He's probably wondering which room he should put you in. But no matter the actual number of crimes he committed, this mugshot certainly leaves a bit of a mark on the soul. We still have no idea how many people the mustachioed Holmes did away with in his mansion in Chicago - he confessed to 27 killings, but police thought him responsible for many more. March on American Horror Story: Hotel, and he will be played by Leonardo DiCaprio in Martin Scorcese's upcoming film about the killer (so leave your Titanic fantasies at the door for that one). Holmes was the subject of the book The Devil in the White City, he is considered to be an inspiration for Evan Peters' Mr. The man was a swindler and bigamist, but he's now mostly remembered for his pioneering contribution to the idea of murderous architecture - and for leaving a lasting mark on popular culture. Holmes built a hotel in Chicago just in time for the 1893 World's Fair - except that Holmes' hotel was less a place to spend the night and more a specially engineered death trap, complete with dungeons, hallways to nowhere and acid pits for disposing of his victims. Holmes is famous for being crazy in a way that most of us can barely imagine - and for being so prolifically devoted to his murdering that he actually built a a special house to do it in.
#Pictures of serial killers serial#
Holmes' mugshot is thoroughly notable - not just for his exemplary old-timey mustache but for the fact that it commemorates what was probably America's first serial killer. Scroll through the six photos below, and remember: technology changes, but evil stays pretty much the same. Police and historians only really began to identify certain criminals as serial killers in the nineteenth century, so these photos were likely the general public's first visual confirmation that accused and convicted serial killers could look your next door neighbor. These mugshots - which document not just some of the earliest famous mugshots, but also some of the most terrifying serial killers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century - represent the first time that average Americans were able to put a real face to the act of serial killing. The six historical mugshots below show that while mugshots are a fairly recent invention, creepy criminals are not. Hardly my idea of a fun Sunday afternoon outing. Before that, members of the public who wanted a glimpse of the latest press-grabbing offender had to rely on illustrations in the papers, or go and visit the prison themselves. But they are - the idea of using photographs to create a visual record of criminals who'd come in for processing first became part of standard police procedure in France in 1888. The internet has made the celebrity mugshot so ubiquitous, it's hard to imagine that criminal mugshots are actually a fairly new thing.