Maddison Winchester: Journal 2 {Supernatural}

6 No Exit: Part 3

About twenty minutes later, Ash sent a list of prison inmates to Sam's laptop.

Sam shook his head. "A hundred fifty-seven names?"

"We've gotta narrow that down," Dean said.

Sam nodded. "Yeah."

"Or else we're gonna be digging up a hell of a lot of stiffs." Dean scoffed.

I watched as Sam scrolled through the list, and then one caught my eye. "Hey, scroll back up."

Sam did as I requested, and then I pointed to a name; Herman Webster Mudgett.

"Herman Webster Mudgett?" Sam furrowed his brow. "Why does that sound so familiar?"

I put my head back and groaned. "Come on, Sam. Haven't you ever heard of America's first serial killer?"

Realization crossed Sam's face. "That's H. H. Holmes's real name."

Dean shook his head. "You've gotta be kiddin' me."

I nodded. "I knew I recognized the name of that prison. I just couldn't place it. He was executed there..." I thought for a moment. "Sometime in the 1890s."

"H. H. Holmes himself." Sam shook his head. "Come on, I mean, what are the odds?"

"Who is this guy?" Jo asked.

"The term 'multi-murderer,' they coined it to describe Holmes." Dean nodded to me. "He was America's first serial killer before anybody knew what a serial killer was."

"Yeah, he confessed to twenty-seven murders, but some put the death toll at over a hundred," I said, "He enjoyed killing pretty petite blondes..."

Jo frowned and shivered.

"Typically, he used chloroform to kill them," I said.

Dean nodded. "I smelled that in the hallway last night."

"Once he had been caught, the police found human remains, bone fragments, and long locks of bloody blonde hair," I continued.

Dean scoffed and looked at Jo. "Boy, you sure know how to pick 'em."

"Well, we just find the bones, salt 'em and burn 'em, right?" Jo asked.

I shrugged. "I mean, sure if we can round up a jackhammer."

Jo furrowed her brow. "Why?"

"His body is buried in town, but it's encased in a couple tons of concrete," I explained.

Jo shook her head. "What? Why?"

"He didn't want anyone to be able to take revenge and mutilate his corpse," I explained.

No one said anything and just stared at me.

I furrowed my brow. "What?"

Sam shook his head. "How do you know all this stuff?"

"Well, one of the many times I've been left back at a motel, the History Channel was running a documentary on H.H. Holmes... I kinda became obsessed with it. I was bored, so I made up my own case. I even interviewed the motel clerk; I went all Unsolved Mysteries on him." I thought for a second. "Well, now that I'm thinking about it, I never actually told him what I was doing, so he probably just thought I was some crazy kid." I shook my head and walked over to my bag. "Anyway, I made my own file about Holmes, I held on to it 'cause I was proud of the work I put into it." I pulled out my file and handed it to Sam. "Never thought it would actually come in handy, though."

Sam flipped through the file while Dean looked over his shoulder. "This is actually really good, Maddi."

I shrugged. "I've watched you two and Dad make case files a million times."