A MAN ADMITTING TO MULTIPLE MURDER.

Imitation of wax cylinder voice:
I regret only one murder and that was of Minnie Williams - because I think I loved her, loved her.

NARRATOR:
THE CONFESSION WERE MADE BY A DOCTOR, HH HOLMES, DAYS BEFORE HE WAS HANGED.

Cylinder voice:
I was born with the Devil in me.

NARRATOR:
THE VOICE WAS A NEW CLUE INTO ONE OF THE MOST ASTONISHING SET OF HOMICIDES IN CRIMINAL HISTORY. IN 1890, HOLMES TURNED HIS HOTEL INTO A PRODUCTION LINE OF MURDER.

NARRATOR:
NOW HIS WORDS LURE THE 21st CENTURY'S TOP SERIAL KILLER HUNTERS ON A JOURNEY TO DEPRAVITY. AND TWO SISTERS DISCOVER THEIR FAMILY'S TERRIBLE SECRET.

Beth Pitezel:
Just to picture anyone tied up, burnt alive. The story's gunna be told.

NARRATOR:
TWO HUNDRED MAY HAVE DIED, AT THE HANDS OF AMERICA'S FIRST SERIAL KILLER.

Title card:

MURDER HOTEL
The Story of America's First Serial Killer

Hotel bell rings

Joe Kozencznak driving car

Joe Kozencznak :
My name is Joe Kozenzcak. I was involved in law enforcement for over 27 years and I am trained with the FBI in criminal profiling methods and have dealt with over 60 types of homicide cases and death investigations. I was the chief investigator in one of America's most horrendous serial murder cases John Wayne Gacy was responsible for strangling 33 young men in the Chicago area over a period of about five years. At that time which was 1978 I was not familiar with the HH Holmes case but find it very intriguing. Once I received background on this case I found a lot of parallels. It was during an era where a massive exposition was taking place in Chicago.

Music: Sentimental Journey
Gunna take a sentimental journey.
Gunna put my heart at ease

NARRATOR:
THE 1890S WAS AMERICA'S GILDED AGE. THE ECONOMY WAS BOOMING AND AMERICA'S SECOND BIGGEST CITY WANTED GLORY. CHICAGO WON THE RIGHT TO HOLD THE COUNTRY'S BIGGEST EVER CELEBRATION, THE GREAT COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION - THE WORLD'S FAIR. IN THE NEARBY SUBURB OF ENGLEWOOD, ONE MAN PLANNED TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE SWOLLEN NUMBERS OF VISITORS.

Barbershop quartet:
HH Holmes Chicago Home Don't Be Alone

NARRATOR:
ON THE CORNER OF WALLACE AND 63RD STREET, HH HOLMES BEGAN WITH A BARBERSHOP. HE BUILT HIS OWN WORLD'S FAIR HOTEL AND WENT TO WORK ON A MONEY MAKING SCHEME. FOR FOUR YEARS, HE MURDERED HIS GUESTS AND THEIR CHILDREN, EMPLOYEES AND LOVERS, TO SELL THEIR BODIES AS DISSECTION SPECIMENS.

NARRATOR:
AFTER HIS ARREST IN 1894, THE KILLER LEFT A CHILLING LEGACY, NOW BEING STUDIED BY ONE OF BRITAIN'S LEADING CRIMINAL PSYCHOLOGISTS.

Professor Canter:
HH Holmes has left a tremendous resource of confessions, statements to the police, his memoirs. This is a fascinating mixture of material that tells us at the very least how he wants others to see him.

NARRATOR:
THE KILLER'S OWN WORDS ALLOW A PSYCHOLOGIST AND A DETECTIVE TO TRAVEL BACK 100 YEARS INTO THE MIND OF A MURDERER.

Music:
Barbershop quartet Herman Webster Mudgett

NARRATOR:
AMERICA'S FIRST SERIAL KILLER WAS BORN HERMAN WEBSTER MUDGETT IN GILMANTON, NEW HAMPSHIRE IN 1860.

Music:
Barber shop - Do till I Die Do

NARRATOR:
THE MIDDLE CHILD OF A STERN POST MASTER AND DEVOUTLY RELIGIOUS MOTHER, GREW UP A MUMMY'S BOY. HE TOOK TO SCIENCE, AND FOUND CONFIDENCE DESIGNING SCARECROWS AND PERPETUAL MOTION MACHINES.

Professor Canter:
Mudgett's early years would indicate that if he did become a killer by whatever means, for whatever reason, that his style of killing would reflect that fascination with gadgetry and planning and getting the whole thing right.

NARRATOR:
THE POOR BOY'S SMARTEST PLAN WAS TO MARRY A RICH LOCAL GIRL AND HAVE HER PAY FOR HIS DREAM TICKET FROM POVERTY -- MEDICAL SCHOOL

Barber shop quartet:
Gunna play for the sky
Ain't gunna miss a thing
I'm gunna have my fling
I'm gunna live live live until I die

Brian Williams:
We can find a little bit of a footprint in the historical record of the Herman Mudgett we can trace him through the written record and the first time we find him is in this ledger volume when he enrolls as a medical student on September 21, 1882.

Howard Markell:
During the first year of Mudgett's medical education he worked on a cadaver probably every day. He had three formal lectures a week on various parts of the body. And worked on that cadaver on that particular days lesson. It's the avalanche of material you must memorise, it's a lot like memorising a phone book of data.

NARRATOR:
MUDGETT CALLED ALL THIS WORK GHASTLY, AND RAGED THAT RICH STUDENTS HAD IT EASY.

Howard Markell:
Around that time tuition and you always have to pay tuition was about $100 to $200 a year so he had to scrape by and get this cash or he couldn't take the course.

NARRATOR:
THE SCHOOL JANITOR, DOC NEAGLE, SUMMONED UNDERGRADATES TO DISSECTION.

Howard Markell:
This is the bell that he would ring to bring students into classes, the actual bell that started Herman Mudgett's medical school career.

Bell rings

NARRATOR:
THE CASH-HUNGRY STUDENT HEARD WHAT THE JANITOR DID BETWEEN THE BELLS. HE WAS KEEPER OF DISSECTION CORSPES AND FRONTMAN FOR A TRADE IN DEAD BODIES.

Bell rings

Howard Markell:
This is really medical education's dirty little secret.

Brian Williams:
Legally, if they resort to all these legal traditional means where it is kind of all above board, they can only meet 20 per cent of their need.

Howard Markell:
There was money changing hands here that is difficult to prove but Doc Neagle would accept a body and look the other way even though he knew it may have been obtained in a less than legal manner.

Brian Williams:
Mudgett had exposure to this and was around when bodies came sometimes from questionable sources

NARRATOR:
A WHIFF OF EASY MONEY FROM THE DEAD WOULD INFECT MUDGET WITH AN OBSESSION, THAT WOULD LAST UNTIL THE DAY HE DIED.

Joe Kozencak:
Fantasy to the serial killer is the whole foundation why they become serial killers.

NARRATOR:
THE SLAYINGS OF AMERICA'S FIRST SERIAL KILLER SPRANG FROM A FANTASTIC PLAN THAT A CORRUPT JANITOR HAD INSPIRED IN MEDICAL STUDENT, HERMAN MUDGETT.

Professor Canter:
Mudgett was able to see people's bodies as a product he could make money out of. And I feel he learnt that in medical school.

NARRATOR:
COLLEGE SPAWNED A CRIMINAL FASCINATION WITH THE DEAD. MUDGETT FOUND THAT BY DIGGING UP GRAVES AND SELLING BODIES HE COULD PAY FOR HIS TUITION. HE SHARED SECRETS WITH ANOTHER CLASSMATE.

Brian Williams:
We found an autograph book that belonged to a classmate that was in the 1884 medical class And it gets a little eerie when you think of the significance of what he did afterwards because the inscription reads, I am your true friend Herman W Mudgett. And the next page is also a classmate, RC Leacock, medic 1884.

Howard Markell:
Not only is it possible that Leacock and Mudgett had a close relationship it is highly likely imagine if you will a table just like this about this wide and a body in between you had Leacock on this side and Mudgett on this working on this body Lab partners over their cadaver form a close relationship.

NARRATOR:
AFTER CUTTING UP DISSECTION CORPSES LEACOCK, MUDGETT FANTASISED ABOUT A GET-RICH SCAM USING DEAD BODIES. THEIR DREAM WAS TO TAKE OUT LIFE INSURANCE ON A FELLOW SCHEMER.

Mudgett voice:
The plan was this: to produce from a dissecting room, 3 corpses: a man's, a woman's and a girl's. We were previously to have a man's life insured for $40,000, in favour of his wife and daughter We were to so arrange thing that it would appear that his wife and daughter would be apparently be murdered, and were to have this simulated tragedy followed quickly by the heartbroken man's own suicide. The borrowed corpses were to take the place of the real parties, after we had spirited away to latter.

NARRATOR:
MUDGETT WOULD HAVE HIMSELF MADE FINAL BENEFICIARY. HE'D COLLECT ON THE INSURANCE, THEN SECRETLY SPLIT THE CASH WITH THE FAMILY. THIS DREAM OF FAMILY MURDER MIGHT HAVE BEEN FORGOTTEN, BUT FOR WHAT HAPPENED NEXT.

Brian Williams:
Mudgett was not the best student. He finished near the bottom of the class and the faculty had to take a second vote to actually get his medical degree.

NARRATOR:
HE'D JUST SCRAPED IN AS A DOCTOR - NOW HE LEFT THE WIFE WHO'D PAID HIS WAY. AND WENT CHASING ANOTHER WOMAN IN MOOERS FORK IN UPSTATE NEW YORK. BUT HE HAD TO ABANDON HIS MEDICAL DREAMS TO TEACH. AND WHEN HE GOT ENGAGED, WORD SLIPPED OUT HE WAS ALREADY MARRIED - MUDGETT WAS EXPOSED AS A LIAR AND A CHEAT.

Barber shop quartet:
On a Sunday morn Sat a maid forlorn

Howard Markell:
On another level it must have been a crisis of confidence that must have been just enormously traumatic for him.

Joe Kozenczak:
A triggering factor for serial killers is some type of personal or psychological stressor.

Holmes voice:
In the fall of 1885 starvation was staring me in the face and finally I was forced to sell first one, and then the last of my two horses.

Joe Kozenczak:
The fact that he was in financial straits would enhance his thought process to create this plan to kill a family off.

NARRATOR:
MUDGETT SAYS HE WROTE TO HIS COLLEGE CONSPIRATOR, ROBERT LEACOCK, AND THEY BEGAN A HUNT FOR CORPSES.

Holmes voice:
This scheme called for a considerable amount of material, no less than three bodies in fact. But no doctor could call for three bodies at one time without exciting suspicion.

Barber shop quarter:
Herman Webster Mudgett

NARRATOR:
FINDING CORPSES TO REPLACE AN ENTIRE FAMILY SEEMED TOO RISKY, SO MUDGETT DECIDED TO PULL OFF THE FRAUD BY PRETENDING TO KILL ONLY HIMSELF. THROUGHOUT 1886, MUDGETT WORKED IN A DRUG STORE TO PAY LIFE INSURANCE PREMIUMS. HE SENT DIVORCE PAPERS TO HIS FIRST WIFE TO LAY GROUNDWORK FOR A DISAPPERANCE, BEFORE MARRYING MYRTA BELKNAP, WHO WAS IN ON THE PLOT.

Holmes voice:
While in Minneapolis, I insured my life for $20,000 in favor of my wife.

NARRATOR:
HERMAN MUDGETT WAITED FOR A SUBSTITUTE CORPSE THAT COULD FOOL THE INSURANCE COMPANY. BUT THERE WAS A FATAL FLAW IN THE PLAN.

Holmes voice:
I found it more difficult to obtain a body that would prove a substitute for my own. I had a most gloomy wait, lasting about two weeks, going to the dead room of the college each morning to inspect the "arrivals,"

Professor Canter:
Holmes claims that his staring at bodies day after day over a long period of time turned him into a murderer is very curious. There must be some truth in that - by looking at these bodies he was able to push out of his mind that these were human beings and really train himself to think about the possibilities of killing.

NARRATOR:
IRONICALLY, MUDGETT'S FAILURE TO SWITCH HIMSELF FOR A DEAD MAN, DROVE HIM INTO AN ATTEMPT TO KILL HIMSELF FOR REAL. AFTER TELLING A POLICEMAN HE WAS ABOUT TO COMMIT SUICIDE, HE WAS SENT TO AN INSANE ASYLUM NEAR PHILADELPHIA IN 1888. HE LEFT THE MADHOUSE AFTER TWO MONTHS WITH A NEW PLAN.

Professor Canter:
The frightening thing about Holmes is that he is not mad. He used his intelligence and ability to plan to carrying out the killings.

Joe Kozenczak:
They start thinking about strangling they start thinking about stabbing, and they act out on these fantasies.

Howard Markell:
A freshly killed corpse would be much better. That's why he graduated from the anatomy suites fixed in formaldehyde to those that were freshly killed so to speak it was better material for the purposes he was using it for.

NARRATOR:
SO INSTEAD OF WAITING FOR A CORPSE, MUDGETT LURED HIS BEST FRIEND TO A HOTEL.

Holmes Voice:
After enticing Dr Robert Leacock to Chicago, I killed him by giving him an overwhelming dose of laudanum.

Joe Kozenczak:
If he has utilised someone as a victim who has at one point of time been a friend and a possible cohort with him you can see readily that the formulation of serial killer patterns have taken place in his mind. And his fantasy aspect which all serial killers have is probably well developed.

NARRATOR:
MUDGETT PUT HIS FELLOW SCHEMER'S BODY ON ICE IN THE HOTEL TUB.

Holmes voice:
There in the twinkling light of a solitary gas jet lay all that was mortal, the face somewhat resembled the outlines of my own.

David Canter:
The graphic detail that Mudgett gives of Leacock's corpse is quite remarkable in terms of the fact that Mudgett is enjoying giving us those details and also at the same time he is trying to justify what he is doing by implying that is was for commercial gain and in doing that he is showing us that he has moved far beyond thinking of the corpse as a person. All he is doing is think that it is a bodies that has commercial value to him and he makes that absolutely clear.

Holmes voice:
When I looked upon it I realised that at least $20,000 would come to me after a little further trouble.

NARRATOR:
MUDGETT DUMPED THE BODY, DRESSED IN HIS CLOTHES AND IDENTITY PAPERS, SO IT WOULD BE FOUND BY THE INSURANCE COMPANY.

Holmes Voice:
Thus, after a great deal of trouble and thrilling escapes, I added the neat little sum of $20,000 to my bank account.

Cash register.

Silent movie music.

END PART 1