...'White City' of a Lie H.H. Holmes proved his madness in his design of his hotel near the World's Fair in Chicago. He had a litany of evil deeds that would take a lot of lives of innocent people. Holmes’s personality is perfect for someone who could be able to commit murder, someone with, “dark hair, and striking blue eyes” (35). On the surface H.H. Holmes seemed to be a productive member of society. Born and raised in the small state of New Hampshire, he turned his fascination with the human body into a career when he graduated from the University of Michigan Medical School in 1884. Wealthy, well-educated and refined, the young doctor moved to Chicago where he became the owner of a drugstore, and eventually opened a hotel. His design of the building reflected Holmes’s desires to hide bodies, and clothing within the basement of the building to cover his crime. Later, the building was destroyed as a death chamber. Holmes wanted his hotel, “just comfortable enough and cheap enough to lure a certain kind of clientele and convincing enough to justify a large fire insurance policy” (85). He was a total lady-killer. Holmes knew how to make women feel special and knew how to use the greater liberalism of the time by carefully, gently flouting convention, which women away from their homes and families desired: "He stood too close, stared too hard, touched too much and long. And women adore him for it." (5). Even after he was discovered women defended him: "Holmes, she swore, had...
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...Nature vs. Nurture The stories of serial killers have intrigued all of us at times. One of these stories is Devil in the White City written by Erik Larson. It tells the story of the World’s Fair and of America’s first serial killer, H.H. Holmes. Scientists and psychologists have wondered why people like H.H. Holmes do what they do. It brings up the question which has a bigger effect on your personality, the genetics you were born with or the environment you were brought up in. In other words, nature versus nurture. This concept was debated by well respected scientist, Matt Ridley. He looked at both ideas in a chapter he wrote called “Free Will”. Another story where nature versus nurture could be debated was in The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. It’s a story about a foster child in Nazi Germany. These nonfiction texts about evil lead me to believe that a person’s environment has the biggest effect on their social behaviors and their prejudices. Behavioral tendencies are caused by a person’s environment. Matt Ridley also believes this when he says everyone’s fate is determined by their environment: “This dystopia owes nothing to nature and everything to nurture. It is environmental, not genetic hell. Everybody’s fate is determined, but by their controlled environment, not their genes” (Ridley 304). Ridley agrees that everyone’s fate is determined by their environment and that fate determines their behavioral tendencies. In The Devil in the White City Holmes had a traumatic experience...
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...History 7 October 31 2013 The devil in the white city The novel The Devil in the White City is a 2003 literary nonfiction book by Erick Larson. The novel is based on real characters and events; it illustrates the time period surrounding the building of the World’s Columbian Exposition, or also known as the Chicago World’s fair in 1893. The Fair was considered to honor and memorize the arrival of Christopher Columbus to America. The book is divided into four parts; the first three parts of the book take place between the years of 1890 till 1893 in Chicago, while the last part of the book takes place in Philadelphia in the year of 1895. The novel recreates the lives of two separate, yet very connected men during the Chicago World’s fair. The first character we are introduced to is Daniel Burnham, who is the architect that built the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. The story explains how he overcame many obstacles and struggles that he faced during the construction of the fair. The second character is H.H. Holmes AKA Herman Webster Mudgett, the serial killer who bring fear and terror to the fair, and haunts the fair in search of his victims. With the novel explaining how a great event the World’s Columbian Exposition is, and the mention of the story of H.H. Holmes, there is no doubt that the era from 1890 till 1893 was a great time as well as an evil time for the united states. With many events that has influenced and effected the novel The Devil in the White City, the...
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...The Life of America’s First Serial Killer Being known as America’s first serial killer may not have been on Herman Webster Mudgett’s bucket list however, pursuing a career in scamming and murder was. Mudgett, also known as H. H. Holmes was born intellectually smart and used his gift for infamous reasons. Starting out with a passion for medicine he began studying animals and animals corpses, this then led to his obsession with disassembling human corpses and murdering victims for satisfaction. As a scam artist and murderer, H. H. Holmes can be classified as a human monster that possesses more fearful characteristics of a naturally born monster than a fictional character such as, Norman Bates. Born into a wealthy family on May 16th, 1861...
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...fascination with anatomy. When Hermann was 11 years, he began to dissect live animals and kept their bones. “His closest and possibly only childhood friend was killed in a suspicious “fall” while the two of them were playing in an abandoned house,” and he was apparently standing behind his friend during the incident, (Meyer & Weaver, 2009). When Hermann was 17 he married for the first time to Clara Lovering. Clara was wealthy and Hermann used that to his advantage. After the use of the money, Hermann left Clara. He then decided he wanted to become a physician and enrolled in school. He first attended a small college in Vermont and later transferred to University of Michigan. “His early criminal career (mostly using the pseudonym Dr. H. H. Holmes) was based on...
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...The Devil in the White City, a nonfiction novel written by Erik Larson, focused around the construction the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, also referred to as The World's Columbian Exposition, Daniel Burnham, the architect responsible for building World's Fair and the serial killer who exploits the fair to find his victims, H.H. Holmes, the two men's lives are recreated. Larson uses juxtaposition, imagery, and figurative language to portray the opposing forces of good and evil in action during the World’s fair. Introducing juxtaposition in into the novel Larson contrasts the good and evil presented by the fair. Larson compares the good of Burnham to light and the nefariousness of Holmes to the dark. Known as the “White City”, Chicago is a pivotal place where Burnham’s good natured intentions take place; however, “the black” is where Holmes’s wicked attraction dwelled. Holmes is aware of his evilness and even embraces it, claiming he “was born with the devil”(Larson 109) in him. Throughout the book, Larson often contrasts black and white, appealing to the audience, he intertwines these good and evil concepts. Imagery is another key element in Larson’s writing that depicts the good and evil that came to Chicago alongside the fair. He uses locations that flourished during the fair to portray an image of prosperity and goodness. Larson uses words such as “seductive” and “ravishing” in order to give the reader a complete idea of the sophistication of the park in the fair’s prime...
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... An ancient Chinese philosophy describes how seemingly opposite or contrary forces may actually be complementary, interconnected, and interdependent in the natural world—they coined the term Yin and Yang—light and dark—and they are put together to form one concept and exist at the same time. The light and dark sides both incorporate their counterpart within to symbolize that light and dark coexists. In The Devil in The White City by Erik Larson, in the midsts of the industrial revolution of America — Chicago is trying to make a name for itself in response to the Exposition Universelle of 1889 hosted by France, where the famous Eiffel Tower was constructed. After a close race with New York, Chicago eventually pulled through and earned the rights to host the World Fair in 1893. Chicago, being the largest city in the Midwest, had just recently recovered from the Great Fire and was in the rebuilding process. Erik Larson’s argument is that in everything there is a light and dark side — good and bad. In the event of the world fair meant to bring together innovation and pride to the city of Chicago, it also brought darkness in the form of a serial killer in a murder castle. An event meant for pride for Chicago, instead, brought shame upon the police for incompetence. Larson uses juxtaposition, appeal to the reader’s emotions, and the structure of the book to convey the drive that pushes an individual to either “engage the impossible” or “manufacture sorrow.” Starting off, Larson leaves...
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...Landon Nelson HERMAN WEBSTER MUDGETT Herman Webster Mudgett, more commonly known as Henry Holmes was born on May 16th, 1861. He was raised in the town of Gilmonton, New Hampshire. As a child, Henry grew up with his mother and father as a single child, his family was wealthy. His father often was referred to as a raging alcoholic. His mother on the other hand was a strict Methodist who would often read Henry excerpts from the Holy Bible and try to teach him good morals. However these morals would be soon washed away with the help of his classmates in school. Kids in his school would often force Henry to touch human skeletons. Due to this, Henry became very fascinated with the human anatomy and death. Although this was a major catalyst to his curiosity with medical science, Henry was already known to be a very smart kid and loved medicine. After his experience with human skeletons, Henry decided to take his fascination to the next level. He proceeded by discecting animals for fun and he would read books about medicine. Eventually he would move on to college to become a doctor. In his later years, Mudgett attended the University of Michigan where he was later expelled for stealing corpses and performing experiments on them. He would also use the...
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...Arthur Holmes was born in Gateshead, northeast England in 1890. He became interested in science at gateshead high school and continued studying geology and physics after he graduated. He had not only one, but two major contributions to science, he was the first scientist to understand ideas of convection and convection currents in the mantle. He also did a lot of work with the Continental Drift theory and proposed why and how the continents moved over billions of years. Holmes mainly used the technologies of radioactive dating and his scholarship to the Royal college of Science to get more knowledge. Arthur Holmes was a geologist that was one of the first scientists to propose the ideas of convection and convection currents in the mantle & he used new methods to try to figure out the age of earth. Arthur Holmes grew up in a farming stock in Gateshead, England with a Methodist background. He attended Gateshead high school where he became interested in geology and physics. He went to the Imperial college of London for physics and after getting his degree he studies under W.W.Watts for geology and graduate Associate of the royal college of science in 1910. He was married twice in his lifetime, his first wife was Margaret Howe in 1914 and after she passed on Holmes married petrologist Doris L. Reynolds. He became a geology professor in 1925 at the university of Durham. Holmes died in 1965.Although Holmes was a brilliant scientist he never wanted to be famous or in the public’s...
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...Holmes and his friends made money the wrong way by deceiving people (page 42-43). Him and his friends made money by faking the deaths of a family of three, finding three corpses that resembled the family members, and then collecting the death benefits. In other words they defrauded the insurance companies, and they mostly did this to collect life insurance money. This is economical example, because Holmes and his friends were in need of money and they chose this way to make the money, and divide it among themselves. Holmes decides to build a hotel for visitors that are visiting the world’s fair (page 85). His intentions for this hotel is to make money and also be able to kill his victims. He wanted to collect the insurance by burning the building and also burn the evidence. This is a economical example, because Holmes motives was to not just kill and murder his victims brutally but also make and gather the money. Burnham hired many workers for the fair, but he also had to fire many workers, because of financial issues (page 154-155). Before money became an issue, Burnham was surprisingly showing great sympathy towards the workers by paying them even if they are ill or injured, he gave them full-heated rooms with clean beds to sleep in. After money became an issue he started to fire many expansive workers and also immediately fired those who did little work or don't do their work fully and slack off. This is considered an economical issue because the amount of money they had...
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...The Strangler's reign of terror began in June 1962. Over the next nineteen months, thirteen unmarried women, the youngest 19, the oldest 85, were murdered in Boston and nearby cities. Some compared him to Jack the Ripper, but the Ripper's victims were prostitutes. The Boston Strangler killed ordinary women and he didn't stab them, he raped and strangled them. Albert DeSalvo was born on September 3, 1931, in Chelsea, Massachusetts. He had five siblings and his family was very poor. His mother’s name was Charlotte and his alcoholic, abusive father was Frank. His father would bring home prostitutes and have sex with them in front of his family. He also once knocked out all of his wife’s teeth and bent her fingers back until they broke. Albert obviously grew up in a very disturbed home. He was a white male with an intelligence quotient of about 96 which is below average-normal. When Albert was five, his father taught him to steal from stores and so, he began shoplifting and stealing, frequently crossing paths with the law. He also took great pleasure in shooting cats with a bow and arrow which they say is common in killers. When Albert was 12, he was arrested for breaking and entering and sent to the Lyman School for delinquent boys, so he was reflecting bad behavior since he was young. After completing his second sentence, DeSalvo joined the Army at age 17 and was sent to Germany. There, he won the US Army middleweight boxing championship and married his wife, Irmgard Beck...
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...FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGY | H.H HOLMES | AMERICAS FIRST SERIAL KILLER | | Kevin Hutter | 10/20/2011 | H.H HOLMES, THE FIRST AMERICAN SERIAL KILLER, IN THE FOLLOW RESEARCH PAPER WE WILL BE LOOKING AT PSYCHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF HIS CRIMES TROUGH HIS EARLY CHILDHOOD TILL HIS EXECUTION IN THE LATE 1800’S | Herman Webster Mudgett, better known under the alias of Dr. Henry Howard Holmes, was one of the first documented American serial killers in the modern sense of the term. Mudgett was born in Gilmanton, New Hampshire [4] to Levi Horton Mudgett and Theodore Page Price, both of whom were descended from the first non-native settlers in the area. According to the 2007 Most Evil profile on Holmes, his father was a violent alcoholic, and his mother was a devout Methodist who read the Bible to Herman. He claimed that, as a child, schoolmates forced him to view and touch a human skeleton after discovering his fear of the local doctor. The bullies initially brought him there to scare him, but instead he was utterly fascinated, and he soon became obsessed with death. Born to an affluent family, Holmes had a privileged childhood. It has been said that he appeared to be unusually intelligent at an early age. Still there were haunting signs of what was to come. He expressed an interest in medicine, which reportedly led him to practice surgery on animals. Some accounts indicate that he may have been responsible for the death of a friend. [2] Holmes also talked about his childhood...
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...William Thomas Green Morton was born on August 19, 1819 in Charlton, Massachusetts. He died July 15, 1865 in New York. He was the very first person to use anesthesia. He first demonstrated it on one of his patients. He was a dental surgeon in Boston. He began his dental practice in Boston in 1844. In 1845, he began working at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston. William’s former partner Horace Wells attempted to kill pain with nitrous oxide gas but he was unsuccessful. William was determined to find a reliable way to relieve pain, and he did. After a few years of school William went to Harvard to set up his practice but later left due to financial pressure and his marriage to Elizabeth Whiteman. William and Elizabeth didn’t have any children....
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...Many people use the term monstrous when describing a person. What does the term monstrous really mean? A person can be described as monstrous when they feel no empathy for others, when they enjoy someone else’s pain, or when they do not see anything wrong with their actions after they do something horrible. H.H. Holmes can be described as a very monstrous man. As one of America’s first serial killers, Holmes showed no empathy to the hundreds of people he murdered for no reason other than pleasure. H.H. Holmes, also known as Herman Webster Mudgett, was born on May 16, 1861 in New Hampshire (Biography.com). Despite having a privileged childhood, Holmes was obsessed with skeletons and death at an early age, and would practice surgery on animals (Biography.com). His strange interests may have led him to medicine. While attending medical school, Holmes stole corpses from the laboratory and disfigured them, and then he planted the bodies to make it look as if it had been an accident (Crimemuseum.org). After finishing medical school, Holmes moved to Chicago where he worked at a pharmacy, and eventually took over the business after the original owner mysteriously disappeared (Biography.com). After Holmes took over the business, he had a three-story building constructed, located at 63rd and Wallace street, that was later nicknamed the “Murder Castle”. The upper two levels contained Holmes’ office and around one hundred living quarters (Crimemuseum.org). The “Murder Castle” consisted...
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...In order to understand Holmes’ crimes and why he took so many lives; we first have to look at his childhood. How Holmes was raised by his parents and treated by his peers had an impact on him for the rest of his life. His mother was extremely religious, which explains why Holmes blamed his murders on the devil. For his father, he was strict and harsh, some historians believe his father would abuse Holmes and his mother could not help him. The story of America’s first documented serial killer starts on May 6th, 1861 when he was given the name Herman Webster Mudgett (Salvatore 486). As a child, Holmes was bullied by his classmates. In fact, the bullies once terrified Holmes with a skeleton (Salvatore 486). Holmes was also obsessed with death...
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