While there are many theories behind what the next season of “American Horror Story” will be about, the most compelling is that “Hotel” will be based on the horrific crimes of H.H. Holmes, an entrepreneur that is considered to be America’s first serial killer.

The Holmes story goes back to 1893 when Herman Webster Mudgett (a.k.a Dr. Henry Howard Holmes) opened the World’s Fair Hotel in Chicago. It was constructed with the evil ingenuity to murder immigrants and travelers attending the Columbian Exposition (The Chicago World’s Fair).

After the completion of what would become known as “Murder Castle”, “Holmes selected mostly female victims from among his employees (many of whom were required as a condition of employment to take out life insurance policies, for which Holmes would pay the premiums but was also the beneficiary), as well as his lovers and hotel guests, whom he would later kill. Some were locked in soundproof bedrooms fitted with gas lines that let him asphyxiate them at any time. Other victims were locked in a huge soundproof bank vault near his office, where they were left to suffocate. The victims’ bodies were dropped by secret chute to the basement, where some were meticulously dissected, stripped of flesh, crafted into skeleton models, and then sold to medical schools. Holmes also cremated some of the bodies or placed them in lime pits for destruction. Holmes had two giant furnaces as well as pits of acid, bottles of various poisons, and even a stretching rack. Through the connections he had gained in medical school, he sold skeletons and organs with little difficulty.” (Wiki)

While Holmes confessed to 27 murders, it is believed that he took the life of more than 200 people through the year of 1984. He is also thought to be a Jack the Ripper suspect…

For those curious to know more about this sadistic murderer, Netflix Instant has John Borowski’s superb 2003 documentary H. H. Holmes: America’s First Serial Killer.

Last week it was revealed that Lady Gaga would be starring in the fifth season of “American Horror Story”, dubbed “Hotel”.

What do you guys think of this theory? Is Holmes set to be the inspiration behind “American Horror Story: Hotel’s” antagonist?