The Devil in the White City (Pages 316- 390)

H. H. Holmes

Summary

Prendergast was to be Kraus successor to be city counsel but when he went to City Hall he began to question whether it would really happen. On October 9, 1893 which was recognized as Chicago Day the record of people attending this fair exceeded the one of Paris by morning or any peaceable event in history. In result the officials of the World's Columbian Exposition Company were able to present a $1.5 million check to the Illinois Trust and Savings company to get rid of the expositions debt. Now that the fair was coming to an end people were escaping having to say good bye, many workers also became unemployed which would lead to an increase in violence for the city of Chicago. Holmes also fled as pressure increased, he set the top of his castle on fire and that was when he began to be investigated. When he arrived at what he believed would be a one-on-one meeting he came into an office with all of the creditors and their attorneys. There he appealed to their emotions stating that the Panic of 1893 but fled as the meeting became more heated. He fled with his assistant Benjamin Pitezel who he insured his like for $!0,000 previously and his new fiancee Miss Georgiana Yoke. Back in Chicago the number of people attending the fair continued to rise as time was running out for the fair's closing. Since the mayor had not given Prendergast the job he promised and had made a fool out of him, he shot the mayor in his office. In result the closing ceremony that was planned had been cancelled and instead would be a march in honor of the mayor. At the end of the fair all of the buildings were set on fire and a long list of missing people was released leading the officers to point fingers : it was Holmes. He was caught and imprisoned as he faked the death of his assistant, whose children went missing after entering his company. He had convinced their mother to take them on a journey to see their father where he was hidden and desperate to see them. On this journey the children wrote multiple letters to their mother which were never received as Holmes used different names to avoid leaving a trail. Detectives were led to Toronto, Canada where they found two of the children buried in the backyard of what was one of his residences. Holmes was taken to Pennsylvania for trial of Pitezel's murder; he was found guilty and sentenced to execution by hanging. Before he would be hanged he would have a long confession where he admitted to killing 27 people, but was estimated that he could have killed up to 200 people. Also, in this confession he told the story of how he killed the kids ( he connected gas into a hole of the box in which they had been placed and buried in).

Quote

"Just before leaving Chicago Holmes acquired a life insurance policy, from the Fidelity Mutual Life Association of Philadelphia, to insure Pietzel's life for $10,000 .(Larson 326)"

Reaction
This quote led me to believe that Holmes had another escape plan prepared for the next time he feels he needs to flee to another city. The plan would be that he would protect his life using his assistant. He would gain not only saving his own life but also wealth which has always been his priority.

THE END

The Devil in the White City (Pages 234- 316)

Summary

Opening day arrived and thousands of people made their way to Jackson Park. Burnham turned on the electricity in the park after the opening statements had been made to begin the fair. It was a success as more than a quarter million people attended. After the first day, only a few people went as stocks went down, which started an economic scare in Chicago and the rest of the country. Many wanted to go see the exhibitions and attractions but were discouraged by this. Expectations for the fair and other businesses didn't reach the expectations to make a good profit. Holmes hotel one and he only allowed women to stay there. The benefit of visiting the fair was to learn new things from around the world. During this time Holmes not only continued making profit but continued his suspicious activity as one of his waitresses disappeared. In the next month attendance numbers began to rise again. On July 4th, the grand exhibition made the numbers rise far more than they expected, but the economic depression kept putting stress on whether or not it would be a complete success. The upcoming storm caused many scares due to changing conditions. There was a scare on the ferris wheel and a fire in the cold storage tower, which led to Burnhams arrest. The Retrenchment Directors became in charge of the fair to fix the economic worries.

Quote

" Burnham's work did ot cease, the pace at his office did not slow ... the fair became the subject to the inevitable forces of degradation and decline- and tragedy.(Larson 299)"

Reaction
This quote introduced the accidents that began to occur at the fair. The men working there did not take regulations necessary in order to prevent such events from occurring. One of the scares that happened was with the Ferris Wheel when they tried it for the first time. Also, when I read this quote I thought the scares would lead to the downfall of the world fair.

The Devil in the White City (Pages 150- 234)

Summary
The construction for the World's Fair continued but they realized that if they were going to build a building that was designed to be 500 feet taller than the Eiffel tower then they wouldn't make the deadline and they would go over their budget. Also many workers were cut off besides the additional cuts they had to make in costs. As usual Holmes was also in this pursuit for money so he went to Dwight, IL to find the cure of alcoholism in order to cure Pitezel and to recreate it to then resell it. Pitezel met Emeline and Holmes wrote to her to offer her a job. She was obsessed with him and was going to move into his apartment building. Olmsted was putting 300% of what he had in him in order to work on the construction but it was still behind schedule. Burnham also was pushing the pace to speed up construction in order to make the dedication day deadline by making the workers double their shift at night. Since the pace was so fast and they kept having set backs they are leaving small flaws behind. Pittsburg the young engineer proposed the idea to build an Eiffel like structure and that he had raised enough money to fund it and got it approved. On the other hand Holmes was still getting himself into suspicious activities as he proposed to marry but her family continued to question it. She left her family in Indiana to come live with Holmes which from then on she had disappeared. Continuing his progress on his financial scale Holmes now owned a portion of a company that produced machines for duplicating documents, he had also established a alcohol-treatment company. He had progressed and had carefully disposed Emeline's body. With all of the business he needed help to administer such as a secretary. He hired Minnie R. Williams in March, just like all other women who worked for him she too fell in love with him. He promised her many things in exchange for her land that would gain him the biggest profit. The World's Fair date came closer and everyone in Chicago was preparing for it. In the city something else also increased, the deaths. There had been multiple deaths of workers from different reasons while working on the World's Fair. After carpenters began going on strike, Burnham in fear of them destroying the fair compromised with them. After they got back to work it began raining everyday.

Quote

" As the buildings rose, the architects spotted flaws in their design but found the forward crush of work so overwhelming, it threatened to leave the flaws locked on stone.(Larson 176)"

Reaction
From this quote I am inferring that the structure itself is going to cause huge problems at the World's Fair. When I read this quote I only thought about further flaws being left behind and just building up. If they do not solve them it is going to create dangerous circumstances for all of the visitors.