15. How some of the myths began
When Holmes built the first two stories of the Castle he changed builders frequently. This was later reported to be a necessity in order for him to keep the murderous intent of his house of horrors from being known to anyone. The allegation makes little sense, since the more contractors who entered the building the more were aware of the unusual layout of the rooms and hallways. Holmes had to frequently change contractors because he didn’t pay them for their work. For the same reason he was forced to often change suppliers, as his credit ran out and his bills remained unpaid. Far from being a stoutly built prison, the building was shoddily completed, with one worker once putting his foot through the roof when he arrived to make some repairs.
The bodies of the victims he allegedly killed in the Castle were supposedly sold to medical schools and other doctors for the study of anatomy, according to some, or were burned in the woodstove in the basement, a virtual impossibility. It is also a myth that the Castle burned to the ground in August of 1895 (or any other year). It was damaged by fire and repaired, remaining in use until the 1930s, when it was torn down. It was during the building’s demolition that many of the pulp magazine stories about Holmes and the Murder Castle re-emerged, and also during that period that most of the extant photographs of the building were taken. The descriptions of the media which were unsupported by evidence when written forty years earlier were repeated, usually with substantial embellishment. They continue to be repeated and embellished in the twenty-first century.