Grand Haven named in H. H. Holmes grave robbing scheme [Grand Haven Tribune, Mich.]

Oct. 28--As Halloween approaches, images of grave robbers come to mind -- a popular scene in old horror films. But did this ever take place in the real world of Ottawa County, Michigan?

It appears not, unless you consider a winter 1894-95 investigation that wound up in Grand Haven'sLake Forest Cemetery and was connected to infamous serial killer H. H. Holmes.

Herman Webster Mudgett , a.k.a. H. H. Holmes, considered by criminologists as the first serial killer in the U.S. in the modern sense of the term, operated a hotel in Chicago, which opened in 1893. "Holmes Castle," as it became called, was a place where many checked in, but never checked out alive. A number of "guests" were murdered and dismembered there during the World's Fair, which provided cover for the killer.

Before his trial and execution on May 7, 1896, Holmes confessed to the killing of more than 20 people, but authorities claimed he murdered many more.

At Holmes' trial, Grand Haven came up during testimony. Supposedly, Grand Haven was connected to the case via a grave robbing scheme. Holmes often hired vagrants to dig up freshly buried corpses in several West Michigan cemeteries, which he then sold.

One newspaper article explained the bodies "were brought to the Castle (hotel) and chemically treated," then sold as cadavers to unsuspecting doctors.

Patrick Quinlan, who had been a janitor or caretaker at the hotel, gave testimony at Holmes' trial that the bodies stolen from West Michigan graveyards, under the direction of Holmes, included Grand Haven.

"The graveyards of the western portion of Michigan -- Grand Haven, South Haven, Muskegon, Holland, St. Joseph -- were despoiled of bodies and coffins," stated an Aug. 2, 1895, wire story published in newspapers nationwide.

Quinlan's wife testified to this too, but both claimed they were aware of the practice but did not participate in the actual grave robberies. It was reported Quinlan and another man only received the bodies and participating in the "remaking and lining" of coffins for corpses before sale for medical use.

In response to the claim, the Grand Haven Tribune reported in its Aug. 8, 1895, edition that in the winter of 1894-1895, a detective had indeed passed through the city investigating the gruesome grave robberies.

"He (the investigator) stated to a friend (at Grand Haven) that he had unearthed a scheme whereby the graveyards of western Michigan were being robbed," the Tribune reported. But, according to the Tribune, no local graves had been disturbed.

"A great story was made of the affair, but so far as is known, no bodies were stolen from Grand Haven cemetery," the Tribune reported.

In 1884, while attending the University of Michigan Medical School, Holmes stole bodies from the school laboratory. He disfiguring the bodies and claimed the deceased were victims of accidents and collected money from insurance policies he took out on each.

But, if Holmes didn't rob graves at Grand Haven, perhaps some Ottawa County residents stayed at "his" first killing hotel in Muskegon.

A recently theory has surfaced that H. H. Holmes and a man named Hayden Henry Helms, who supposedly lived in Muskegon in the mid 1880s, were one and the same. It is claimed Helms built a hotel in Muskegon where he murdered many people nearly a decade before the Chicago killings.

The Helms Hotel -- if it ever was -- was said to have burned down circa 1886-87. It was reported Helms died in the fire and his charred remains were identified by a woman named "Miss Belknap," who recognized a watch she had given Helms as a gift on the corpse.

As the story goes, it was another man's corpse, and Holmes had faked his own death. Theorists claim Belknap was in on the deception and Helms moved on now using the name Henry Howard Holmes. Soon after, Holmes married a woman in 1887 named "Marta Belknap" in Minnesota.

Was Holmes' prior alias Hayden Henry Helms? Is there any credibility to the tale?

"I never heard of it, or him," said Jeff Mudgett, author of the book "Bloodstains." And, Jeff should know -- "He was my great-great Grandfather."

Jeff's book presents a theory of its own -- that Holmes might have been Jack the Ripper.

Happy Halloween!

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