H.H.Holmes in Chicago 1893!

[j.r-ahde]

Hello you all!

I've just been watching a good documentary about H.H.Holmes, a serial-killer from the Chicago World Expo 1893.

All right, to the basic question:

How he could do that, despite the Expo brought loads of people to the Windy City?!

All the best
Jukka

[Autolycus]

The Devil In The White City

Hi Jukka

The book above (Fiction - author Erik Larson) covers the crimes and the Expo project. To me, it suggests that cunning, ruthlessness, social turmoil, corruption and luck all played a part in Holmes evading detection for so long.

If you haven't read it, I bet you'd enjoy it.

Regards.

[sdreid]

People weren't traceable like they are today. They didn't have things like driver's licenses, credit cards, Social Security and the like.

[Suzi]

Hi Jukka
Spookily I've just read an account of H.H.Holmes in Colin and Damon Wilsons' 'Written in Blood'.
Theres a good link here too:-

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/history/holmes/index_1.html

Suzi x

[j.r-ahde]

Hello you all!

Autolycus, thank you for the tip; I will read the book as soon as it is available.

Yes, Stan; people didn't have that much identity-stuff - so to say - with them. The foreign people in Chicago had their passports, but maybe not much more...

Suzi, thank you for the link; I will read it more thorougly in the next few days.

Strange ideed, that we got interested about this Holmes almost at the same time...

All the best
Jukka

[Mayerling]

Hi all,

One correction: Larson's book is non-fiction, not fiction. THE DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY compares the great 1893-94 World Columbian Exposition in Chicago (the 400th Anniversry of Columbus' first voyage to the New World - it was delayed a year in opening), to Holmes' fiendish crimes in his hotel "murder castle", and also discusses the assassination of Chicago's popular if corrupt Mayor Carter Harrison Sr. by Patrick Eugene Prendergast in October 1894 on the day the exposition ended. Prendergast (like President Garfield's assassin, Charles Julius Guiteau) was a disappointed office seeker, but like Guiteau there is evidence he was insane. The Columbian Exposition is best remembered because "George Washington Ferris re-invented the wheel". The first Ferris wheel was displayed and enjoyed. Also "Little Egypt", a "hoochy-koochy" dancer on the midway made an appearance that remained famous. Finally the architecture (using electric lighting on a massive scale) influenced American architects. Larson's cast of characters in the story is a large one, with Holmes, Prendergast, Harrison, Archduke Francis Ferdinand (who visited the fair), Clarence Darrow, Louis Sullivan, Frederick Law Olmstead, and others showing up. Even later events (the sinking of the Titaniic) are drawn in. It's a very good read.

Jeff

[Autolycus]

Thanks Mayerling

Hi Jeff

Your post sent me into the loft to find the book! You're right it's fact. However, the reconstruction is so well done that the thing flows like a novel. Anyway, thanks because I'm now enjoying a second reading.

Regards.

[Celesta]

Jeff has the right of it. Larson's book is a very interesting read. The White City was the showcase for a lot of firsts and was exquisite to look at. Larson is contrasting the creative energies of Daniel Burnham and his team to bring something worthwhile into the world with those of Mudgett aka Holmes to bring evil into it. It gave me chills.

It was the construction of the fair that helped Holmes in that he was able to use that as an excuse to create that abomination of a building where he killed people, ostensibly as a hotel. He was more than a murderer. He was a con artist extraordinaire and most of his funds came from fraudulent activities. The fair drew large numbers of people looking for work as well as visitors wanting to tour the fair and to experience Buffalo Bill's Wild West show, which was set up right next door and was stiff competition for the fair. Holmes intended to victimize some of these people.

Here is a link to a very nice site covering The Columbian Exposition of 1893. Well worth a look, especially for those who read Larson's book.

http://members.cox.net/academia/cassatt8.html

[Doug Irvine]

When you consider how Holmes managed to kill so many people and get away with it, I think it is important to remember that Holmes was a consummate confidence artist. Holmes only turned to murder as a refinement of his con game, by killing the victims of his con game he was assured of success. I believe that was the original intention of the murder castle, it would be place were he could lure his victims, fleece them and then dispose of them at his leisure. If the police came looking for a missing person, Holmes was a practised and confident liar and with nothing to connect him to the victim he could easily avoid suspicion. A good book about Holmes is Depraved: The Definitive True Story of H.H. Holme, Whose Grotesque Crimes Shattered Turn of the Century Chicago.

[redelevator]

Wierd Chicago Tours

http://www.weirdchicago.com/

These folks give some interesting tours in Chicago, including this one coming in May.

DEVIL & THE WHITE CITY TOUR
Weird Chicago's "Devil & the White City" Tour: A Weird Chicago Original -- Accept No Imitations!

Friday May 22nd: Join us for a special tour of the history, mystery and hauntings surrounding the bloodthirsty life of H.H. Holmes, America's first serial killer, who operated the infamous "Murder Castle" during Chicago's Columbian Exposition in 1893! Locations include the "Murder Castle" site, 1893 World's Fair locations, murder sites, ghost stories and more! Departs from the Hard Rock Cafe at 7:00 PM! $30 Per Person

[Mayerling]

The Devil in the White City

In rereading the thread I find it odd that Holmes somehow has escaped the fate of Bury, Cream, Chapman, and (to a lesser degree) Mary Pearcey of being pushed as a suspect for the Whitechapel Murders. Apparently in 1888 he may have been in the midwest (in Chicago). A novelist, Robert Bloch, did write a fictional account of Holmes suggesting a female Pinkerton agent is suspecting he is Jack, but that was about it.

Larson has also written an excellent book about Marconi and the creation of Wireless Telegraphy, and tied it to the crime that put the seal of approval on the new invention: the Crippen Case. It is called THUNDERSTRUCK. Also, uninvolved with homicide (unless bureaucratic stupidity might be considered) Larson's first major work: ISAAC'S STORM. It is a fine retelling of the worst natural disaster in American History, the 1900 Galveston Hurricaine and Tidal Wave that killed at least 6,000 people (it beats out Hurricaine Katrina and the San Francisco Earthquake).

Jeff

[j.r-ahde]

Hello Jeff!

If one thinks about his outlook and his ability to appear trustworthy, then it is as possible as with the people as you mentioned.

But, like you said; obviously he was in Chicago at the time!

All the best
Jukka

[Celesta]

He married his second wife in 1887, while still married to the first one, and I think his whereabouts may be fairly well known for 1888. He would have been 28 during the Ripper era--- just right really. It certainly crossed my mind that he could have been the Ripper, but I didn't see anything in the book that suggested a gap big enough to get him to London and back. He was certainly an ogre.

[sdreid]

I'd heard that there was supposed to be a movie based on Larson's book but I don't know what became of it.

[Celesta]

I found this movie trailer. It's just a trailer for a student film, it seems. I don't remember any flashing knives in the book, but it's been awhile since I read it. Interesting though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHh08TVMilY

It looks like the official movie has not been launched yet.