Futility Closet

When detectives explored the Chicago hotel owned by insurance fraudster H.H. Holmes in 1894, they found a nightmarish warren of blind passageways, trapdoors, hidden chutes, and asphyxiation chambers in which Holmes had killed dozens or perhaps even hundreds of victims. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll follow the career of America's first documented serial killer, who headlines called "a fiend in human shape." We'll also gape at some fireworks explosions and puzzle over an intransigent insurance company. Intro: In 1908 a Strand reader discovered an old London horse omnibus on the outskirts of Calgary. If Henry Jenkins truly lived to 169, then as an English subject he'd have changed religions eight times. Sources for our feature on H.H. Holmes: Erik Larson, The Devil in the White City, 2004. John Borowski, The Strange Case of Dr. H.H. Holmes, 2005. Harold Schechter, Depraved: The Definitive True Story of H.H. Holmes, 1994. Alan Glenn, "A Double Dose of the Macabre," Michigan Today,