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

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2003

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Part 3, Chapters 1-3Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 3: “In the White City”

Part 3, Chapter 1 Summary: “Opening Day”

President Cleveland and numerous other notaries processed through the fair, along with anywhere between a quarter million and 650,000 Chicagoans. After delivering the Presidential speech, Cleveland used a golden key to start the steam engine at the Machinery Building. Water streamed from every fountain in the park, one as high as 100 feet, and a flock of doves was released into the air. On May 2nd, only 10,000 people visited the park, not nearly enough. That week, numerous banks failed across the country. The fair was far from finished.

Part 3, Chapter 2 Summary: “The World’s Fair Hotel”

Holmes’ hotel takes its first guests. He buys an apartment for Minnie on the opposite side of the city. The hotel is dreary and frequently smells of chemicals, while some guests mysteriously leave their bills unpaid.

Part 3, Chapter 3 Summary: “Prendergast”

On May 9th, 1893, Prendergast wrote to W. F. Cooling in the Staats-Zeitung Building about what he erroneously believed was his imminent appointment to corporation counsel.

Part 3, Chapters 1-3 Analysis

These chapters trace the divergent psyches of three influential men in Chicago in May 1893. Anticipation connects each of their stories. While the fair is declared open in a fountain of glory, it is far from complete. Prendergast looks forward to being offered his new position of power. Holmes’ factory of death is in full operation now that the fair is underway and guests are pouring in. Each of them was on the brink of the attainment of their desires: “Minnie was an asset now, an acquisition to be warehoused until needed, like cocooned prey” (243). Each of the men is, or believes himself to be, in full possession of his personal empire. The diabolical and insane schemes of the two criminals contrasts with the jubilation of the fair’s opening, reminding the reader of the darker side of this spectacle of progress: “As the crowd thundered, a man eased up beside a thin, pale woman with a bent neck. In the next instant Jane Addams realized her purse was gone. The great fair had begun” (237). Amid the effusions of civilization, Larson reminds his readers that predators still hunt their prey.