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Devil In The White City is a truly remarkable recounting of not
only one of the most important events in American History, but also the
story of one of the most ruthless killers America has ever seen; the American
Jack the Ripper.
Devil in the White City
Up till the 20th century, the single most important event on the planet was the worlds fair, and in 1893 the fair was held in Chicago. This 1893 fair is what is now known as the White City. It was built in an impossible amount of time and also in the most epic of proportions to date. Buildings were bigger, events were more extravagant and inventions were as novel as any.
Eric Larson does a textbook quality job recounting the entire process of the Chicago Worlds Fair. From announcing its location and pickings its designers (who oddly enough weren't the worlds most prestigious architects) to its plundering demise, this book skips no important details in its journey through the White City.
It has been said that one in six American Citizens visited the Chicago Worlds Fair. And the fair was also the birthplace of the now fair-staple, Ferris Wheel. In fact, the Ferris Wheel was actually designed to top the grandeur of the Eiffel Tower, which was the Paris Fairs architectural masterpiece.
If this book only contained the recounting of the White City, it would still have been a national best-seller, however, Larson weaves through this highly engaging history lesson a story so repulsive and inhumane you will wonder how true it actually is; it is all unfortunately accurate however. Larson recounts the story of a man who kills for pleasure. He kills women, children and wives, and has the audacity to help their next of kin search for whom they only presume to be missing.
This man scams his way to success by dodging creditors who front him money that is deceitfully spent building a gas chamber in his house. He has friends who cure human skeletons for medical and scientific purposes, and he causes the Pinkertons (the U.S.'s top investigative agency who were later transformed into the secret service) their greatest headache ever.
This man was in fact America's first psychopathic serial killer. He was well liked, and seemed to run an upstanding pharmaceutical drug store and apartment building. Conveniently enough, his apartment building was one of the closest to the White City, and was patronized by many visitors, a lot of which never returned home. But this was just his front. He had multiple registered names so that when creditor came looking for him, he would talk to them using an alias (as in the manager of the drug store) and actually sent them on their way happy to loan him more money.
"Taken together, the stories of how Daniel Burnham built the fair and how Dr. Holmes used it for murder formed an entirety that was far greater than the story of either man alone would have been. I found it extraordinary that during this period of nearly miraculous creativity there should also exist a serial killer of such appetite and industry. The juxtaposition of the architect and the murderer seemed to open a window on the forces shaping the American soul at the dawn of the 20th century. The fair drew so many of history's brightest lights, from Buffalo Bill to Susan B. Anthony, that doing my research was like crashing a very classy Gilded Age party."
Larson does an exquisite job at quoting and citing his sources and virtually leaves his opinion in his pocket. But don't let this deter you because this book does not read like a textbook. It is very engaging, and never slow. For almost the entire book, the chapters alternate between the two stories, resulting in a difficult-to-put-down read.
For anyone interested in one of the most complete historical recountings of the White City that doesn't read like a history book, this is exactly what you need.
And for those of you who are asking yourself how important the White City actually was because you have never heard of it, I'll ask you this: "Is it better to burn in flames, or fade away?" The White City was burned down shortly after its closing day, which was however not against the wishes of the head architects. For some strange reason the actually Fair in Chicago is over-looked, and the only reason I can see is because of its quick death.
However, countless White-City original inventions from hardware, to cloths, to recipes are still lingering around, and some of which have become a staple in our American culture, but I'll let you read the book to see what those are.
Stay tuned for updates.
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