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He has come down through history as America's first serial killer, the incarnation of pure evil. He was the first of a new breed of American celebrity – the handsome, debonair and super intelligent mass murderer. His legend, fueled by his own insatiable appetite for exaggeration, would turn him into a monster, 'the arch-fiend of the age' and the 'greatest criminal of this expiring century'. His "Murder Castle", situated at the heart of the world's greatest exhibition, was reputedly the scene of unspeakable horrors. Yet, the truth about Dr. H. H Holmes is far removed from the sensationalism that surrounds his name. No one did more to turn the gossip into legend than Holmes himself, which makes it all the more difficult to get to the truth about the Devil in the White City. "I was born with the Devil in me. I could not help the fact that I was a murderer, more than a poet can help the inspiration to sing."
历史证明，他是美国首位连环杀人犯，完全是个恶魔的化身。他是第一位新生代美国名人——帅气儒雅、超级聪明的杀人狂。由于他对夸张抱有无尽的欲望，他的传奇把他变为一个魔头、“时代的恶魔”以及“本世纪罪恶最为深重的罪犯”。他的“谋杀城堡”位于全世界最伟大的展览会的中心，据说是令人发指的恐怖场景发生地。然而，关于贺姆斯博士的真相却离他名字的耸人听闻感相去甚远。贺姆斯是最会把绯闻变成传奇的人了，因此，想要得知白城恶魔的真相就变得十分艰难。“我身体里住着一个魔鬼，我和他一同降生。我无法掩盖我是个杀人犯的事实，这比一位诗人想掩盖其喷发的灵感还要难。”
Early Life
早年生活
The man who would come to call himself Henry Howard Holmes was born with the far less impressive name of Herman Webster Mudget on May 16, 1861 in Gilmanton, New Hampshire. By all accounts his parents were upright and respectable people, with the child's upbringing being quite unremarkable. Later stories that his father was a violent alcoholic who would smother his children with chloroform soaked handkerchiefs to 'teach them a lesson' are the result of a newspaper writer's overactive imagination. Yet, there is one incident in Herman's youth which clearly did have a profound impact on his later life... When he was about 13, two older boys dragged him into the local doctor's office – a place that Herman was terrified of due to the lurid tales he'd been told of the body parts that were left lying around. The bullies brought the terrified boy face to face with a human skeleton. But rather than frightening him, the human bones fascinated the child. This fascination grew into an adult desire to study medicine.
自称哈里·霍华德·贺姆斯的这名男子于1861年5月16日在新罕布什尔州的吉尔曼顿出生，他真实的名字：赫尔曼·韦伯斯特·马杰特并未给人留下什么印象。人人都说他父母正直而可敬，他们教育孩子的方式也十分平常。后来的故事中却说他父亲是个粗暴的酒鬼，经常用麻醉剂泡过的手帕捂着他的孩子来“给他们上一课”，这其实是报社记者的夸张想象。然而，赫尔曼小时候确实发生过一件事，这对他后来的人生有着极其重要的影响……他13岁时，两个比他大的男孩拉他去一个当地医生的办公室——赫尔曼非常害怕那里，因为他听过许多恐怖故事，说那里的地上有尸体碎片。那两个孩子让这个受惊的男孩直视着一具骷髅。人骨并未让他感到害怕，相反，他被吸引住了。这种着迷让他长大后渴望学医。
Holmes had another early fascination – women. By the age of sixteen he was working odd jobs when he fell head over heels in love with a beautiful young woman by the name of Clara Lovering. Herman met Clara while working on her father's farm. Soon after, they were both at a church social. Clara, though, was flirting with another boy which made young Herman see red. He promptly marched over to the other boy and threatened to punch his lights out if he didn't get lost. This seemed to impress Clara, with Herman escorting her home, arm in arm. The next day he was telling everyone that they were engaged. The two – both seventeen years of age – were married by a Justice of the Peace on July 4th, 1878. For the first six months the marriage was kept a secret, with the couple living apart with their parents. When it was finally revealed, Herman's mother wryly commented... "She couldn't have done much worse and will probably have to support you." Clara's father arranged for Herman to work in his brother's grocery store in East Concord. Nine months later, Clara gave birth to a son, who they named Robert. Becoming a father seems to have inspired Herman to pursue his interest in medicine. He quit the store and went home to Gilmanton to take up an apprenticeship under Dr. Wight, the owner of the office in which he'd been introduced to the skeleton 6 years earlier. Clara and the baby went to live with her parents...
赫尔曼早早地对女性产生了兴趣。他16岁打零工时，就被年轻貌美的克拉拉·洛芙琳迷得神魂颠倒。赫尔曼在克拉拉父亲的农场上班时与她相遇。不久，他们就同时参加了教友联谊会。但克拉拉在和另一个男孩调情，这令年轻的赫尔曼恼羞成怒。他马上去找那个男孩，威胁说，如果他不走开，他就揍得他两眼发黑。这似乎打动了克拉拉，于是赫尔曼送她回家了，二人手挽着手。第二天，他告诉所有人，他们订婚了。1878年7月4日，在治安法官的见证下，同为17岁的二人结婚了。婚后的前六个月，他们一直对结婚一事保密，夫妻二人分别和各自父母居住。赫尔曼的母亲得知他们已经结婚的消息后，挖苦地评论道：“她不能做得更差了，将来她必须支持你。”克拉拉的父亲安排赫尔曼到他哥哥在东康科德开的杂货店工作。九个月后，克拉拉生了一个男孩，他们给他起名叫罗伯特。成为父亲似乎激励赫尔曼追求他对医学的兴趣。他离开杂货店，回到他的家——吉尔曼顿，在那里成为怀特医生的学徒，6年前，他被拉去看骷髅的那个地方正是怀特医生的办公室。克拉拉和孩子搬去与她父母同住……
Medical School
医学院
After a year, the budding medic took up more formal studies at the medical school in Burlington, Vermont. During this time, he conducted himself as a single man. In fact, he carried on a relationship with the daughter of his landlord that became so passionate that people thought they were engaged. When Herman's room-mate, Fred Ingalls, revealed to the girl's father that he was already married, the two-timer laid a thrashing on Ingalls that left him with a black eye and a scratched face. The wife of the owner of the boarding house once noticed a foul stench emanating from Herman's room. On investigating, she was horrified to find a dead baby under his bed. Upon explaining that he was experimenting with dissections as part of his 'homework', Herman was warned to never bring dead bodies into the house again.
一年后，这位初露头角的医生去了佛蒙特州伯林顿的医学院进行正规学习。这时，他表示自己是单身。实际上，他和他房东的女儿在热恋，人们都以为他们订婚了。赫尔曼的室友弗雷德·英格尔斯跟女孩的父亲表明他已经结婚时，这个脚踏两条船的男子把英格尔斯揍了一顿，把他打成了熊猫眼，还抓伤了他的脸。公寓主人的妻子注意到，赫尔曼的房间里散发着一股恶臭味。她发现他床下有一个死婴，这可把她吓坏了。赫尔曼解释说，自己要做人体解剖的作业，之后，他就被警告再也不要把尸体带回房间。
In 1882, Herman went to Ann Arbor to study at the University of Michigan. This time he took his wife and son with him. But the marriage was already on shaky ground. Other residents of the boarding house where they lived later recalled that the couple often quarreled, with Clara frequently sporting black eyes. At some point she decided that she'd had enough, returning home to her parents with baby Robert. The marriage was now effectively over though this would never be formalized... Now unfettered by a family, Herman threw himself into his studies. He was particularly fascinated with the dissection of human bodies, loving nothing more than to cut his way into flesh and pull out body organs. Once more he took to taking home infant corpses to work on during the Spring break. His fellow students remembered that Herman's fascination with dissection was unnatural and unnerving. Whether or not Herman participated in the ruse of faking someone's death and using a substitute body to defraud an insurance company during this time is uncertain. In his very dubious autobiography, he claims that he and his medical student pals spoke of the idea, but never actually did it. And, given his penchant for self exaggeration, it is unlikely he would have been shy about revealing the fact.
1882年，赫尔曼去到安娜堡的密歇根大学进行学习。这一回，他带上了妻子和儿子。但他们的婚姻已经变得摇摇欲坠了。他们所在公寓的其他住户后来回忆道，这对夫妻经常吵架，克拉拉经常被打成熊猫眼。在某个时刻，她决定自己带着小罗伯特回到父母的家中。现在，这场婚姻实际上已经结束，但从未正式达成协议……如今，赫尔曼没有了家庭的束缚，他全身心地投入到他的学业中。他对人体解剖尤为感兴趣，他特别喜欢把人肉切开、拿出人体器官。在一个春假时，他把一个死婴带回家解剖。赫尔曼的同学记得，他对解剖的喜爱十分反常，而且令人不安。在这期间，我们不确定赫尔曼是否伪造某人死亡并用别的死尸来骗保。在他高度可疑的自传中，他表示自己曾和医学院的同学说过此事，但从未付诸实践。他喜欢夸张，因此他不可能害怕说出真相。
The one scandal from his college days which can be substantiated involved, unsurprisingly, a woman. Though still married to Clara, he began courting the woman in whose boarding house he resided. He had promised to marry her, but then the woman found a letter in his room that was signed by his wife... This certainly shocked the woman – but she should have counted herself lucky... At least it wasn't a dead baby. Nevertheless, the woman complained to the Medical School faculty, citing breach of promise. Herman appeared at a hearing and claimed the woman was lying and that he never promised to marry her. The faculty believed him, and he was acquitted. A few months later, on being handed his graduation diploma, Herman approached his professor and said: "Doctor, those things that woman said about me are true."
他大学时代的一件真实的丑闻牵扯到一名女性，这并不令人惊讶。在他与克拉拉保持夫妻关系期间，他依然向住在同一栋公寓里的女邻居献殷勤。他承诺与她结婚，但后来，那名女子在他房间里发现了一封他妻子的亲笔信……这当然令那名女子感到震惊——但她应该算是幸运……至少它不是死婴。不过，她向医学院系里投诉他违背了承诺。赫尔曼出席了听证会，表示她说了谎，还说自己从未承诺要娶她。系里相信了他，宣判他无罪。几个月后，在授予赫尔曼毕业证书时，他走近自己的导师，说道：“老师，那名女子说我的话都是真的。”
Career
职业
After graduating, Herman lived with the family back in New Hampshire during the Summer of 1884. That autumn he began working as both a physician and a schoolteacher in Mooers Forks, New York. During this time, he gained a reputation as a debt defaulter and a womanizer. He proposed marriage to two more women there, with the latter, Minnie Everett, backing out with the prophetic reflection ... "There is something lurking in that man's character that time will reveal. I do not like him. I firmly believe that he would commit murder." Herman also acquired a reputation as a swindler. He would use any number of excuses to get out of paying his rent. In the end he left Mooers Fork suddenly in the middle of the night to escape a mountain of debt. He even swindled the price of his train ticket out of town... It was May of 1886, and that swindled train ticket has taken him to Chicago.
赫尔曼毕业之后的1884年夏天，他回到新罕布什尔州，与家人住在一起。那年秋天，他开始在纽约穆尔斯福克斯同时担任医生和教师。在此期间，别人都知道他是个玩弄女性的老赖。在那里，他还向两名女士求婚了，第二个被他求婚的女士名叫米妮·埃弗雷特，她回去找他的时候还说了一些预言性的话……“时间会证明，这名男子的性格里潜藏着某些东西。我不喜欢他。我坚信他会犯罪。”赫尔曼还有骗子的名号。他会用各种借口不交租金。最后，为了躲那些山一样的债务，他在某天半夜突然离开了穆尔斯福克斯。他甚至连出城的火车票钱都没交……1886年5月，他乘坐那列火车到达芝加哥。
It was his intention to find work in a drug store, but he needed a pharmacy license to do so. He went to Springfield and sat a 3-day examination. It was subsequently announced in the press that "Harry H. Holmes" had passed the bar. This announcement marked the first time that the Holmes alias was used. Why he chose to call himself Harry Howard Holmes is unknown – contrary to what many think it was not a nod to Sherlock Holmes; Conan Doyle's most famous creation would not appear for another year. Holmes christened his new name by becoming a bigamist. On the way to Chicago he had spent time in Minneapolis, where he took up with, and then married, a young woman named Myrta Belknap. Myrta was rather plain looking, but her parents had money and that was enough for Holmes. Shortly after moving to Chicago, he used this wealth to purchase a parcel of land on what was then 701-703 Sixty-Third Street in Englewood. He had ownership put in his wife's name, and then into that of her mother, in order to keep the creditors at bay.
他打算在药店找份工作，但这需要药剂师执照。他去了斯普林菲尔德，参加了为期三天的考试。后来，报上公布“哈里·霍华德·贺姆斯”通过了考试。这是赫尔斯第一次使用他的化名。他管自己叫“哈里·霍华德·贺姆斯”的原因不得而知——许多人认为这是对夏洛克·福尔摩斯的致敬，但实际上并不是；在此之后的一年，柯南·道尔最有名的这部作品才问世。贺姆斯重婚时，给自己起了新名字。在去芝加哥的路上，他在明尼阿波利斯待了一段时间，在那里，他和米尔塔·贝尔纳普交往、结婚。米尔塔相貌平平，但她父母很有钱，这笔钱对贺姆斯来说足够了。在他搬去芝加哥不久，他用这笔钱买了一块地，那就是恩格尔伍德六十三街701-703号。他把所有权归到妻子名下，后来又归到她母亲名下，为了稳住债主。
Holmes mythology tells us that the bad doctor needled his way into the employ of a bedridden pharmacist named E.S. Holton, whose young wife was run off her feet operating the business by herself. Holmes was hired to take over the operation and shortly thereafter the couple disappeared, with the implication here being that Holmes murdered them... But this is not the reality of the situation. Instead, Dr. E. S. Holton was actually the wife. Her husband, rather than being on his deathbed, was a robust longshoreman. Dr. Holton took on Holmes and found him to be an ideal asset for the business. When she became pregnant with her second child in 1887, she decided to sell the pharmacy to Holmes. Rather than disappearing, the Holtons both lived well into the 20th Century, remaining in the same neighborhood that whole time. The pharmacy business became a great success, becoming especially popular with young women who came from afar to be served by the charming, handsome new doctor. Holmes began taking on assistants, invariably choosing nubile young beauties who were flocking to Chicago by the trainful.
从贺姆斯的故事中我们得知，这个坏医生被一个名叫E.S.霍尔顿的卧床不起的药剂师雇用了，他年轻的妻子忙自己的生意忙得不可开交。贺姆斯接管了她的生意，不久之后，夫妻二人就消失不见了，也就是说，贺姆斯谋杀了他们……但实际情况并不是这样。E.S.霍尔顿医生才是妻子。她的丈夫并非大限将至，而是一个健康的码头工。霍尔顿医生雇用了贺姆斯，而且觉得他能成为生意场的骨干。1887年，她怀了二胎，她决定把药店卖给贺姆斯。霍尔顿夫妻并未消失，他们都生活得很好，一直在同一个街区居住，他们都活到了20世纪。药店开得很好，尤其吸引了许多从远处来、想接受迷人帅气的新医生治疗的年轻女性。贺姆斯开始雇助理，他总是选那些适婚的、年轻貌美的女子。
At the same time, Holmes turned his attention to the vacant lot he owned on the same street as the pharmacy. He planned to construct a two story building, with retail space on the first floor and residential apartments on the second. The building had some unusual features – there was a hidden compartment between the first and second floors, along with a staircase between floors that could only be reached from a trapdoor in the second-story bathroom. Far more troubling than these design quirks, however, was the fact Holmes refused to pay his bills. When the builders, Aetna Iron and Steel sued in 1888, Holmes claimed that he wasn't liable because the building was actually owned by his mother-in-law. When the building company lawyers began to chronicle his involvement in the project, Holmes alleged that one of the steel beams provided was too short, which negated the entire contract...
与此同时，贺姆斯开始关注他在药店同一条街拥有的一块闲置空地。他计划建造一座两层的楼，一层是零售空间，二层是住宅公寓。这座楼有一些与众不同的特点——一层和二层中间有一个隐秘的夹层，楼层之间还有一个楼梯，只有从二层卫生间内的活板门才能去到这段楼梯。比这奇特的设计更有问题的地方在于，贺姆斯拒绝付款。1888年，安泰钢铁建筑公司提出起诉，贺姆斯表示，他不负法律责任，因为这座楼房实际上归他岳母所有。当建筑公司的律师开始列举他参与该项目的每个时间点时，贺姆斯则表示有一个钢梁太短了，因此整个合同都无效……
Defending himself in court did nothing to dampen Holmes' passion for swindling. His favorite trick was buying goods on credit then selling them for cash and not paying the original bill. In one case he purchased an especially heavy safe on credit and had it installed on the first floor of his new building, having walls built around it. When the repossession agents came knocking, Holmes replied... Go ahead and take the safe, but I warn you not to damage the building. The repossessors struggled for hours, finally realizing that they couldn't get it out without tearing down a wall. They had to leave it where it was...
在法庭上为自己辩护并未使他丧失对诈骗的热情。他最爱的把戏就是赊账买东西，然后卖给别人，让别人给现金，而他并不会支付最初的账单。有一次，他赊账买了一个非常沉的保险箱，他把它装在了新楼的一层，保险箱四面都是墙。当代理人敲门要收回东西时，贺姆斯答道……去把保险箱拿走吧，但我警告你，不要毁坏这栋楼。代理人忙了几个小时，最终意识到他们只有拆下墙才能把它拿出来。他们只能把它搁在那儿……
