Book Review: H.H. Holmes: The True Story of the White City Devil by Adam Selzer
Genre(s): Non-fiction / True Crime
H.H. Holmes is best known for his role in the “murder castle” of Chicago, but this book explores his entire criminal career – from cons and insurance fraud to outright murder.
I’ve watched a few documentaries on H.H. Holmes over the years, and most of them focus on the more sensationalized aspects of his criminal enterprises. What wasn’t clear in many of those documentaries is that much of the published newspaper stories regarding Holmes were at least partially fabricated to drum up headlines. And Holmes himself didn’t help matters since he seemed to be a pathological liar and changed his own version of events numerous times.
What is certain about him is he was a prolific con artist, and he was involved in at least one death – but whether his role was as murderer or accomplice to a suicide no one can be sure of today. A number of people he was acquainted with inexplicably disappeared while involved with him in some way, which led to more speculation that they’d been killed too. Holmes never admitted to any of the murders he was accused of until well after his trial (and that confession was quickly proven false), but he did plead guilty to insurance fraud.
The book goes well beyond the actual story of H.H. Holmes and into what became his legend, which is what I knew of before reading this book. The popular stories have embellished on his crimes considerably over the years. It was fascinating to read about the evolution and realize just how much of what I thought I knew might be fabricated.
I have to give the author some praise for the research involved in this book. I can’t imagine how difficult it must have been to piece together Holmes’ story given the man used numerous aliases, and that records weren’t always accurate in the 1890s. H.H. Holmes wasn’t even his given name, but it’s the one he is known for.
This was a really interesting read.
Author website: adamselzerchicago.wordpress.com
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