The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America is a fascinating tale of a city I had the pleasure of visiting once, a couple of years ago. That city is Chicago and bore little resemblance to the tale that unfolds in Larson‘s factual account of the preparations for the World’s Fair that opened its doors to an expectant public in late 1893.
Jackson Park was the desolate location chosen to house brand new structures and attractions on its 2.5 sq km. Not only did the developers face the prospect of having to complete absolutely huge buildings in an ever-shrinking timeframe, but landscapers were forced to wait for building activities to almost cease prior to beautifying the rather ugly park. In a time when the pressure of developing the necessary infrastructure was already extreme enough, chief architect Daniel Burnham had to contend with internal politics and a global market crash that sent large corporations into liquidation. Little did he know that within his modern white city, a mass murder had plans of a more sinister nature…
Herman Webster Mudgett is the evildoer who assumes more aliases than one can shake a stick at. His most common is Dr. H. H. Holmes, a name he chose upon hearing of Sherlock Holmes. Holmes was charming and able to weasel his way in and out of various situations almost at will. His lesser crimes constitute skipping payments for goods and services, but his main aim was to use the fair to lure various victims to their death. As part of his plot, Holmes built his World’s Fair Hotel in Chicago - a structure that would not be out of place in a James Bond novel. Complete with a gas chamber, dissection table and a crematorium, Holmes steadily murdered a number of women, later children and his associates. Holmes would remove the skeletons of his victims and sell them for medical and scientific study. The book tracks both Burnham‘s obsessive quest to bring the World’s Fair to fruition and Holmes‘ frantic search for suitable murder victims.
Larson tells a riveting tale. From a historical perspective, the description of the period just before the turn of the century is fascinating. The World’s Fair saw the first high-profile use of electricity to illuminate large areas and introduced the public to the notion of electricity for domestic use. William Ferris came up with the design, and built, the very first Ferris wheel, a triumph of engineering to trounce the Eiffel Tower exhibit at the Paris fair held some time before. Shredded wheat was introduced as a breakfast cereal and Holmes became one of America’s first serial killers, only months after Jack the Ripper‘s reign of terror in London had come to a close.
Best of all, it’s true, or at least as historically accurate as possible. That alone should make it a must read if you’re into non-fiction. There’s a short description of the Chicago World’s Fair on Wikipedia.
I just 
