Marks of the Medical Profession

While doing some important Holmes related research (ahem-staring at his graduation photo-ahem) (no, I'm kidding, I was doing real research on the murder of B. F. Perry/Benjamin F. Pitezel) I came across a newsletter from the Philadelphia archives.

The article I read, CRIME, CRIMINALS, LAW ENFORCEMENT AND RECORDS, was written by Ward Childs and published in 1982. But what interested me was the short section Childs included about Holmes' arrest.

Though I have seen the mugshots, I have never seen the record describing Holmes upon his arrest. You know, the thing that all his measurements and physical characteristics were written on that historians love to mention with a few vague words like "wrote down height and weight" before moving on to the next point and I'm just there like:

  

I NEED FACTS!

 

But anyway, the above article actually mentioned some of the more elusive information I was seeking to find.

 

Herman W. Mudgett or H.H. Holmes, the notorious mass murderer, who was later hanged at Moyamensing Prison on May 7, 1896, was entered in this record after his arrest on November 17, 1894 for conspiracy and the murder of Benjamin F. Pitezel. The entry in the Register of Descriptions of Criminals reveals that Mudgett, who was arrested under the alias of H.H. Holmes also used the aliases of H.M. Howard, Alex E. Bond and Horace H. Williams. The Register reveals that he was a physician and druggist, who was born in Germantown, New Hampshire and living in Chicago, Illinois, and describes him as white, 34 years of age, 5 feet 7 inches in height and 148 pounds in weight with a medium build, slate blue eyes, dark complexion, scars on the first joint left thumb, above first joint left index, below second joint right index; a small pimple in front of left ear on cheek, a small mole on right cheek, small scars on forehead and scar on top of the head. However, even so detailed a verbal description would not have been sufficient for the purpose of identification by the Police. The Police also probably photographed Herman W. Mudgett for their rogues' gallery which had been introduced into the Detective Department in 1859; and measured his body according to the Bertillion system of measurement, which the Police had adopted on July 16, 1892. ( If he had committed his crime just eleven years later, Mudgett also would have been fingerprinted at this time.)

There are a few minor mistakes in this statements (Holmes was not yet 34 at the time of his arrest and was born in Gilmanton, not Germantown. In fact, I don't believe Germantown, New Hampshire is even a real place unless it has been renamed to something else).

However, what I find the most fascinating is the detail given to Holmes' various scars. I'm not sure how he would have gotten a scar on the top of his head (depending on where the "top" was) but it's interesting how most of the scars are on his hands. On the first joint left thumb, above first joint left index, below second joint right index.

Scars on the hands might mean a person often working with knifes or other sharp instruments. Being a doctor, Holmes would have been inclined to cut himself if he was not careful.

So even though Holmes kept the bloodstained tools of his trade hidden away, he actually wore the marks of his dangerous medical practice right on his skin.

Until next time.

XOXO, Kate