Book-It '10! Book #73
The Fifty Books Challenge, year two! This was a library request.
Title: The Beast of Chicago: An Account of the Life and Crimes of Herman W. Mudgett, Known to the World As HH Holmes by Rick Geary
Details: Copyright 2003, Nantier Beall Minoustchine Publishing Inc
Synopsis (By Way of Back Cover): "He was the world's first serial killer and he existed in the late 19th century, operating around Chicago World's Fair, building a literal house of horrors, replete with chutes for dead bodies, gas chambers, surgical rooms. He methodically murdered up to 200 people, mostly young women. The infamous H.H Holmes is the next subject of Rick Geary's award-winning and increasingly popular series."
Why I Wanted to Read It: Geary's work had gotten positive notice from The Onion AV Club.
How I Liked It: The narrative is possibly the most muddled of any of Geary's books I've read so far. Certainly the story of H.H Holmes is a multifaceted one, but Geary's produced streamlined narratives of equally complex events with better results.
His art in character leans on the cartoony side in this volume, with a couple of "lemon" heads here and there and even a couple of MADesque tube-shaped faces.
Worth noting most of all in this volume is Geary's stellar captures of setting, particularly the intricacies of Holmes's notorious house of horrors. The general store in which Holmes found employ, and the beatific tour of 1893 Chicago offered at the beginning of the book are no less stunning. It leaves one to draw the conclusion that Geary spent the majority of his time on setting and not character.
Notable: Oddly, the back cover proclaims H.H Holmes "the world's first serial killer" but he wasn't, nor was he even the first American serial killer. The book itself even notes that in autumn of 1888, while Holmes was at work constructing his house of horrors, "a blood-thirsty killer of prostitutes was beginning his career on London's East End... a killer whom the world would soon know as 'Jack the Ripper'." (pages are not numbered)
In the introduction, Geary states that Holmes is "generally thought to be" America's first serial killer and clarifies that Holmes was actually the first American to be caught and convicted for having committed multiple crimes. Geary notes "Surely others went before him whose crimes remain, as yet, unrecognized."
A gross misstatement depending on Geary's definition in this case of "unrecognized". It's fairly likely that H.H Holmes was the first American to be tried and convicted of multiple murders (thusly "recognized" in a legal sense). But there were many before him (however untried in the courts) and many more famous, for example the "Bloody Benders" and the Harpe brothers.
H.H Holmes deserves a place of notoriety in the history of serial murder, but certainly not as big a historical note as Geary alleges.
Title: The Beast of Chicago: An Account of the Life and Crimes of Herman W. Mudgett, Known to the World As HH Holmes by Rick Geary
Details: Copyright 2003, Nantier Beall Minoustchine Publishing Inc
Synopsis (By Way of Back Cover): "He was the world's first serial killer and he existed in the late 19th century, operating around Chicago World's Fair, building a literal house of horrors, replete with chutes for dead bodies, gas chambers, surgical rooms. He methodically murdered up to 200 people, mostly young women. The infamous H.H Holmes is the next subject of Rick Geary's award-winning and increasingly popular series."
Why I Wanted to Read It: Geary's work had gotten positive notice from The Onion AV Club.
How I Liked It: The narrative is possibly the most muddled of any of Geary's books I've read so far. Certainly the story of H.H Holmes is a multifaceted one, but Geary's produced streamlined narratives of equally complex events with better results.
His art in character leans on the cartoony side in this volume, with a couple of "lemon" heads here and there and even a couple of MADesque tube-shaped faces.
Worth noting most of all in this volume is Geary's stellar captures of setting, particularly the intricacies of Holmes's notorious house of horrors. The general store in which Holmes found employ, and the beatific tour of 1893 Chicago offered at the beginning of the book are no less stunning. It leaves one to draw the conclusion that Geary spent the majority of his time on setting and not character.
Notable: Oddly, the back cover proclaims H.H Holmes "the world's first serial killer" but he wasn't, nor was he even the first American serial killer. The book itself even notes that in autumn of 1888, while Holmes was at work constructing his house of horrors, "a blood-thirsty killer of prostitutes was beginning his career on London's East End... a killer whom the world would soon know as 'Jack the Ripper'." (pages are not numbered)
In the introduction, Geary states that Holmes is "generally thought to be" America's first serial killer and clarifies that Holmes was actually the first American to be caught and convicted for having committed multiple crimes. Geary notes "Surely others went before him whose crimes remain, as yet, unrecognized."
A gross misstatement depending on Geary's definition in this case of "unrecognized". It's fairly likely that H.H Holmes was the first American to be tried and convicted of multiple murders (thusly "recognized" in a legal sense). But there were many before him (however untried in the courts) and many more famous, for example the "Bloody Benders" and the Harpe brothers.
H.H Holmes deserves a place of notoriety in the history of serial murder, but certainly not as big a historical note as Geary alleges.