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