The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America

Chicago police discovered Holmes’ castle. Its macabre interior encompassed airtight rooms and a vault fitted with a gas jet that was controlled from Holmes’ own apartment. In the hotel basement they found a vat of acid in which the bones of numerous human bodies were floating, a blood-stained dissection table, charred high heels, human hair, and further vaults filled with quicklime and human remains. They discovered the jewelry Holmes had given Minnie as a gift. A further hidden chamber yielded more horrors. The footprint of Emeline Cigrand was discovered inside the second-floor vault. Charles Chappell told detectives he had helped Holmes turn corpses to articulated skeletons. Chicago’s newspapers were full of these reports. Geyer travelled across the country in search of Howard. The police suspected that the castle was burned to the ground to hide evidence. Finally, in Irvington, Indianapolis, Geyer found that Holmes had set up a large wood stove in a rented house and had his surgical tools sharpened at a local repair shop. Geyer testified that he found Howard’s remains in the chimney along with Howard’s spinning top that his father had given him at the fair as a present.