Summary: An account of the epic World's Fair that was overshadowed by a gruesome series of murders.
Rating & Recommendation: 5/5; recommend for lovers of true crime, history
Review: I love True Crime. Someone I work with told me he was shocked I hadn’t read this, considering my passion for the genre. I delved in.
The beginnings are slow, to be frank. In the 1890s, Chicago played host to a World’s Fair, and this was to be the setting of city’s greatest triumph. Chicago’s reputation was one of filth and failure: the lofty dreams of the desperate took flight but abruptly perished in alleys of The Black City. This Fair was to be the turning point in the history of a faltering city, and it was. For about 100 pages, the exposition drags, as a great deal is spent on the architecture, landscaping, and planning of the Fair.
Slowly though, it picks up. Around the halfway point, everything is in motion. The first Ferris Wheel is spinning, the tourists are arriving in droves... and a serial killer has really hit his stride. Chapters vacillate between the unlikely emergence of the White City and the seedy murders in Holmes’ castle. As the success of the Fair grows, so too does the success of Holmes’ murders. How does a man so obsessed with bloodshed get away with it for so long? Charm, apparently.
But as the Fair winds down, Holmes realizes that his time is running out. Psychology was barely a newborn in the late Victorian era, but all accounts seem to suggest that Holmes was a psychopath, adept at manipulation and completely lacking in conscience. He killed at a time where Chicago was intentionally blind to its faults in favor of being optimistic of its future, of its ability to compete on the world stage as a destination, a hub of creativity and refinement and art. In its struggle to prove that it, too, could be a great city, it allowed a serial killer to run wild. The 1890s apparently birthed all manner of novelties and inventions (including light bulbs and Shredded Wheat cereal!), big it also set the stage for one of the most gruesome serial killers in history.
I enjoyed this book. A lot. Erik Larson is equal parts detective, historian, and journalist. There are nearly 50 pages of citations, and you can feel how well researched it is from the first page. There are a few gaudy re-enactments, but they serve their purpose of showcasing Holmes’ depravity. I recommend this to anyone with a strong stomach and a taste for the macabre.
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