As the first recognized serial killer in U.S. history, Herman Webster Mudgett built a house of horrors in Chicago, Illinois, in the late 1880s. Known by his alias, Henry H. Holmes, he stole corpses for profit, made a small fortune in insurance swindles, and ran a pharmacy. That was just business: his real passion was the murder and dissection of human beings. In a prosperous suburb, Holmes built a specially-designed house with over 100 rooms, filled with false walls, hidden doors, and secret chambers, and there he gassed and cut up anywhere from 27 to 200 victims. Only in 1896 did greed bring his crime spree to an end.

Born in 1861 into a successful family in Gilmanton, New Hampshire, Holmes studied medicine at the University of Michigan. From the medical school, he stole cadavers for an insurance fraud scheme. Offered as proof of an insured party's death, they were used to...