19th Century Chicago History Goes Hollywood

The non-fiction book by Erik Larson is set in 19th Century Chicago and covers the city's planning, World's Fair and a series of murders that took place at the time. Actor Leonardo DiCaprio is slated to play the murderer. Frank Lloyd Wright and Daniel Burnham have yet to be cast.

"DiCaprio will play Dr. HH Holmes, a cunning serial killer believed to have murdered anywhere from 27 to 200 people at a time when the city of Chicago was enthralled with hosting the World's Fair of 1893. Holmes constructed The World's Fair Hotel, an inn more lethal than the Bates Motel, especially for young single women. The sociopath used charm and guile to lure guests into what became known as a "murder castle," a haunt that had a gas chamber, crematorium and a dissecting table where Holmes would murder his victims and strip their skeletons to sell for medical and scientific study."