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Part of what makes this book by Harold Schechter so good is the setting. The country's first serial killer, H.H. Holmes Har (a.k.a. old Mudgett) roamed the streets of post- Great Fire Chicago. Schechter uses period newspapers and books written about the killer as his sources, weaving an intelligent beginning-to-end account of Holmes's bizarre criminal history. The city is interesting without being a history lesson and one gets a real feel for what life was like just before the turn of the century.
And greedy. That may have been his downfall. A cellmate revealed plans to commit insurance fraud when he realized that Holmes had no intention of sharing the wealth. H.H. Holmes killed his most loyal friend, split up the poor man's family, collected the almost-$10,000 check for the widow, and then sent the woman chasing after her husband, whom she believed to be alive and in hiding. When she demanded that he return her children that he'd hidden safely away, he made excuses and couldn't produce them. You figure out what happened to them. Imagine now, a building that looks somewhat like a castle. In fact, the locals called it that: The Castle. Outside, it looked impressive. Holmes leased out shop space on the ground floor for various businesses and ran his own pharmacy from there as well. Inside, though, was unlike any shopping center you've probably ever seen. The third floor had 36 rooms, most simply outfitted for guests. But Holmes's guests may think they'd stepped into Bluebeard's castle - staircases led to dead ends and some rooms were locked up securely with Holmes carrying the only keys. Little would that unsuspecting guest know how close to the truth he'd come. In one of those locked rooms, Holmes had built a gas chamber. On the second floor, which was much like the third, there were three dozen rooms - and 50 or so doors, some with locks on the outsides and peepholes. Concealed passageways, sliding walls, and a greased shaft that dropped into the basement made for no fun for Holmes's victims. If one were dropped into that basement dungeon, he'd discover tanks of acid, an autopsy room, and torture devices - including a rack. Holmes called this last piece of equipment his "elasticity determinator."
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The copyright of the article Depraved by Harold Schechter in Crime Stories is owned by . Permission to republish Depraved by Harold Schechter in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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