Were H.H. Holmes, the serial killer, and Jack the Ripper the same person?

In the History Channel series American Ripper, the serial killer’s great-great grandson relates how he unraveled the mystery that has baffled the world for decades. More than 200 people in the USA were killed by the serial killer suspected to be also Jack the Ripper who killed five victims in London.

For decades, not only police authorities but the public were baffled by the heinous crimes committed by Herman Mudgett, a.k.a. Dr. H.H. Holmes, who was touted to be America’s first serial killer. No one knows for sure how many lives he took but it is believed that he was responsible for killing as many as 200 people in the late 19th century. According to reports, the crowning achievement of what was described as a “con man, opportunist and evil genius” was the construction of a building later dubbed as the Murder Castle, “a hotel on Chicago’s south side that he engineered to be a factory of death, complete with a gas chamber, a dissection room, trap doors and a basement furnace to destroy any trace of his sinister work.”

At the same time, across the Atlantic, a killer was terrorizing the streets of London, murdering and mutilating at least five victims in the Whitechapel area of the city. To this day, the killer has never been caught or identified, known only as Jack the Ripper. In American Ripper, which premieres Wednesday night (Nov. 15) at 9 o’clock on the History Channel, the mystery might yet be unraveled as a stunned attorney discovers a gruesome family secret: his great-great grandfather may have been the notorious serial killer H.H. Holmes and Britain’s Jack the Ripper. Martin Scorsese is doing a film about it, starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

That lawyer is none other than Jett Mudgett, the series’ co-host, who partners with exCIA analyst Amaryllis Fox in searching for the truth that lasted for more than 20 years, in an all-new investigation using 21st century science and methodology to unlock the secrets of one of the biggest cold cases of all time. Mudgett told his story in an exclusive phone interview with The STAR.

Why do you need to prove convincingly that H.H. Holmes and Jack the Ripper are related? What is the one evidence that you’d need that can point the two together?

“Well, I was a practicing trial lawyer in California before I decided to dedicate my life to researching H.H. Holmes as my ancestor, and I was trained in forensic science and examining the evidence. In my opinion, the mystery is solved and the case is closed. Were Holmes alive today, English prosecutors could come to the United States, obtain an arrest warrant, order an extradition; they could take Holmes back to London with them, and have him stand trial for the murders of Catherine Eddowes and Elizabeth Stride.

“To answer your question, I think we’ve come up with as much evidence as we need to stand trial for those murders, and I think that’s the first time in history that a suspect has been tied to the murders, which would be necessary to have him arrested and have him stand trial for murders.”

What made you do the investigation after so many years?

“I was practicing law in California, I had an office in San Francisco, and I was at a family dinner party and my grandfather…which I explain in my book

Bloodstains…decided to tell the family this horrible secret that he had carried around himself throughout his entire life. We were all shocked, we were all quite disturbed that our origin was perhaps the most evil American who ever lived, a man who was described in newspapers as the devil or a monster. So, I knew that much of what had been written about him wasn’t true, seemed like exaggerations. I decided that someone in my family needed to find out what was true and what was not. Unfortunately, the more I learned, the more horrible the man became.“

Your great-great grandfather victimized more than 200 people. What happened to the families of these 200 victims. Are they cooperating in the investigation? Do they have any part in the investigation?

“That’s a great question. I’ll tell you what happened recently at a book signing. I was there showing Bloodstains to the audience. A couple of young ladies came up to me; they wanted to shake my hand, they wanted a picture. And then they explained that their family had long believed that one of their ancestors had been murdered by Holmes, and they wanted to thank me for my work in attempting to identify their ancestor as one of the victims and hopefully creating a monument or memorial testifying that