H.H. Holmes: America's First Serial Killer

Torture chambers, acid vats, greased chutes and gassing rooms were just some of the devices of death designed by the Torture Doctor, H.H. Holmes in his castle of horrors. Follows Holmes' entire life as a criminal mastermind.

As a resident of Wisconsin, I have always found serial murder interesting. Yes, I do think there is a connection, because we have Ed Gein and Jeffrey Dahmer in our state legends. And HH Holmes, being from Chicago, is one of those that captures my interest -- Chicago is the closest large city, and its history is almost local.

This is a pretty good documentary. Of course, being a story that happened in the 1800s, you can only have so much video footage. But they flesh it out with photos, reenactments, and plenty of modern-day experts on Holmes and murder. I was pleased, and at just over an hour it gives you plenty of information without dragging on.

I came to this movie after seeing its rave review on Bloody-Disgusting.com. A fan of historical crime writer Harold Schechter's (who is interviewed in this film), I was surprised and delighted to see someone had attempted a documentary on H.H. Holmes, the subject of Schechter's book "Depraved". Then again, I suppose it wasn't too surprising, given the bestseller success of Erik Larsen's "The Devil in the White City", and the upcoming movie of same.

John Borowski knows his way around the documentary form, inter-cutting vintage photos, interviews, and clever re-enactments with a strong sense of balance. HHH:AFSK succeeds in conveying a sense of time and place, and communicating Holmes's psychosis. The narrative is gripping, and there's never a dull moment here. Unlike a lot of indie documentary directors, Borowski knows that making a documentary is still all about Film-making, not merely filmed journalism.

If HHH:AFSK lacks in any department, it is in conveying the full, jaw-dropping magnitude of Holmes's most audacious crime: his systematic murder of the Pitezel family, carried out while manipulating them to travel in two separate groups halfway across the US and even into Canada. Borowski also leaves out the detail that, on this evil trek, Holmes was also dragging along one of his three clueless wives! Borowski surprisingly rushes through the journey, making it all seem like just another of Holmes's outrageous deeds. Compared to the way Schechter evoked the cruelty of Holmes's actions and the heartbreaking emotional trauma suffered by the Pitezel children's mother in his book "Depraved", Borowski misses a chance for some really strong emotional depth.

But some things are, I suppose, going to get left out in an hour-long production. The running time is kind of odd. Too long to sell to TV (this film is certainly worthy of the History Channel, on which I have seen considerably worse stuff), too short for feature length. And yet, by the time it's over, you feel that to go to 90 minutes might have been just a shade too much. At 64 minutes, HHH:AFSK is perhaps just right, artistically — though 70-75 would have been ideal, allowing Borowski to flesh out the story as I described above. Commercially, 64 minutes is problematic. Perhaps a direct-to-DVD release was all Borowski had in mind from the first.

Veteran actor Tony Jay provides brilliant narration with his one-of-a-kind voice (why isn't this man more famous!?), and there's a swell orchestral, Bernard Hermann-esquire score that I'm surprised Borowski was able to get. If anything gave me an unintentional smile watching the DVD, it was perhaps Borowski's tireless self-promotion in the bonus materials. I'd have gladly sacrificed Borowski's efforts on his making-of featurette if he had channeled that work into just a bit more of his documentary.

A worthy film for fans of true crime and American history rolled into one.

If you are a fan of True Crime, H.H.HOLMES:America's First Serial Killer, is a short, but informative biography of one of America's lesser known, yet spectacular, mass murderers. The fact that Dr. Holmes was able to construct a 'Murder Mansion' in the center of Chicago, and then freely troll the 1893 Worlds Columbian Expositon for victims is nothing short of astonishing. This structure, which took up an entire city block, and included living quarters, shops, and rooms for rent, was honeycombed with numerous torture chambers, execution rooms, and secret passages. Many graves and burial sites were linked to H.H. Holmes, yet rarely was there enough evidence to positively connect him to the bodies. In the late 19th century The Bertillon Method was employed to identify victims. This was a system which used physical comparisons of body parts, and for the most part, was based on conjecture and guess work. The Bertillon Method was the cornerstone of forensic science at the time, and fingerprint technology was still several years in the future. This huge deficit in investigative procedure allowed Holmes to get away with many of his crimes, and it makes one wonder how many of his sinister and horrific killings remain undetected to this day. Everyone is familiar with Jack The Ripper, however H.H. Holmes is, by far, a more terrifying and baleful figure. The film employs a fairly effective use of 'voice over, and archival photos to examine this most gruesome individual. This entire documentary can be streamed at You Tube.

H.H. Holmes: America's First Serial Killer (2004)

*** (out of 4)

Good, 64-minute documentary taking a look at H.H. Holmes, the Chicago doctor who has become known as American's first true serial killer. Throughout the documentary we learn about Holmes early life including his alternate names and then we get into details about his time at the University of Michigan where he got to "act out" his fantasy of working with dead bodies. This leads to him getting a job in Chicago and then building a castle where he would put acid baths, secret pathways, torture devices and this would become the final resting place to an unknown amount of people. Director and writer John Borowski does a pretty good job at telling the story of this madman and he does this by voice-over narration as well as interviews with experts on the subject. It's clear that no one will ever really know how many people he slaughtered but I just found it rather amazing that no one suspicions were ever risen to the point to where they'd at least take a look at this guy. I mean, not only did he kill people but he would then sell their skeletons to medical schools. It was also fascinating learning about the 1893 Columbian Exposition where apparently fifty people went missing but again no one can tell how many were at the hands of Holmes. I think the weakest thing in the documentary are the reenactments, which really weren't all that impressive. Still, that's just a minor complaint as I'm sure many people might be interested in the subject and will find that there hasn't been too many looks at him. Overall this documentary is worth watching if you're interested in hearing about the subject.

This came across like a documentary made by very talented eighth graders. The only saving grace is the narrator which ultimately actually makes the whole thing even more cheesy with his delightful British accent which has no connection whatsoever with this American killer. The one thing I'm grateful for is the very minimal amount of bad reenactment acting- t although its limited presence is, indeed, terrible. The only reason I suffered through this is because I'm interested in serial killers and I have never heard of this particular one- it was seriously a chore to watch this whole thing. Additionally I think it should be noted that in my 48 years of movie watching I've never been compelled to write a bad review about anything before today. Let that alone be a testament to its quality