Was Chicago Coctor Serial Killer London's Jack the Ripper? Descendant of American Murderer Investigates Links Between the Notorious Criminals
One descendant of H.H. Holmes, the notorious Chicago man known as America’s first serial killer, now suggests his ancestor could actually have also been the London serial killer Jack the Ripper. Jeff Mudgett, the great-great-great-grandson of the killer, has submitted handwriting samples from both Holmes and Jack the Ripper for review and handwriting experts have confirmed the likelihood they could stem from the same hand. Now Mudgett is on a quest to see if the American, believed to have killed 200 victims before he was caught in 1894, had made any documented visits to London around the same time with the killing wave swept through London. Herman Webster Mudgett, known as H.H. Holmes, was a wealthy and well-educated doctor in Chicago, where he moved in 1884 from his native New Hampshire. He eventually became owner of a drugstore and opened a hotel in Englewood, a suburb of the Windy City. But the 60-room boarding house was a murder trap – having been constructed to allow the proprietor easy access to his victims. Dubbed ‘the murder castle’ he designed the structure with windowless rooms equipped with gas lines and body chutes so he could transport his sedated or already dead victims to the basement of the hotel. Some victims were locked in their bedrooms, that were soundproof and fixed with gas lines, so they would be asphyxiated. Others were kept in a soundproof bank vault, where they would be kept and ultimately would suffocate. Once the victims died, hidden body chutes would allow Holmes to drop their sedated or dead bodies to the basement of the hotel, where he would dissect the corpses – selling the skeletons to medical schools. December 3, 2012 Copyright © 2012 Daily Mail
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