Murder, Magic, and Madness
at the Fair that Changed America
1893 may have been a dynamic year for Chicago, boasting the World's Columbian Exposition (that we forevermore know as the "World's Fair") that put to shame all others--giving us the "Cracker Jack" among other truly exceptional inventions--but it was the events that happened behind the scenes that forever changed lives.
The fair was just the proper breeding ground for disasters ... including a serial killer.
~by Erik Lawson
That something had occurred in that summer of the world's fair was beyond doubt, but darkness too had touched the fair. Scores of workers had been hurt or killed in building the dream, their families cosigned to poverty. Fire had killed fifteen more, and an assassin had transformed the closing ceremony from what was to have been the century's greatest celebration into a vast funeral. Worse had occurred, too, although those revelations emerged only slowly. A murderer had moved among the beautiful things..."
..."I've always been interested in God and the Kingdom of God," [Dan Lafferty] says. "It's been the center of my focus since I was a young child." And he is certain God intended for him to kill Brenda and Erica Lafferty: "It was like someone had taken me by the hand that day and led me comfortably through everything that happened. Ron had received a revelation from God that lives were to be taken. And if God wants something done, it will be done..."