He was no longer Herman Mudgett—he was H.H. Holmes, and Chicago was his playground. As the city prepared for the glittering World’s Fair of 1893, Holmes began constructing something far darker: a hotel designed not for comfort, but for control, cruelty, and death. Step inside as we follow Holmes’ arrival in Chicago, and the rise of his sinister empire in the shadow of the White City.

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SOURCES:

https://guides.loc.gov/chronicling-america-h-h-holmes

https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/h-h-holmes

https://www.loc.gov/resource/rbc0001.2015gen22698/?sp=1&st=slideshow&utm

Franke, David. The Torture Doctor. New York: Hawthorn Books, 1975. Well-researched and detailed discussion about Holmes.

Geary, Rick. The Beast of Chicago: The Murderous Career of H. H. Holmes. New York: NBM Comics, 2003. 

Holmes, H. H. Holmes’ Own Story. Philadephia: Burk & McFetridge, 1895. Holmes’s autobiography.

Larson, Erik. The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America. New York: Vintage, 2004. Schechter, Harold. Depraved: The Shocking True Story of America’s First Serial Killer. New York: Pocket, 1994. Another accessible, detailed account of Holmes’s criminal career.

Wilson, Colin. “H. H. Holmes: The Torture Doctor.” In The Mammoth Book of Murder, edited by Richard Glyn Jones. New York: Carroll & Graf, 1989. Brief but useful, with minor errors.

The History of Murder. New York: Carroll & Graf, 2000. Contains a slightly revised version of the essay .

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