On October 21st in 1892 the opening ceremonies were held for the World’s Columbian Exposition, but because they were behind in construction the opening didn’t actually take place until May 1,, 1893. The fair covered over 600 acres. More than 27 million people attended. The fair ended with Chicago in mourning because two days before it closed Mayor Carter Harrison Sr. was assassinated. Sometimes I dream of traveling back in time and if I could go back that’s the first place I would want to go; the Chicago World’s fair. Can’t you just imagine all the white buildings sparkling in the sun or the newly invented electric lights, drinking soda pop with ice cubes in it for the first time, or seeing Buffalo Bill and his Wild West Show? The Westinghouse Company won the bid to illuminate the whole fair for $399,000. The Devil in the White city is a great book to read about H. H. Holmes better known as H. H. Holmes Herman Webster Mudget.
and the horrific chamber of horrors that he had built on 63rd and Wallace, in the Englewood Area where he murdered many young women that came to Chicago to enjoy the fair.
On the corner of 63rd and Wallace there was a drugstore owned by the Holton’s. Mr. Holten was very sick and confined to his bed. Mrs. Holton tried as best she could to fill prescriptions. If she had any questions she would run upstairs to ask her husband for help. It was getting to be too much for her to handle.
One day she saw a handsome young man looking over the store. “I am here concerning the ad you posted in the daily newspaper, my name is Dr. Holmes”. And so she explained her situation and hired the young man on the spot. Little did she know what she was getting herself into? Never knowing he was not a doctor or that he had poisoned a woman in Philadelphia a few months before.
He was a ladies man and this kept the young women in the neighborhood coming back. Business was great and this pleased Mrs. Holton. When her husband died, Holmes saw an opportunity to buy the business. When he did not make the payments Mrs. Holton took him to court and she suddenly disappeared.
He then put the rest of his plan into action. He built a block long, 3 story building across the street from the pharmacy. This building was later nick named The Castle. He opened it as a respectable hotel and would lure young women visiting the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 to stay there. However once they checked in they were never seen again. The inside was a maze and he often changed builders so that no one would know exactly what he was building. The rooms were sound proof; there was a gas line every room so he could asphyxiate his victims while they were asleep. Every room had a shoot which led to the basement where the bodies were either cleaned and sold to medical schools or dismembered and disposed of in lime pits or acid baths. Over a period of 3 years he killed over 200 people, most of them young women. He took insurance policies out on some of his victims and of course he was the beneficiary.
After the World’s fair he left Chicago and traveled around the country scamming others. He was arrested in 1895 when he was discovered with the body of a former business associate. That same year the Castle burnt down revealing his awful secrets to the firemen and policemen on the scene. He pleaded guilty to murdering 27 people and 6 attempted murders. He was hung in Philadelphia on May 7, 1886.
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