All language subtitles for American.Ripper.S01E01.Devil.in.the.Details.1080p_track3_[eng]

- [Radio DJ] A serial
killer who haunted Chicago

during the 1893 World's Fair.

Now, modern science
will try to determine

if he pulled off the
greatest con in history.

- [Man] So right from that edge.

- [Woman] I think it's nine feet

all the way to the headstone.

We measured earlier.

- If he's not here,

then I've got
circumstantial evidence

that he may, indeed,
be Jack the Ripper.

- I am really dumbfounded.

But I think the bastard
might have walked away.

[heavy thuds]
[chains clanging]

- I am the descendant
of the devil.

My great-great-grandfather,
H.H. Holmes,

was America's first
serial killer.

A con man and an evil genius.

He engineered a death
factory in the late 1800s

that claimed and
uncountable number of lives.

[screams]

At the very same time,

another killer was a
slaughtering victims

on the streets of London.

He was never caught
or identified,

but you may know him
as the Jack the Ripper.

I believe that my
ancestor, H.H. Holmes,

and Jack the Ripper
are the same man.

[siren wails]

[train rattles on tracks]

Imagine knowing you're
related to someone

who brutally murdered dozens,

some say hundreds
of innocent people.

20 years ago, my
grandfather revealed

that his grandfather was

the con man and serial
killer, H.H. Holmes.

Uncovering this
dark family secret

drove me to find out more about

the man and his
unprecedented crimes.

- [Narrator] H.H. Holmes
outsmarted the law

for more than 10 years.

[screams]

He lured victim
after victim into

his Murder Castle in
Chicago's south side,

where he conned them out
of their money,

property,

and ultimately their lives.

- I've talked to
experts and historians,

and combed through
libraries and archives,

searching for the truth.

And I believe that by
assuming the identity

of Jack the Ripper,
H.H. Holmes pulled off

one of the greatest
cons of all time.

- [Narrator] The killer
we know as Jack The Ripper

terrorized London in the
summer and fall of 1888,

committing five
gruesome murders,

and then disappearing
without a trace.

His identity has
remained a mystery

for more than 125 years.

- Proving this has
become an obsession.

I'm no conspiracy theorist.

I'm a retired trial lawyer.

I've been trying to
compile all the evidence

I need to build my case,

but I've taken the investigation
as far as I can on my own.

I need a fresh pair
of eyes to help me

look for clues and patterns
that I'm not trained to find.

- My name is Amaryllis Fox,
and I'm an ex-CIA operative.

I spent my career identifying
international terrorists

based on their their networks

and their
psychological profiles.

I have uncovered the identity
of Russian arms dealers,

South American kidnappers,

and the leaders of
international terror cells

from Afghanistan
to Iraq, to Yemen.

When Jeff first reached
out to me, I was skeptical.

But the more I delved
into H.H. Holmes,

the more intrigued I became.

And if we can prove Jeff's
theory, we'll have solved

one of the greatest
cold cases of all time.

This is Holmes memoirs
and confessions

that he was paid to write
while he was in prison.

This was Holmes' own copy.

As you can see
Holmes took the time

to meticulously tape
in newspaper articles

writing about this
horrible monster

that had lived in Chicago
under everyone's noses.

The best place for us to
start is for Amaryllis

to hear my
great-great-grandfather's words,

as he stated them
in his memoirs.

Understanding what
this man was capable of

is going to be a
critical part of proving

he was Jack the Ripper.

- Do you know if there
are any personal markings?

- If you open the book
to the first page,

in his hand was a letter
to the judge on his case.

One of Holmes' last acts
before his execution

was to give this
book to the judge

who had presided over his trial.

- "I take pleasure in addressing
to your honor these lines

to which I append
my, at present, very

I am sir, very
respectably yours.

HW Mudgett MD,
alias H.H. Holmes."

I mean, right off the bat,

we understand we're dealing
with a very charming man.

- The page you're
turning right now,

it's a schematic of
the Murder Castle.

- [Narrator] The building
that the press dubs

the Murder Castle is the secret
of Holmes' evil ingenuity.

A hotel he engineers
as a death trap

for guests to enter
and never leave.

[whimpers]

Features of the
deadly design include

a maze of sharp-angle,
dead-end hallways,

intended to disorient,

walls lined with asbestos
to muffle screams,

a walk-in steel vault
where victims are left

to starve or suffocate,

and gas chambers
disguised as guest rooms,

with vents to pipe
in poison gas.

To dispose of the
evidence, a hidden chute

transports the bodies
to a secret basement,

where Holmes melts tissue off
bone in a pit of quick lime,

strips flesh off of skeletons
at a dissection table,

and incinerates any remaining
traces in high heat furnace,

a precision operation that
let Holmes escape detection

while carrying out his dark
deeds, under the perfect cover.

- Does he run through
each of his killings?

- [Jeff] He goes through
quite a few here.

- I'd love to hear
his descriptions.

- "My second victim was
Dr. Russell, a tenant in

the Chicago building
recently renamed The Castle.

During a controversy concerning
the nonpayment of rent

due me, I struck him to the
floor with a heavy chair.

When he, with one cry for help,

ending in a groan of anguish,

ceased to breathe.

I was forced to look
about for some safe means

of concealing the crime.

I locked the doors of the office

and my first intention was
to dispose of the body."

- So interesting
that he, at once,

is painting himself
as the victim,

you know, is forced
to hide the body.

- "The third death was due
to a criminal operation.

I cut his body into pieces

that would pass
through the stove.

[flames crackling]

And by the combined use of gas,

proceeded to burn it,
with as little feeling

as the 'it' had been
some inanimate object."

- That's as clear a
self-diagnosis of psychopathy

as any human being could make.

- Like any good con man,
Holmes is a master manipulator,

even to his final moments.

While he confesses
to killing 27 people,

five of the 27 he named
were later found alive,

leaving us to question what's
true and what's invented,

and why he'd want
to keep us guessing.

- The idea of really
messing with his audience.

This creation of illusion
inside of illusion

inside of illusion, and it's
that type of person that,

maybe, would enjoy playing
with identities so much

that he would commit the
Ripper murders in London.

The greatest con of his career.

- Yeah.

- I'd really like
to go to Chicago

and see the stomping ground
where this story unfolded.

[tense electronic music]

- [Narrator] The
hunt for evidence

begins at the Chicago
Cultural Center.

An archive that houses a
collection of rare documents

and artifacts that date back
to the city's founding in 1833.

- [Jeff] Can you tell
us a little about

what Chicago was like
for Holmes in the 1880s?

- Sure, well, it's
a city that was

trying to prove itself
before the world.

I mean, you think
Chicago was a mud hole,

but it was a perfectly
located mud hole,

because the country's
moving west,

and water and rail
was eventually

the way that
everything would move.

So, Chicago became the funnel.

- [Narrator] In the
late 19th century,

Chicago was one of the fastest
growing cities in America.

The link between east and west,

it's a vital
transportation hub for

the country's major railroads,

and home to America's
first skyscraper.

In Chicago, slaughter
is big business.

The engine that runs the
nation's meatpacking industry,

processing as many as nine
million cattle a year.

By 1888, the city is home to
more than one million people,

all potential victims of H.H.
Holmes and his Murder Castle.

- We really want to
get a sense of where

Holmes's Murder Castle would
stand in today's landscape.

- There is really
good documentation

that pins it down
beyond a doubt.

We have these Sanborn atlases

that were created to
document property.

- [Amaryllis] Perfect.

- I cannot believe I've
never seen these before.

- Here's 1895, and here
is the Castle right here.

The Castle was at
the southwest corner

of 63rd St. and Wallace,

and they later, then,
built a post office.

People say, "Oh, the
Castle is on the site

of the post office."

Not quite.

Here is the site today.

So, if you put the two of them

exactly together
and line them up,

here's the post office here,

that overlap would be
about four feet wide.

The majority of the Castle is
now what's the parking lot.

- Excellent.

All of this time, I'd
assumed the post office

had lined up with the
footprint of the Murder Castle,

and that any trace of
Holmes was lost for good.

This new information
changes everything.

The physical evidence
connecting H.H. Holmes to

Jack the Ripper could be
buried under that ground.

- Tim, in your opinion,
would it be worthwhile

to conduct an excavation on the
grounds we're talking about?

- The one area which I would
say is the prime location

to make an investigation would
be the lawn in the front.

And if anything
remains underground,

that's where you'd
likely find it.

- Even potentially
human remains.

- [Narrator] Former CIA
operat

and H.H. Holmes
descendant, Jeff Mudgett,

are working to undercover
the truth behind

one of history's greatest
unsolved mysteries.

- [Amaryllis] So this
is the spot, huh?

- [Narrator] On the
hunt for evidence that

America's first serial
killer, H.H. Holmes,

is also the notorious
murderer Jack the Ripper,

they meet with Chicago area
detective, Ray Johnson,

an expert on 1890s
police history.

- I still can't believe,
this is the place

that evil man built
that factory for murder.

- [Narrator] They've come to
the site of the Murder Castle,

which is now lost to time.

But rare blueprints
reveal an unexpected lead.

Most of the building's
footprint remains exposed,

and largely untouched
since the 1890s.

- If Holmes left
behind any evidence

that links him to
Jack The Ripper,

it's most likely
to be at this spot,

so it's critical we find
out what's buried here.

Ray, would you
frame it up for us?

- For the most part, the
Castle occupied this area

that's now the parking lot
and that little grassy area

that's just on the other
side of the sidewalk.

- [Amaryllis] The outer
edge of the building

would have been just about
where the tree lines up

with the triangle of the bridge.

- [Jeff] Right down
the line, yeah.

- And so this area here is
really right for our excavation.

There's a strong chance that
there are some human remains

that are underneath that soil.

With a case this cold,
it's hard to even dream

that you would find an
untouched piece of land

where most of the
murders were committed.

But underneath this
lawn could be anything

from human remains
to murder weapons

that we will need
to help us prove

that Holmes could
have been the Ripper.

- And the other thing
that you have to look at

is that when the police
investigation was going on

and they were doing the
digging in the Castle,

it was done by contractors.

It wasn't done by
forensics people,

I mean, the term forensics
wasn't even used at that time.

They were done by workmen
that were hired to dig.

So how thorough and how
meticulous would it had been?

- In my experience, it could
be hard to get permission

to excavate on federal property,

so I'm gonna reach out
to some old contacts

and see if I can get some help
cutting through the red tape.

- You know, no matter
how many times I visit

this horrible spot, it's still
the screams of the victims

that I hear the most.

[screaming]

[tense electronic music]

- Okay, so let's
discuss game plan.

I mean, these cases are
as cold as they get,

and one of the reasons
that they weren't solved

by the end of the 19th century

is forensic science
was in its infancy.

There wasn't DNA analysis,
there wasn't blood typing,

there wasn't fingerprinting,

in the way that
we know it today.

- What makes this
case even tougher is

H.H. Holmes isn't
even his real name.

He was born Herman
Webster Mudgett.

These are some of the known
aliases that Holmes used.

- That is going to make him
all the harder to track.

This case may be 130 years
old, but that doesn't change

our strategy for running
an investigation.

Our priority is going to be
finding and stringing together

every piece of evidence we can.

At the same time, we'll
also work to identify

and decode patterns of behavior

that might link the two killers.

This includes
analysis of everything

from killing method to motive.

On the face of it,
these two killers

are really strikingly different.

H.H. Holmes is so premeditated,
that he's built a hotel

for the purpose of
killing his victims

and disposing of their bodies.

Jack the Ripper was looking
for targets of opportunity

and leaving their bodies
for anybody to find.

So, that's one glaring
difference between them.

But my experience tells me
you have to trust the process

and not let assumptions
become facts.

- I've been debating critics
for the past two decades,

but it hasn't steered
me away from my theory.

Because I know the evidence
is out there to prove it.

- The most likely place
to find evidence would be

his Chicago crime scene,
but I want to make sure

we leave no stone unturned.

While we wait to get access
to the Murder Castle plot,

I need to go right the
way back to the beginning,

to his childhood and piece
together his timeline.

I want to start at the
beginning of Holmes' life,

in Gilmanton, New Hampshire.

If we can get insight
into Holmes' origins,

it might help us connect
the dots to Ripper.

- We have a great opportunity
to step back in time.

- [Amaryllis] Let's pack
up here and get to work.

- Mudgetts were some
of the early founders

of New Hampshire that migrated
from England in the 1600s.

- Oh, no way.
- Yeah.

H.H. Holmes was actually born

Herman Webster Mudgett in 1861.

He lived here until
he moved away in 1882,

with his first wife Clara,
my great-great-grandmother.

- [Amaryllis] Where is his
house, is it somewhere up here?

- [Jeff] Dead ahead,
the one on the left.

See the top window
under the roof?

That was the window
from his bedroom.

It's hard to believe that
this is the very place

where my ancestor grew up,

and this quaint New England
town produced a person

capable of carrying out a
murder spree on two continents.

- This is the building that
Herman attended class in,

the Gilmanton Academy building.

- [Narrator] The Gilmanton
Historical Society

houses the earliest
known records relating to

Herman Mudgett,
alias H.H. Holmes.

While Jeff hunts
down another lead,

Amaryllis is here to decode
the killer's origins.

- This is a receipt

actually signed by
Herman Webster Mudgett,

for taking care of the
furnace across the street.

- May I?

Knowing what we know about

the basement of
the Murder Castle,

the fact that Holmes was
doing maintenance work

on his neighbor's furnace
sounds pretty sinister.

But it could just be
a dark coincidence.

- One important person
during Herman's time

was Dr. White.

He would have been
the village doctor

in the town at the time.

This was his office,
right adjacent to the road

that was just a little
ways south of the school,

and within walking distance
of where Herman's home was.

- [Narrator] Herman,
later H.H. Holmes,

develops an interest in medicine

under Dr. White's tutelage
here in Gilmanton,

where he's exposed to
corpses at an early age.

This fosters his sinister
passion for dissection

that will continue
throughout his life.

- In the fall of 1881, he
secured a post to teach.

The results from
that were not good.

- What happened?

- The school
superintendent wrote

an assessment report
of how that term went.

- Can we take a look?

- [John Dickey] Would
you like to see that?

- I would very much
like to see it.

- It's in the vault.

"Winter term, Herman
W. Mudgett, Teacher.

Mr. M commenced his
labors in the school

with but little experience.

We were fearful that he would
not meet with good success

in so large a school, and
with a feeling in the district

that an old and experienced
teacher was needed."

- [Amaryllis] Uh oh.

- "And it is a fact,
such a one was needed."

He was enraged by that,

and wrote a letter back
to the superintendent

asking for a retraction of that,

to which he never got a reply.

- Wow, well that's
a statement of ego,

if ever I've heard one.

This is exactly the
kind of personal story

I was hoping to find here.

Holmes is only
about 20 years old

when this incident
occurs, so the assessment

that he's inexperienced
is probably fair,

but what's interesting
is his reaction.

He's so enraged by criticism
that he demands a retraction.

This is an early sign
of a man who wants

to control the world around him.

- That was his last experience

teaching schools in Gilmanton.

- [Narrator] Across town, Jeff
sits down with the Bishops,

long time residents
of Gilmanton.

- This farm goes back
way over 200 years old,

and it was a Mudgett
property back then.

- When Herman was a boy, his
cousins lived in this house,

so he would've
visited here often.

The house's current
owners, the Bishops,

hold a private collection
of town artifacts

that have been passed down
through the generations,

and are steeped in the local
folklore surrounding Holmes.

I wanted to ask you all
about some of the lore,

some of the legends
about Herman.

I'd heard about his proclivity
for torturing animals.

[cat meows]

When did that start?

- [Mr. Bishop] His
early, um adolescence.

- [Jeff] At that
young of an age,

he was already
comfortable taking a life?

- I believe he was,

and I think this ties
in to Mary Mudgett also.

- His cousin.

- Mary was found in her
nightclothes in the river.

I believe sincerely
that he was responsible

for Mary Mudgett's death.

y that

for Mary Mudgett's death.

- [Narrator] Jeff
Mudgett and Amaryllis Fox

are in Gilmanton, New Hampshire,

the childhood hometown of
Jeff's great-great-grandfather,

notorious murderer H.H. Holmes,

hunting for evidence to prove

he and London's infamous Jack
the Ripper are the same man.

The investigation into
Holmes' youth turns up

a long-rumored piece
of local folklore.

- He would've had to
kill her in this house,

and then drag her body and
make it look like a drowning.

- [Narrator] Herman
Mudgett, alias H.H. Holmes,

is around 18 years-old when

his cousin Mary dies under
mysterious circumstances.

- Nobody knew exactly
how it happened,

but Herman was right around
there where it happened,

and he was the only one.

- [Jeff] That fascinates me.

- All we know is that she
was found in the creek.

- Passed away.

- [Mr Bishop] Yeah.

- All right. There was
no evidence of knife,

there was no evidence
of strangulation.

- [Mr. Bishop]
Nothing at all, nope.

- All right.

- [Mr. Bishop] That's
where she was found.

- All right.

In his memoirs, Holmes
confesses the details

of dozens of his murders at
the Chicago Murder Castle.

But he never mentions
anything about his first kill.

Is it possible that his
crimes started much earlier,

when he was just a young man?

When was Holmes'
cousin Mary killed?

- She was found
dead in the river,

just before he left for Chicago.

- There's a large debate about

when he started
committing crimes.

Mary Mudgett may be
that bridge we needed

to start tying his childhood
to Jack the Ripper.

[On Phone] I've got some news.

- Uh huh.

- [Jeff] The Bishop family
told me about Mary Mudgett,

Herman's cousin, drowning
when Herman was a young boy.

The town rumor is that it
was Herman who killed her.

- [Amaryllis] Wow.

- I'll need you to track down
some records pertaining to

a possible homicide when
Herman was a young man.

- I'm on my way
over to records now.

- Some people said that
he was a little lazy,

but I think he was lazy
because he was bored.

When he was actually studying,

he just worked like a
dog, very smart guy.

- [Narrator] The Town Clerk's
office houses over a century

of Gilmanton's public records.

Amaryllis is here to
search for evidence of

unexplained deaths that occurred
during Holmes' early years.

- [Amaryllis] I've
heard legends about

kids who've died
from unknown causes--

- Right.

- [Amaryllis] When
Herman was growing up.

I'm trying to find real evidence

of what could've been
his first murders.

- [Pat] You may want to
look at some of these books.

They give deaths
during that period.

- That would be perfect.

So, this looks
like 1835 to 1877.

- Well, that would have
been his youth, basically.

- Yeah.

- There were some
young people who died.

There's one young fella here.

Austin Bunker, there's no
cause given for his death.

He was 12 years old.

Nancy Robinson, she
was also 12 years old.

No cause given for death.

- [Amaryllis] Really?

- [Pat] Here's a small child.

- [Both] George Foss.

- [Pat] He was four
years old, poison.

- [Amaryllis] Wow.

- [Narrator] During H.H. Holmes'
lifetime in the mid-1800s,

murder is exceedingly rare
in America, accounting for

less than one out of every
100,000 deaths each year.

- At the time Holmes lived here,

the population of Gilmanton
was only about 1600.

So the fact that there was

this cluster of suspicious
deaths is really surprising.

Is there any mention of
someone named Mary Mudgett?

- [Pat] No.

- [Amaryllis] That's strange.

- These deaths
weren't all recorded.

And also all births
weren't recorded so,

awful lot of missing things.

This was an Olin Mudgett.

- [Amaryllis] It says here
a cousin of Herman himself.

- And he died of drowning.

- Drowning?

Well, we can't find
documentation of

local lore indicates she died
by drowning in or around 1879.

Around the same time
according to the record,

there's another death by
drowning in the Mudgett family.

How old was Olin
when he drowned?

- [Pat] He was four
years and 10 months.

- [Amaryllis] And how old
was Herman at that time?

- He would have been about 15.

- So his four year-old
cousin died through drowning,

in the middle of all
of these other kids,

just disappearing for
unrecorded reasons.

[tense, heavy drum beats]

- [Jeff] The rabbit hole
just keeps getting larger

and larger, the deeper
we go inside it.

- Yeah, I mean that's
one of the challenges

when there is so much
mythology around a case,

but it does seem pretty clear,

there are kids dying
of unexplained causes.

Those kids are the same age
as Holmes during the time

that he is in
Gilmanton growing up,

and then you have the
death of his cousin.

It's a lot of coincidences all
piled on top of one another.

- Assuming these
stories are true,

let's assume that they
were murdered, by Holmes.

How do we use that knowledge
to make the connection

between Holmes and the Ripper?

- If it is true that
Holmes is responsible

for the death of his cousins,

then that means that his
killing style evolves over time.

From taking his victims
and drowning them outside,

to methodically killing
possibly hundreds

in the Murder Castle in Chicago.

[slams on door]

If this is the case,
maybe the Ripper murders

are part of Holmes'
evolution as a killer.

character traits of
Holmes to understand him?

- [Narrator] Former CIA
operative Amaryllis Fox

and Jeff Mudgett are
hunting for evidence

in one of history's
greatest cold cases,

seeking to prove Jeff's theory

that his ancestor, H.H. Holmes,

is the man who
terrorized 1880s London

as the notorious
Jack the Ripper.

- Here's a boy the
town clerk describes as

really intelligent and yet
he didn't excel at school.

- [Narrator] Records uncovered
at Holmes' childhood town

reveal a string of
unexplained deaths,

including two of
his own cousins,

who may be the
earliest victims of

America's first serial killer.

- There are kids dying
of unexplained causes.

Those kids are the
same age as Holmes

during the time that he's
in Gilmanton growing up,

so a lot of coincidences.

I really got this sense of
him as a person of huge ego,

who felt like he was not
being given the recognition

that he deserved in life.

What we don't know is why
that man became a killer.

Was it to feed his ego?

Was it to derive
actual pleasure?

Was it to derive
financial profit?

Or some combination.

- [Jeff] I know
someone back in Chicago

who can help us
answer that question.

[tense electronic music]

- There's a great
treasure hunt aspect

to finding Holmes stuff.

There's so much that is
buried in newspaper archives,

so much really good material
that hasn't really become

a part of the story before.

- [Narrator] Jeff and
Amaryllis meet with

one of the foremost H.H.
Holmes experts in the country

to pick up the
killer's timeline.

They're looking for details
about Holmes' activity

after leaving Gilmanton
in the spring of 1882.

- Holmes leaves his
childhood hometown and--

- After teaching
didn't work out,

Holmes decided to go
to medical school.

First he went to Burlington,

which he thought was
still too small for him.

The main thing that survives
about his time in Burlington

is his landlady said that
he beat up his roommate

for borrowing his
mustache wax one time.

- Would he have been
training on human cadavers

in Burlington?

- I'm not sure, I
usually hear about him

just attending medical
lectures at Burlington.

Might not have been a lot
of hands-on work there,

that might've been
why he decided

it wasn't good enough for him.

He decided to go to
University of Michigan,

which was much bigger and
also had a real reputation

for trafficking grave
robbers in those days.

It's almost like
a rite of passage

for medical students by then.

- To go and dig the
corpse out of a grave

and provide it to
the medical school

for their anatomy lessons.

- Yep, saved the
school a lot of money.

- [Amaryllis] So, he was very
desensitized to human corpses.

- Oh, certainly, there were
a lot of anecdotes about him,

like being all excited to
take the body of a baby

home with them to
dissect over vacation.

- Mmmm.

Do we have any sense of
scams that Holmes conducted

while he was in medical school?

- Well, he certainly
claimed later

that while he was in
school, he got the idea

of using these dead bodies
for insurance fraud.

- Holmes' memoirs tell
us that while attending

medical school at the
University of Michigan in 1884,

he stole cadavers from school
lab and local cemetery.

He then took insurance
policies out on the bodies,

turned them in as newly-dead,

and tried to cash
in on the claims.

These are the early outlines

of the murderous
money-making scheme

he would later
perfect in Chicago.

- He actually enjoyed
making fools of people.

- We often in see
that kind of persona

really enjoy pulling
one over on anyone.

That ego boost of knowing
someone's believing this con

is worth more, in some
cases, than the actual money

that comes out of it.

- Right.

- When Holmes left
New Hampshire,

did he ever look back to go
visit his family ever again?

- His wife, Clara, came
with him to Michigan

in the first place, so they
lived in a boarding house

for little while.

But she kind of got fed
up with him, I think.

Medical colleagues at
the school talked about

seeing her walking
around with black eyes.

She was still taking
in dressmaking to

- [Jeff] You mean like abuse?

- Yeah, it was in
a letter collected

from one of his
roommates at the time.

- Generally, a psychopathic
killer of Holmes' intelligence

would be concealing that
kind of abuse better.

But if we believe the theory
that he drowned his cousins

during his youth
in New Hampshire,

and now he's beating his wife,

this may be a sign
that he has rage beyond

what he can conceal at this
early stage in his career,

and that might open
up the possibility

that he's capable of
the crimes we associate

with Jack the Ripper in London.

[tense electronic music]- [Narrator] Jeff Mudgett
and Amaryllis Fox are

on a mission to
unlock the secrets

of a 130 year-old mystery,
to prove Jeff's theory

that two of history's
most notorious figures,

H.H. Holmes and Jack the
Ripper, are the same man.

They're building a timeline
of Holmes' activity,

from his childhood
in New Hampshire

to medical school in Michigan,

and now his arrival in Chicago,

the city where he carries
out his infamous deeds.

- For the most part, we know
he came here sometime in 1885.

He set himself up as a
pharmacist

in the state of Illinois,

which would have been
really easy for him to do

since he was a medical doctor.

- [Narrator] The hunt for
evidence brings them back to

Chicago area detective Ray
Johnson, who's conducted

extensive research into
the 1890s Holmes case.

- We know he registered as a
pharmacist under H.H. Holmes,

so that's the first time we know

that he actually used
the name H.H. Holmes.

He started working at a
pharmacy owned by the Holtons.

As far as we know, he
befriended the Holtons.

- [Jeff] I read about this.

He went on to take
over the pharmacy,

and the owners
mysteriously disappeared.

- So now that he
has an income stream

coming from the pharmacy,
he uses that money

to purchase the land down the
street in the summer of 1886,

and eventually what it became

is what we now know
as the Murder Castle.

- Was this building there
before Holmes came to Chicago?

Or he built it
from the ground up?

- No, this was built
from the ground up.

Of course, he was married to
Claire Lovering originally,

this would be your
great-great-grandmother.

And then when he left her,

he met up with this
woman, Myrta Belknap.

He married her while he
was still married to Clara.

- [Amaryllis] And so, Clara
stayed back in New Hampshire?

- Yeah, it's the
family's understanding

that he deserted
her and the child.

- After marrying Clara
Lovering in 1878,

my great-great-grandfather
went on to

fraudulently marry at
least two other women,

in addition to taking
on a slew of mistresses.

He married Myrta
Belknap in 1887,

and lived with her during
his time in Chicago.

He also married Georgiana
Yoke in Denver in 1894.

- [Ray] Myrta Belknap
came from a wealthy family

and he was using her money
to finance the Murder Castle.

- What you think
Holmes's main motive was

for the Murder Castle?

- Ultimately, his motivation,
more than the killing,

was to make money.

Typically what he would do
is if you were a female,

is befriend you, convince
you had some, sort of,

maybe possible
romantic involvement,

and then he would
convince you to take out

an insurance policy on
yourself, about $10,000.

Roughly $225,000
by today's money.

- [Narrator] The elaborate
insurance scam Holmes invents

as a medical student becomes
his signature in Chicago.

The master swindler
steals cadavers,

burns them beyond recognition,

and passes them off
to insurance companies

to cash in on the policies.

- And sometimes he would
use their actual bodies.

He would kill them and collect.

And then, of course, being
an efficient murderer,

he's going to make money
on anything he can,

so medical colleges were
looking for skeletons.

They were really hard to come by

and so they didn't
ask any questions,

and he'd sell them for
about $200 a piece.

In today's money, it was
probably closer to six or $7000.

- It is a perfect solution,
you get rid of the body

and you make $200
in the process.

- [Ray] Exactly.

- Clearly Holmes was
motivated by money.

But I'm beginning to think
he's hatched these plans,

not only for the financial gain,

but also for the adrenaline rush

of outsmarting all
of those around him.

When looking at Jack the Ripper,

it's going to be important
to examine how profit and ego

played a role in
his crimes as well.

So, are there any police
records of any investigation

of the Castle or of
Holmes that survive?

- Police records, not so much.

While there are plenty of
records having to do with

bogus promissory notes,
civil cases against him,

liens on the property, his
legal troubles are well-known.

- So, where would we
find those documents?

- The first place I would
start would be City Hall.

In the basement of
City Hall is where

you are going to find a lot
of the property records.

- That's so good to hear because

if we can pin Holmes down here,

through one of these
promissory notes

or lawsuits against him for
the summer or fall of 1888,

then we know that
he wasn't in London.

Case closed.

[tense electronic music][Natto prove a link between

two of history's most
infamous murderers,

H.H. Holmes and Jack the Ripper,

Jeff Mudgett and Amaryllis
Fox are investigating

legal records of
Holmes' many cons.

Their plan is to
use the paper trail

to track the killer's activity
during his time in Chicago.

- We're looking here for any
records that would involve

buying or selling the
property that we know

H.H. Holmes' built
the Murder Castle.

There's a chance that
we could find evidence

in the public record of Holmes's
presence here in Chicago

during the time of
the Ripper murders.

And if we do find documents
that place him here,

our work is done.

Case closed.

He couldn't have
been the Ripper.

- The first record that we
come upon is a trust deed,

which is a mortgage
that he took out in

1887.

- So this looks to me
like the actual document

that was used to transfer
control to Holmes of the land

where he would eventually
build the Murder Castle.

And then it looks like
the subsequent record

is from Myrta, Holmes's wife

to Lucy, her mother.

- [Rachel] Another
interesting fact here

is that Myrta quitclaimed
it to Lucy in '87.

- [Jeff] What does
quitclaimed mean?

- Quitclaimed means
that I just exchange

my interest in a
property to you.

May not be any money exchanged,

just that I don't
want it any more,

I'm giving it to you.

So they would take
themselves off

and quitclaim it
to the other party.

This looks like a deed.

August 10th of 1887.

"In consideration
of the sum of $1200,

do hereby convey
to Lucy Belknap."

- This seems like an unusual
number of transactions

between the same
group of people,

around the same blocks of land.

- That's true.

And in a short period
of time as well,

which may also tip you off that

there's something
funny going on.

- Yeah.

So we have Block 3,
Lots 2, 3, 6 and 7.

- These documents are a look
inside Holmes' criminal genius.

He's building a web
of scams so intricate,

that law enforcement
couldn't to keep up.

- For each of these plots,
many of the transactions

are actually Holmes with
an immediate family member.

Just glancing down the page,
Lucy Belknap, Lucy Belknap,

H.H. Holmes, Myrta Holmes,
Lucy Belknap, Lucy Belknap.

I'd like to do is take copies
of all of these records

if we could and begin
to map them out.

I think it's gonna take
us some midnight oil

to begin to actually
untangle this.

- Absolutely.

- [Amaryllis] We have an
amazing opportunity to map out

Holmes's whereabouts based
on these legal transactions

and sort them into a timeline.

- It has a potential
to nullify everything

I've been working on
for the past 20 years.

My heart's in my throat
just thinking about this.

- Okay, let's start at the top.

What's the first document?

- This appears to be
the purchase of the lot

where the Murder
Castle was built.

- We're looking at 1886,

and of all of the
many, many agreements,

this was the first of them.

Between Holmes and
the many neighbors,

as he took over plot by plot
by plot in that neighborhood.

The amount of paperwork that
was generated almost weekly

by Holmes's swindles around the
Murder Castle is staggering.

Now we have construction
beginning 1887.

Each deed transfer,
lawsuit or fine

creates a piece of paper.

- March 1888.

- That we can use to pin Holmes

to a specific place
and a specific time.

July of 1888, he's in this
lawsuit with Ettna Iron works.

- July of 1888 would
be roughly 6 to 7 weeks

before the first Ripper murder.

- Mmmhmm.

Yeah, when's the
next document that

we have in the Chicago
record for him?

- April of '89.

- So there's no,

there's no document
in the Chicago record

for Holmes between

July of 1888

and early 1889?

- [Jeff] It is an obvious gap.

- The documents down in the
basement had records weekly,

monthly for him.

It is a big gap.

- [Jeff] That gap.

That's the exact period that

Jack the Ripper was committing
his murders in London.

- [Amaryllis] There is
definitely a marked gap

in the records, I'm not saying
that that means he was there.

- It is good circumstantial
evidence that

the possibility exists
that he was in London.

- [Amaryllis] It's
always the minutia

that solves the crime.

That's what I've found.

And there is so much
bureaucratic minutia

around Holmes because he
had so many scams,

and all of them are documented.

I expected we'd have
documents right the way along

that we placed him here
in Chicago, and we don't.

So, I'd like to get
to work figuring out

where Holmes was
during this gap.

- [Narrator] This season,
on American Ripper.

- I need to know
everything there is to know

about these two men.

- We have to go to London.

- Once you get into the case,

it's not who was
Jack the Ripper,

it's why was Jack the Ripper.

- [British Man] The fifth
victim, could in theory,

have been an animal carcass.

- You have a recording of
my great-great-grandfather.

- It sounded like a man
confessing to killing 27 people.

- That lawn is the only
repository of Holmes' victims.

- I wouldn't say only.

[plunks]

- [Jeff] Oh wow, oh wow.

- Things have been dumped here.

- So, this is the sort-of
famous Dear Boss letter.

- Oh boy.

Jack the Ripper.

- Is that it?

- [Jeff] Whoa.

- She pinged on old, human
remains in this area.

- Yes.

- They took witness statements.

We know from the reporting
that an American was taken in.

- [Jeff] So there's no
doubt, we're gonna get DNA.

- Oh yeah.

[smashes concrete]

- If you took this to a judge,

he'd issue a warrant.

I would have never expected
this when we started digging.

- If they find DNA
that's a match for Jeff,

we'll have solved the greatest
cold case of all time.

[laser whirs]