Download H H Holmes The True History of the White City Devil Adam Selzer 9781510740846 Books
Download As PDF : H H Holmes The True History of the White City Devil Adam Selzer 9781510740846 Books
America's first and most notorious serial killer and his diabolical killing spree during the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago, now updated with a new afterword discussing Holmes' exhumation on American Ripper.
H. H. Holmes The True History of the White City Devil is the first truly comprehensive book examining the life and career of a murderer who has become one of America’s great supervillains. It reveals not only the true story but how the legend evolved, taking advantage of hundreds of primary sources that have never been examined before, including legal documents, letters, articles, and records that have been buried in archives for more than a century.
Though Holmes has become just as famous now as he was in 1895, a deep analysis of contemporary materials makes very clear how much of the story as we know came from reporters who were nowhere near the action, a dangerously unqualified new police chief, and, not least, lies invented by Holmes himself.
Selzer has unearthed tons of stunning new data about Holmes, weaving together turn-of-the-century America, the killer’s background, and the wild cast of characters who circulated in and about the famous “castle” building. This book will be the first truly accurate account of what really happened in Holmes’s castle of horror, and now includes an afterword detailing the author's participation in Holmes' exhumation on the TV series, American Ripper.
Exhaustively researched and painstakingly brought to life, H. H. Holmes will be an invaluable companion to the upcoming Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio movie about Holmes’s murder spree based on Erik Larson’s The Devil in the White City.
Download H H Holmes The True History of the White City Devil Adam Selzer 9781510740846 Books
"A boring collection of essentially footnotes. There is no flow or continuity or literary arc. Just a recitation of one-line newspaper accounts that may or may not be true. A good editor might have been able to rescue this mess but in its present form it is nigh well unreadable. A waste of time."
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H H Holmes The True History of the White City Devil Adam Selzer 9781510740846 Books Reviews :
H H Holmes The True History of the White City Devil Adam Selzer 9781510740846 Books Reviews
- I must throw in my two cents here. Unlike many of the readers I find the relentless facts thrown out to be quite interesting. The way the author documents what is known about Holmes is excellent. I also agree with those who find his arrangement of these facts to be rather dry but at the same time I find them fascinating. One thing that does throw me, though, is that the author asserts from the start that Holmes did not kill nearly as many people as he is credited with, and later casts doubt on the fact that he could be considered a serial killer at all, and that furthermore when he threatens a man who had complained about debris from his building (Holmes had a pistol and a knife!) and was only saved by a policeman that this is "uncharacteristic" of Holmes. By this point in the book no less than five people had been killed by Holmes, and in its broadest definition serial killer denotes someone who kills either for pleasure or financial gain -- clearly Holmes was at least a sociopath, and the fact that he had no compunction about killing children leads one to believe he was no doubt a serial killer for all practical purposes. It seems the author strains mightily to demythologize Holmes to the point of trying to ignore the fact that he was pretty much a monster of sorts. Worth the read for anyone interested in Mudgett aka H.H. Holmes.
- This is a great read. I had read enough about Holmes to know that Devil in the White City was greatly embellished (it's a great story, nonetheless), and then when Adam mentioned this book while my wife and I were taking one of his tours (the history of Graceland Cemetary - check it and his other tours out on his website Mysterious Chicago), I ordered it right away.
It was fascinating to learn the real history of such a notorious figure, and how the legend of HH Holmes grew over the decades. This book also shows a fascinating glimpse of how journalism and police work was in the late 19th century. I highly recommend this book. - Extremely dry. Though this book is full of information regarding the life of the notorious H. H. Holmes, it is very boring and after struggling through half of it I lost interest entirety. It is straight forward and fact based, which is good for content but it was so dully presented as to be unreadable. It would be more suitable for reference material than entertainment.
- A boring collection of essentially footnotes. There is no flow or continuity or literary arc. Just a recitation of one-line newspaper accounts that may or may not be true. A good editor might have been able to rescue this mess but in its present form it is nigh well unreadable. A waste of time.
- Probably the best book out there on H. H. Holmes. Adam Selzer cut through all the malarkey and gets the true story out in a sensible way. I truly enjoyed reading it and am reading it a second time so I did not miss something.
- Many hours of tedious research must have gone into this book, but I found it a very slow and tedious read. I bought this book after reading Devil in White City and was anxious to read it over Spring break to learn more about H.H. Holmes. I couldn't stop reading DIWC. I had to keep putting Selzer's book down - too dull for me.
- Well written but a long and tedious read. If you really analyze, only about 75% is really related to the actual killings. The rest is filler, in my opinion.
If you have insomnia and need to nod off....this is the book. Lots of detail and characters. Be prepared. You will end up knowing a lot more than you probably wanted to. - Selzer does a good job of laying out a timeline and the facts. So if you're looking for that, you'll find it here. Where the book came up short for me was in the narrative. It became tedious pretty quickly, especially if you've read on Holmes' story in the past. This book would be a good primer for anyone looking for an expository on the details and timeline, as opposed to all that but in a more narrative form such as Devil in the White City.
