Review
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“Adam Selzer’s masterful sleuthing, proves to us, ‘the Devil IS in the details.” Impeccably researched, the
author has wiped away the nineteenth-century cobwebs spun by an ineffective investigation and a hyperbolic press.
What is left? The real life story of H. H. Holmes: The True History of the White City Devil. Highly recommended. Read
it!” —Steve Hodel, New York Times-bestselling author of Black Dahlia Avenger
“One after another, young women visited the Chicago’s World Fair in 1893 and met and fell in love with a mesmerizing
entrepreneur. Then they disappeared. H. H. Holmes is the chilling true story of a grave robber, bigamist and serial
killer, and his homemade torture chamber.” —Rebecca Morris, New York Times-bestselling author of If I Can’t Have You and
A Killing in Amish Country (with Gregg Olsen) and Ted and Ann
“Not another cut and paste crime biography. H.H.Holmes is one of America’s super-villains. Or was he? Not one hundred,
not two hundred victims, as the legends would have us believe, but only one person murdered and, even then, the evidence
was circumstantial! Evidence suggests another possible four murders and five might-have-beens but that’s the grand
total. Nor was he Jack the Ripper! Selzer takes apart the dove-tailed pieces of fact and legend to show the myth-making
behind one of America’s most infamous bogey-men. A highly readable and exciting piece of original research, not to be
missed by any crime enthusiast. —Donald Rumbelow, author of The Complete History of Jack the Ripper
“A masterful dissection of false news creation at the source. Selzer persuasively shows that, from the Victorian era to
now, how people get their information really does matter.” —Judy Nickels, author of A Competent Witness: Georgiana Yoke
and the Trial of H.H. Holmes
“You know you’ve encountered a great book when you get lost in the world the author has created. Adam Selzer’s
fascinating, exhaustively researched, highly readable book H. H. Holmes is all of that—a creepy take on America’s
original serial psychopath. From the opening pages to its riveting conclusion, you’re drawn into this narrative as
though reading a Caleb Carr novel. . . . Engrossing, totally engaging, all at once thrilling and chilling. A fresh, new
take on what is an old story. Just what the doctor himself—oh, snap!—would have ordered.” —M. William Phelps,New York
Times-bestselling author, Dangerous Ground: My Friendship with a Serial Killer
“History is so often compromised by myth-making, exaggerations and half-truths, when the real facts reveal a much more
compelling story. Adam Selzer has ed out a fascinating and eminently readable portrait of the real H. H. Holmes,
the fiendish killer popularly known as the ‘Devil in the White City.’ Mr. Selzer had dug deep to strip away the fiction
in order to give us the accurate and true facts of this shadowy figure’s life. The book is an important contribution to
our understanding of American criminal history.” —Richard C. Lindberg, author of Heartland Serial Killers: Belle
ness, Johann Hoch and Murder for Profit in light Era Chicago, and sixteen other books.
“Erik Larson brought the serial killer H. H. Holmes to the general reading public’s attention in The Devil in the White
City. But where Larson leaves off, Adam Selzer picks up, filling in gaps, replacing legend with fact, and debunking
myths. From Philadelphia to Chicago, and even down to Texas, Holmes roamed the country in the late Nineteenth Century,
leaving behind buried bodies, missing persons, and unanswered questions, in a trail that ultimately led to the gallows.
With meticulous research, Selzer digs deep into Holmes’s story to tell us not only the “how” but the “why,” and he
reveals a somewhat unorthodox serial killer by today’s standards: a bigamist, a con man, and a swindler who killed
indiscriminately, not merely to satisfy some bloodlust but, more practically, to conceal his larceny and deceit. A
fascinating read!” —Mike Farris, author of A Death in the Islands: The Unwritten Law and the Last Trial of Clarence
Darrow
“When legend becomes fact, print the legend, the saying goes. A case in point is the story of Dr. Herman Webster
Mudgett, who became infamous as H.H. Holmes, the depraved supervillain celebrated as the Devil in the White City. If you
want the straight dope, and not just the legend about Mudgett/Holmes, read Adam Selzer’s H. H. Holmes—the True History
of the White City Devil. You won't put it down.” —Dennis L. Breo, co-author of The Crime of the Century—Richard Speck
and the Murders that Shocked a Nation
“Selzer has made a career of fact-checking the most sordid details of Chicago history, disseminating the weird and
gritty true history of the city and its most unsavory people through popular mystery tours, a podcast, and books. When
the unprecedented success of Erik Larson’s Devil in The White City (2003) stirred up renewed interest in serial killer
H.H. Holmes, Selzer made it his mission to painstakingly research Holmes’ life, family, and crimes with intense
determination and doggedness. The result is this comprehensive, compelling, and surprising biography of Holmes, written
in a conversational style, as if we are passengers on one of Selzer’s tours. The book follows every move Holmes ever
made, dragging readers all over the country, breathlessly following his trail of deceit and lies. Using thousands of
primary sources to draw the most accurate picture of this American villain yet, Selzer keeps the delicate balance of
salacious (and mundane) details maintained with solid facts. What emerges is a picture of a terrible but intriguing man,
one who continues to capture our imagination over a century later, and one whose story leaps off the page in Selzer’s
uniquely suited hands. A must-read for fans of The Devil in The White City, of course, but this biography will also hold
its own independently in true-crime collections.” —Booklist*starred* review “In this … thrilling new biography of H.H.
Holmes (1861-1896), who received renewed attention in 2003 when Erik Larson published The Devil in the White City,
Mysterious Chicago tour guide and author Selzer (Just Kill Me, 2016, etc.) recharacterizes Holmes as a small-time con
man who was likely guilty of a series of murders in Chicago…. A passion for Holmes lore will lead to appreciation for
the depth of background and lesser criminal exploits described in great detail.” —Kirkus Reviews “Was late 19th-century
mass murderer H.H. Holmes motivated more by psychological compulsions than practical concerns? Selzer (Ghost of Chicago)
suggests the latter, diverging from the perspective put forth in Erik Larson’s The Devil in the White City. He works
hard to assemble historical evidence that strays from accounts by Larson, and others, but he never loses of the
fact that Holmes “almost certainly killed at least nine people, ruined the lives of numerous others, and seemed to feel
very little guilt about it.” This highly readable account of the case walks readers through Holmes’s nonviolent crimes
before getting to his first murder. Selzer believes that Holmes’s 1891 killing of Julia Conner, a woman he had sued for
nonpayment of a loan, was, like his others, committed, not out of bloodlust, but as a “necessary part of furthering his
swindling operations and protecting his lifestyle.” He makes a convincing argument that current perceptions of Holmes
are not always solidly grounded, even as he concedes that there’s “a lot of mystery left to be solved” about the case, a
concession that will lead many aficionados of quality true-crime narrative to monitor his Mysterious Chicago blog for
updates.” —Publishers Weekly
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About the Author
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Adam Selzer is the host of the Mysterious Chicago blog, podcasts, and tours, and has spent many years researching the
more gruesome side of Chicago history?criminals, ghost stories, gangsters, mysteries, and folklore. He regularly writes
Chicago history stories for websites such as TimeOut.com and Atlas Obscura, and speaks about it on WGN radio. He lives
in Chicago, Illinois.
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