The Scarlet Mansion

by Allan W. Eckert

Book Overview

"This book is strong stuff...magnificently crafted, powerfully written. Read it if you dare...astounding suprise ending."The Daily World

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0553259253
• ISBN13: 9780553259254
• Release Date: August 1986
• Publisher: Bantam
• Length: 496 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.

Customer Reviews

By far the best fictional account of this man

Herman W. Mudgett, better known as Harry H. Holmes, was a true American monster---swindler, thief, and serial killer. Nobody knows how many people he killed at his "Murder Mansion"---a house constructed specifically to make murder easier to get away with---in then-suburban Englewood, Illinois (now part of Chicago). He killed for pleasure, for insurance money, and to avoid paying people money he owed them. Robert Bloch tried to do justice to Mudgett in _American Gothic,_ but this book is far closer to the known facts of the case, and I cannot understand why it isn't better-known. I'm delighted to see that it's finally back in print.

The Scarlet Mansion

I read this book when it first was published in 1985. Though many years have passed, my memory of the story remains vivid. I still wonder why historians do not mention this man more often when discussing serial murderers. Herman Mudget obviously was clever, as the reader soon learns, and no matter the number of people killed, he always should be mentioned in the same breath as Jack the Ripper and other well known serial murderers. Mr. Eckert has done outstanding research into the life of Herman Mudget, and his diabolical schemes to commit murder. Though serial murders are not to be praised in history, their exploits are part of history, and any study of them should be closely reviewed as a lesson from which we can learn, and Mr. Eckert's effort is among the best. Athough I still have my original copy, I am pleased to learn that this book is back in print so readers who have not yet had the opportunity to read this story now will be able to do so.

Shivers

There are some very sick people in the world and Mudgett was the worst. This man gave me the creeps. What is really hard to beleive is that this is a true story. Mudgett was the fist Serial Killer and to this day they do not know how many people he killed. The story is written almost as a mystery but you are aware of what is to be found.