The Castle Killings: The Shocking True Story of America’s First Serial Killer

Description

“I could not help the fact that I was a murderer, no more than the poet can help the inspiration to sing. I was born with the ‘Evil One’ standing as my sponsor beside the bed where I was ushered into the world, and he has been with me since.” —H. H. Holmes, 1896

The year is 1893 and the vibrant city of Chicago is a buzz of streetcars, horse carriages, magicians, dancers, and excited visitors from all over the world.

The Columbian Exposition, or World’s Fair, is in town and marking the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ arrival in the United States of America.

While fairgoers are enjoying the sights, sounds and aromas of the many markets, halls, and walkways in the scenic Jackson Park, a sinister young man is planning his next murder only three miles away.

Doctor H.H. Holmes has built his Murder Castle on a busy Chicago street corner a few years earlier and he is the only person who understands the maze of secret passages, hidden staircases, dark chambers, false partitions and trap doors on the second floor of The Castle. His victims would not have a chance of escaping.

Meanwhile, 6000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean, Jack the Ripper is terrorizing the streets of London.

Many people would later ask if it was a coincidence that the Ripper murders took place in a timeframe when H.H. Holmes was not in Chicago but, in fact, in London.

You decide for yourself while going on this exhilarating true crime journey back to the nineteenth century, to meet America’s very first serial killer, H.H. Holmes.