Authors: Erik Larson

Tags: #2000, #Biography

The Devil in the White City (53 page)

BOOK: The Devil in the White City

6.83Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub

ads

H. Wayne Morgan’s detailed historical essay on Leslie Enraught Keeley’s alcohol-treatment empire, ‘“No, Thank You, I’ve Been to Dwight,’” in the
Illinois Historical Journal,
offers a charming look at a bygone rage.

See
Chicago Tribune,
July 26, 27, 29, 30, 31, 1895;
Philadelphia Public Ledger,
July 27, 29, 31, 1895; Boswell and Thompson, 86–87; Franke, 102–105; Schechter, 48–51.

In the spring of 1892
: Schechter, 48.

Gold was the most famous
: Morgan, 149.

the Chicago post office
: Ibid., 159–160.

“he was too valuable
: Mudgett, 122.

Thousands of people
: Morgan, 157.

“passing through the line
: Ibid., 154.

“No, thank you
: Ibid., 158.

the story Pitezel now told
: Schechter, 48, 49.

“a flattering offer
:
Chicago Tribune,
July 30, 1895.

Emeline accepted
: Ibid.

“White pique hats
:
Chicago Tribune,
August 7, 1895.

“got to talking
:
Chicago Tribune,
July 28, 1895.

“a handsome blonde
: Ibid.

“I told her
: Ibid.

4.
“She was one
: Franke, 102.

“It was not long
: Ibid.

son of an English lord
: Schechter, 49.

“I was charmed
:
Chicago Tribune,
July 30, 1895.

Dedication Day

“All over its surroundings
: Ulrich, 19.

“Would you object
: Burnham to Olmsted, November 20, 1891, Burnham Archives, Business Correspondence, vol. 4.

“a few tents, some horses
: Burnham to Buchanan, December 19, 1891, ibid.

“They propose
: Burnham to Olmsted, February 5, 1892, ibid.

“unreasonable, unjust
: Roper, 434.

“When Olmsted is blue
: Rybczynski,
Clearing,
247–48.

“They had picked
: Bloom, 122.

“a tolerable idea
: Olmsted, “Report by F.L.O.,” April 1892, Olmsted Papers, Reel 41.

“It seemed to me
: Olmsted to John, May 15, 1892, Olmsted Papers, Reel 22.

The Paris buildings
: Olmsted, “Report by F.L.O.”

“I am having
: Rybczynski,
Clearing,
391.

“I can only conclude
: Olmsted to Codman, May 25, 1892, Olmsted Papers, Reel 22.

A doctor, Henry Rayner
: Roper, 439.

“You know that I am
: Olmsted to Codman, June 16, 1892, Olmsted Papers, Reel 22.

“every day more or less
: Olmsted to “Partners,” July 21, 1892, ibid.

“childish, vulgar, flaunting
: Ibid.

“there is nothing in America
: Olmsted to Codman, July 30, 1892, ibid.

“The finest combination
: Olmsted to John, May 15, 1892, ibid.

“Everywhere the best ornamental grounds
: Olmsted to John Olmsted, May 19, 1892, ibid., Reel 41.

“Let us as much as possible
: Olmsted to “Partners,” July 17, 1892, ibid.

“I think more than ever
: Olmsted to Codman, April 20, 1892, ibid.

“The standard of an English laborer
: Olmsted to Codman, April 21, 1892, ibid., Reel 22.

“The only cloud
: Olmsted to “Partners,” July 21, 1892, ibid.

“I could see them
: Bloom, 122.

“I suggest you be more civil
: Ibid.

“At present,” he said
: Ibid.

“Too fragile
: Barnes, 177.

“The wind
:
Chicago Tribune,
April 28, 1892.

“largely on account
: Moore, Burnham interview, 8.

“His genius was betrayed
: Monroe,
Poet’s Life,
103.

“I was urging
: Hines, 101.

“I don’t see it that way
: Moore, Burnham interview, 8.

“ordinary white lead
: Millet, 708.

“the Whitewash Gang
: Hall, 213.

“with the utmost vigor
: Burnham to Geraldine, March (illegible) 1892, Burnham Archives, Business Correspondence, vol. 6.

On Saturday evening
: McCarthy, “Should We Drink,” 8–12;
Chicago Tribune,
March 1, May 8, 9, 13, 20, 1892; Burnham,
Final Official Report,
69–70.

“You had better write a letter
: Moore,
McKim,
120.

On Wednesday, June 1
: Photograph, Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building, June 1, 1892, Burnham Archives, Box 64, File 34.

Two weeks later
: Photograph, Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building, June 13, 1892, Burnham Archives, Oversize Portfolio 13.

The contractor
:
Chicago Tribune,
June 15, 1892.

“I have assumed personal control
: Burnham to Olmsted, September 14, 1892, Olmsted Papers, Reel 59.

“I had no precedent
: Anderson, 53.

“monstrosity
: Barnes, 177.

“I was more disabled
: Rybczynski,
Clearing,
391.

“I am still tortured
: Olmsted to John, October 11, 1892, Olmsted Papers, Reel 22.

“Of course the main work suffers
: Olmsted to John, undated but received in Brookline, Mass., October 10, 1892, ibid.

The dedication had been anticipated
: Schlereth, 174.

“Ninety thousand people
: Wheeler, 846.

“both orators waving
: Monroe,
Poet’s Life,
130.

That winter she burned
: Ibid., 131.

Prendergast

On November 28, 1892
: Prendergast to Alfred Trude, Trude Papers;
Chicago Record,
December 15 and 16, 1893, in McGoorty Papers;
Chicago Tribune,
December 15, 16, 17, 21, 22, 1893.

“My Dear Mr. Trude
: Prendergast to Alfred Trude, Trude Papers.

“I Want You at Once”

“I have on hand
: Ferris to Rice, December 12, 1892, Ferris Correspondence, Miscellaneous, Ferris Papers.

that this wheel
: Anderson, 55; Miller, 497.

Chappell Redux

The gift delighted
: Franke, 102.

“She seemed delighted
: Ibid.

“It had seemed to me
: Ibid., 103.

Later there was speculation
:
Chicago Tribune,
July 30, 1895.

“Oh, she’s gone away
: Franke, 104.

“This will tell you
: Ibid.

The announcement read
: Ibid., 105.

“Some days after going
: Mudgett, 247; see also Mudgett, 246–249.

“Oh, he is a fellow
: Franke, 105.

“lady of refinement
:
Chicago Tribune,
July 28, 1895.

“The day after
: Franke, 104.

Soon afterward
:
Chicago Tribune,
July 31, 1895;
Philadelphia Public Ledger,
July 31, 1895.

“This,” said Dr. B. J. Cigrand
:
Philadelphia Public Ledger,
July 27, 1895.

“I had at last
:
Chicago Tribune,
July 31, 1895.

That the name Phelps
:
Chicago Tribune,
August 7, 1895.

That on January 2, 1893
:
Chicago Tribune,
July 28, 1895.

That a few weeks later
: Schechter, 51.

Somehow a footprint
:
Chicago Tribune,
July 28, August 1, 1895.

To explain the print’s permanence
:
Chicago Tribune,
August 1, 1895.

“The Cold-Blooded Fact”

“The winter of 1892–3
: Rice, 10, 12.

George Ferris fought the cold
: Anderson, 58; Untitled typescript, Ferris Papers, 4; regarding use of dynamite, see Ulrich, 24.

“No one shop
: Untitled typescript, Ferris Papers, 3; Anderson, 55, 57; Meehan, 30.

Together with its fittings
: “Report of Classified and Comparative Weights of Material Furnished by Detroit Bridge & Iron Works for the ‘Ferris Wheel,’ ” Ferris Papers.

“You will have heard
: Stevenson, 416.

“It looks as if
: Olmsted to John, February 17, 1893, Olmsted Papers, Reel 22.

“I have never before
: Olmsted to Ulrich, March 3, 1893, ibid., Reel 41.

“This seems to be an impossibility
: Bancroft, 67.

Acquiring Minnie

I base my conclusions about Holmes’s motivation on studies of psychopaths conducted throughout the twentieth century. Holmes’s behavior—his swindles, his multiple marriages, his extraordinary charm, his lack of regard for the difference between right and wrong, and his almost eerie ability to detect weakness and vulnerability in others—fits with uncanny precision descriptions of the most extreme sorts of psychopaths. (In the late twentieth century psychiatrists officially abandoned the term
psychopath
and its immediate successor term
sociopath
in favor of
antisocial personality disorder,
though the term
psychopath
remains the favored everyday description.)

For an especially lucid discussion of psychopaths see Dr. Hervey Cleckley’s pioneering
The Mask of Sanity,
published in 1976. On page 198 he cites “the astonishing power that nearly all psychopaths and part-psychopaths have to win and to bind forever the devotion of woman.” See also
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders,
4th ed., 645–60; Wolman, 362–68; Millon et al., throughout but especially 155, which quotes Philippe Pinel’s appraisal of psychopathic serial killers: “Though their crimes may be sickening, they are not sick in either a medical or a legal sense. Instead, the serial killer is typically a sociopathic personality who lacks internal control—guilt or conscience—to guide his own behavior, but has an excessive need to control and dominate others. He definitely knows right from wrong, definitely realizes he has committed a sinful act, but simply doesn’t care about his human prey. The sociopath has never internalized a moral code that prohibits murder. Having fun is all that counts.”

Also in Millon et al., at page 353, a contributing author describes a particular patient named Paul as having “an uncanny ability to identify naïve, passive and vulnerable women—women who were ripe for being manipulated and exploited.”

For details of the Williams case I relied, once again, on an array of newspaper articles, and on Boswell and Thompson, Franke, and Schechter. See
Chicago Tribune,
July 20, 21, 27, 31, August 4, 7, 1895;
New York Times,
July 31, 1895;
Philadelphia Public Ledger,
November 21, 23, 26, 1894, December 22, 1894, July 22, 24, 27, 29, 1895: Boswell and Thompson, 86–90; Franke, 106–109; Schechter, 58–63.

Silver Ash Institute
:
Chicago Tribune,
July 27, 1895.

as many as seventy-five
:
Chicago Tribune,
July 25, 1895.

Tobey Furniture Company
:
Chicago Tribune,
July 27, 1895.

French, Potter Crockery Company
: Ibid.

Merchant & Co.
:
Chicago Tribune,
July 30, 1895.

At the nearby Normal School
:
Chicago Tribune,
June 26, 1892.

“a baby face
: Boswell and Thompson, 87.

Born in Mississippi
: For various details about Minnie and Anna Williams’s backgrounds, I relied heavily on the
Chicago Tribune
of July 31, 1895.

Throughout 1889
: Exactly how and when Holmes courted Minnie is unclear, but it’s certain he traveled to Boston to see her and that he did so often enough to have won her adoration. The
Chicago Tribune
of July 29, 1895, describes Minnie’s first meeting with Holmes. See the
Tribune
of July 20, for other details, such as the date Minnie went to Boston for her education in elocution and a sketch of her subsequent travels, including her loss of $15,000 in an ill-starred attempt to establish a theatrical group. See also
Philadelphia Public Ledger,
November 22, 1894, July 27, 29, 1895.

“a remarkable aptitude
: Mudgett, 45.

Anna was skeptical
: Schechter, 61.

“I received her wedding cards
:
Chicago Tribune,
July 28, 1895.

She did so on
:
Chicago Tribune,
July 27, 31, 1895.

He established’: Philadelphia Public Ledger,
November 21, 23, 1894.

“He induced me
:
Philadelphia Public Ledger,
July 25, 1895.

no record of their union
:
Philadelphia Public Ledger,
November 26, 1894.

Dreadful Things Done by Girls

“money would be so plentiful
: Kiler, 61.

“The crowds poured in
: Bloom, 135.

Bloom thought a moment
: Ibid., 135–36.

Bloom regretted
: Ibid., 135.