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.