Killer Crimes: 2016

I will keep this brief as this case has been under a microscope since Netflix debuted the series. Personally, I can recognize that it was told from an angle, with an agenda, and it has a point to make. Acknowledging that for what it is, I have to stand back and not really concern myself too much with his guilt or innocence. And actually, I feel the people going so far as to proclaim Steven Avery innocent (or drop dead guilty) are missing the point. This was not justice. This is not how things are supposed to be done in this country. Innocent until proven guilty. A right to a fair and speedy trial. Those two things got thrown out the window, and as an American, I was very appalled. However, growing up in a small town, I was not the least bit surprised.

One thing that bothers me, is how... slimy... everyone in the documentary seems. They just oooooze a lack of trustworthiness.

UPDATE:
Apparently Netflix is allowing you to stream the first episode for free on Youtube. Watch it here.

Or here:

If you're not aware, apparently Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio are teaming up yet again. 'Devil in the White City' is a movie I'm really interested in seeing, as a tale of a notoriously gruesome killer is told alongside the fairly mundane (by comparison) tale of the planning and execution of the Chicago World's Fair. It will be interesting to see what DiCaprio brings to the role, as he is a very versatile actor and H.H. Holmes is a character that will test limits.

So was this guy America's first serial killer? Or just the first one to gain notoriety? H. H. Holmes was born as Herman Webster Mudgett in Gilmanton, New Hampshire, on May 16, 1861. He was a very prolific serial killer, reaching the height of his spree in the years leading up to the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. In the end he confessed to 27 murders, but it is speculated that he killed upwards of 200 people.

Holmes got his start with crime after enrolling in the University of Michigan's Department of Medicine and Surgery. He would steal cadavers from the lab and disfigure them, then claim they died from an accidental death and collect insurance money from the policies he would take out on them. Over time, he would eventually work up to murdering victims instead of stealing cadavers in order to continue his insurance fraud schemes. He also realized that a dead body had a large commercial value, and so he started selling them to medical schools, which turned out to be an easy way to dispose of them. He was basically a homicidal entrepreneur, who, once he moved to Chicago and built his hotel, had basically engineered a method for industrialized killing. His hotel was like an assembly line in a factory.... A factory for murder.

source: http://mysteriouschicago.com/the-murder-castle-today-or-good-grief-more-hh-holmes-2/

source: http://www.blumhouse.com/2015/11/11/the-real-history-behind-american-horror-story-hotels-james-march-actual-serial-killer-hh-holmes/

Holmes was also unique in that he didn't become a sexual predator until later on. Most killers graduate from rape to murder as part of the progression, but Holmes found it much later on.

Holmes' murder spree finally ended when he was arrested in Boston on November 17, 1894. He originally went down when the insurance scams finally caught up with him, but it was soon discovered he was a very prolific killer.

"I was born with the devil in me. I could not help the fact that I was a murderer, no more than the poet can help the inspiration to sing — I was born with the 'Evil One' standing as my sponsor beside the bed where I was ushered into the world, and he has been with me since."

– H. H. Holmes