American Predator – A Gripping and Well-Researched True-Crime Narrative

“The Bureau’s top criminal profilers were at a loss. The only thing they could tell the team was that Keyes was one of the most terrifying subjects that they had ever encountered. There was no precedent for a serial killer with this MO: no victim type; no fixed location for hunting, killing, and burying; putting thousands of miles between himself and his victims; caches buried all over the United States.”

Israel Keyes is described as one of the most calculating and terrifying serial-killers you’ve never heard of. The recent TV series Mindhunter (2017--), based on the bone-chilling true story of the man who pioneered the science of profiling serial killers, immersed us into the dark deeds of some of the most twisted minds. From the intimidating and unbelievably self-aware Ed Kemper to the intelligent and well-spoken Wayne Williams, the series introduced us to the deviant minds who have committed the most appalling crimes. Nevertheless, it is the early efforts (in 1970s) of FBI men to understand the serial-killers through methods of psychological profiling (BAU – Behavioral Analysis Unit) that's alleged to have helped identify and solve the serial-murders. Although serial-killing (and names like Jeffrey Dahmer and Ted Bundy) have strongly captured the public’s imagination, it is stated that less than 1 percent of annual homicides in USA are by serial-killers. And Israel Keyes is one of the truly rare serial-killer whose crimes have mostly gone overlooked – the one percent of the one percent, who if not for sheer luck would have gone undetected until his death.

Israel Keyes is an anomaly even among these darkest minds since his MO has baffled the practitioners of criminal profiling. Keyes (1978-2012) is believed to have spent at least fourteen years traveling in & around America robbing banks, kidnapping, raping, and murdering people. After serving in the US army between 1998 and 2001, Keyes was sought out for his handyman skills, and later started his own construction business in the small town of Anchorage, Alaska. When not working or spending time with his daughter, Keyes meticulously prepared himself for new hunts: studying maps (for the safest getaway routes), caching weapons (buried ‘kill kits’ all over the country), and even read the popular books of forensic specialists and FBI profilers. Keyes didn’t have a victim type. He killed indiscriminately and never chose a victim beforehand (his slaughtered victims only made the ‘mistake’ of being in his kill zone). Even though Keyes claimed, he never touched kids, the investigators have understood enough about him to treat this claim with skepticism (So, why did he do it? “Why Not?” was his answer).

Israel Keyes eventually came under the radar of FBI by making few careless mistakes. But until his death (by suicide) on December 1, 2012 there were lots of unanswered questions about the list of his victims. Keyes has confessed to 11 homicides, but he is hinted to be responsible for many more murders as he is supposed to have committed his first murder when he was only a teenager. Sadly, the incompetence of few officials while keeping him in the custody, and Keyes’ egotistical need to manipulate and control the interrogation never revealed the full monstrosity of his criminal behavior. Nevertheless, all the details unveiled so far about this lesser-known serial-killer are deftly presented in the investigative journalist Maureen Callahan’s true-crime book American Predator: The Hunt for the Most Meticulous Serial Killer of the 21^st century (published July 2019). Author Maureen Callahan does a fine job of distancing us from the killer, by telling the story backwards, i.e., from the bizarre kidnapping and brutal murder of 18-year-old Samantha Koening of Anchorage, Alaska (Keyes' last kill).

Maureen offers a thorough account of Samantha’s disappearance and the botched police investigation in the earlier phase. Yet group of dedicated professionals banded together, and thanks to few sloppy mistakes made by the suspect, their man was arrested in Texas, more than 3,000 miles from Alaska. In custody, Keyes confessed to the killing of Samantha. Only when he started to confess about the slaying of a middle-aged couple in New England, the investigators came to understand the truly diabolical nature of Keyes. Although details of certain crime scenes, especially the murder of Curriers, are luridly described, Maureen Callahan never commits the mistake of putting us in the killer’s perspective. Moreover, the author reports the peculiarity and deviancy of Keyes from the viewpoint of those closely involved in the case. The conversational tone maintained throughout the book, from digging up into the actual transcripts between Keyes and law enforcement officials, throws a lot of chilling details in a matter-of-fact manner. The abridged version of the transcripts also helps us comprehend the difficulties and challenges faced by the law enforcement officials in handling such smart, incredibly self-aware and ruthless serial-killers.

Overall, American Predator is a compelling account of a relatively unknown serial-killer who smoothly traveled all around post-9/11 America, casting an intricate web of murder and mayhem.

 

The Devil in the White City – A Staggering Historical Event Told with the Grace of a Luminous Storyteller

“Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men’s blood”

--- Daniel Hudson Burnham

“I was born with the devil in me. I could not help the fact that I was a murderer, no more than the poet can help the inspiration to sing”

---  H.H. Holmes

The 1889 Paris World Fair (‘The Exposition Universelle’) shrewdly captured the attention of the Western nations. A one thousand feet high phallic iron structure that was erected at the center of Paris Exposition thought to be the symbol asserting the supremacy of French architecture and culture. The giant tower was belovedly called after its designer – Alexander Gustave Eiffel. The immense commercial success and cultural marvel of the Paris Fair had deeply perturbed the American architects and engineers. America wanted to surpass Paris’ overwhelming glory (put the entire Europe in its place) and that too very sooner. In order to commemorate the 400^th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ landing on the American mainland, plans were made to design World’s Columbian Exposition. The Fair was held between 1 May and October 30, 1893. And, to everyone’s surprise, Chicago – America’s 2^nd largest city – was chosen to exhibit the Fair; not the allegedly culturally superior New York. At this time, Chicago was mired amidst cloud of self-doubt. The windy city was burdened to shed its image of a black city, drenched in coal smoke and stink of slaughterhouses (the huge meat-packing factories' 'assembly lines' of Chicago actually provided inspiration for Henry Ford). The Americans wanted the Columbian Exposition to be a grand expression of collective American thought. In the decades following the Chicago Fair, it was addressed as an important event in the country’s self-identification phase.

How Chicago conquered its inferiority complex through its army of engineers, architects, artists and inventors, spearheaded by the super-talented architect Daniel Hudson Burnham, contributes to the distinguished history of White City. The prodigious material achievements of humans, envisioned at the Chicago Fair, captured the imagination of millions of people, including that of the charming devil named Herman Webster Mudgett. American journalist and author Erik Larsson’s spectacular 2003 non-fiction book ‘The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and the Madness That Changed America’ tells the ascent of Chicago Fair and the accomplishments of two polarizing individuals of the city – D.H. Burnham and Mudgett aka H.H. Holmes (yes the name taken after Conan Doyle’s release of 1^st Sherlock Holmes book in 1887). As Mr. Larson says in the prologue, “the book is about the evanescence of life, and why some men choose to fill their brief allotment of time engaging the impossible, others in the manufacture of sorrows”.

H H Holmes

Erik Larson was best known for presenting non-fiction material in a very engaging novelistic style. He turns history into a vast canvas for portraying myriad of human stories. His wonderful gift for language easily makes us connect with the predicament of the men and women of late 19^th century; not just through analytical observation but also by using strong emotional perception. Apart from including rich invaluable historical details, Devil in the White City tells a lot about the American politics, suppressed labor unions, the perpetual clash between bankers and visionaries, and the clash of geniuses. Edison demonstrated his first light bulb at the Chicago Fair and the magic of electricity marveled the attendees. The public was introduced to Ferris wheel (built to out-Eiffel Eiffel), zip fasteners, dishwashers, shredded wheat, caramel-coated popcorn, Pabst Blue Ribbon, differently flavored gums, etc. The author particularly excels when reciting the experiences of famous personalities of the time at the Fair: Houdini, Scott Joplin, Buffalo Bill, Archduke Ferdinand, Woodrow Wilson (28^th US President), Susan B Anthony (founder of National Woman Suffrage Association), Nikola Tesla, Mark Twain, etc. Larson turns a simple trivia or infotainment into a fantastic narrative. For example, his description of Elias Disney being a worker at the Fair; he quips how Mr. Elias would have told lofty tales about the fair to his youngest son Walt Disney (other interesting trivia or is how the Fair came to serve as the inspiration for Oz by writer Frank L. Baum).

The crux of the book, however, rests upon the life story of Burnham and H.H. Holmes. Burnham and his beloved partner John Root were one of the greatest minds of the day. From erecting America’s foremost skyscrapers to creating the gorgeous landscapes of the White City, Burnham had a penchant for achieving the impossible. Larson elaborately sets up the tense atmosphere as the work to build the Fair meets myriad of problems in all directions. Perhaps, Burnham’s biggest among the impossible achievement is the army of powerful architects and engineers he conjured to make the nation’s vision a reality. Frederick Olmstead (celebrated landscape architect), George Ferris, and Louis Sullivan were the prominent men among those who made the Fair a runaway success.

Sketch of Chicago's World Fair 1893 (pic source: Wikipedia)

While Burnham planned the aesthetics of the Fair, Holmes was building his own dream house, closer to it. The house that occupied an entire block was actually called ‘Castle’ by the neighbors. Holmes was as much a charming entrepreneur (‘handsome and blue-eyed’) like Burnham, although he had different pleasures. The house was filled with soundproof and airtight rooms, trapdoors, odd staircases, portable gas chambers, and a large customized kiln. During the fair, he converted his castle into a hotel, focusing his blue-eyed gaze on young, lonely women who were new to the city. The fair attracted thousands of women fitting Holmes’ taste and he powered over more than handful of them. The champion huckster wore a mask of politeness and sensitivity that made many people voluntarily fall under his trap. The true dark secret of the hotel/castle was unearthed only two years after the end of Fair (by the efforts of a lone-wolf detective Frank Geyer; the Chicago police force didn’t have a clue about the serial murders). Till then, Holmes enjoyed doing what he did best: killing. The most gruesome detail about the murders is how Holmes sold many of his victims’ skeletons to medical schools (the era when medical fraternity robbed the graves to study human anatomy). Infamously known as America’s first modern day serial killer, the number of people he killed varies between 20 and 200.    

Larson brilliantly juxtaposes the hardships faced by Burnham and the Fair with Holmes’ terrifying exploits. The author recreates couple of scenario that lead to the murders of Holmes’ victims. The scenario is impeccably patched together after delving into police and judicial reports. While Larson cooks up interesting anecdotes and builds plenty of momentum in detailing Holmes’ deeds, he never perceives the serial killer with a misplaced sense of fascination. On hindsight, the book feels a little less on analytical perception (as many of the facts and quotes are pieced together from different sources and books, although Larson has taken great efforts to attain the information). Furthermore, it’s inevitably affected by an imbalance in focusing between the narratives of Burnham, Chicago Fair, and Holmes (if you are looking for Holmes’ psychological profile it’s better to read Harold Schechter's 1994 book ‘Depraved’).  Nevertheless, The Devil in the White City (447 pages) provides a detailed and dazzling portrait of America in the Gilded Age. It’s a highly ambitious work of narrative non-fiction (with wholly factual details) that thrills and enchants us like a popular fiction.

[Leonardo Di Caprio purchased the rights for the book in 2010 and Martin Scorsese was touted to direct the adaptation after finishing his passion project ‘The Irishman’. Di Caprio may don the role of H.H. Holmes].