H.H. Holmes VS Patrick Prendergast

    The antagonist of the novel, H.H. Holmes, is a psychopathic practitioner,

pharmacist, and serial killer from New Hampshire who comes to Chicago a few years before construction of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. Patrick Prendergast, a young Irish immigrant and staunch supporter of Carter Harrison, who works for a famous newspaper. Holmes and Prendergast are both the killer characters in the novel. They shared many similarities and differences in the novel.

     Though they had not any connection in the novel, they did the identical thing. Their murders were impressed people and influenced the Columbia Exposition Fair deeply. Both of them were born in a small town and moved to Chicago. Holmes had a solitary childhood and he was a very silent boy in the class just as Prendergast. They had no friends in school. In addition, Holmes was the dedicated person who always focused on his killing and swindle, likewise, Prendergast was the dedicated man, too.  He kept focusing on the political things and Mayor Harrison by writing postcards madly. At the end of the story, both of them were executed, which was inevitable. The jury found them guilty and the judge sentenced them to death.

       In spite the similarities between these two men, they shared a lot of differences. First of all, their personality was totally different, which differentiate them into two kinds of people. For example, Holmes was a charming and gentle man, and he was attracted by women. The ladies were easy to involve with him, which was the good opportunities for his murder. However, Prendergast was a man that kind of madness and illness. He had no friends and did not like talk to people expect writing his postcards. Comparing with Holmes’s string mind, Prendergast’s character was weak. He had grand hopes for the future, but all of which rested on only one man: Carter Henry Harrison.

        Furthermore, they shared the different killing style, such as they had different killing target, killing purpose and killing method. Holmes was the serial killer who had killed over two hundred people, yet Prendergast killed only the Chicago Mayor Harrison. The main purpose of the Holmes’s killing was the fun of slaughter. However, disappointment and madness induced Prendergast to kill Harrison. Holmes killed people by vary methods except by using a gun, he liked using gas. On the contrast, Prendergast shot Harrison five times by using his revolver. Also, Holmes made several voluntary assistants to help him to hid and dismember the bodies, while Prendergast was a sole killer who had no one else to support him. According to the novel, Holmes’s murder was terminated because of his caught by faking the death of a policyholder and he denied all the murder charges. Unlike Holmes, Prendergast confessed his crime to the police.

     Holmes and Prendergast were different roles and totally had no common murder methods in the novel. However, they still shared a lot of similarities. They still had a great and widespread impact for the Columbia Exposition Fair.