Serial killer’s descendant details links between H.H. Holmes and Jack the Ripper

Two methodical killers who reportedly used their surgical skills for evil on different continents and have since become figures of legend. Were they actually the same person?

Jeff Mudgett, great-great-grandson to the infamous murderer H.H. Holmes, joined “The Glenn Beck Radio Program” last week to talk about his new documentary with the History Channel and his theory that Holmes was also Jack the Ripper.

In “American Ripper,” Mudgett went on a journey to learn more about his terrifying ancestor, who posed as an entrepreneur and scammed his way into building a large home near the Chicago World’s Fair. Now known as the “Murder Castle,” Holmes’ hotel had a seemingly normal drugstore on the first floor, but upper floors held false walls, trapdoors and stairs leading to nowhere. He was convicted of nine murders, although he claimed many more, and was hanged in 1896.

For the documentary, Mudgett and the History Channel looked for links between Holmes and Jack the Ripper, a serial killer who terrorized London in the late 19th century but has never been identified. They tapped the skills of a detective to track down murders in Chicago that fit the time frame of Holmes’ travels.

“Hundreds went missing during that time,” Mudgett said. “And lo and behold, as soon as [Holmes] was back in Chicago, Ripper-style killings went through the roof, and then when he was arrested finally, they stopped.”

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