Due to some recent news, I'll be doing an extra, emergency Outlier post for this month. The normal schedule will proceed next week.
H.H. Holmes was one of the most successful serial killers in American history. He's considered to be the first serial killer in American history. I, and many crime historians have held to the belief that Holmes may have been Jack the Ripper, which would make him the most notorious killer on two continents, and the first in history to be a serial killer situated in two areas. It made sense to me that a man of sophistication as Holmes, who was fascinated in killing prostitutes. And was a renowned Doctor, could also have been the notorious Jack the Ripper. Full disclosure, upon writing this post, I happened upon s commercial for an upcoming show named American Ripper. This show will air sometime in the near future on History Channel. However, if you ask anyone who has spoken to me on the subject before, I've been contemplating this possibility for years, ever since I was still in grade school.
Many books have opined in saying it would be impossible to determine the true forensics behind whether or not Jack the a ripper and H.H. Holmes we're in-fact the same person; but chronology can sort the details out. The killings, albeit on two different continents, had an eerily similar execution. Granted Holmes was more precise, as he was not a butcher but a certified surgeon, as was the theory that The Ripper had to be one as well, their implements in the killings were deemed to be different, as were the ways both cases disposed of their victims. Holmes did so in a hotel, and was caught due to the stench of corpses coming from the room, The Ripper on the other hand killed his victims and left them in alleyways, eviscerating them, almost deco sitting several.
However, I believe even in recent history, the evidence had not been combined to see if there were any similar patterns. I'll be looking forward to this show in the History Channel, but more-importantly, I'll be checking my notes, and making some new ones. Of all the cases that I've followed, from the Berkowitz case of Son of Sam, to the infamous John Wayne Gacy, and even the lesser known Perry Starkweather, I've always found these two cases were in-fact the same,neither very little doubt. A man as intelligent as Holmes, and the perceived Ripper would be able to do both of these crimes, and it Erie to a fault, as the practice and patience of a surgeon, and the skill of cutting so office felty, and also seeing a surgeon with blood, or even the same tools to implement such heinous crimes would pen even be given a second thought, this leads me to believe that both of these infamous villains of history have a shared skill, a shared motive, and a shared alibi of being s surgeon, which mean t globe hopping wasn't unusual for the profession. The best way to see if this theory correlates is if Holmes' schedules, and locations had lead to a string of violent murders, even in a handful of countries visited.
It'll be interesting to see if this can now finally be proven one way or another, because the investigation they do on American Ripper will set the precedent of all future information about both cases. I personally will be watching this show, as stated above, taking notes, and I'll be reading a great deal on just what,more who Jack the Ripper was, and if Holmes' killings during the Chicago World Fair were just a random case, or tied 3000 miles across the ocean.
My fascination with serial killers had gone back to my childhood, and Jack the Ripper is both the beginner's case, and the journeyman's case, in-that it ties into every case that has come and gone, and yet holds a direct link to other grand cases in both flattery, and technique. Killers like the infamous Zodiac, perhaps my most case, I've read the files, the letters, and the cryptography deciphered (partly of course, you need a full key to do-so, and my theory was that the cryptographs sent to the police were not in English to double the difficulty are now beginning to shed light on future cases. However, Jack the Ripper, though I'm well-versed on his case, the theories have far outshines the facts in recent years, and that's why I'm glad to see this solid theory of the two men being one come otgether in this History documentary.
I'm now motivated to return to studying Jack the Ripper further, and perhaps read up a bit more on Mister Holmes, but what I already know is what most people know. See, I always felt H.H. HOlmes' killing spree during the Chicago World Fair wasn't done properly, in regards to a seasoned vet, but felt as though he was going for broke, more bang for the buck deal with the amount of prostitutes that came flocking to the show of Lake Michigan. It's strange: Holmes was too good a murderer to be just starting out, or trying his luck at it, but he was also "war weary" it seems as well, trying to add up a body count, throwing caution to the wind, ergo his inevitable capture.
I hope his is an intelligent series with professionals, people who study this sort of criminology for a living, and not just some guys and a fe producers out to make a buck on the name of Jack the Ripper without a fair attempt at results! There's a great deal that could be said about the way one goes about trying to solve the world's great unsolved crime mystery, and that is a great deal of responsibility to examine with humility and intelligence. I'll tune in as they attempt to solve the case, but I'll likely see them leave us with more questions and angles that criminologists have not ever tried to resolve before. Either way, entertainment is the number one goal it seems, but I'll be looking forward to just what happens on American Ripper
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