American Horror Story: Hotel introduced the cursed residents of Hotel Cortez, among those its designer, James March (Evan Peters) – but was he a real person, or who was he inspired by? Since its premiere on FX in 2011, American Horror Story has become one of the most successful and popular TV shows, and it shows no signs of stopping soon. In over ten seasons, American Horror Story has explored different settings, creatures, fears, and legends through a combination of fictional characters, fictionalized versions of real-life people, and others based on some infamous real-life people.
As American Horror Story is an anthology series, each season is treated as a self-contained miniseries, though as the series has evolved, different characters and events have been referenced or featured in other seasons, forming an AHS connected universe. Each season covers a different horror theme, setting, and creature or fear, and for its fifth season, AHS took the audience to a very peculiar hotel inhabited by vampires and a variety of ghosts. Titled American Horror Story: Hotel, this season centered around Hotel Cortez in California, as homicide detective John Lowe (Wes Bentley) moved into Room 64 after a complex homicide case put his family in danger. Once there, he soon realized it wasn't a normal hotel, and it keeps a variety of dark and dangerous secrets, mostly linked to The Countess (Lady Gaga), the owner of the hotel who is also a vampire, though not in the traditional style of these creatures.
Hotel also introduced James Patrick March, the designer of the Hotel Cortez and husband of The Countess, who had a very dark past that further plagued the hotel. It’s through him that Hotel featured some of the most infamous serial killers, as he used to have dinner with them on the night before Halloween, but a question arose: is James March also based on a real serial killer, or is he completely fictional?
American Horror Story: Hotel – The Real James March Explained
James March was a wealthy oil businessman and serial killer, who used his money to build the Hotel Cortez. March had a very specific vision for the hotel as he built various secret rooms and hidden hallways with the purpose of using the hotel to hide all evidence of his many killings. March was the one who started the Ten Commandments murders, which were later picked up by John Lowe. Within the universe of American Horror Story: Hotel, March is one of the most famous serial killers of all time, and the ghosts of many of his victims are trapped in the hotel – but so is he, as he killed himself in his office before the police could arrest him, and he has dinner once a month with The Countess.
James March was reportedly based on real-life serial killer and con artist H. H. Holmes, who bought an empty lot and began constructing a two-story mixed-use building, with apartments and retail spaces. In 1892, he added a third floor and told investors he would use it as a hotel, but this part was never completed. The press labeled the building “Murder Castle” as there were rumors about Holmes luring strangers into the hotel to kill them, but there’s no evidence of this, and they also claimed the building had secret torture chambers, trap doors, gas chambers, and a basement crematorium, but that wasn’t true. What’s true, however, is that Holmes killed various people, including his mistresses and his business partner, Benjamin Pitezel, the latter the only murder he was convicted and sentenced to death for. It’s unknown the exact number of victims of H. H. Holmes as he confessed to 27 murders, but some of those people were still alive, and he constantly gave contradicting accounts of his life. All those rumors and stories about H. H. Holmes were brought to life in American Horror Story: Hotel through James March, but unlike Hotel Cortez, Holmes’ Castle is no longer standing, as it was destroyed by a fire shortly after Holmes’ arrest.