R.J. Parker - The Serial Killer Compendium

Arrest

On November 17, 1894, Dr. H.H. Holmes's murder spree finally ended when he was arrested in Boston after being tracked there from Philadelphia by the Pinkertons. He was held on an outstanding warrant for horse theft in Texas, as the authorities had little more than reservations at this point, and Holmes appeared on the brink of fleeing the country in the company of his unsuspecting third wife.

After the caretaker for the Castle informed police that he was never permitted to clean the upper floors, police began a meticulous investigation. Over the course of the next month, Holmes's resourceful methods of committing murders and then disposing of the corpses were revealed. A mysterious fire consumed the building on August 19, 1895. The site is now occupied as a U.S. Post Office.

Trial, Execution

As Holmes remained in prison in Philadelphia, police in both Chicago and Philadelphia police started an investigation into his operations; in particular, into the whereabouts of the three missing children, with Philadelphia detective Frank Geyer given the undertaking of finding answers. His pursue of the children, like the search of Holmes's Castle, received extensive publicity. His eventual discovery of their remains fundamentally sealed Holmes's destiny, at least in the public mind. Holmes was put on trial for the murder of Pitezel. Holmes confessed to the murder, and after his conviction, thirty more murders in Chicago, Indianapolis and Toronto, and six attempted murders, were added to his charge.

Holmes was paid $7500.00 by Hearst Newspapers in exchange for his story. He gave various ambiguous accounts, claiming initially that he was pure, later claiming that he was possessed by Satan. His talent for lying has made it complicated for researchers to ascertain any legitimacy in his statements.

On May 7, 1896, Holmes was hanged at the Philadelphia County Prison. Until the time of his death, he remained quiet and cordial, showing very few signs of fear, anxiety, or depression. Holmes's neck did not snap immediately. He died slowly, twitching over fifteen minutes before being pronounced dead twenty minutes after the trap had been sprung.

Dr. John Bodkin Adams

Born: January 21, 1899

Place: Randalstown, County Antrim, Ireland

Killing Span: 1946 - 1956

Number of Killings: 160

Captured: December, 1956

Background

John Bodkin Adams was born just before the turn of the century to a profoundly religious family of Plymouth Brethren of which he remained a member for his whole life. His father, Samuel, was a preacher in the local congregation, though by profession he was a watchmaker. John had a brother, William, who was born in 1903, but died at the age of fifteen from the 1918 influenza pandemic.

Adams graduated in 1921 from Queen’s University in Belfast, although he missed a year of studies due to tuberculosis. His professors thought him a plodder and distant from his fellow schoolmates. From university he was hired straight away by Dr. Arthur Short as an assistant in the British Royal Infirmary. After spending a year there, however, it did not work out for him and he applied for a General Practitioner’s position in a Christian practice in Eastbourne, where he worked for many years while living with his cousin and his mother. In 1929, he borrowed £2000 from a rich patient, William Mawhood, and purchased an eighteen-room house in Trinity Trees called Kent Lodge.

Adams would regularly invite himself to the Mawhoods' house at mealtime, even bringing his mother and cousin. He also began charging items to their accounts at local stores without their consent. Mrs. Mawhood would later portray Adams to the police as “a real scrounger.” When Mr. Mawhood died in 1949, Adams visited his widow uninvited, and took a 22-carat gold pen from her bedroom dressing table, saying he wanted “something of her husband's.” After that he never visited her again.

Rumor regarding Adams's eccentric methods had started by the mid 1930s. In 1935, Adams inherited £7,385 from a patient, Matilda Whitton. Her will was contested by her relatives, but the court upheld it; a supplement giving Adams's mother £100 was reversed, however. Adams then began receiving anonymous postcards about how he was "bumping off" patients, as he told a newspaper interviewer in 1957. These were received at a rate of three or four per year until the war; they then commenced again in 1945.

Adams stayed in Eastbourne throughout the war, infuriated at not being sought-after by other doctors to be selected for a "pool system" where General Practitioners would treat the patients of colleagues who had been drafted. In 1941, he achieved a diploma in Anesthetics and worked in a local hospital one day a week where he earned a reputation as a bungler. He would fall asleep during operations, count his money, eat cakes, and even mix up the anesthetic gas tubes, leading to patients waking up or turning blue. His mother died in 1943, and in 1952 his cousin Sarah developed cancer. Adams gave her an injection half an hour before she died.

By 1956, John Adams was one of the wealthiest doctors in England, having enjoyed a successful career. Despite rumors about his ethics and fraudulent wills, he was seen with some of the most influential people in the country, including Members of Parliament, Sir Alexander Maguire, the 10 Duke of Devonshire, Chief of Police Richard Walker, famous painter Oswald Birley, and a host of powerful business people.

Investigation

On July 23, 1956, the Eastbourne Police received an unidentified call about a death. It was from Leslie Henson, the music hall performer, whose friend Gertrude Hullett had died suddenly while being treated by Dr. Adams.

The investigation was turned over from Eastbourne Police on August 17 to two officers from the Metropolitan Police's Murder Squad. The senior officer was Detective Superintendent Herbert Hannam of Scotland Yard, noted for having solved the infamous Teddington Towpath Murders in 1953. He was assisted by a junior Officer, Detective Sergeant Charles Hewett. The investigators decided to focus on cases from 1946 to 1956 only. Of the three hundred and ten death certificates examined by Home Office Pathologist, Francis Camps, one hundred and sixty-three were believed to be of suspicious nature. Apparently, many patients had been given "special injections" of substances that Dr. Adams refused to explain to the nurses caring for his patients.

Furthermore, it became known that his routine was to ask the nurses to leave the room before injections were given. He would also segregate patients from their relatives, hindering contact between them. On August 24, in an astonishing move, the British Medical Association (BMA) sent a letter to all Doctors in Eastbourne, reminding them of Professional Secrecy – like patient confidentiality, for example – if interviewed by the police. It was obvious the BMA was trying to cover their asses in the event of lawsuits. Lead Detective Hannam was not impressed, especially since any information gleaned would relate to dead patients. He, and the Attorney General, Sir Reginald Manningham-Buller, who prosecuted all cases of poisoning, wrote to the BMA secretary, Dr. Macrae, "to try to get him to remove the ban.” The gridlock continued until November 8 when Sir Reginald Manningham-Buller met with Dr. Macrae to persuade him of the significance of the case. During this meeting, in a highly extraordinary move, he passed Hannam's confidential one hundred and eight-seven page report on Dr. Adams over to Dr Macrae. Dr Macrae then took the report to the President of the BMA and returned it the next day.