Edgar’s Experiments

In 1887 Edgar J. Holmes was a British immigrant who had come to New Orleans seeking to become a doctor and eventually open his own practice. Though he didn’t have the best grades or the greatest skills, the south was desperate for medical assistance and he came from money so Edgar found several schools in the area that were more than eager to have him as a student.

Edgar came and took up residence on the westbank side of the city. He started attending classes and, for the first year or so he did quite well, getting decent grades and earning a reputation as a student of little talent, but great passion and work ethic.

But as the course-load grew, poor Edgar slowly became a bit more and more twisted. He shut himself away, often for days at a time, to study and research. He would only emerge from his home only to attend class and, at all other times, was studiously hitting his books in his windowless office.

When it came time to put in some hours in the field, Edgar took a job working at the city morgue, shuffling bodies from place to place. Most wanted to find work in hospitals or clinics, but Edgar was more than content with patients who couldn’t breathe, talk or otherwise distract him from his studies.

But much like metal under too much strain, the pressures placed on Edgar, both by himself and others, eventually caused him to break. He began to see himself as a genius in his field, a figure beyond all of his peers and even instructors.

He started taking body parts home with him from the morgue. At first it was an eye here and a finger there, mostly from the poor and criminals found there. At that point, no one really noticed. But over time, his boldness grew and he began sneaking out whole bodies. Visiting late at night and loading them up on carts.

Eventually, the city caught on and confronted Edgar. However, there wasn’t any proof so they couldn’t convict him though they convinced his college that he bad become mentally unstable. Edgar was still a free man, but no longer a medical student.

But Edgar wasn’t discourage, oh no.

One of Edgar’s relatives had passed on and left him a sizable inheritance. Edgar took that money and, in 1891, bought himself a small hotel right on the westbank and, a few years later, opened up his own medical practice “Dr. Edgar Holmes Discount Medical Services”.

The fact he wasn’t really a doctor didn’t seem to bother much of anyone, especially since he was catering mostly to the poor and those who didn’t want their illnesses to be known. Even the city had forgotten its suspicion of him and looked the other way.

But Edgar wasn’t performing a public service, not at all. Though many of Edgar’s patients, probably most, got medical care, many were not so fortunate.

You see, late at night, Edgar would roam the halls of his clinic and torment the overnight patients. He’d saw off their fingers and reattach them, drill holes through their bodies and patch them up and burn their flesh so he could try to heal the wounds.

All the while, he was testing out new, experimental treatments. Some of which worked, most of which didn’t.

He kept dozens of “patients” like, keeping them sick and injured just so he could “heal” them and try out new things. Eventually, his experiments got more and more radical, he would try to transplant limbs and organs, even once trying to swap a brain.

His trail of bodies and failed experiments grew but, since he targeted criminals, the mentally ill and the homeless, he went largely unnoticed. Simply put, no one missed his victims and the police didn’t know to look.

He went on for nearly five years until, in 1899, one of his victims escaped and found the police. When they raided his madhouse they found a true horror show. One body had been cut in half, being kept alive by primitive pumps. Another had their limbs removed and swapped, and at least two were stammering around with parts of their brains removed.

The police arrested Edgar, who continued his studies from within prison but he eventually died very old and very much insane, never to kill again.

That is, until now. Edgar is coming back and for three nights only you can come and see the good doctor. However, you’d better hope he doesn’t try to make you one of his experiments as he has a lot of new ideas he’s just itching to try out on you…