MovieChat Forums > From Hell (2001) Discussion > H.H. Holmes WAS Jack the Ripper

H.H. Holmes WAS Jack the Ripper


I posted this to another thread, but thought it deserved it's own.

Read the book "Blood Stains". Jack the Ripper and H.H. Holmes are ONE AND THE SAME.

1. Holmes was confirmed in London during the time of the Ripper.

2. Holmes writing samples have also been confirmed a match with the Ripper's by a professional hand writing graphologist.

3. Holmes was a doctor/surgeon and he was facinated with women's uteruses.

4. Holmes was a dead ringer for the Ripper composite sketches.

5. Holmes was a wealthy (through fraud) dandy dresser and was considered a ladies man. Someone a prostitute would not be afraid of.

6. Theories are abound that the Ripper went to the US and continued killing. Holmes was killing all across the northeast and midwest directly AFTER the Ripper stopped his spree.

I'm telling you, H.H. Holmes WAS Jack the Ripper.



"I don't want your watch, man. I want your friendship!" - Lightfoot

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I doubt it. This is probably little different from Stephen Knight's "Royal Conspiracy" and Patricia Cornwell's "Walter Sickert", which received a lot of attention at the time, and people swore up and down they must be true, but time and examination proved them completely false.

In order to look into this more, I'd have to read the book, but I'm sure the folks at casebook.org will have a field day with this one. But, at a glance, a few problems:

1. Being in London doesn't mean he was the Ripper, only allows the possibility. Lewis Carroll and Oscar Wilde were in London at the time too; doesn't make them the Ripper.

2. The handwriting is perhaps the biggest problem. Most of the Ripper letters are believed to be a hoax, including especially the one used by Jeff Mudgett. The "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper" letter (otherwise called the "Dear Boss" letter) was one of many fake, hoax letters sent to the police. One of the few seriously considered letters is the "From Hell" (which could still be a hoax), and those look nothing like the handwriting and diction of the "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper" letter.

3. Modern Ripperologists doubt the Ripper had to have been a doctor, or even a butcher. Obsession with uteruses doesn't prove anything either, see Francis Tumblety.

4. This is also a big problem. The "composite sketch" is a modern one, not a contemporary one. If I'm not mistaken, the composite sketch at the time suggests Joseph Barnett, who was likely not the Ripper. Being that it's a modern one, it's a computer image simply based on mixing conjecture.

5. "dandy dresser and was considered a ladies man. Someone a prostitute would not be afraid of."

This is actually the opposite of the case, it's someone prostitutes would very much be afraid out and if he was a "dandy dresser" would stick out very much in Whitechapel. In a Jack the Ripper documentary, they discussed that the (probably inaccurate) image of the gentleman in top hat and cloak was in the popular conscious at the time, and was perpetuated. The documentary suggested that if a prostitute saw someone like that, she might very well run screaming the other way.

Also, witnesses suggest he was dressed in very common clothing to what you'd see in Whitechapel, which is markedly different from a wealthy dandy.

6. Keep in mind, there are 11 murders on the Whitechapel murder files, we generally only ascribe the "Canonical 5" (Nichols-Kelly) to Saucy Jack. If he were responsible for any of the others, that would seriously mess up H.H. Holmes' timeline.

In short, the main pieces of evidence sighted, namely the handwriting and the composite sketch, are very shaky. The "Dear Boss" letter is in all likelihood not from the actual killer.

I'm sure in time Ripperologists will poke even more holes in this theory.

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Nah.

I think John Douglas' theory is as close as possible to who the Ripper was.

He was a young man in his 20's to 30's. He was local and the same class and race as his victims. He was almost positively criminally inclined other than the murders he committed.

Douglas thought that he was arrested on some other charge and spent a long time in jail. Which is why the murders ended.

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