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

Chicago in 1890-91 was a dangerous new territory for young women, newly liberated from the home and in search of employment. During the fair, the number of recorded murders rose sharply. The homicidal psychopath who would make Sixty-third and Wallace his laboratory stepped off the train to Chicago.

On February 4th 1890, 2,000 people congregated outside the Chicago Tribune. They were anticipating the decision from Washington as to whether Chicago, the nation’s second most populous city, would host a world’s fair. Its architects—Daniel Burnham and John Root—intended to mark the 400th anniversary of Columbus’ discovery with a riposte to Paris’ Eiffel Tower, which was the world’s tallest at the time.

Burnham, born in New York in 1846, was later rejected by both Harvard and Yale but had ambitions to become “the greatest architect in the city or country” (19). It was during his first placement at Wright’s architect firm that he met his future partner, John Root. Burnham married Margaret, the daughter of John Sherman, the superintendent of the Union Stock Yards. Root married Mary, daughter of the president of the Stock Yards, John Walker. Mary died of tuberculosis soon afterward, though friend and poet Harriet Monroe immortalized Root and Mary’s wedding day in writing.