Sweethearts Of The West: serial killers

H.H. HOLMES

Nothing scares me more than a serial killer. I don’t mean a gunfighter who kills a lot of people; I mean the kind of killer who stalks people like prey, even children, and finds ways to torture them, or rape them before they finally kill them. Some serial killers even do horrible things to their victims after death. These are sick people with deeply disturbing psychological defects. They’re the kind of killer even the psychopaths would fear.

In my naive thinking, I believed this kind of killer existed only in modern times. What was I thinking? You would think I didn’t get the memos about Jack the Ripper or Mad Vlad the Impaler. When we think of the old west, we know there were plenty of gunfighters, bank robbers and that criminal sort, but what about those opportunistic killers who lurk in the shadows and prey on their victims for some sort of sadistic pleasure? I get chills just thinking about it.

Herman W. Mudgett, aka H.H. Holmes, was just that sort of devious, evil killer. He started out his career as a scammer for insurance until he moved to Chicago, Illinois in 1893 just before the World’s Fair opened there. Like any wicked spider, he built his “castle”, a three story inn, in which he secretly added a gruesome torture chamber. He constructed some of the rooms with hidden peepholes, trap doors, special gas lines, and padding to soundproof them. Other rooms had secret passages, ladders, and hallways that led to dead ends. Holmes created a greased chute that led to the basement where he installed a surgical table, a convenient furnace, and even a medieval rack just for fun.

Holmes "Castle"

How clever to have an inn where ladies might spend the night believing they are perfectly safe while they make their plans to visit the World’s Fair. Even before the World’s Fair opened, Holmes was already leading his victims to his lovely “castle” where he asphyxiated them with poisoned gas before he took them to his basement for his gruesome experiments. Some bodies went straight to the furnace. Those that didn’t go to the furnace were skinned and their skeletons sold to medical schools. Holmes was eventually convicted of the murders of four people, but he confessed to at least 27 more killings before they hanged him in 1896. “Holmes’ Horror Castle” was later turned into a grotesque museum, but the building burned down before it could be opened. I can only believe there was Devine justice at work with that fire.

After recent news in my area near Charlotte, North Carolina of a couple, a registered nurse with whom I used to work, and, of all things, a supervisor for social services in Monroe, N.C., who fostered young children and who tortured the children in their care shook me to my core. That I could know someone so well who could do such a thing haunted me so much it led me to write
Unexpected Blessings in the anthology, Lassoing A Cowboy.

A broken dream…a cancelled wedding…and an unexpected blessing

When Juliet Wilding’s dreams are crushed, she cancels her wedding plans to Harry O’Connor. But Harry is not about to give up on the only woman he has ever loved. What neither of them expects is the event that will forever change both their lives.

Lassoing A Bride, from Prairie Rose Publications. Unexpected Blessings will be released as a single and so will my story, When Love Comes Knocking from the 2014 Christmas anthology, A Present For A Cowboy.

A lonely widow…an indiscretion…a gift for redemption

Penelope Witherspoon was charmed into marriage by Evan Thoroughgood only to learn she loved a philanderer, who gambled away his inheritance and drank too heavily. It came as no surprise that four months after their marriage, Evan was shot dead for cheating at cards. Since his death, Penelope has come to depend on his older brother, Gil. In fact, she has come to love and respect him. No two men could be further apart in character. But, if Gil learns of her secret indiscretion, he will want nothing further to do with her. What is Penelope to do?

I will be giving away digital copies of these two singles and print copies (in the United States) of The Violin and Harmonica Joe's Reluctant Bride at the Prairie Rose 2 day event on Facebook coming up July 27-28.