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The Devil In The White City Summary

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In the year of 1893, the United States, specifically Chicago, hosted The World’s Columbian Exposition in celebration of the 400th anniversary of Columbus reaching the New World. The event grounds were stressfully designed by a large assembly of architects, designers, and city officials to achieve the final product: The White City. The White City became more of a turning point for America inspiring new structures, ideas, inventions, and cities. Erik Larson’s The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America revolve around Burnham, the head architect designing the Fair, and H.H. Holmes, a serial killer whose killings took place in the planning of and during Chicago’s World Fair. The illustration of two very different men with disparate backgrounds and stories throughout the book somehow manage to give us a glimpse of the city lifestyle in …show more content…
There were criminals who had more than 6 aliases in documents across the country easily covering up their trail of frauds, robberies, and/or murders. Near the beginning of the book, Larson explains the dark side of the city of Chicago and states, “It was so easy to disappear… in the smoke and din to mask that something dark had taken root” (p. 12). H.H. Holmes commits his crimes in over 12 states across the country and even in Canada before he is found, given a trial, and eventually executed. He was married to three women at once at a certain point in time and he used more than 4 aliases throughout his crime spree. We can only assume others managed to commit similar fraudulents, and some may have not even been caught. In today’s society it would be almost impossible to achieve anything with an alias that has not been changed to your legal name. Especially crimes such as insurance fraud, not paying bills/taxes, or being married to three people at

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