The Devil in the White City - Alchetron, the free social encyclopedia

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America (Crown Publishers, ISBN 0-609-60844-4) is a 2003 non-fiction book by Erik Larson presented in a novelistic style. The book is based on real characters and events. Leonardo DiCaprio purchased the film rights in 2010.

Exploring the devil in the white city the 1893 chicago world s fair

Plot

The book is set in Chicago in 1893, intertwining the true tales of Daniel H. Burnham, the architect behind the 1893 World's Fair, and Dr. H. H. Holmes, the serial killer who lured his victims to their deaths in his elaborately constructed "Murder Castle."

Burnham and the architects

Daniel Burnham: the chief architect behind the World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair)

John Root: Burnham's partner

Charles B. Atwood: Burnham's head of design after Root's death

George Washington Gale Ferris Jr.: inventor of the Ferris wheel

Frank Millet

Louis Sullivan

Richard Morris Hunt

Charles McKim

Frederick Law Olmsted (designer of New York City's Central Park): landscape architect in charge of the World's Fair landscape.

George B. Post

Sophia Hayden Bennett

Holmes and associates

Herman Webster Mudgett (aka Dr. H. H. Holmes): a serial killer who used the fair to lure his victims to their deaths. Dr. Holmes had built his "World's Fair Hotel" complete with a gas chamber, dissection table, and a crematorium to dispose of the bodies. Holmes would have the skeletons of his victims removed and sell them for medical and scientific study.

Clara A. Lovering: Holmes's first wife

Myrta Z. Belknap: Holmes's second wife

Lucy Holmes: Holmes's daughter with Myrta

Georgiana Yoke: Holmes's third wife

Julia Smythe: employee and lover of Holmes; wife of Ned Connor

Ned Connor: employee of Holmes; husband of Julia Smythe

Emeline Cigrand: fiancée (and murder victim) of Holmes

Benjamin Pietzel: business associate (and murder victim) of Holmes

Carrie Pietzel: wife of Benjamin Pietzel

Howard, Nellie and Alice Pietzel: son and two daughters(respectively) of Benjamin and Carrie Pietzel.

Frank Geyer: detective in charge of finding Pietzel's children after Holmes was jailed for fraud

Thomas W. Barlow: assistant district attorney who prosecuted Holmes

Other figures

Mayor Carter Harrison, Sr.: Mayor of Chicago who was assassinated on the last day of the fair.

Patrick Prendergast: assassin who killed Mayor Harrison under the delusional belief that he had helped Harrison win re-election.

Film adaptation

Leonardo DiCaprio purchased the film rights to the book in 2010; the movie is to be produced by Paramount Pictures, Stacey Sher and Michael Shamberg's Double Feature Films, and DiCaprio's own production company Appian Way Productions. Writer Graham Moore was originally hired to adapt the book into a screenplay, but it was later reported that Billy Ray would be writing the script. Martin Scorsese will direct.