The heinous bloodlust of Dr. H. H. Holmes is notorious -- but only Harold Schechter's Depraved tells the complete story of the killer whose evil acts of torture and murder flourished within miles of the Chicago World's Fair. "Destined to be a true crime classic" (Flint Journal, MI), this authoritative account chronicles the methods and madness of a monster who slipped easily into a bright, affluent Midwestern suburb, where no one suspected the dapper, charming Holmes -- who alternately posed as doctor, druggist, and inventor to snare his prey -- was the architect of a labyrinthine "Castle of Horrors." Holmes admitted to twenty-seven murders by the time his madhouse of trapdoors, asphyxiation devices, body chutes, and acid vats was exposed. The seminal profile of a homegrown madman in the era of Jack the Ripper, Depraved is also a mesmerizing tale of true detection long before the age of technological wizardry.
Although the book was good it seemed to drag on a bit especially toward the end. H H Holmes was also discussed in The Devil In The White City which I have read so It spoiled some of the details. It was very suprising the sucess the men had in finding the rements of the bodies for the time.The power Holmes had over people was unbelievable.I don't believe he should have been given the power to decide his wish into eternity. They shoul d have sold his body to science and given the money to mother of those poor children.