Robin K. Laurinec

Bloody Skyscrapers: Chicago and the Rise of Urban Serial Killing

Abstract:

Chicago at the turn of the 20th century was hailed as the quintessential modern American city which dwarfed all the others. However, at the same time, a completely different phenomena emerged: urban serial killing. While Jack the Ripper was the first, H.H. Holmes presented America and the world with a new, horrifyingly modern way of approaching murder. This senior thesis examines what specific qualities made Chicago the place for urban serial killing to emerge. Pervasive in the fictional literature written by Chicago authors or about the city itself is the theme of naturalism, or the concept that the environment dictates the morality and personality of those involved in it. Using the naturalistic mind frame, the writings and observations of Holmes himself are examined as both historical artifacts and literary works in their own right, seeking to uncover what key elements of the urban Windy City made it ground zero for this horrible urban phenomenon. This thesis argues that a combination of the pressure of a new, unstable morality code arising from the shift from a more stable social world, the obsessive drive for individual success, and the prevalent link between industrial economics and violence made Chicago the perfect breeding ground for the emergence of a distinctly “urban” and “modern” form of serial killing.

Thesis Advisors: I. Binnington and A. Lo