Described at the time as a case without known parallel, a case that author matt lake says philadelphia broke wide open. Matt we caught him and we got the body, yeah. Hed have gotten away with it too if it werent for those darn philly kids. George most of h. H. Holmes notoriety centers in chicago, around the site of whats now this us post office. It was there, in 1889, that he built his famous Murder Castle Hotel ahead of the citys world fair, a castle full of secret chutes and gas chambers. Some who arrived were never seen again. Matt hed wind up putting them into an airtight room and turning a gas on in there until they suffocated. George experts believe holmes made big money selling his victims body parts and swindling their insurance. And in 1894, holmes brought his swindling to philadelphia and this corner of 13th and callowhill. It was here, lake says, that greed finally got the best of him. In his scheme to get insurance money, he killed his business partner, making it look like