Elena Semander

popular name: Albert DeSalvo

date_of_death: November 25, 1973

age: 42

cause_of_death: Stabbed to death

claim_to_fame: Crime and their Victims

best_know_for: Albert DeSalvo was an alleged American rapist and serial killer in Boston, Massachusetts, who purportedly confessed to being the "Boston Strangler", the murderer of thirteen women in the Boston area from 1962 to 1964. In 1967, DeSalvo was imprisoned for life for committing a series of rapes. However, his murder confession has been disputed and debate continues as to which crimes he actually committed.

popular name: Gennaro Angiulo

date_of_death: August 29, 2009

age: 90

cause_of_death: Kidney failure

claim_to_fame: Crime and their Victims

best_know_for: Gennaro J. “Jay” Angiulo was an American mobster who rose to the position of underboss in the Patriarca crime family of New England under Raymond L. S. Patriarca. He and his brothers oversaw the Boston, Massachusetts faction of the Patriarca family from 1963 to 1986. Angiulo rose from humble beginnings to become a key player in the Mafia, overseeing racketeering, gambling, loansharking, murder and other illicit operations in the region. His influence peaked in the 1960s and '70s, but his criminal empire began to crumble in the 1980s when the FBI, aided by informants like Whitey Bulger, planted listening devices in his headquarters. These recordings led to his 1986 conviction on racketeering and other charges, resulting in a lengthy prison sentence. After serving 17 years, Angiulo was released in 2007 due to health issues. He died on August 29, 2009, at the age of 90, and is considered the last significant Mafia boss in Boston’s history. You can visit grave of mobster Gennaro Angiulo at Holy Cross Cemetery in Malden, Massachusetts.

popular name: H. H. Holmes

date_of_death: May 7, 1896

age: 34

cause_of_death: Execution by hanging

claim_to_fame: Crime and their Victims

best_know_for: The country’s first serial killer was a smooth-talking doctor who ran a murder hotel in Chicago. The tale of H. H. Holmes and his Murder Castle is perhaps one of the most fascinating cases in American criminal history. Born Herman Webster Mudgett, he was a bright young doctor who had graduated from high school at sixteen and always had a penchant for anything to do with death. While enrolled in the University of Michigan’s Department of Medicine and Surgery, he worked under Professor William James Herdman in the university’s anatomy lab. The pair were said to have aided body snatching to supply bodies as medical cadavers, which Mudgett then burned or disfigured with acid, then planted to it look as if they had been killed in an accident. Mudgett began taking out insurance policies on these people—before he stole, disfigured, and planted them—and would later collect the insurance money once the bodies were discovered. After graduation, Mudgett started a new job working at a Philadelphia drugstore. When a child died after taking medicine purchased from the drugstore Mudgett was employed at, the young doctor denied any involvement and immediately left the city. Before he moved to Chicago, he changed his name to avoid any connection to his previous scams. Herman Webster Mudgett, M.D., donned the name Henry Howard Holmes. In 1893, the bustling city of Chicago won the honor of hosting the World’s Columbian Exposition. While the World’s Fair brought millions of visitors from all over the world, nearby, a clever killer hid in plain sight, capitalizing off of the slaughter of naive tourists. For the next two years Holmes either killed or is suspected of killing around two dozen people using his murder mansion residences to facility cruel and diabolical murder of men, women, and even children. He was finally caught and convicted of murder in 1894 and executed in 1985. Until the moment of his death, Holmes remained calm and amiable, showing very few signs of fear, anxiety, or depression. Despite this, he asked for his coffin to be contained in concrete and buried ten feet deep, because he was concerned grave robbers would steal his body and use it for dissection. Despite popular belief, Holmes's neck did not break; he instead strangled to death slowly, twitching for over fifteen minutes before being pronounced dead. He was buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in Yeadon, Pennsylvania.