GEISTS OF THE SPIRITUAL MOVEMENT

DR. THOMAS NEIL CREME


Dr. Thomas Neill Creme never had an ordinary life. His mother, an abusive alcoholic and opium addict, would regularly beat, humiliate and starve Creme for anything less than perfection. When Creme later entered medical school, his mother passed away from cholera, but not before denouncing her son as the devil's child. Creme, already dealing with psychiatric problems because of his upbringing, attempted to move on.

He had numerous social problems, and was not traditionally attractive, so he regularly paid for affection to fill an emotional void. He fell in love with a painted lady in London, Molly Malone, who regularly stole tuition from him in order to take clandestine holidays with other suitors. When Creme discovered what was happening, Molly attempted to have a ruffian kill Creme, so they could rob him of his possessions. Creme fought off the intruder, stabbing him with his mother's hand-me-down carving knife. Afterwards, Molly disappeared. Though Creme was questioned, he left with his freshly achieved medical doctrine to the United States.

Neil found his way to Chicago where he opened up a practice with surgeon H.H. Holmes. However, Creme was obsessed with a local prostitute, and spent his earnings on winning her affections. When the prostitute's husband learned of Creme's fascination, he beat Creme in the office of his own practice. As revenge, Creme slipped into the man's home and poisoned him. Neil's love interest would turn him in, and Creme would be sent to Joliet Correctional Facility.

Creme, now stranger and more knowledgeable than ever, orchestrated terrible plots with cell-made poisons, getting prisoners and guards ill. No one could prove his crimes, but several guards took it upon themselves to beat Creme and mutilate his privates. When the "Board of Illinois Decency" learned of this, Creme was shuffled out of prison on good behavior and given a complimentary ticket to London. But some say, he didn't come back the same man.

The reason many folks feel that Creme wasn't the same is because He was thought to be dead from his prison beating. He lay in a basement for two days. It wasn't until an outside coroner inspected the corpse that Creme sprang up to life, miraculously healed. Some say he was in a coma and others say he returned from the dead. Upon returning to London, Creme wasted no time. In early 1880, he locked an entire brothel worth of prostitutes into their place of work after poisoning them. Those who survived the lethal dose of aconitine were cut up with Creme's carving knife handed down from his mother. He's currently locked up in Scotland Yard's main headquarters until his hanging.