1 The Doctor That Ran His Own Private “Murder Castle” One of America’s most famous and most prolific serial killers was a doctor. Herman Webster Mudgett, better known by the alias H.H. Holmes, is said to have killed anywhere from 27 to 200 people in his legendarily “Murder Castle.” Holmes financed his education by taking out life insurance claims, dismembering corpses from his medical school’s laboratory and presenting the bodies as proof that the (non-existent) persons listed in the policies had died. If that were all Holmes did, it would make him a tricky con man, but he most certainly deserves a place in history for other more nefarious activities. In 1886, Holmes moved to Chicago and constructed a 3-story mansion that spanned an entire city block. The structure was built with his evil plans in mind—it came complete with mazes, traps, secret rooms, and doors that only opened from the outside. The most disturbing of all rooms was the massive basement, which was equipped with medical instruments, acid-filled pits, poisons, massive furnaces and torture devices. From his bedroom, Holmes controlled gas pipes that led up from the basement to specific rooms so he could render his victims unconscious. To make sure the builders never caught on, he used multiple companies, so he was the only one who knew the intricate details and scope of his murder mansion. Most of his early victims were lured into the home with promises of employment, but only after these future “employees” took out life insurance policies naming Holmes as the beneficiary. In 1893, he opened his home as a hotel, offering cheap rates for young tourists visiting the World’s Fair. The lucky victims died from asphyxiation, but those who were not so lucky were still alive when Holmes tested out his torture devices. The mad doctor even made money from his kills, selling skeletons and organs to medical schools. When he was finally caught (years after he left Chicago), Holmes’ murder castle was searched, and police were shocked to discover the house of horrors within. They couldn’t correctly estimate the number of victims because the bodies had been so badly dismembered. The crazed doctor confessed to killing 27 people in his lifetime, but experts think that number is much, much higher. He was hanged on May 7, 1896. 2 The Doctor Who Intentionally Got Patients Addicted to Drugs Prescription drug addiction is a huge problem in the medical industry, and that problem isn’t made easier when doctors realize they can get rich by getting their patients addicted. Pain management physician Mladen Antolic had access to controlled substances ranging from Schedules II through V, which means he could write prescriptions for cocaine, morphine, oxycodone, and methamphetamines. It wasn’t long before he realized this gave him a lot of power, which he could exploit for both money and sex. Antolic prescribed addictive drugs to young, attractive women without explaining their risks (and often without a legitimate reason to prescribe them.) Not long after that, his patients were hooked, leaving Antolic in a position to satisfy their cravings. He invited them to lavish parties where he would give them drugs for sexual favors. Eventually, someone sent an anonymous letter to the DEA accusing the doctor of running a “pill mill.” As the investigation unfolded, authorities soon discovered that Antolic wasn’t just prescribing pills like candy, but also distributing them from his house for money and sex. He was arrested on over a dozen charges in 2010, and his medical license was suspended. Despite facing up to 156 years for his crimes, Antolic was able to secure a plea bargain that allowed him to get away with only ten years in prison. 3 The Doctor Who Misdiagnosed Over 550 People With Cancer Prescribing unnecessary drugs to patients is always unethical and dangerous, but when those medications are notoriously difficult to take (like chemotherapy), it’s beyond terrible. Dr. Farid Fata intentionally misdiagnosed patients with cancer and needlessly treated over 550 people solely to rake in the cash. Many of his patients never had the disease, and even those who had some form of it rarely required the extreme treatments they received. “None of the tumors were helped — they increased in number, they increased in size,” one of his patients stated. “I believe Dr. Fata knowingly and purposely treated me for the wrong cancer and gave me the wrong chemotherapy.” Eventually, Dr. Fata pleaded guilty to multiple criminal charges, forfeiting over $17.6 million he took from insurance companies and Medicare. He is expected to serve at least 34 years of his 45-year sentence. source
