All language subtitles for American.Ripper.S01E05.Black.Heart,.White.City.1080p_track3_[eng]

- We have letters from
Ripper and Holmes here,

and we're interested in
your professional analysis.

- My conclusions generally will

steer an investigation
in a certain way.

- His intentions
for this building

were for murder and
disposing of human remains.

So where did these bodies go?

'Cause people disappeared.

- It sounds like a
wood-burning furnace

was in the basement.

This was not an efficient
or successful way

of getting rid of a body.

That lawn, where the Murder
Castle used to stand,

is the only repository
of Holmes' victims.

- Well, I wouldn't say only.

Everywhere that he
owned real estate,

you can be sure he
was killing people.

I have a theory that Holmes
was encasing bodies in cement

and dumping them in
the Chicago River.

(water gurgling)

- Oh wow, oh wow-wow-wow-wow!
- Wooh!

- There we go.

- Whoa!
- Wow, see these?

This is an indication that
things have been dumped here.

(dark electronic music)

Can we hold it right in there?

Now that's base, that's a base.
- Yeah, that's a base.

- Keep it--
- Whoa, look, okay.

- That's a lot there, holy cow.

- There, there...

- They're all over the place.
- Yeah.

- Ex-CIA operative Amaryllis
Fox and Jeff Mudgett,

great-great grandson
of H. H. Holmes,

are on the Chicago River,
hunting for evidence

that could break open
a 130-year-old mystery

surrounding the identity
of Jack the Ripper.

- So we've got
several impact areas

which is an indication that says

okay, something
has been thrown in.

- [Narrator] At the site
of a cement warehouse

that Holmes owned in 1891,

they discovered a field
of deep depressions

scattered across the river bed,

signs that the proof
they're looking for

could be hiding just
beneath the surface,

in an undiscovered
burial ground.

- Well, you have to be so close,

because of the visibility.
- Right.

She just brushed
the bottom there.

- Yeah, and we've
gotten a little close

and it smokes things up.

This is the issue, you know,

we're fighting with visibility.

- Records indicate that
Holmes' cement warehouse

purchased the raw
materials to make concrete

but never actually sold any.

This is a man who
may have killed

hundreds of people and
concocted elaborate schemes

to cover his tracks.

It's not a stretch to imagine

that this was a front
to dispose of bodies,

and if that's true, we
may just be feet away

from the evidence we need to
connect Holmes and the Ripper.

- Is it possible
that just the weather

or some other cause
created those craters?

- No.

These impacts look older.
- Wow.

- [Jeff] So that proves
there's something under here.

Now we need to figure
out a way to get at it.

- Exactly.
- Exactly.

- It would have taken something

of fairly considerable weight

to make that depression?

- Yeah, I mean this is a
really large debris field,

right next to the physical
property owned by Holmes.

The potential of actually
uncovering body parts

or physical evidence
of his crimes,

that would be a huge
breakthrough

in a 125 year old crime.

which is really, really rare.

If we can recover the
remains of a Holmes victim

and conduct forensic analysis,

we'll be able to compare
it to the coroner's reports

from the Ripper victims

and see if their killing
styles are a match.

- I think we're the first
that's ever considered

the bottom of the Chicago River

connecting H. H. Holmes
and Jack the Ripper.

- Yeah, if Holmes was encasing
his victims in concrete,

we could have the opportunity
to uncover physical evidence

and compare these two killers.

So far our investigation
has uncovered

some key pieces of evidence
that suggest a link

between Holmes and Ripper.

First we found
that, like Holmes,

the Ripper might have
been a skilled doctor.

We've also discovered a
similar killing method,

that both men
asphyxiated their victims

before dissecting them.

It's interesting
that Scotland Yard

identified an American doctor

as one of the top suspects
in the Ripper case.

And on top of that,
they believe the Ripper

might have been responsible
for a New York City murder

committed only a couple of
years after the London attacks.

And so I want to know
what we can expect to find

when we crack the concrete open.

- Right, well, that's something
we'll have to figure out.

- [Narrator] To determine
what kind of evidence

might have survived
beneath the riverbed,

Jeff and Amaryllis consult
with one of Chicago's

top concrete manufacturers.

- We hear that
you're the man to see

about encasing a
body in concrete.

- Well, first let me
say, at Ozinga Concrete,

we don't condone burying
bodies in our concrete.

- (chuckles) Noted.
- All right.

- I was a federal
prosecutor for 20 years,

an Assistant United
States Attorney,

and now I'm president
of Ozinga Chicago,

so I am familiar with
some unfortunate times,

where people were murdered
and encased in concrete.

And you know the old
stereotype in Chicago, right?

Cement overshoes, uh Chicago
overcoat, and all that?

It's how Al Capone would
dispose of his enemies.

Right now, we are in
Al Capone's garage.

- Stop it.
- Right, wow!

- 1932, at this very location,

Eliot Ness and his Untouchables

crashed through the
door with battering rams

and seized 140 barrels
of bootleg beer.

- In this garage?
- In this very building?

- The FBI?
- Yeah.

- Knowing how
entrepreneurial Holmes was

when it came to his
criminal cons and schemes,

it wouldn't surprise
me in the least

to find out that he essentially
pioneered the technique

that the most notorious
mobsters in history

adopted as their calling
cards 50 years later.

- In the 1890s, this is the
exact technology they used.

- All right.

- Let's shovel it
right in there.

Okay, so we're going
to make a nice lining

along the bottom here.

- [Narrator] Jeff and Amaryllis
are about to field test

the preservative
power of concrete.

- Now let's take
Porky Pig over there

and let's bury him in concrete.

All right, Porky, you're
gonna sleep with the fishes.

- [Narrator] Using pig parts
to approximate human remains...

- Jeff, why don't you really

smash that big piece down there?

- [Narrator] They'll
submerge the block in water,

then return in two weeks
to observe the effects.

- That has a strange texture
at the bottom of a shovel,

I gotta tell ya.

- I'm hoping this
test will demonstrate

whether or not the
concrete provides

enough of an airtight seal

to protect it from
oxygen and bacteria

which would preserve
whatever organic matter

is buried inside.

In this case, potentially one
or more of Holmes's victims.

- Amaryllis, did you learn
to do this at the CIA?

- This is outside of
my realm of experience.

- [Narrator] To pick
up Holmes' trail,

Jeff and Amaryllis meet
with historian Adam Selzer.

- I want to go back to
building Holmes's timeline now

because it's been so critical
in generating new leads

the last known victim
of Holmes we discussed

was Emeline Cigrand
in December of 1892.

We now really want to see

whether there are
any killings in 1893.

- By '93, the World's Fair was
about to start up in Chicago

and there were a lot of people

flooding into Chicago
at the time.

- It's my understanding
that was the biggest event

in world history
until the time, right?

- It was one of the bigger ones.

- [Narrator] The 1893
World's Columbian Exposition

commonly known as
the World's Fair,

is a showcase of
technological achievement

from across the globe that
put Chicago on the map.

Just two years before,

a new iron marvel,
the Eiffel Tower,

greeted visitors at
the Paris Exhibition

and became an
international sensation.

But the grand size, scope,
and breadth of achievements

on display in Chicago sets
a new global standard,

one in every four Americans
traveling to the Windy City

to witness the marvel.

- You know, millions of
people were coming to town.

It was a huge opportunity
for everybody.

Uh, so now H. H. Holmes has
hired a Bemjamin Pitezel.

Pitezel's a novelty dealer,

he bought and sold
patents now and then,

he did a lot of odd
jobs around the castle.

And they found that they
had a shared interest

in dishonest business practices.

- [Amaryllis] Really?
- Interesting.

- He was adding a third
story onto his building

and they had been buying
all of this material

ostensibly for the Castle
hotel rooms on credit

but then never
actually paying for it.

- Furniture...

- Furniture, crockery,
flooring, bedding, mattresses,

everything you might
need to furnish a hotel.

- Holmes had already constructed

his building on 63rd and Wallace

by the time the World's
Fair came to Chicago,

but it's then that the
building truly became

the Murder Castle that we know.

construction of the
third floor meant

more hotel rooms for guests,

more money coming in and
potentially, more victims.

Sounds like Holmes was expecting

a lot of business
from the World's Fair.

- Yeah I think it's
just awfully convenient.

- It's like the big game
that he'd been preparing for.

I mean, that sounds
like something

we need to investigate further.

I'd really like to get
a better understanding

of how the World's Fair
impacted these dozens,

maybe hundreds of alleged
crimes the Holmes committed.

- There's no doubt in my mind

that the whole story
evolves around the Fair,

and he wouldn't have
built the Murder Castle

had the Fair not been
coming to Chicago.

- [Amaryllis] How long
did the fair run in total?

- Well, the Fair opened
on May 1st, 1893,

and closed at the
end of October.

- So, that would
be about four years

after the last Ripper murder.

- [Narrator]
Investigating the theory

that 19th century serial
murderer H. H. Holmes

was Jack the Ripper, Jeff
Mudgett and Amaryllis Fox

have come to Chicago's
Newberry Library

to unlock the secrets of
the 1893 World's Fair.

- How many people came
from around the country

actually visit the Fair
once it was up and running?

- We know that the fair
sold 27.3 million tickets.

- Holy Smokes!
- Whoa!

- That must have been

extraordinary for the time.

I mean that would be an
extraordinary event today.

The Expo is a grand
historical moment for Chicago,

and for the expert
predator, Holmes,

who completes the
conversion of his building

into the Murder Castle,

in anticipation of the
Fair's official opening

in May 1893.

- People have made parallels to
the Olympics and other

sort of giant international
spectacles like that.

It was just a vast scale.

You had 700 acres
filled with exhibits.

The business leaders felt

that if Chicago was going to
continue to grow and thrive,

it needed to offer more

than just grain elevators
and railroad yards.

It needed to have more culture.

- [Narrator] The
World's Fair of 1893

celebrates America's
transformation

from a nation of agriculture
into a nation of industry.

The sprawling 600
acre fairgrounds

contains an entire
city within a city,

complete with palatial
exhibition halls,

working canals, and
stunning life-size replicas

of Christopher Columbus'
three famed ships

in honor of the 400th
anniversary

of his journey to America.

Groundbreaking technologies,

including the Ferris Wheel,

washing machine,
and moving sidewalk

each make their debut.

But for millions of
visitors to Chicago,

the premiere
attraction of the fair

is the opportunity to
witness for the first time

the newest marvel of
the industrial age:

the electric light.

Rival inventors Thomas
Edison and Nikola Tesla

famously vie for the
rights to light the Fair.

Tesla wins out over his rival.

The 100,000 light
bulbs that eventually

illuminate the
majestic fairgrounds

help earn the Chicago
World's Fair its nickname:

The White City.

- The headline speaker
was the president.

- President Cleveland.

- Yeah, so you see
Grover Cleveland,

and on his little table,

which was draped with
the American flag,

he pressed a button,

and then all the lights on
the fairgrounds turned on.

- And that must have had

an electrifying effect
on the crowd itself.

- [Diane] So that was a
really sort of big moment.

- It's just such a metaphor

for the Industrial
Age beginning,

and you see this
crush of humanity,

I mean, this is like Times
Square on New Year's Eve

and you just get the sense

that the city is kinda
bursting at the seams.

If this was a time that
you wanted to undertake

nefarious activity in the city,

the focus of law
enforcement was elsewhere.

- Exactly, where there
were more opportunities

for people to kind of
slip between the cracks.

- Could you show us on the maps

how far Holmes's
Murder Castle was

from the Fair itself?

- Sure, you see here, picked
out in red are the fairgrounds,

and that little strip,

the midway where the
Ferris Wheel was,

and if you went straight west,

you would have
come to the corner

where Holmes'
enterprise was based.

- [Amaryllis] You could
see that Ferris wheel

from the Murder Castle.

- [Diane] So, yeah, it
was a perfect location.

- [Amaryllis] Yea.

- It's chilling
to imagine Holmes

against the backdrop for this
shining moment in America.

His cons and killing methods,

from New Hampshire to Michigan,

to Chicago, to London,
were now fully developed

and this fair, just two
miles from the Murder Castle,

would have brought his victims
straight to his doorstep.

- How many people
came to Chicago

to be employed by the fair?

There must have been thousands.

- Yeah, a lot of
people who thought

they could come and get a job
at the fair were disappointed,

because you know, there
weren't as many jobs

as people thought
there were going to be.

And it's parallel to this
period of the late 19th century

when there's a big expansion
in women's education

so women were going off to
college and traveling alone.

It's something that was
becoming more common

on a lot of fronts.

- That paints for me a picture

of women coming from
their small towns

thinking that they're going
to arrive in the boom town,

there's going to be lots of
opportunity in the big city

and that's exactly
the kind of moment

that Holmes enters your life.

(dramatic music)

- What could have been a
more perfect place on earth

for a killer of his nature

than something like this,
two miles from his hotel?

This factory of death.

This torture corporation.

- From the sheer
number of people

who are coming through Chicago,

right past the Murder Castle,

you can easily speculate
Holmes' body count

just growing and growing
during this period

and it would have
been impossible

to dispose of that many
bodies in the castle itself.

Particularly striking
that Diane said

was the number of women who
were arriving in Chicago alone

for the first time,

to come and visit the fair

or potentially to work here,

unaccompanied by a family member

and not having any place to go.

- It makes me think of
that lion on the savanna

over watching the herds,

deciding which one
he wanted tonight.

- Yeah, it's the ideal
playground for him,

as Whitechapel would have been.

- Yeah...

- All of the Ripper's
victims were women,

all of them were prostitutes,

and all of them were
stalked at night,

(screaming)

then strangled and dissected
with increasing brutality.

I want to know more
about what life was like

for the women that Holmes
might have targeted,

what that experience was,

as a young woman arriving
in H. H. Holmes' Chicago.

(mysterious music)

- One weekend, my
great-great aunt took a trip

to Chicago and was
never heard from again,

so I was always
intrigued and haunted

by this bit of family lore

and especially more so, when
I saw how prevalent it was

in Chicago at the time.

- [Narrator] Thousands of women
arrived in the city in 1893.

Amaryllis consults
with an expert

on 19th century women's history

to learn more about
their lives, and deaths.

- We've just been hearing
about the World's Fair

and how many women
were descending

on Chicago at this moment.

Well, about a
thousand trains a day

came and left Chicago,

many of them bringing girls
from all over the country

who would be met at
Dearborn Street Station.

And there the the
unscrupulous madams

or men offering employment,

and these women were desperate.

They needed to make money.

They needed to find a living

and a lot of these girls
ended up in the brothels.

- [Narrator] With millions
of visitors in town

for the Fair, Chicago's
brothel business is booming.

As many as 5,000 prostitutes

work in more than
30 establishments

across the city's
red light district,

just five miles from
the fairgrounds.

A woman working as a prostitute

at the end of the 19th century

could bring in more
than 35 dollars a week,

900 dollars in today's money,

far more than any other job
available to women at the time.

- It's so striking how
this area of Chicago

was the American
equivalent of Whitechapel

in its conditions for
prostitution and poverty.

- Yeah, absolutely.

I pulled some things aside

that would give you
a bigger picture

of the red light district
in Chicago at the time.

All of the red lines
here indicate brothels.

- Oh, that's incredible.

One of Holmes'
Chicago properties

was the ABC Copying Company,

which was right in the vicinity

of this long line
of red brothels.

I mean, if Holmes was operating

as the Ripper in
this environment,

it would be very easy for
him to take his victims

a block back to
this private office

and go about his crimes there.

So were there reports
of women going missing

in Chicago at the time?

- Absolutely, in fact
Chicago newspapers

started running columns
about missing girls

and the police just did
not have the resources

to track down every
report of a missing girl.

And so these girls
just sort of vanished.

- Up until this point
in the investigation

all of Holmes' victims
have been people he knew,

whereas the Ripper
targeted prostitutes

who we assume he
chose at random.

I'd like to investigate
these missing women

to see if there are any
patterns in their disappearance

that link them to
Holmes and to Ripper.

(suspenseful music)

- Police officers
at the time had said

there was probably up to about
800 women that disappeared,

where they never found out
what ever happened to them.

- 800 young women
missing a year,

that number astounds me.

- [Narrator] To dig
deeper into the details

of Chicago's lost women,

Jeff meets with Ray Johnson,

who's combed through newspaper
reports from the period

to identify any clues that
connect them to H. H. Holmes.

- Were you able to tie

any of those 800
missing young women

to Holmes' killings?

- You know, there was a
number of things I found

about women with
their throats cut,

and the police, for some reason,

coming to the conclusion

that it was a suicide.

Thing is, is that it's
exceedingly difficult

to kill yourself by
cutting your own throat.

- [Narrator] Investigating
the unsolved disappearances

of hundreds of women during
the Chicago World's Fair...

- Thing is, is that it's
exceedingly difficult

to kill yourself by
cutting your own throat.

- [Narrator] Former
detective Ray Johnson

shares a critical revelation

that could link some of
the deaths to H. H. Holmes.

- This woman checked into
a hotel with a gentleman

just before the
World's Fair opened

in the late April of 1893.
(woman laughing)

Now, they signed in as
Mr and Mrs Alexander.

- Which is interesting,

because I know there
was an alias for Holmes

which was an Alexander.
- Never know.

- The headline mentions
her throat was cut

and of course they called
that a suicide as well.

Now, I know that,
with the World's Fair,

Chicago didn't want
any bad publicity.

They were really concerned
that that would affect

the overall outcome of the fair.

And there's another
woman, Josephine Dielman,

she had her throat
cut from ear to ear.

And again, this one they
also said was a suicide.

Every time I was
looking into a case

where a woman had cut her throat

and there wasn't
a named suspect,

or there wasn't someone standing
over the body with a knife,

that they were very easily
dissuaded to call it a suicide.

Now, this is the one that
really stood out to me.

Jack the Ripper talk was
excited here today by finding

a woman's mutilated corpse.
- Wow!

- Nearly nude on the
lakeshore railroad

where it had been
washed by the waves.

Besides what's said to resemble

the characteristic Ripper
cut from the breast down,

sound the legs had also been
severed below the knees.

- So it looks like
we have evidence

of Ripper-style
killings in Chicago.

- [Ray] Right.

- Because of the disemboweled
victim and sliced throat.

- That's what caught my eye.

- Catches my eye, too.

- I can't trust that there
wouldn't be more of these

but I do believe they
were trying to keep

so as not to generate
any bad publicity

for the city prior to the fair.

- Finding reports of
Ripper-like murders in Chicago

during the exact years
that Holmes was active here

is huge for this investigation,

and although we don't
have police reports,

if there were other
crimes similar to this,

the coroner's records
would be our best shot.

And those records do exist.

- [Jeff] Then
let's go find them.

- [Narrator] North Eastern
University

houses the city's
official coroner's records

dating back to 1865.

Amaryllis joins Jeff and Ray

to search for evidence
that could connect Holmes

to the unsolved 1893 murders.

- If a body was found,

regardless of what
condition or where it was,

the coroner would decide
what the cause of that was.

I wonder how many unknown women

were found with Ripper-esque
type of murders in Chicago?

- Now that's interesting.

There's two of them,
right next to each other.

- [Jeff] What do you mean?

- Unknown woman, unknown woman,

throat cut from ear to ear.

Couldn't have been a suicide,

both on the same day.

- [Amaryllis] Similar
circumstances?

- Yeah, this said they
couldn't determine whether

she came to death
accidentally or otherwise.

- [Amaryllis] So
these are two women--

- These are two women
found the same day.

- Who both turn up the
same day, unidentified.

- That's troubling.

- It would be really helpful

if we knew when these
suspicious deaths started.

I think we need to go
through, record by record,

beginning right before Holmes
arrives in Chicago in 1886.

Earlier in our investigation,

we uncovered the 1891 murder
of Carrie Brown in New York.

Scotland Yard and NYPD
seriously speculated

that Jack the Ripper
had escaped London

and continued his
work in the States.

Finding evidence of more
Ripper-like killings

here in Chicago during
the time of the Fair

feels like more
than a coincidence.

Now we just have to connect
the timing of these murders

to H. H. Holmes.

No, no, suicidal intent...

- So nothing in '84?

- Nothing in '84.

- [Ray] On to '85.

- Nothing so far.

Nope, factory accident...

Record by record of '85, no.

- Nothing in '85, all right.

- We know that Holmes
arrived in Chicago in 1886

and was active there
until late 1893,

after the World's
Fair had ended.

- '86, so this is the time

when Holmes would have first
become active in Chicago.

- Oh wait, hold on.

There's one, unidentified
woman, cut throat.

- Just one for '86.

Red-light district.

- Shores of Lake Michigan,
unidentified woman,

cut from the breast down,

unidentified woman,
disemboweled.

So that's the second in 1890.

- [Ray] Two in 1890.

- Print.
- Is that another?

- Unidentified woman,
fourth for 1892.

Three for 1893.

1894, negative.

- Get a load of this.

1891, one, but then you
have the big spike in '92.

- [Amaryllis] Right.

- He acquired the
warehouse in 91.

- Four unidentified
women in 1892,

then three more in 1893,

and then zappo again.

There's a definite spike
in Ripper-like murders

when Holmes is in Chicago,

especially around the
time of the World's Fair.

We can't simply conclude

that these women were
victims of H. H. Holmes

but the coincidence of
his presence in the city

and the gruesome but the
familiar way these women died

does add up suspiciously
for both Ripper and Holmes.

If these are in fact
victims of Holmes,

the fact that at least one
of them was disemboweled

from the sternum on down

in the style of Jack the Ripper

is really striking.

- Yeah.

There's a striking connection

between the Jack
the Rier murders

and these these new murders,

regarding unidentified women.

- Well, the numbers
here don't lie

and all of these
were just chalked up

to accident at the time.

- Yeah.

We're discovering now
with this research

that there were
many different ways

that Holmes could have murdered

and disposed of bodies.

Yeah, and many
different locations.

Right.

Most people think of
all of these killings

having taken place
in the Murder Castle.

We're now seeing more
and more evidence

that that just wasn't the case,

and this is the first
time that I've seen

the same style of killing

with the same kind of frequency

as Jack the Ripper's victims
were killed in London,

happening in Chicago,

and tied to the years that
Holmes lived in the city.

what struck me was how,
over and over again,

when the police
couldn't determine

how these women were murdered

they called them suicides.

Now what does that mean?

- Whether it was an
organized conspiracy or not,

by labeling them a suicide is
a pretty simple and neat trick

to prevent the kind
of widespread fear

that Jack the
Ripper was inspiring

in the public at the time.

They became unwitting
accomplices to Holmes

as he was operating here.

There's a pretty serious
debate among Holmes experts

as to how many people actually
fell victim to his knife.

Some say it's as few as nine,

others think it's closer to 30,

some say it's hundreds.

If all of these Ripper-style
Chicago killings

were committed by one person

then we're looking at the
work of a mass murderer,

and a master at inventing
and evolving new ways

to get rid of evidence
and outsmart the law.

It seems to me that
the cement warehouse

is going to be our biggest lead.

There may actually be
viable physical evidence

inside those blocks of concrete.

- Yeah.

- We need to get that
trunk out of there

and see what this
pig looks like.

- [Narrator] It's been two
weeks since Jeff and Amaryllis

set out to test the
preservation power of concrete.

- We put it in concrete.

It's hardened, we had
it soaking in water.

- [Narrator] Now, they'll
discover if the submersion

has had any effect
on living tissue

buried inside the solid block.

- [Lloyd] All right, Mark,
you're doin' a heck of a job.

- All right, shall we
crack this baby open?

- [Jeff] Okay.

- [Amaryllis] There we go.

- [Jeff] All right.

- Pig flesh often
used as a stand-in

for humans in forensic research,

because the tissues and bone
density are very similar.

- [Jeff] All right.

- If this test shows any
preserving effect on the pig,

it should give us an idea

of what we can expect to
find in those concrete blocks

Holmes may have
dropped in the river.

(sledgehammer thudding)

- There we go, blugh!

- [Jeff] There we go.

- [Lloyd] So what
does it look like?

- It looks like we
just put it in there.

Certainly nothing like,

if you had just left
pig out on the counter.

- [Jeff] Right.

This fascinates me,

the contour of the
concrete with the flesh.

- [Amaryllis] Awesome.

- I'm imagining
what we're to find,

that same thing after
100 years, correct?

- Correct.

Think about what causes
the body to decompose?

Bacteria, maggots, insects.

When you've encased
a body in concrete,

there's no maggots
that get in there,

there's no insects
that get in there,

there's no other animal,

so how can you best preserve
a body for a hundred years?

Encase it in concrete.

- Yeah.

- [Narrator] Forensic
anthropologists maintain

that human remains
encased in concrete

are likely to decompose slower

due to the semi
sterile environment.

Anaerobic bacteria that
breaks down a corpse

is unable to
function efficiently

with lower oxygen levels.

Research suggests that,

if the concrete is
enclosed in a container,

further limiting
exposure to the elements,

the human body could potentially
survive up to 500 years.

- [Lloyd] You break
open that concrete,

you would see striations,
cut marks on the bones.

- [Amaryllis] Wow, so
we're talking about

a forensic time capsule.

- [Jeff] Oh yeah.

- [Amaryllis] The
prospect of being able

to examine a victim of
Holmes 125 years later,

and determine if they were
killed in the same way

as several of Jack
the Ripper's victims

were killed in London,
seemed unthinkable.

But looking at how
pristine this tissue is,

now it seem like we
might have our chance.

Biggest problem is not

what forensic scientists
could learn today,

the biggest problem is

you're looking for a
needle in a haystack.

- Even more important that
we actually do determine

what's at the bottom of
the river in that silt.

(suspenseful music)

- Obviously two weeks
is not 125 years,

but those pig parts
that we pulled out

of the water and the concrete,

I mean, they weren't perfect,

but they were nowhere
near the decomposition

you would expect to
see after two weeks.

And that is exciting,
because it suggests

that if there is concrete
in the bottom of the river

and that concrete does
have Holmes' victims in it,

this physical evidence
could shed light

on how Holmes was
killing his victims,

what his murder
weapon of choice was,

how he was disposing
of their bodies

and all of those are
incredibly important

in understanding who
Holmes was as a killer,

and whether it's possible
that he and Ripper

were one and the same.

I know from personal experience

we can't just hire a dive team

based off video of
the river floor.

We're going to need
detailed coordinates

and dimensions of the objects

in order to get permission
to dive the site

and cover any remains.

I'm going to reach out
to the recovery team

and see whether we can
get back out on the river

in the next couple days.

- [Jeff] Yeah, agreed.

Whoa, whoa, I got a text from
Dennis, the forensic analyst.

He says his results from
the handwriting analysis

is ready to go.

- Great, let's head back.

Dennis!
- Hi, you're back.

- Can't wait to
hear what you found.

- We've done quite a bit
of work on your case...

- [Narrator] Hand writing
specialist Dennis Ryan

and his forensics team have
conducted a detailed analysis

of handwriting samples
uncovered in the investigation.

His results will reveal whether
the writings of H. H. Holmes

match the known writings
of Jack the Ripper.

- Pictures worth
a thousand words.

We have some results
that are interesting.

We've done quite a bit of work.

- [Narrator] The Dear Boss
and Saucy Jack letters

believed to have been written
by Jack the Ripper in 1888,

and several samples
written by H. H. Holmes

at various points
over a 20-year period

including a letter
and a receipt.

The first thing we did
was compare the variation

in one's writing.

- [Narrator] Like a fingerprint,

an individual's handwriting
is completely unique.

A highly trained specialist,

known as a forensic
document examiner,

analyzes up to 40
different elements

of a person's handwriting,

including the size, spacing,
and slant of a letter

to determine the origin and
authenticity of a document,

and whether two
pieces of writing

were penned by the same hand.

- I'm not an expert but I do
have some analytical training

and I can see that
Holmes's writing style

had variation over the years.

I can see definite differences

in the way he forms
specific letters

that make me wonder whether
he was intentionally

disguising his writing.

Okay, now the $64,000 question.

Is it possible the
same person wrote

both the Jack the Ripper letters

and the Holmes samples?

- That's a very good question.

I'll show you some results.

In this particular case,

these Holmes samples
came in a letter called

the Attorney Graham letter.

In this particular slide,

we had set three samples
from the Attorney Graham,

and these are not
consistent with the samples

from the Dear Boss or
Saucy Jack letters.

The closed portion of the h

in the Dear Boss is open,

and the e formation
is flat and closed,

almost like a bump,

and that's inconsistent with

what's found in the letters
from Jack the Ripper.

In this last sample from
the Attorney Graham,

the y formation
comes back and loops.

In the Attorney Graham,
it's just one stroke down

and that finishes the letter.

So with finding
inconsistencies and the style

and the skill of the
writer is different.

- [Amaryllis] Damn.

- This was another sample
that was submitted.

The H. H. Holmes receipt.

But this, we were
unable to determine

if this was consistent

with the Dear Boss or
Saucy Jack letters.

- [Amaryllis] Why?

- Because the style of
the writing is different

and the formation of
some of the letters.

Here's the word, payment.

P in the payment
and the other one

had an open bottom to it.

But then the m-e was one
of the letter combinations

that we found to be similar.

- So when there are
characteristics

that are consistent

and characteristics that
are not consistent, how--

- You would be inconclusive.

- Inconclusive.
- Correct.

- [Amaryllis] Interesting.

- The receipt that we picked up

in our investigation
in New Hampshire

is the earliest known document
with Holmes's writing.

He was 17 years old.

He would have been 27 when the
Ripper letters were written

and 33 when he wrote the
Attorney Graham letter.

I have to wonder why his writing

changed so drastically
over the years

So if you cannot form
a conclusive judgment

about whether this receipt
written by H. H. Holmes

and the Dear Boss letter
were penned by the same hand.

- That's correct.

- But you can't rule it out.

- Can't rule it out,

can't say yes or can't say no.

- Well, I can tell you this.

Your inconclusive
conclusion means

that Holmes could have
been Jack the Ripper.

We've got to get to the
bottom of that river.

(suspenseful music)

- As you know Jeff and I
are on the Holmes trail.

We have a bit of a
treasure hunt for you.

- [Narrator] The next step
is river investigation

is to pinpoint specific
coordinates for a dive.

Jeff and Amaryllis meet

with an underwater recovery
specialist to strategize.

- We have already
taken a first look

at the bottom of
the Chicago River,

and we've brought
some video here

to show you what we found,

and it's what has led us to you.

Now the Chicago River,
it gets pretty murky

and you can see from this video.

You can see there

these really unusual
craters and divots

and we're hoping that,
with your assistance,

we might be able to
pinpoint the exact locations

and dimensions of
whatever's down there

so we can share it
with the dive team.

- Well, yeah, we handle
problems like this.

So looking for debris
that's been buried

or you know, at the surface

is something that
we typically do

and those same applications
can be applied to this.

We do look for debris.

I see from the video,

the water is a little
bit of murky at times

so but one of the
process we do is

we do what we call
site scan sonar.

It's using sonar rather
than the visual wavelength

tied in with the GPS

and we can make actually
mosaic of the bottom.

I have examples from a bridge
that we just recently did.

You can see how
the images of logs

and pieces of concrete debris

are scattered there

and sometimes you begin
to get the detail,

even the gory details.

Now this is somebody
to fell overboard

and that's two
weeks in the water.

- So that's very
high-resolution.

you really can get
a sense of the shape

and volume of what
you're looking at.

- Yes, exactly.

- And we know that
it's a long shot

but the truth is that
after a hundred years plus,

for me, as a cold-case
investigator,

the chance to actually
examine physical evidence

to link the two killers
we're investigating

is really the brass ring
for this investigation.

I think we should get down there

and see what we can find.

(suspensef(seagulls cawin)

- We're about seven
minutes from the spot.

How long will it take you
to deploy the site scanner?

Probably take about
less than five minutes

to deploy that
and start pinging.

- [Jeff] Okay.

- [Narrator] Jeff and Amaryllis

are on the cusp of discovering

whether concrete blocks at the
bottom of the Chicago River

could contain a
break in the case,

possible victims
of H. H. Holmes.

- It's pretty amazing to think

that right there was Holmes's
cement storage facility.

He had a pier here.

You can imagine him standing,

looking out at all of the boats

coming up and down the river

and not expecting that
a hundred years later

we'd be out here with all
of this forensic technology

taking a look at
what he left for us

on the bottom of the river.

- With those types of facilities

and knowing the man he was,

it strikes me as odd some
people would even doubt

how plausible this theory is

that he used the river
to discard the bodies.

- If he did use that technique
to get rid of the bodies

what kind of size blocks
are we looking at?

- Let's cross our fingers
that he had to use

some big blocks once in a while.

We might be able to
detect them far easier.

- Yeah...

If we can get exact
GPS coordinates

and a sense of how
large the blocks are

then we'll be able to
send in a dive team

to retrieve the evidence.

All right!

- [Jeff] Let's launch.

- [Amaryllis] All
right, let's do it!

Wow, so this is it, huh?

- Yes.

- Tell us a little
about this bad boy.

It's pretty cool-looking.

- Yeah, this is our sonar fish.

Doesn't matter how
murky the water is,

it's going from sound.

- Just like a bat.

This is sending
out a sound signal.

- Correct.
- It's getting it back

like a fish finder.

It's going to show us
any shapes, anything...

- Correct, this is
going to be looking at

anything that's on the bottom

or sticking out of the bottom.

We're going to be able to see.

- All right!
- All right!

- [Amaryllis] All right,
let's get her in the water.

- Chuck, we've been waiting
months for this right now.

Let's go.

- [Chuck] Let's go!

(suspenseful music)

Securitay, Securitay, Securitay,

Towboat US25743,

we're going to be doing
some bottom soundings

workin' between Columbus
and Lakeshore Drive.

- So we'll take the ship
in a kind of grid pattern?

- Correct, we'll run it
along parallel to the shore,

make several passes.
- [Amaryllis] I see.

Tell us what we're looking at.

- Basically what we have is

the center line right here

would be representative
of the fish,

the path of the fish as
it's going in the water

and we're pinging
out on either side.

This bright return is our wall.

- Oh!
- Wow!

- You can see it's nice and
bright because it's steel,

and basically what it is,

it's picture you're
shining a flashlight

over the bottom here.

Where we're seeing
real bright spots,

it's hitting a
nice solid object,

bouncing back, and then
there's a shadow behind it

where your light wouldn't shine

and that's how we
can kind of see

that an object is sticking
up above the bottom

just because it's
the lack of data.

- And that would let us
know if there's something

that we could actually
pull up and crack open

and take a look at.
- Yes.

- So, as soon as
we get over there,

we'll be able to
start taking a look

and seeing what the fish finds.

- Without any physical proof

connecting Holmes
and the Ripper,

my theory will
always be questioned.

I'm hoping we'll finally
get some answers.

- We're approaching
- I'll start my dance.

- Okay.
- I'm really juiced.

- Let's see if we can't
find some concrete.

(suspenseful music)

- [Narrator] Next time
on American Ripper...

- We've got a crime
scene full of evidence.

- He's got all these creditors

about to stage an intervention

and arrest him, essentially.

- Yeah, so he thought
by getting out of town,

he could let a lot
of the heat off.

- This is Holmes's
escape plan from Chicago.

- Right, his second castle.

- [Amaryllis] Amazing.

- Strangely enough,

that's the actual beginning
of the end for H. H. Holmes.

- Only safe thing for him to do

was to get rid of
the whole family.

- These bones for Howard
Pitezel have not yet been found.

- We're going to dig down,
looking for human remains.

See if we can find
what's left of him.

What's that?

Possibly something in this area.

- This is a crime scene.