All language subtitles for American.Ripper.S01E06.Blood.and.Bone.1080p_track3_[eng]

- He was active all
over the country.

He had some scams
going in St. Louis.

He went to New
York several times,

I found at least 60
lawsuits, in Chicago alone

that this guy ended up in.

- We have evidence of
Ripper-style killings

in Chicago.

We're discovering that there
were many different ways

Holmes could have murdered
and disposed of the bodies.

- [Man I have a theory that
Holmes was encasing bodies

in cement, and dumping
them in the Chicago River.

- There may actually be
viable physical evidence

inside those blocks of cement.

This is a really
large debris field,

right next to the physical
property owned by Holmes.

- [Chuck] We're approaching
your area of interest.

- Let's see if we can't
find some concrete.

(upbeat music)

- Skeer-tay, skeer-tay,
skeer-tay, to-pon U.S. 25743.

We're gonna be doing
some bottom soundings.

- [Amaryllis] We'll take the
ship in a kind of grid pattern?

- Correct.

We'll run it along
parallel to the shore,

make several passes.

- I see.

- [Narrator] Jeff Mudgett
and ex-CIA operative,

Amaryllis Fox, are scanning
the bottom of the Chicago River

for gruesome evidence in
a 130-year-old mystery.

Body parts, encased in concrete

by the infamous serial
killer, H. H. Holmes.

- The interesting part
for me is gonna be

if he did use that technique
to get rid of the bodies

is what kind of sized
blocks we're looking at.

- Exactly.

- These could be
human-sized cement coffins,

or they could be smaller
chunks of concrete

that contain body parts.

We analyzed the Jack the
Ripper autopsy reports earlier

in our investigation, and they
led us to some new insights

about the Ripper's murder
weapon and method of killing.

But because Holmes
was so consistent

in getting rid of the
bodies of his victims,

there are no autopsy reports
from any of his murders.

So, in order to have
physical evidence

to compare Holmes' kills
with Jack the Ripper,

we need to find a body.

- [Narrator] By 1893,

Holmes' murder castle
is fully operational,

engineered with three stories
of rooms designed to kill.

But con man Holmes owns
other Chicago properties,

including a suspicious
cement warehouse on the banks

of the river, that
buys in raw materials,

but never sells any
finished concrete.

Evidence revealed in
the investigation,

suggests that Holmes may have
used the cement warehouse

as a front for
disposing of bodies,

in order to pull off a
large-scale killing operation.

- [Jeff] Now what does this
machine give us a look at?

- Basically what it
is, it's a picture,

and you're shining a flashlight
over the bottom here.

Where we're seeing
little bright spots,

it's hitting a nice solid
object, bouncing back,

and then there's a
shadow behind it,

and that's how we can kinda
see that an object is sticking

up above the bottom.

- And that would let us
know if there is something

that we could actually
pull up and crack open

and take a look at?

- [Chuck] Yes.

- [Narrator] An initial scan
of the river bed revealed

a cluster of heavy objects
were dumped just feet

from the footprint of Holmes'
old warehouse some time ago.

But before divers can
investigate

and retrieve evidence,

city officials require a
record of exact coordinates

and dimensions.

- [Chuck] Speed is good.

A little tighter.

A little tighter if you can.

- Are we in the area where
we saw the debris field

with the submersible robot?

- [Chuck] Yes, this is the area.

- [Jeff] Hey, Chuck, what's
the hard black object there?

- That's an interesting target.

That is a shadow of a
target that's sticking out,

- Wow, that's a big divot.

- [Chuck] Yes.

- [Jeff] Now, how big was that?

- Probably a couple of meters,
and it is fairly square.

- [Amaryllis] That sounds
like something I wanna get

out of the river.

- You've got quite a
few targets along here.

- Oh, yeah?
- Yeah.

- [Jeff] These ones
are about a meter?

- Wow!

- We have multiple targets,

10 to almost approximately
20 feet off that wall.

- That's exactly what we saw
with the submersible robot.

So this is the sonar
confirmation

of that same debris field.

- Correct.

- [Jeff] Oh boy.
- [Amaryllis] Whoa.

Well I think we know
where we need to look.

- Coming up with that
image in relationship

to the Holmes'
storage facilities,

I think we've made
a major discovery.

- I mean, it's pretty striking
to have a big debris field

right on the river bed outside

of our primary suspect's cement
factory, when he's a doctor,

and has no reason to
have a cement factory.

- Yeah, we've had some
interesting targets.

Had some scattered debris,
and then we do have

what looks like a
rectangular shape.

- [Amaryllis] How big is that?

- That is a little over
like a meter and a half.

- [Jeff] Five, six feet?

- [Chuck] Yeah, about
five or six feet.

- The dimensions and the shape,

what else does that look like?

- A big, giant concrete
coffin under the silt.

- [Jeff] Yeah, absolutely.

- And now we know exactly
where it is, gridded out,

and fairly close to the wall,
given the image here, right?

So, we'd be looking
somewhere in there?

- [Chuck] Yes.

- So can we get a diver in
the water and get it out?

- That, unfortunately,
will take some time.

It's not as easy as
getting the diver.

There's all kind of
regulations and paperwork

to go into this area and
actually extract something.

It's a very industrialized site

and there's lots
of contamination,

lots of potential hazards
in the water there,

and so, for everyone's safety,

the EPA would like
more understanding

of what you want to do.

- Oh, damn.

- I can't walk away from
that image now, I can't.

- We should get that
permission on file

and then we'll circle back.

- [Jeff] After so much work

that's gone into
this investigation,

it's tough to just wait.

- Yeah.

- We've got a crime
scene full of evidence

and we can't get to it.

- Yeah, it's frustrating
but I've gotta say

it's really encouraging to see

these modern forensic
techniques and the technology

that we're using
open up new leads

that just weren't available
to investigators at the time.

- So what's next?

- I mean, I think we should
pick up Holmes' footsteps

after the World's Fair
and see what he did next.

There have got to be more
crime scenes out there,

and physical evidence that
could connect the two killers.

We should meet up with Adam.

- So the tail-end of 1893
was not so good for Holmes.

There were at least 60
lawsuits against him,

and a collection agency had
organized them all together

and they were planning
to arrest him.

- [Narrator] Chicago's big
event of 1893, the World's Fair,

closes at the end of October.

By November, the city
returns to normal.

For Holmes, that
means swindling.

Over the eight years
he spends in the city,

he pulls off countless
financial scams

and takes on a
fraudulent marriage,

as well as a slew of mistresses.

- And it gets worse.

He had taken out
several insurance policies

and then he set fire
to the third floor.

- [Amaryllis] Wait, he set
fire to his murder castle?

- Yep, and he immediately
tried to claim

all the insurance policies.

The police, they saw
right through it,

and for the first time,

he knows they're going
to hunt him down.

- It sounds like he's
got all these creditors

about to stage an intervention
and arrest him essentially,

and four insurance companies,
all of whom wanna arrest him

on insurance fraud.
- Uh-huh.

- [Amaryllis] Wowl,

so Holmes is feeling
the pressure hard.

- So he thought by
getting out of town

he could let a lot
of the heat off.

- We've seen Holmes
flee town before,

in the summer of 1888,
when he was named

in a string of lawsuits
related to the construction

of the murder castle.

It's in this period that we
lost Holmes' paper trail,

and couldn't definitively
place him back in Chicago

until the spring of 1889,
shortly after the end

of the Whitechapel
killings in London.

So by leaving town
after the World's Fair,

Holmes seems to be
repeating a pattern

of scamming until
things get hot,

and then leaving town
to avoid his creditors.

- [Jeff] So once his
scams started to unravel,

that's when he hits the road?

- Mm-hmm.

But naturally, he
had an escape plan.

- Of course he did.

- Alright, so now he's
hired a new young lady,

Minnie Williams, who
has come up from Tas,

and immediately fell into
the clutches of H. H. Holmes.

- [Narrator] The daughter
of an affluent family,

Minnie Williams is
the perfect mark.

Together, she and her sister
own a large plot of land

in Fort Worth, Texas,
which Holmes will later use

as a centerpiece of
his plan to skip town

and escape his creditors.

- Holmes drew up a fake deed
transferring her property

in Fort Worth over to him.

But in order to make it work,

(screaming)

he had to get rid of
both her and her sister.

- So this is Holmes'
escape plan from Chicago?

- [Adam] Right, and when
he eventually did show up

in Fort Worth, he
had a deed saying

I'm now the owner of
this property purchased

from Minnie Williams.

- So what did he do
once he got to Texas?

- Well, a week before,

they had sent a
Benjamin Pitezel ahead.

Pitezel had been working with
Holmes in various swindles

for at least a year
by then in Chicago.

- Given what we know about
Holmes' gruesome acts,

it's hard to believe anyone
would've been willing

to help him, but he actually
had several known accomplices

during his time in Chicago.

His closest known associate
was Benjamin Pitezel,

a husband and
father from Chicago,

who clearly had little trouble
cleaning up after a madman,

for the right price.

- So Pitezel was sent ahead as
the advance man to Fort Worth

to take care of
all the paperwork,

so by the time that
Holmes got there,

they were ready
to start building.

- [Amaryllis] Start
building what?

- His second castle.

's it,

you know, the heat is on here,
I have to get out of here.

He was done with Chicago.

- [Narrator] In the
final months of 1893,

H. H. Holmes successfully
dodges his creditors in Chicago

and sets the wheels in
motion for his next con.

In Fort Worth, Texas, with
the help of his accomplice,

Benjamin Pitezel,
he draws up plans

to franchise the murder castle.

- [John] So this is the
exterior of the building.

- Oh, it's literally identical.

That could be a drawing
of the building at 63rd

and Wallace in Chicago.

- [Narrator] Hunting
for physical evidence

that could tie H. H.
Holmes to Jack the Ripper,

Jeff and Amaryllis meet with
documentarian John Borowski

to learn more about Holmes'
second murder castle.

- You can see the man,
designing and building this,

knowing that what he had
in Chicago was perfect.

- Definitely, if you look at
the inside of this building,

what's so interesting is
it looks like the layout

of his castle as well.

Look at all these rooms
and if you look here,

that's where the chute would be,

just like the other building.

The interesting thing
about the one in Texas was,

he had designed it so that
the bodies would be thrown

directly down into the sewer.

Easier body disposal.

- [Amaryllis] That's
fascinating.

What's interesting to me, given
what we saw in Whitechapel,

is, if this is the same person,
you have an adolescence,

killing in open air,

with interruptions
from the police.

If that sparks the
idea, okay, well a hotel

or a boarding house is
a good place to be able

to lure young women,
work uninterrupted,

and dispose of the body.

The Chicago hotel really
represents the first attempt

at that but Holmes sees
room for improvement still,

so he adds one additional tweak
and reproduces it in Texas.

It's really pretty
extraordinary.

- And making it so
there's no evidence

like Mary Kelly's body
left behind to photograph.

- [Amaryllis] Straight
into sewer.

- So, what happened
in Texas, John?

- So here's Holmes in
Texas with his new wife,

and Benjamin Pitezel--

- [Amaryllis]
Wait, a third wife?

- [John] Yes.

- [Amaryllis] Amazing.

- Holmes met Georgiana
Yoke at a department store

in Chicago.

She was this young
woman in her early 20s,

and eventually they got married.

Little did she know, of
course, that he was married

to two other women
at the same time.

- [Jeff] Did he and
Georgiana actually live

in the second murder castle?

- No, he forcefully and
strangely stole horses in Texas

and then he put them
on a train to Chicago,

and maybe they were
gonna sell them,

but people in Texas
and law enforcement,

they got wind of this, and
they run him out of town.

- Shows you how the heat was on

because Holmes would not
have been able to leave

that property that easily.

He knew he had to go.
- Yea.

- So did he take Pitezel and
Georgiana with him, when he--

- [John] Yes.

- [Amaryllis] Got out of Dodge?

- [John] Yeah, they're
traveling with him, you know

and Holmes, along the way,
he's planning his schemes

and cons in St. Louis.

- [Amaryllis] And he's using
a different name in each

of these towns?

- Everywhere he
goes, everywhere.

Sometimes numerous names
in one city or state.

- It's really helpful to me
in putting the Holmes pieces

together in this
investigation to understand

how comfortable he was traveling
and not just traveling,

but using aliases, committing
crimes, committing murder,

far away from home,
and of course,

if Holmes is going to
be Jack the Ripper,

he needs to be the kind of
killer who is comfortable

going on the road to kill and
it's pretty clear that he is.

H. H. Holmes is closely
associated with Chicago,

but we're learning that he
was someone smart enough

to move frequently from city
to city to evade the law,

much like Jack the Ripper,
whom Scotland Yard believes

may have left London in 1888,
and possibly continued killing

in the United States.

- [Jeff] So John, where
does Holmes go next?

- He goes to Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania.

Holmes had planned this
life insurance policy scam

to take out a life
insurance policy on Pitezel.

- Do you recall what the
value of the policy was?

- $10,000.

So, Holmes said, you know what?

We split the money, five grand
for you, five grand for me,

everyone's happy,
but strangely enough,

that's the actual beginning
of the end for H. H. Holmes.

- What this investigation
needs more than anything else

is physical evidence.

But with Holmes taking his
murder spree

all over the country,

he's creating more sites
that we can potentially mine

for exactly that.

Since the murder castle
isn't open to us right now,

I wanna look into some
of Holmes' later crimes,

to see if there'sanythinh

in other cities Holmes visited,

because we can be sure he
was killing all over the map.

It's a lot for us to take in.

We need to follow Holmes'
lead, and get to Philadelphia.

- [Jeff] I agree.

- [Narrator] After
leaving Fort Worth,

Holmes spends four months on
the road to escape capture,

pulling off scams in Denver
and St. Louis along the way,

and arrives in Philadelphia
in August, 1894.

- So we left off
Holmes' trail last

when he was on his way
here to Philadelphia.

Could you tell us what
happened once he got here?

- [Narrator] Jeff and
Amaryllis pick up the trail

at the Philadelphia
city archives,

where they've gained
rare access to records

from the plot that leads
to Holmes' final downfall.

- So on, or about,
September 1st of 1894,

Holmes and Pitezel set
up a phony patent office,

which was really a
minor scam, in scope,

compared to the real
reason why they were here,

which was the life
insurance scheme.

They were essentially
partners in crime.

- [Narrator] Holmes is no
stranger to insurance fraud.

The plan is to take a
life insurance policy

out in Benjamin Pitezel's name
and submit a stolen cadaver

in his place.

Holmes will identify
the body as Pitezel

to the insurance company,
collect on the policy,

and share the money
with his right-hand man.

Although he has seen
Holmes' true character,

Pitezel trusts him nonetheless.

- [James] And if you look,
this is the original document

that formed the basis for
the life insurance scam.

- [Amaryllis] That's incredible.

- If you look here,
you can see that

here is Benjamin F. Pitezel's
name, insuring his life

for the amount of $10,000.

But within a week, Holmes
had murdered Pitezel.

- Amazing.

He had seen Holmes
turn on people before,

he obviously believed Holmes
would never betray him

in that way.

- [James] Yes.

- It's really meaningful
to see his signature there,

because he didn't realize he
was signing away his life.

- [Narrator] Holmes renders
Benjamin Pitezel unconscious

with a blow to the head,
then pumps his stomach full

of flammable chloroform
and burns the body,

to make the murder
look like an accident.

He then cashes in the $10,000
life insurance policy,

which he promises to split
with the Pitezel family,

who believe that Holmes
uses a stranger's corpse

in place of Benjamin Pitezel
in order to secure the payout.

- And it's your opinion
that the wife took part

in the scheme?

- I don't believe she
knew that Holmes planned

to kill her husband.

From what we know
from our documents,

she always believed,
like her husband did,

that this was essentially
one of their scams,

not unlike many others
that they had pulled

and that they really were
just all going to make off

with the money.

And if you look closely
here, you can see

that the beneficiary of the
policy was Pitezel's wife,

Carrie A. Pitezel, who was
to receive the proceeds

in the event of her
husband's death.

But what we know is that Holmes
had an entirely different

idea in mind.

- So Holmes killed the
only man he trusted,

the one who helped him
build the murder castle,

and cover his tracks.

- Well yeah, I mean, it's
in line with what we've seen

from Holmes so far.

He kills people who
are close to him

and he can profit
from financially.

I mean, look at Minnie Williams.

- But after going
to all that trouble,

do you think he really
intended to split the money

with the Pitezel family?

- Yeah, that doesn't
seem likely to me.

You've got five kids
and one grownup standing

between him and $10,000.

Doesn't seem like something
that would stop Holmes.

I wonder what happened to the
rest of the Pitezel family?

- There's an author
here in Philadelphia,

who might be able to
help us with that.

- Great.

- [Narrator] Jeff and
Amaryllis meet with Roger Lane,

a leading authority
on violent criminals,

to find out where
Holmes went to next.

- One of the things that
enabled Holmes to get away

with everything that he did,

was that there was
no national FBI.

- [Amaryllis] What does
Holmes do after he collects

the insurance policy
on Benjamin Pitezel?

- After he picked up the
money, he told Carrie Pitezel,

Benjamin's wife, detectives
are gonna be following you.

They'll be looking for
a woman with five kids.

He's playing on her paranoia,
and so she put Alice,

Nellie, and Howard on
a train to join Holmes.

- And how old were
they at the time?

- Alice was 15, Nellie
was 11, Howard was 10.

- I never understood why
did Holmes want possession

of the children?

Exactly why?

- I think he, from the
beginning, had in mind,

that he would have to get
rid of the Pitezel family,

because Carrie
Pitezel of course knew

about this insurance scheme.

The only safe thing
for him to do was

to get rid of the whole
family and he could start

with these three kids.

Holmes would have to get
rid of the Pitezel family,

and he could start
with these three kids.

- [Narrator] In September
of 1894, Holmes embarks

on the next phase
of his master plan,

to systematically silence any
witness who can expose him

as a fraud and a killer.

Most urgently, the members
of Benjamin Pitezel's family.

- So Howard went first.

Howard Pitezel was killed
October 10th, in Irvington,

which is a suburb
of Indianapolis.

- [Amaryllis] Do we know
what the cause of death was?

- Later on, in a confession,

Holmes said that he had
poisoned, then strangled him,

and then burnt his body
in a stove in the cellar

of that rented house.

They never discovered
the whole of his body.

- [Amaryllis] Really?

- [Roger] I mean, he'd left
enough evidence to make it clear

that this was Howard
Pitezel's body.

The sisters were murdered
in Toronto, October 25th.

Holmes gassed the girls
by putting their bodies

in a big trunk, drilling
a hole in the trunk,

and running illuminating gas
in until they suffocated.

- This would be similar to
carbon monoxide poisoning or--

- [Roger] Yeah.

Or to what happened back
in the castle in Chicago.

- It's your opinion they
knew something he was afraid

of being released
to the authorities?

- Yes.

- But why would he have
taken them across the country

into Canada, what was that?

- Well, part of it may
have been to foil pursuit

by Fidelity investigators,
and maybe it was

for the sheer fun of
manipulating other people.

- There's a great psychic
income for him, I think,

in this sense of
superiority that comes

from the cat and mouse game.

- Who knows?

With a mind like this,
like his, who knows?

- This is the first time
in our investigation

where we might find
evidence of a Holmes murder,

that we can actually examine.

- When we're trying to
take two sets of crimes

and attribute them
to the same killer,

really the only
way to do that is

to actually find
physical evidence

that link the two
crime scenes, or say,

that the map of the
killings is so similar

that they're either the same
killer or a copycat killer.

We can't do either
of those things,

if we can't find some
physical evidence,

some remains of at least one
victim from H. H. Holmes.

And the man's sheer genius in
premeditation, as a killer,

has thwarted us up until now.

These later killings
in his career seem

to be less premeditated
than what he was undertaking

at the murder castle.

Ben Pitezel, the crime
scene was cleaned up.

We've learned what
we had to learn.

The girls in Toronto were found.

Howard is different.

I'd like to learn more about
the Howard Pitezel murder.

It seems to me the least
investigated at the time.

- [Jeff] No one
ever looked into it.

- We know that the
murder was conducted

at this scene, right?

Part of the body was
discovered there.

Howard's murder is the
first killing ground

where we could actually
find remains to link him

to Jack the Ripper.

Based on all the crime
scenes that we've looked at,

Irvington, Indiana is the most
likely to give us something

that we can actually put
through forensic analysis

and come up with an answer.

- Let's do it.

- One of the thoughts of why
Holmes picked Irvington is

that strangers were accepted,

and also it was a
remote location.

- [Narrator] In
Irvington, Indiana,

mere miles from the location
of Howard Pitezel's murder,

Jeff and Amaryllis meet
with local historian,

Steve Barnett, to dig
deeper into the details

of the horrific crime.

- In the late summer of
1894, Holmes came to Indiana

with Howard and found
a house to rent,

that was on the edge, really,
of the developed area.

- What's your understanding
of how many days

Holmes was in Irvington
to commit the crime?

- He rented the house
on October the 5th,

which was a Friday, and stayed
until October 10th and left.

Also, there's some other members
of the historical society

that have materials that
were left here in Irvington.

- [Amaryllis] Materials
that Holmes left behind?

- [Steve] Yes.

- If Holmes did leave
possessions or personal items

behind during his stay in
Irvington,

they could be crucial
to our investigation.

We definitely need
to track them down,

after we investigate the
scene of Howard's murder.

What reason did he give
for coming to Irvington?

- He rented the house, saying
he was setting the house

up for his sister, who
was coming to town.

Then he ordered this huge
stove to be installed.

It was a wood-burning stove
and there was one report

that someone commented,

what are you getting
that big stove for?

We have gas out here now.

And he said well, gas
is not good for kids.

- He meant gas is not good
for cremating the remains

of kids.
- Yes.

- [Amaryllis] When
was Howard found?

- After he completed the
deed, in October of 1894,

it wasn't til almost a year
later, the detectives found,

essentially, Howard's
mummified entrails.

- His organs?

- His organs, yes.

- So he'd been disemboweled?

- He had, yes.

- This isn't the Holmes we
thought we knew in Chicago.

This is much more of
a Ripper-type murder.

of
a Ripper-type murder,

and the haphazard way
he left the body behind

and simply left the
scene of the crime.

- [Narrator] Investigating
the murder of Howard Pitezel,

Jeff and Amaryllis uncover
a big break in the case.

A possible link
between a Holmes victim

and the Jack the
Ripper killings.

Reports from the time indicate
that the 10-year-old victim

is first rendered unconscious
and then disemboweled,

a method that closely mirrors
the Ripper's deadly technique.

- [Amaryllis] We know that
detectives at the time

never found the entirety
of Howard's remains.

Do you know which
parts were missing?

- [Steve] The detectives
found other bone fragments

in the yard and elsewhere.

- [Amaryllis] Just scattered?

- [Steve] Yes.

You might want to
look at this account.

- Newspapers at the time
report that the only parts

of Howard's body
that were recovered

were his skull,
femur, and cheekbone,

along with his stomach,
liver, and spleen.

That's a lot of Howard's body
that's still unaccounted for.

- I don't know what
more horrifying image

you could possibly have.

- There's a report that,
on Howard's last day,

Holmes went with Howard actually
down to a knife-sharpener

in downtown Indianapolis to
have instruments sharpened,

and even talked about preparing
another surgical instrument.

- Were these surgical knives
that they were talking about?

- Uh, that's my impression, yes.

In fact, there was
one newspaper account

where the proprietor of the
knife-sharpening business

remarked that they would
be desirable weapons

for a Jack the Ripper.

- [Jeff] I think we need
to check out the site

where Howard was murdered.

- It's so amazing to be
standing here on this ground

and realize that this
is the same ground

where all those bone
fragments of Howard Pitezel

were discovered.

- Right, this was a
totally open space except

for the house that
Holmes had rented.

The house itself was
a very simple cottage.

It had been built in
1891 so it was only

about three or four years old
at the time Holmes rented it.

But we know that he scattered
the bones around the yard,

and I have a homeowner that
might be of interest to you,

so let's walk around the corner.

- [Jeff] Sounds
like a good idea.

- Lead the way.

- [Narrator] The cottage Holmes
rents for five fateful days

in 1894 sits on a
large plot of land

that has since been subdivided
into multiple properties.

The original house
no longer exists,

but a new home occupies
the majority of the lot.

- This was part of
a larger estate,

kind of accompanying
the neighboring houses,

going back in this direction,

which made up the
home's property.

- And as far as you
know, has the ground here

ever been excavated?

- No, not to my
knowledge, not at all.

- [Jeff] I think it
certainly warrants

further investigation.

- Federal investigations
sometimes rely

on forensic K-9 units that are
trained to identify the area

of old human remains.

I'm thinking this might be a
good resource to tap into here

because we'll need to
identify an excavation area

before we can bring in a team.

Do you think it's possible for
us to come back another day

with more resources
and do it properly?

- Absolutely, that'd be fine.

- My ideas about Holmes
being Jack the Ripper

are discredited because
people say Holmes didn't kill

like the Ripper.

If we can find direct evidence,

we have a chance to
connect those MOs.

- [Narrator] Jeff
and Amaryllis consult

with Dr. Page Selinsky,

a leading biological
anthropologist

to learn whether
130-year-old skeletal remains

could contain the
evidence they need

to forensically evaluate
Holmes' killing method.

- These bones you have
laid out on the table here,

mainly the spine and ribcage.

These bones for Howard Pitezel
have not yet been found.

We know in several of the
Jack the Ripper cases,

that there were actually
knife marks on the vertebrae,

so I'm encouraged that
this is the part of Howard

that has not yet been uncovered.

We know from newspaper reports
that most of Howard's bones

were never recovered.

This could be very important

because the Jack the Ripper
autopsy reports specifically

mention marks made on bones.

If we could recover the
bones from a Holmes victim,

it would be a major
breakthrough for this case.

When comparing two killers,
the method of killing is

a really important
piece of information.

We know from the experts that
we've spoken to in London

that the murder weapon used
by Jack was a surgical knife,

such as this, which are
not serrated at all,

and we know that when Holmes
was here, he had such a set

and actually took them to be
sharpened while he was in town.

Could you walk us through
what we'd be looking for

in identifying
the murder weapon,

based on the marks on the bone?

- In this case here, I can
show you wt a knife wound

would look like on the rib
of a young adult female,

and you can see that there
is a very clean-cut edge

and it will match up
perfectly with the other side

of that rib.

- Now, if we were only to
recover one of these pieces,

would you be able to
tell what the weapon was

that was used to make the cut?

- Well, you can see here we
have some comparative samples

for a saw versus a knife,

and you can see what
a saw mark looks like

on the end of the bone.

You can see a little
bit of the saw marks

on the bone itself.

The knife is gonna leave a
very thin, clean cut there.

- Finding a bone that's been
cut with a serrated blade

would conflict with what we know

about the Ripper's killings.

If we find a bone where
we're able to identify

a surgical knife has been used,

in a way that's more
consistent with disemboweling,

then the manner of killing
begins to look a lot more

like Jack the Ripper's
investigation.

- What about if, while the
cut was being made, Page,

the victim was struggling?

Because Jack the Ripper
dissected his victims

after they were unconscious.

- I mean, that's gonna affect
many things about the cut,

including the cut itself and
whether you're gonna have

sort of false cuts, instead
of a clean cut, so yes.

So, if you have very clean,
single incident sorts of cuts,

it's more likely that the
victim was not struggling

during the process.

- I'm hopeful, based
on what you've told us,

that if we are able to find
any of Howard's remains,

they may be able to
shed light on the manner

in which he was killed.

- Which may help us connect

that Holmes murder
of Howard Pitezel,

with the Ripper
Whitechapel murders.

Zuma is her name?
- Yes.

She's a historical human
remains detection dog.

- [Narrator] Jeff
and Amaryllis enlist

a canine recovery team
to survey the site

for any sign of human remains.

- What she'll do is she'll
grid the area really tight,

and try to find the source.

- This is the coldest
case I've worked.

Can Zuma smell remains
that are 125 years old?

- Yes, we do a lot
of that kind of work.

We assist archeologists.

We train them to find
the older remains.

- So what are we looking for
as an indicator from Zuma

that she's found something?

- She'll definitely
slow her pace,

and she'll begin to sniff the
area a little more detailed,

and then she'll lay down.

- She'll lay down.

All right, Zuma, you wanna
find something for us?

- [Handler] You ready,
come on, let's get to work.

- Knowing that even the smallest
fragment of bone could help

shed light on Holmes'
killing style,

we need to explore the
entire plot of land

where Howard's body
was found in 1895.

- [Handler] Very
nice, good girl, easy.

Turn.

Good.

Easy.

Zu, here.

- [Amaryllis] Is she
showing any interest there?

- [Handler] Zu, turn.

- [Jeff] Whoa!

- [Ha- [Jeff] Whoa!ell.

- Is that a hit?

- [Handler] No.

- [Jeff] So what does that mean?

She thought about it
and then backed off?

- Yeah.

If she would have stayed or
if she goes back on her own,

then we know that we
have something there.

- Right, should we take a look

on the other side of the house?

- [Handler] Yes.

- [Narrator] The
highly specialized,

historical human remains
canine team is on the scent

of revealing a
break in the case.

The recovery dog is trained

to identify
centuries-old corpses.

- [Handler] Let's
get back to work.

- [Narrator] A skill that
Jeff and Amaryllis hope

will locate where
Holmes disposed

of the 10-year-old
Howard Pitezel.

- [Jeff] There's no
doubt she's at work.

- [Amaryllis] Well, and for us,

the stakes couldn't be higher,

so I'm hoping she
finds something.

- [Handler] Good job.

Good.

Get to work.

(suspenseful music)

- Whoa, she's sitting down.

- Is that it?

Is that it?

I believe that there is
possibly something in this area.

- So Zuma pinged on old
human remains in this area?

- Yes.

It seems to be a
good place to look.

- This could possibly be the
spot that Holmes buried part

of Howard Pitezel?

- [Handler] Yes.

- That's an enormous
breakthrough.

For the entire Holmes
trail that we've been on,

we have never before had
access to physical evidence,

let alone the remains of
a victim of H. H. Holmes,

anywhere in this investigation.

We have to handle
this incredibly carefully,

I mean, this is a crime scene.

The likelihood,
given that we know

that Howard's remains were
found on that property,

is that, somewhere
under that ground,

is at least some other part
of 10-year-old Howard Pitezel,

a real human boy who was
killed by H. H. Holmes.

- Looking at Howard's picture
here now, it's emotional.

- I'm really sorry that
this child lay in the ground

for a hundred years, but it
may not have been in vain,

because he may end up
being the breadcrumbs

back through history
that actually allow us

to put this case to rest.

Think about the number of times,

as we've gone through
this investigation,

that we've been frustrated
at how the forensic scene was

bungled by investigators
at the time

and it's really our
responsibility to Howard

to make sure that we don't
do the same thing here.

- Well, I've got to
tell you, after today,

I'm ready to take the next step.

What's the proper move?

- I'd like to make
a few phone calls

and see what components
we need from archeology

and academia to make sure
that we do this right,

'cause we really only
have one shot at it.

- [Narrator] Four months
into their investigation

of the historic
unsolved mystery,

Jeff and Amaryllis
are closer than ever

to unearthing the evidence
they need to prove

that Jeff's ancestor, H. H.
Holmes, was Jack the Ripper.

- We're going to place
our one-by-one test unit,

and very carefully dig down,
centimeter by centimeter,

looking for human remains.

See if we can find
what's left of Howard.

- [Narrator] They've
secured the assistance

of an archeological
team to properly recover

any skeletal remains of
Holmes' victim, Howard Pitezel.

- It really feels
like we're giving this

the first thorough
investigation it's received

a hundred years after the fact.

- Better late than never.

Let's go to it.

- Yeah, so you're being
careful to just grab the sod?

- [Archeogist] Right.

We just did the first sift.
- Yeah.

- Now, how deep are we now, Amy?

- Roughly four or
five centimeters.

We're gonna keep going until
we hit that sterile subsoil.

You can see we're still
in the really dark.

- [Jeff] Yeah.

- There is a color change
that we'll be able to see

when I've hit that subsoil.

We won't be digging
into the subsoil

because we know he wasn't
burying remains on the site,

he was scattering
them on the surface,

and materials don't typically
move down into the subsoil

so if there are materials
here, or remains,

they're gonna be up in the
upper layers of the soil.

- We learned that, if Holmes
did use surgical knives

to disembowel Howard Pitezel,

then he would have left
recognizable marks on the bones.

And London autopsy reports
on the Ripper victims

cite a specific
pattern on the bone,

so finding even a small part
of Howard's skeleton would be

a big discovery for the case.

What's that right there?

- [Amy] Hang on a second.

It's coal.

- Coal?

That's interesting, since
part of his body was found

in a furnace.

Does this show any signs
of having been burned?

- [Amy] Yes, the shiny
outer coating indicates

that has been burned.

- [Amaryllis] Are there
uses for this kind of coal,

current day, or would you
think this dates to the time?

- I would think that
likely dates to the time.

People these days aren't using
coal like that to heat homes.

- I mean, that's
really interesting,

given that we know
Howard's body was burned

before it was scattered.

- [Amy] Well, here's more coal.

That's like all over in here.
- Yeah.

- [Amy] It's all through
it, there's a lot in here.

- [Amaryllis] There's
a lot of coal in here.

- [Amy] Some here.

- [Amaryllis] You're
also finding coal?

- [Jeff] So now we're talking
about a deposit of coal,

not just a piece of coal?

- Yeah, the guys are finding
it in the sieves as well.

And we found it near
where Zuma pinged

on historical human remains.

- Whoa, whoa, whoa.

Whoa, what?

Check that out.

Well that, is that a coin?

- [Amaryllis] Whatever that
is, it looks period, right?

- [Amy] It looks like
an archeology artifact.

- [Amaryllis] It's
made out of metal.

- [Amy] It is metal.

It's a button.

- For this to have been a
wooded, quiet area at the time,

not a residential area, and
to find coal next to a button,

clearly something
was disposed of here.

Whether it's part of Howard,
think we have to keep digging.

- [Amy] I've got another button.

- Oh, yeah?

Where was that one found?

- [Amy] It came
out of the screen.

- [Amaryllis] Same button?

- [Amy] Almost exact.

- [Amaryllis] Oh, wow.

- Exact.

- So now we're talking
about finding clothing.

I mean, this is a matching set.

Wow, my ...

That's ...

My heart's actually beating.

It's really a finding.

- What's the white
that I'm seeing?

- [Amy] Right there?

(suspenseful music)

That's a bone.

- That's bone?
- Yeah.

- So we found bone?
- Yeah.

- Holy ...

- [Narrator] Next time,
on American Ripper.

- [Archeologist] Oh, oh, Amy.

- We have something?

- Whoa, wait a minute, whoa.

- [Page] They appear most
likely to be rib bone.

- Are you sure?

- [Man] This entire box
is nothing but photos.

- Without even
looking at the back,

I recognize this man.

- Have you ever heard
of the Holmes curse?

- What are we talking about,

like Holmes' ghost
exacting revenge on people?

- I think the Holmes curse
is compelling evidence

that Holmes escaped
his execution.

- Think what?

- He made a confession
that was recorded.

- Of his voice?

- The only way I'm
going to find out

if H. H. Holmes may
actually be Jack the Ripper

is to see what, if anything,
is actually buried here.

- Are you talking about
actually digging up

your great-great-grandfather?