During the Chicago World's fair of 1893,
a fiend was murdering dozens of people.
THE DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY is really two books in one. The "White City" is the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 and it summarizes the trials the architects went through to get the fair ready in a short amount of time. We are introduced to the driving force, architect Daniel Hudson Burnham, to Frederick Law Olmsted (designer of Central Park in New York) the landscape artist, and to George Ferris, inventer of the Ferris Wheel, the centerpiece of the World Fair and Burnham's bid to outdo the Eiffel Tower. Ohmstead is probably the most interesting of these stalwarts in that I was not aware of what a tortured genius he was. He suffered from toothaches, depression, chronic insomnia and an almost pathological perfectionism. Erik Larson throws in the assassination of Mayor Carter Harrison and a scorned Buffalo Bill Cody to add a little flavor.
The "devil" in the title is Dr. Henry H. Holmes (real name Herman Mudgett) who built a hotel to lure unescorted young ladies during the fair and disposed of them by smothering them with chloroform or by gassing them. Because the police were so distracted by the fair, no one was really aware of what this fiend was doing, despite the many complaints lodged by relatives. It's a wonder Holmes isn't more well known. Jack the Ripper pales in comparison. Some estimates surmise that he murdered up to a hundred women and children.
This segment of the book really picks up steam when Detective Frank Geyer enters the picture and begins to track three of Holmes' youthful victims. Geyer was one of those plodding, relentless types who don't get much attention in American folklore, but they always get their man.
Holmes wrote a number of "biographies." There's a quote from him at the beginning: "I was born with the devil in me. I could not help the fact that I was a murderer, no more than a poet can help the inspiration to sing." Holmes defines the word "psychopath" and seemed to murder for fun more than anything else.
Dave Schwinghammer's unconventional mystery, Soldier's Gap, is available on Author's Den or can be ordered directly at Amazon.com, new or used. Thank you. Click here to post or read comments.
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