Devil in the White City 1

            Both Daniel Burnham and H. H. Holmes gathered their strength and their enthusiasm for their work through their interaction with the city of Chicago and, in particular, the Chicago World’s Fair. Daniel Burnham, the preeminent architect of Chicago and the effective leader of the building of the Fair, worked for the good of his city and for the good of America as a whole- the Chicago World’s Fair reflected on the entire nation. Burnham took this to heart and worked as long and hard as necessary for the Fair to succeed. Burnham wanted the best for Chicago and to show the world the dominance of America- his motives were pure; however, H. H. Holmes took the opposite approach, using the Chicago World’s Fair to further his own financial ends and to satiate his appetite for murder.

            H. H. Holmes began his career in Chicago as a pharmacist, eventually taking the pharmacy he worked at, its owners mysteriously disappearing. Then he proceeded to purchase the block across the street to begin work on his “Castle.” Here, he began to open shops and an apartment upstairs. In the upstairs, guests lived in dark rooms, often visited by Holmes in the night, with gas pumps and incinerators. Holmes had built his hotel with specific specifications for murder. There were useless staircases and hallways to nowhere, but the most important innovations were the gas lines tied to specific rooms intended to forcibly nock guests out so that Holmes could experiment with their bodies.

            After he was done with his victims’ bodies, Holmes would eliminate any and all evidence he could. He had vats of acid and an incinerator designed to burn flesh from bone and destroy all vestiges of individuality on a body that could be identifiable. Furthermore, Holmes decided that, for his effort, he would profit: he cleaned the corpses and sold them to various medical schools.

            This demonstrates the fundamental difference between men like Burnham, dedicated to their community’s well being and concerned with how their efforts would benefit everyone’s lives, and men like Holmes, psychopaths, serial killers, hell bent on destruction and intent on their own selfish gain and profit. Holmes chose to profit off of the vulnerable nature of the men and women who came to visit the World’s Fair, whereas Burnham was the progenitor of the fair, its driving force and the main reason for its success.

Holmes sewed only despair and destruction for the fair, while Burnham ensured its fun and its joy. While both men were shaped and changed drastically by the fair, they differ in their extremely different responses to its creation. Burnham represents the epitome of good, creating this fun and jubilant experience through his amazing planning of its buildings and through his organization of the many disparate men of different professions brought together to ensure the fair’s success. Holmes represents the epitome of evil, creating torture chambers for those visitors to the fair unlucky enough to check into Holmes’ hotel. His murders represent that one person ruining a marvelous event for the masses. Erik Larson describes the differences between good and evil by using these two personas as foils for each other- Holmes and Burnham, complete opposites.