#the case files of clara holmes

[mrhyde-mrseek]

My son, my boy, my gentle giant, Adam

[cruetrimeblog]

The Unfortunate Story of H.H. Holmes

H.H. Holmes was born Herman Webster Mudgett in Gilmanton, New Hampshire in May 1861. His parents were Levi Mudgett and Theodate Price. Holmes was the third of five total children. His siblings' names were Ellen, Arthur, Henry, and Mary. The Mudgett's were a Methodist family. Many people believe that Holmes tortured animals and also suffered abuse from his father. However there has been no solid proof to back up either of these accusations.

Holmes graduated from high school at 16 years old and went on to be a teacher. He married a woman named Clara Lovering in July 1878. They went on to have a son named Robert in February of 1880.

Holmes enrolled in the University of Vermont when he was 18, but dropped out a year later. He then transferred to the University of Michigan where he studied medicine and surgery. He graduated in June 1884. After school Holmes worked as an apprentice to advocate of human dissection, Nahum Wight. After his crimes, Holmes admitted to using cadavers to commit insurance fraud in college.

Roommates of Holmes witnessed him be very abusive to Clara. She moved back home in 1884. She didn't talk to him very much afterwards. Holmes then moved to New York. It was rumored that he was the last one seen with a young boy before he disappeared. Holmes told everyone that the boy had gone back home to Massachusetts. There was no investigation into the boy's whereabouts, and Holmes quickly left town afterwards.

Holmes traveled to Philadelphia where he took on a job as a keeper at a hospital. He quit a few days later. He then accepted a job at a drug store. A boy died while Holmes worked there after taking medicine that was bought at that specific store. However, Holmes denied being involved. He then left Philadelphia and moved to Chicago. It is here that the officially changed his name to H.H. Holmes to avoid being exposed.

In a later confession, Holmes admitted to killing former classmate Robert Leacock for insurance money. However, it was confirmed that Robert actually died in his home in Canada 3 years later. While still being legally married to Clara, Holmes married a woman named Myra Belknap in Minneapolis. He filed for divorce just a few weeks later, claiming it was because Clara was unfaithful to him. These claims weren't ever proven, so the case was dismissed. It's possible that Clara never even knew the case had taken place. Their divorce was never finalized.

Holmes had a daughter with Myrta named Lucy Holmes 1889. She grew up to be a school teacher. Holmes married for yet a third time in January of 1894. This wife's name was Georgiana Yorke. He was still married to both Clara and Myrta at the time.

After moving to Chicago, Holmes got a job in a drugstore owned by Elizabeth Holton. Holmes would eventually buy the drugstore from her. It was rumored that Holmes had killed Elizabeth and her husband, but this was later proven to be a myth.

Holmes bought some land near to the drugstore. He began construction on a two story building in 1887. He planned to use the upper floor for apartments and retail space. The bottom floor would serve as a second drugstore.

Holmes added a third floor to the building in 1892. He explained that this floor would be used as a hotel of sorts. This section was never completed due to the contractors backing out of the deal after they found out that Holmes had been stealing materials from them.

Many of the rooms were soundproofed. The hallway resembled a maze with many pathways to nowhere. Several rooms were also equipped with chutes down to the basement. Holmes stored acid and lime in the basement which he later used as a crematorium for his victims. The builders notified the public of Holmes strange habits. This caused the investors of the hotel to back out. Many years after Holmes arrest, an unknown arsonist started a fire on the third floor which destroyed a large portion of the building. It was later rebuilt and used as a post office until 1938.

The hotel was mostly complete by 1892. The first floor was used as a storefront. The second floor held many elaborate torture rooms. The third floor held apartment space. Police decided to check out the hotel in 1894 while Holmes was away. The found many disturbing things inside: rooms with hinged walls and false partitions, secret passageways, gas pipelines leading to airtight rooms, and the chutes used by Holmes to transport bodies to the basement.

The basement held surgical tables and medical tools. Holmes used these to dissect his victims to then sell their organs and bones. He sold body parts to medical facilities on the black market.

One of Holmes' first victims was his mistress named Julia Smythe. Julia and her daughter Pearl went missing on Christmas Eve 1891. Holmes claimed that Julia died during an abortion, but what happened to them was never confirmed. Emeline Cigrande began working at the hotel in 1892 and was also likely a victim of Holmes. The disappearance of Edna Tassel has also been linked to Holmes.

Holmes met Benjamin Pitezel while working at Chemical Bank, and the two became close friends. Pitezel had a criminal history and soon became Holmes' right hand man.

Holmes met actress Minnie Williams when she moved to Chicago in 1893. He offered her a job as his personal stenographer, which she accepted. The two became close enough for Holmes' to convince Minnie to sign over some of her property to "Alexander Bond" which was one of Holmes' aliases.

Holmes would then sign the property over to Pitezel. Holmes and Minnie rented an apartment together in Chicago. After Minnie's sister Annie came to visit her, she wrote to her mother that the two sisters planned to go to Europe to visit "Brother Harry." The two sisters were last seen alive on July 5, 1893.

Several insurance companies were trying to prosecute Holmes for arson. So much so, that Holmes fled Chicago in 1894. He was spotted in For Worth, Texas where he had inherited property from the Williams' sisters. He planned on building another castle there to use to swindle suppliers.

Holmes was arrested for the first time in the same month. He was charged with selling mortgaged goods. He quickly posted bail and didn't spend long in jail. But while he was there he met Marion Hedgepeth, a famous Wild West outlaw. At this time, Holmes was planning to fake his own death to get $10,000 in life insurance money.

Holmes offered Hedgepeth $500 to give him the name of a trustworthy attorney. He gave him the name of attorney Jeptha Howe. Jeptha thought Holmes' insurance plan was genius. However, the plan ultimately failed when the insurance company became suspicious and refused to pay up. Holmes quickly adjusted his plan to claim insurance money on Pitezel instead.

Pitezel agreed to fake his own death so that his wife could collect the $10,000. She agreed to split it with Holmes and Jeptha. Holmes originally planned to use a cadaver as the fake dead Pitezel, but found it easier to just kill him instead. Holmes chloroformed Pitezel and burned his body.

Holmes collected the insurance money and even manipulated Pitezel's widow into signing over custody of three of her five children over to him. Holmes traveled with the children all throughout American and Canada.

Holmes managed to keep all of this a secret from his wife. Holmes would later admit to killing two of the children by locking them in a trunk. He drilled a hole into the trunk to insert a tube connected to a gas line causing the children to asphyxiate. He buried their bodies in the cellar of the house he was renting at the time.

Philadelphia policeman Frank Geyer was appointed to the case of the missing children. He ultimately found their bodies in Holmes' home. Frank then headed to Indianapolis in search of him. Holmes had been spotted at a pharmacy there. He was purchasing drugs to use to kill the third child. He had also been spotted sharpening knives at a repair shop. He later used those knives to dismember the child. He burned the child's remains in his fireplace where bone fragments and teeth were later discovered.

Holmes didn't stop killing until he was arrested again in November of 1894 in Boston. He was located by the Pinkertons Detective Agency. He had a warrant out for her arrest in Texas for horse theft. His wife was very shocked to find all of this out.

Police began investigating the murder castle in July 1895. Surprisingly, there was no sufficient evidence found against Holmes in Chicago. Some people even began to believe that the torture rooms were a myth.

Holmes was put on trial for Pitezel's murder in October 1895. He was found guilty and sentenced to death. Holmes later admitted to 27 murders and 6 attempted murders. The Hearst newspaper paid Holmes $7,500 for his confession. However parts of his confession were proved to be untrue. There were several "victims" of Holmes that were later found to still be alive.

Holmes described his wife differently depending on who asked him about it. Sometimes he claimed he was innocent, while other times he claimed to be possessed by the devil. Because he lied so often throughout his life, the truth is hard to come by. Holmes claimed to start resembling the devil more and more the longer he was in prison.

Holmes was hanged in Philadelphia on May 7, 1896. He was calm and friendly throughout the process. He wasn't upset or afraid. He requested for his body to be buried 10 feet down and to be encased in cement so that people wouldn't try to rob his grave. Holmes' neck didn't break which caused him to suffocate to death. He was pronounced dead after hanging for 20 minutes.

The murder castle mysteriously burned down in August 1895. It was reported that two men were seen near the building at around 8 pm that night. They could be seen leaving half an hour later. After the fire ended, police found a gas can near the back steps. The building was able to be repaired and was turned into a post office until it was torn down in 1938.

It was rumored in 2017 that Holmes may have managed to escape his execution. His body was exhumed for testing, but wasn't as decayed as it should have been due to being encased in cement. His clothes were preserved. His mustache was intact. However, DNA testing was done using Holmes' dental records, and the corpse is in fact his. Holmes was then reburied.

[newsnurturer]

Bay Area tech exec says company lied to get $25M from investors, fired him for speaking up

A Bay Area tech founder has alleged in a wrongful termination lawsuit that his former company and its CEO repeatedly lied to investors and then fired him for protesting those actions.

In a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Santa Clara, Subburajan Ponnuswamy, who co-founded the digital security company Cloudbrink in 2019 and served as its chief technology officer, alleged that Cloudbrink CEO Prakash Mana used false information to secure funding from investors. In the complaint, Ponnuswamy alleged that Mana, who joined as CEO in 2020, had conducted a “‘fake it till you make it’ scheme” by falsifying revenue, purchase orders, and customer quotes in presentations for investors and board members. He also alleged that Mana promised customers Cloudbrink stock in exchange for helping him falsify the revenue.

In a statement from Cloudbrink provided by company spokesperson Mark Fox, the company wrote that it “affirmatively denies Ponnuswamy’s allegations and will be filing a formal denial in court at the appropriate time.”

“Our policy is not to comment on active litigation; however, we can say that Cloudbrink has an impeccable reputation in the marketplace, intends to vigorously defend itself in this lawsuit, and views the allegations as internally inconsistent and nonsensical. The Board is aware of Ponnuswamy’s allegations and remains in full support of Cloudbrink’s current leadership and direction,” the statement continued.

Ponnuswamy’s filing specifically points out Cloudbrink’s $25 million “Series A” funding round, which the company announced in November 2022; the former executive alleges that Mana used fake customer testimony and false revenue information to raise the money. He alleges that Mana then falsified invoices to assuage investors’ “due diligence” check.

“For some of the falsified revenue and/or customers, CEO Mana did not issue any invoices even after 6 months of claiming the revenue; for other ‘customers,’ CEO Mana created a batch of invoices right around the time of fundraising (months or quarters after claiming those as ARR), just to establish paper trails,” the complaint alleged. “Yet there was no evidence of those invoices ever being submitted to the alleged customer, and no funds were received from them.”

Ponnuswamy reportedly discussed his concerns with Cloudbrink’s board in four meetings with board members, and Mana’s conduct toward the chief technology officer became “increasingly retaliatory,” according to the complaint. Mana allegedly told Ponnuswamy at one point, “If you come into my swim lane, I’ll make sure to take parts of your swim lane.” Mana also asked Ponnuswamy to create fake user and customer accounts, which Ponnuswamy refused to do, according to the lawsuit.

Ponnuswamy alleged in the complaint that his forced exit came after he met in March with board members and representatives from The Fabric and Highland Capital Partners in March. Both companies were listed by Cloudbrink as lead investors in the $25 million funding round. The complaint said Ponnuswamy “presented hard evidence of falsification of [annual recurring revenue] and customer count.”

Two weeks later, the Cloudbrink board told Ponnuswamy that “while it appeared to be true that CEO Mana had been reporting fraudulent customers and revenues to the Board and investors, they could not terminate him for fear it would damage Cloudbrink’s sales operations and customers,” per the lawsuit.

Ponnuswamy alleged that the board then told him they would be firing him instead, and that they planned to “‘clean up’ the books.” Then they terminated his contract, the complaint reads. His last day was March 20.

“It became clear that the Company had decided to cover its tracks and side with CEO Mana’s unlawful ‘fake it till you make it’ scheme over lawful business practices,” the complaint reads.

Ponnuswamy wrote in a statement that “high-profile cases like Elizabeth Holmes and Sam Bankman-Fried are just the tip of the iceberg, with similar unlawful practices in smaller startups often going unreported or inadequately investigated due to company board complicity.” Two investors named in the lawsuit from The Fabric and Highland did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Ponnuswamy alleges he was fired in retaliation and wrongfully terminated, without being provided the stock options he’d been promised.

“In effect, CEO Mana and the Board waited for Mr. Ponnuswamy to build the technology and ship product, careful not to issue any additional promised options, […] diluted his options, and terminated him because he repeatedly raised concerns about the Company’s unlawful and fraudulent conduct,” the complaint said. Ponnuswamy is seeking lost wages and punitive damages, among other relief.

[wardrobeoftime]

Movies

A Castle for Christmas

A Royal Affair

A Royal Night Out

Aladdin (2019)

Angélique (2013)

Angelo

Assassin’s Creed

Baron Münchhausen

Beauty and the Beast (2017)

Belle (2013)

Berlin ‘36

Cinderella (2015)

Cinderella (2021)

Clara Immerwahr

Corsage (2022)

Crimson Peak

Das Attentat - Sarajevo 1914 (2014)

Das kalte Herz (2016)

Das weiße Haus am Rhein (2022)

Death on the Nile (2022)

Der Club der singenden Metzger

Der junge Karl Marx

Descendants 3

Die geliebten Schwestern (2014)

Effie Gray (2014)

Elizabeth (1998) & Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007)

Emma (2020)

Enola Holmes & Enola Holmes 2

Fallen (2016)

Five Feet Apart

Geliebter Johann, Geliebte Anna

Gosford Park (2001)

Grace of Monaco (2014)

High School Musical Trilogy

House of Gucci (2021)

I, Tonya

Jack the Ripper - Eine Frau jagt einen Mörder (2014)

Kaisersturz

Katharina Luther

Käthe Kruse

Kronprinz Rudolf (2006)

Lady Macbeth (2016)

Les Miserables (2012)

Little Women (2019)

Lotte am Bauhaus

Love and Friendship (2016)

Ludwig (1972)

Ludwig II (2012)

Madame Bovary (2014)

Marie Antoinette (2006)

Mary Queen of Scots (2013)

Mary Queen of Scots (2018)

Marvel Cinematic Universe*

Mata Hari - Tanz mit dem Tod

Mozart's Sister (2010)

Mr Malcom's List (2022)

Mulan (2020)

My Cousin Rachel (2017)

My Fair Lady (1964)

Nacht über Berlin

Oceans 8

Ophelia

Ottilie von Faber-Castell - Eine mutige Frau

Romeo and Juliet (2013)

Rosaline (2022)

Ruby Red Trilogy

Sisi (2009)

Sissi Trilogy

Spencer

Sternstunde ihres Lebens

The Countess aka Bathory (2009)

The Current War (2017)

The Duchess (2008)

The Exception

The Favourite

The Girl King

The Greatest Showman

The Green Knight (2021)

The Hunger Games Trilogy

The King (2019)

The Last Duel

The Madness of King George

The Pagan Queen (2009)

The Personal History of David Copperfield (2019)

The Princess (2022)

The Princess Switch Trilogy

The Scandalous Lady W

The School for Good and Evil

The Twilight Saga

The Wolfman (2010)

The Young Victoria

Three Thousand Years of Longing

Till Eulenspiegel

Trenck - Zwei Herzen gegen die Krone

Tulip Fever

Vampire Academy (2014)

Viceroy’s Home

Victoria and Abdul

Vorwärts immer

W.E. (2011)

Wendezeit

____________________

*I don't have files for everything, so this depends on a case to case basis. I watched the movies and the Disney+ series but not most of the series produced by ABC, Freeform, Netflix etc.

[mrhyde-mrseek]

Have I told y’all how much I love Case Files Watson’s design? Because I do. I love him so very much

[mrhyde-mrseek]

Currently working on rewriting The Case Files of Clara Holmes (still very much in the notes stage), here’s a reference sheet for my girl Clara herself!

[mrhyde-mrseek]

Ok yeah no I’m drawing the entire cast. Be warned, there’s more coming

[mrhyde-mrseek]

Similar to how I made moodboards for SMS, I made some for the Case Files characters!

There’s a LOT, so this’ll be split into multiple parts. First, we have the Order of Peculiar Mortals and Other Such Figures:

Clara Holmes

Dr. Watson

Jonathan Harker

Adam Shelley

The Time Traveller

Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde

Griffin

Allan Scholar

Ichabod Crane

[mrhyde-mrseek]

Now here’s the moodboards for the Women’s Order of the Haunted Hollow:

Katrina Van Tassel

Alice Perez-Liddell

Wendy Darling

Christine Daaé

Dorothy Gale

[mrhyde-mrseek]

I find it so funny how few straight/cis characters I have. Like, in SMS alone, we have:

-Holmes and Watson, who are a couple (and Holmes is also demisexual)

-Griffin, who’s aroace

-Jekyll/Hyde, who’s gay

-Victor, who’s gay

-Both Harkers, who are each some flavor of queer (I can’t decide) and also polyamorous

-Mycroft, who’s aro

-Utterson, who’s bi

-Edmund, who’s pan

-And Walton, who’s a gay trans man

AND THEN you’ve got all my other stories, such as:

The Case Files

-Clara (aroace)

-Watson (bi)

-Harker (bi)

-Adam (unlabeled)

-The Time Traveller and Jekyll/Hyde (dating, TT is gay, J/H is bi)

-Griffin (aroace) (I really like that headcanon for him in every universe apparently)

-Allan (demisexual)

-Wendy (lesbian)

-Christine (ace)

-Dorothy (lesbian)

The Haunted and the Hollow

-Libra (bi)

-Koda (demisexual)

-Birdy and Lily (dating, B is pan, L is a trans lesbian)

-Henry (trans boy)

-Maya (aroace)

-Ryan (nonbinary)

-Jodie (lesbian)

-Max (lesbian)

The Afterlife Chronicles

-Sasha (bi)

-Robin (lesbian)

-Anthony (bi)

-Baz (gay)

-Morgan (aromantic)

-Loreley (bi)

-Nicora (lesbian)

-For Thanatos I have absolutely no fucking clue, he’s not really interested in romance or sex, he’s more focused on ruling Heaven and stopping the approaching Apocalypse.

-And then we also have a list of angels and demons who just muddle the whole matter up so for most of the non-humans, identity is just chaos.

Hyacinth

-Apollo (bi)

-Hyacinthus (gay)

-Zephyrus (gay)

-Artemis (aroace)

-Hermes (bi)

-Dionysus (pan)

-Thamyris (gay)

Red Sun

I haven’t actually really given this one much thought; the only two I’m positive of are:

-Sanzang (aroace)

-And Huo (bi)

But I don’t know about Wukong, Bajie, Wujing, or Longma yet.

[mrhyde-mrseek]

CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR BOOK 2!

And then we’ve got several characters who are associated with one or both of the orders in some way, and/or play an important role in TCFOCH:

Katherine “Kitty” Baker

Mina Harker

Sterling Abbott

Victor Alden

Thomas Hendriks

[mrhyde-mrseek]

CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR BOOKS 2 (PUBLISHED) AND 3 (WIP)!

Now for the Case Files antagonists:

Dion Tantlos/Edgar Wick

Abraham “Brom Bones” Van Brunt (whose name I somehow managed to type incorrectly onto the moodboard)

The Headless Horseman/Hans Woelfel

The vampire colony

[mrhyde-mrseek]

I have an entire page of forgotten sketches of a character in the second Case Files book (named Sterling), and I don’t think I’ll ever end up touching them again but look. Look at him. Look at the pose. Look at the hands. Why do I love this so much

[mrhyde-mrseek]

A comprehensive list of ship names for my stories (that I should actually start using)

Holmes x Watson (SMS): Holmeson (the SMS specific ship isn’t Johnlock because I want it to be separate from BBC Sherlock)

Jekyll x Utterson (SMS): Love Potion (‘cause the Hyde serum is the science equivalent of a potion)

Gwen x Newt (SMS): I’m torn between Blackcrow and Curse Breakers

Victor x Walton (SMS): Waltonstein (I’m gonna be honest, I have no idea what their book-specific ship name even is)

The Time Traveller x Jekyll/Hyde (The Case Files): I came up with Lab Partners a couple of years ago and I still love it

Loreley x Nicora (The Afterlife Chronicles): Grim Reaper (“grim” bc Loreley’s a demon, “reaper” bc Nicora’s a psychopomp)

Lupa x Lucifer x Beelzebub (before Lupa’s death) (The Afterlife Chronicles): Hellish Trio (they’re all demons)

Lucifer x Beelzebub (after Lupa’s death) (The Afterlife Chronicles): Horn Fly

Libra x Max (The Haunted and the Hollow): Cryptozoologists (they’re both obsessed with cryptids)

Birdy x Lily (The Haunted and Hollow): Birdflower

[mrhyde-mrseek]

“Rooted to the spot, he stared at the place she had been standing even after the door had swung shut again, clutching the unknown paper limply by his side. Oh, dear, was all he could think.”

-The Women’s Order of the Haunted Hollow, Chapter Two: Bar Fright

I think this is the first time I’ve drawn Case Files Ichabod! I’m also just… absolutely in love with his expression. And his pants. Look at him. What a dork (lovingly).

[mrhyde-mrseek]

Little pen drawing of the Case Files Headless Horseman that I went kinda hardcore on the shading with for ✨drama✨

(I scribbled out his name on my phone because it’s a huge spoiler for book 2)