All language subtitles for American.Ripper.S01E08.The.Grave.1080p_track3_[eng]

c)

- [Bill] So right from
that edge.

- [Saml] I think it's
nine feet all the way

to the headstone,
we measured earlier.

-[Jeff] We haven't found a
body, and we're down

to levels where it should be.

- [Amaryllis] There there
there there there there...

- [Jeff] The Holmes story
hasn't been told yet,

this is just the
opening chapter.

- This is crazy.

- [Narrator] Previously,
on American Ripper.

- From what we've
learned, there is not

as dramatic a
difference between these

two killers as I had thought.

- All of this stuff I believe

point to a connection
with Holmes.

- Have you ever heard
of the Holmes' curse?

- [Jeff] A lot of people
involved with the case

mysteriously died
after the execution.

- Each of these are Jack
the Ripper style murders

after Holmes's execution,

in cities that
Holmes has a link to.

- It's compelling evidence
that Holmes escaped

his death and execution.

His estate purchased two
graves and they buried

him in the center--
- Is it unusual for

one person to
purchase two plots?

- [Bill Giffin] It's very
unusual.

- 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 buried here.

- Are you talking about
actually digging up

your great great grandfather?

(dramatic music)

- I can't believe
we're on the verge of

actually digging the grave up,

where my great great
grandfather's allegedly buried,

potentially coming up with
a major piece of evidence.

- [Narrator] Former CIA
operative Amaryllis Fox

and Jeff Mudgett,
descendant of H. H. Holmes,

are investigating
the life and death

of the notorious
con man and killer.

- I'm on pins and needles.

- [Narrator] They're
seeking permission to

excavate Holmes's grave site,

hunting for answers to
the mysteries that have

surrounded the case
for over a century.

- Well we've been on
this journey for so long,

following every
footstep of this man,

to come, potentially face
to face with evidence

of the greatest con
he ever committed

really feels like like
an enormous next ste

- [Narrator] H. H.
Holmes becomes America's

most infamous celebrity
when he's finally arrested

in November, 1894.

Hearst newspapers pay
him $7500 to write his

exclusive confessions while
imprisoned in Philadelphia.

The payout is equivalent
to $250,000 today,

a fortune that some
believe Holmes uses

to bribe guards,
prison officials,

and possibly even enlist a
body double in the scheme

to escape his death sentence.

- What's exciting for
me as an investigator is

that at most crime
scenes you don't know

whether you're going
to find anything.

Here at the grave site, really
there are only three options

and every one of them
tells us something.

Possibility number one,
we open up the grave

and we find a body in there
and that body is Holmes.

Holmes is in his grave.

Does that mean he
wasn't Jack the Ripper?

Not necessarily.

But it does mean that the
Baddy Street eyewitness

who claims to have
seen Jack the Ripper

25 years later, was
not looking at Holmes.

And it does mean that
the Ripper-style murders

after Holmes was executed were
not carried out by Holmes.

- All right.

Number two, a body is
found, but it's not Holmes.

- Right, so this would
be consistent with him

switching out the
bodies at the gallows,

like the newspaper article
suggests that he did,

and some other--
- Completely anonymous.

- Poor cadaver is
buried in his place.

So if that's the case,
that would be a lot more

consistent with Holmes
being Jack the Ripper

because then Holmes
would have walked away

able to conduct
all of those other

Jack the Ripper-style
killings that happened

after Holmes's execution.

- Which walks right
into the Holmes' curse.

- [Narrator] Central to
the theory that Holmes

escapes his execution is
a strange series of events

that occur in the years
following May, 1896,

when the Judge, the
Prison Superintendent,

the witness for the
prosecution and at least

eight others involved
in Holmes's case,

die or disappear under
unexplained circumstances.

- Every one of those deaths,
and mysterious accounts

of those people
involved in his trial,

they were visited by Holmes.

They were murdered by Holmes.

(tense music)

There's a third possibility.

- All right, possibility
number three.

There is no body at all.

- Now what difference
does an empty grave have

with a different body
than Holmes in the grave?

- The difference is
probably just the scale

of the conspiracy, I mean
if that grave is empty,

a whole lot of people
were in on this,

because there are media
reports that say he was

lying in his coffin,
the concrete was laid on

top of him in front
of God and everyone.

If all of those were
fabricated then we're

looking at a big
conspiracy here.

But, whatever's down there,
the one thing that's clear

is that Holmes didn't
want us to find it.

- Yep.
- We know that he

bought a double
plot, that's unusual.

We know that it
was dug extra deep,

that's unusual, and
we know they're there,

it seems to be concrete
designed to prevent us,

125 years later,
digging it open.

- It's evidence, that Holmes
was trying to hide something.

- Yeah, well all we can do is
wait for permission to dig.

And now we've got the ball
rolling on the exhumation,

I really want to get
back into that box

of mementos that we
found in Irvington.

I heard back from the
facial recognition expert

who was comparing the photos
that his results are in.

- Great, let's go!

(tense music)

- So we built the technology
that can take a 2D image

and build a 3D structure
from that 2D image.

- [Narrator] During
their investigation into

the murder of Howard
Pitezel, Jeff and Amaryllis

uncovered a collection
of items reportedly

left behind after Holmes fled

Irvington, Indiana
in October, 1894.

The box includes medical
tools manufactured in England.

A program from Holmes's
medical school graduation,

and dozens of
photographs of people

who appear to be
linked to H. H. Holmes.

- [Sean] Then we can also
take two separate images,

and then be able to
compare two objects.

- [Narrator] They've enlisted
a facial recognition expert

to authenticate the
photographs by comparing them

to known images or
sketches of people involved

in both the Holmes and
Jack the Ripper cases.

- Okay so this is sort
of like a control.

We have a real sketch
of Minnie Williams,

so I suppose it
was in a newspaper,

and then this photo,
the real photo of Minnie

and a sketch of Minnie.

- So in theory this
would be the kind of

perfect match control
group that we'll

compare the other
matches against?

- [Sean] Yes.

- [Narrator] Commercial
photography is introduced

in 1839

but printing technology
is so limited at the time,

that daily newspapers
do not widely publish

photographs until the 1900s.

To represent key
figures in a news story,

the papers rely on
artists' sketches,

sourced from known
portraits or photos.

- Minnie Williams was one
of Holmes's mistresses,

and eventual victim.

By comparing a known
photograph of her

with a newspaper
sketch, we can get

a baseline for what a positive
match should look like.

- So first we're gonna
take a look at the eyes,

and the eyebrows and kind
of start from top down.

And so the things that
are looking similar here

is the eyebrow hair
growth pattern is short,

and then, looking at the
eye, you know you have

the upper eyelid shape,
and then you also have

this area underneath the
eye that's casting a shadow.

- So what kind of a score
would this comparison, earn?

- 64 1/2%.

- Wow so that's
actually a strong match,

if 64% is between two known
likenesses of the same person.

So that's what we're
aiming for, really.

If there's a positive
match between any photo

in this box and one of Holmes's
accomplices or victims,

makes it a lot more likely
the box belonged to Holmes.

- Okay, so we're gonna
take a look at Pat Quinlan.

There's actually one
photo in this box

who seems to look at
lot like Pat Quinlan

and the only photo we have

of Pat Quinlan is this sketch.

-[Jeff] Quinlan was his
henchman, at the murder castle,

and I believe that's
a courtroom drawing,

identified by the
newspaper as Pat Quinlan.

- You know what's interesting
here is that chin,

as I'm just looking at it,
it's got a dimple in it,

and the nose looks similar
especially in the nostril flare.

And, our morphological
analysis comes up with 62 1/2%.

- [Amaryllis] Whoa.

- [Jeff] So that's fairly high.

- It is fairly high when
you take into account

the kind of imagery
that we were using.

We're using a very old photo
with limited dynamic range,

and then we're using
that sketch with kind of

entirely different
set of dynamic ranges.

- I've been researching
my great great grandfather

for over 20 years,
and in all that time

I've never come across an
original photo of Pat Quinlan.

Up until now the only
surviving image of him

was this sketch, published
in the newspapers

during the Holmes trial.

So finding what could be
the only known photo of him

in a place Holmes spent
time and received photos,

convinces me the box
belonged to Holmes.

Is there anything
else in the box,

of the photos that we sent
you that might tie Holmes

with Jack the Ripper?

- I did find
something interesting.

- That would be an enormous
leap forward for us

in our investigation.

- [Sean] So I'm gonna
start by loading up

a photo you sent me,
the tintype photo.

- From the Holmes box
we found in Irvington?

- Okay, so here's a woman,
the overall face shape

is very similar, all the
way through the jaw line

and the chin, and the
shape of the mouth,

as well as the nose shape.

This is a known photo
of Elizabeth Stride.

(tense music)

- One of Jack's five
canonical victims.

- She was number three.

- [Narrator] In the
investigation to link

Jack the Ripper and
H. H. Holmes,

an analysis of photos that

reportedly belonged to
Holmes himself

reveals a surprising
result, a potential

facial match between an
image in the collection

and a photo of a Jack
the Ripper victim.

- What number did
you come up with for

these two photographs?

- Pretty high score, 64 1/2%.

- Whoa, wait so we
have a 64% match

with one of Jack's
victims in a box,

that's associated
with H. H. Holmes.

That's the highest
score we've had so far,

except for when we
compared two images

of the same person
to each other.

- Right.
- We are a huge step

closer to nailing down that
Holmes was Jack the Ripper.

(dramatic music)

If Holmes wasn't the Ripper,

how would he have gotten
the picture, at that time,

of Elizabeth Stride?

- There's no doubt that if
that photo is Elizabeth Stride,

this is very serious evidence
in support of your theory.

It's a strong match, given
the age of the photograph.

- When we started
this investigation,

I thought I knew everything
there was to know

about H. H. Holmes, but
we've uncovered so much

I didn't expect to find,
I'm now more convinced

than ever that my
theory is true.

Right now our best
chance of finally finding

the evidence we need,
is to dig up that grave.

All we can do now is wait.

(tense music)

- [Narrator] The process
to exhume a grave site

can take months, and
is strictly regulated.

Permission to dig
requires both agreement

from all surviving relatives,

and a court order
from a presiding judge

in the local jurisdiction.

- Now I think the
testimony went really well,

I think the consents
you got helped a lot.

- [Narrator] At the office
of Philadelphia attorney,

Doug Maloney, Jeff
and Amaryllis receive

the long awaited verdict.

- The judge approved the
petition, we're good to go.

- You're kidding!
- Nope.

- Doug that's great news.

It's the culmination of 20
years of work on my part,

and quite frankly I never
thought we'd actually

receive permission
to exhume his grave.

- Now we still have to comply
with a lot of conditions.

All right they were
concerned about what happens

during the exhumation process,

they want to make
sure that the remains

are treated respectfully,

they want to make sure
that we conduct this

in accordance with the best
scientific protocol available,

we're gonna have the
Department of Anthropology

from Penn start the exhumation
process within 72 hours.

- 72 hours?

Are you kidding, we
better get started.

(tense music)

- [Jeff] Now we're talking.

- [Narrator] Breaking ground
at the H. H. Holmes grave site

for the first time
since his alleged burial

121 year ago, Jeff,
Amaryllis and a team

of archeologists are
working to expose

the secrets behind one of
history's greatest mysteries.

- We have no idea what's
gonna really be in there

it's either going to be empty,

which is a possibility,
or we could find

either a skeleton or a mummy.

- [Jeff] It amazes me that
we're on the verge of opening up

something which was
never to be opened again.

(resolute music)

- 19th century law enforcement

thought that Holmes's
murder spree ended

on the day he was
executed, May 7th of 1896,

but the Jack the Ripper-style
killings we found

in newspaper reports
continued after

Holmes's supposed execution.

So one way of proving that
Holmes was Jack the Ripper,

is proving he escaped his
own execution and burial.

While I think this
is a long shot,

I'm gonna remain open minded.

That's a really big--
- What's that?

What's that right there?

Are you sure that's
not concrete?

- [Tim] Let's take a look.

- [Sam] Hey.

- [Jeff] That looks
like concrete.

- [Sam] I think
it's just more clay.

- [Tim] Solidified.

- We saw the cemetery
records from 1896,

that revealed Holmes's
unusual last requests.

He purchased two burial
plots, and insisted

that his coffin be
encased in concrete.

I'm convinced that
these bizarre requests

were all part of his
plan to con his way

out of his own execution.

- It's possible as
we keep going deeper

we'll get into more of the gray,

and it could be the
concrete that's never set.

- [Man] All right
Joe, start it up!

- [Sam] All right.

(tense music)

- [Sam] Quite often you
dig up things in

cemeteries that are nothing
what you expected them to be.

- [Bill] Like in the case here.
- [Sam] Right.

- [Bill] Whoo, that
hole's getting bigger.

- [Sam] Yep.
- [Bill] Oh, we just went

another foot, yep.

- So I'm seeing a crack
over here in the wall,

of the adjoining
grave, and it looks,

it looks dangerous to me,

and I don't think we should
go any further with this.

I've got a shoring team waiting,

and I'm gonna go over
and get them to work.

So, nothing else is
disturbed on either side.

(tense music)

Ah, keep it going.
-[Worker] Get that back end.

All right.

(tense music)

- All the records we've
found indicates that

Holmes is buried in a
concrete filled coffin,

in this grave.

We're at six feet down,
and so far it's empty.

- [Amaryllis] How deep
are the grave sites here?

- The graves on
either side are eight,

which really mean that
you should be hitting

the top of the coffin.

- Actually we got one more
foot and we should be hitting.

This is an important scoop.

- That is definitely
a color change!

- Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa
whoa, don't go too deep!

It almost sounded like
you hit something solid.

(chattering)
- We've hit concrete.

- All right I think we
should quit using the backhoe

and start getting down there
a little more delicate.

- Why don't we put it--
- What are you gonna

want, shovels and buckets?
- Yeah.

- Earlier in our
investigation we uncovered

that Holmes owned a cement
factory back in Chicago,

and he was possibly encasing
his victims in concrete

and dumping them in the river.

So it's pretty strange
to hear that his own

bizarre burial request
included filling

his own grave with concrete.

What we don't know is how the
concrete was actually used.

The ambiguity in the reports
just deepens the mystery

about what if anything
is buried here.

- [Jeff] What are
you seeing Sam?

- We've got this really
strong color change.

- Yep.
- Between the gray

and the orange, so
this should be where

they dug the original grave.

- [Amaryllis] So that
would be the grave cut we

were looking for?

- Yeah, so this is what
we've been looking for,

the whole time.

If I can just pop this off,

right here.
- Oh man look!

- There's the corner,
- Looks like,

- right there.
- yep we got a corner.

- [Jeff] Can you
show me a corner?

- [Sam] You know
here's the corner.

You can see we've already
got the end of the coffin.

- So this is Holmes's coffin,

that we're looking
at right here.

- We've definitely found a box.

- [Jeff] Holy mackerel!

(tense music)

- [Narrator] Six feet
under, an unmarked grave.

The team uncovers the
first sign of what could be

the coffin of America's first
serial killer, H. H. Holmes.

The question is, what, if
anything, is buried inside?

- The only way we're gonna
know is to keep digging.

- Yep.
- Yeah.

(tense music)

- We found what we
were looking for,

a concrete filled coffin
buried between two

adjacent plots, just like
the newspaper report said.

We could be inches away from
the body of H. H. Holmes.

- Assuming the body was put in

in the orientation
we expect it to be,

the head should be on this end,

and the feet should
be on that end.

So, we're expecting down there

to try and hit the feet first,

hoping, we can get the toes,

and then follow the bones
up the skeleton from there.

- Follow it up.
- Yep.

- All right.

-[Narrator] The archeological
team

switches to hand tools
to excavate the coffin.

The plan is to remove the
concrete section by section,

to carefully expose any bones
or remains encased inside.

- Sam have you hit bottom there,

do you have any sense
about how deep it goes?

- We're down maybe eight
inches, from the top of it,

and so far we have
nothing but concrete.

- No artifacts,
no human remains?

- Nothing.
- [Amaryllis] OK how can I help?

- Trying to keep an eye out
really for just anything

that's different, 'cause
we don't know what

to expect in here.

- And once we find one
piece of human remains,

will you then have
a better sense

of what you're looking for?

- For sure, yeah.

- [Jeff] Unearthing Holmes's
grave could overturn

everything history tells us
about this man and his crimes.

Dozens of unsolved murders
took place after 1896,

in cities where Holmes was
active during his life.

- [Sam] Where are
you, you bastard...

- So if there's nothing
here, or if the body

in the grave isn't
Holmes, we're one step

closer to proving Holmes
is Jack the Ripper.

(tense music)

Hey guys, could you
hold up a moment?

We know Holmes was about
five foot seven inches tall.

I'd like to know where, if his
head is up against the end,

where his feet should
be at five foot seven.

- So we know the end
of the box is a little,

at least a little
bit into this wall,

so we're measuring
about six feet,

and if possible he moved
around within the concrete.

- [Narrator] A wood-framed
concrete filled coffin

is seven feet long.

18 inches at the foot of the
coffin is clear of concrete,

with no sign of remains.

If five-foot seven H. H. Holmes
is buried in this casket,

the team should be
just inches away

from the first evidence of bone.

(tense music)

- Now, I don't want to push
this, you know my theory.

- Yeah.
- But we haven't found a body

and we're down to levels
where it should be.

- I don't disagree with
you, and it's getting,

it's a little bit discouraging
we haven't found one yet.

- As an archeologist I know
you want to find bones,

and I really believed
with near certainty

that we would find them.

All the newspapers
suggest that H. H. Holmes

is buried here, all signs
pointed to H. H. Holmes's feet

being here and his
head being right there.

- Yep.
- But I gotta say I mean,

we're down to the bottom
of this box and there's

no sign of him yet.

I, I, I'm really dumbfounded,

but I think the bastard
might have walked away.

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] At a
cemetery six miles

outside of Philadelphia,

eight feet deep
beneath the surface

of an unmarked grave
reported to be

the final resting place of
murderous con man H. H. Holmes.

- [Sam] I think we're done.

- I guess that's it.

- [Narrator] The excavation
of a concrete coffin

reveals no body buried inside.

- At eight feet deep
we've come to the bottom

of an empty coffin, without
finding a single bone,

which to me is proof,
Holmes escaped his death.

(tense music)

- We're thinking it's
one of three options.

Either he escaped his own death,

which is hard for a logical
investigator to accept.

He's buried somewhere else,

or there's something even
deeper in that grave.

- Yeah, I think the key
thing you said is that

we're not at the bottom
of Holmes' grave.

- The theory that H. H.
Holmes escaped his own death

seems outlandish to me.

So far there is no
evidence of a body, but,

newspaper reports from the time

and cemetery records
suggest that Holmes

requested to be
buried extra deep.

This coffin may not be the end.

(tense music)

- [Narrator] In the
1800s, bodies are usually

interred six feet
beneath the ground.

Now, at a depth of
more than eight feet,

the exhumation pushes on.

(electric whining)
(mechanical grinding)

- It's hard.
- It's hard?

- It's hard.

(electric whining)

(thumping)

- [Tim] Wow.
- [Sam] Wow.

- [Sam] Okay.

- Okay, I mean for a comparison,

if I lean on this,
and I put it in here,

(thumping)
- Wow.

- That's not dirt.

- It's hard.
- It's sticking.

All right.
- Should I see if I

can drill it, is it
wood, or concrete?

- Will it drill?
- Yeah, try.

- You can try it.

(electric whining)

- [Amaryllis] Oh, did
it go through something?

- Wait, we just
- We just went

- through something.

- We just broke into
an opening, yeah.

- You mean another box?

- I drilled, it felt like
wood, then it broke through,

into an opening.

- Well, we broke
through something.

- It broke through something.
- Into, another opening.

(tense music)

So, do you think that
wood, the second wood

that you went through,
could be his coffin?

- It's wood, it could be.

- That is so weird.

(sighing)
- This is crazy.

(chuckling)
- And we thought

we were done.

- [Jeff] Let's cut
through the wood,

and see what' down there.
- Right.

(heavy whirring)
(mechanical grinding)

(tense music)

- [Narrator] Beneath the
floor of the pine box,

is a second layer of wood.

(heavy whirring)
(mechanical grinding)

- Look!
- Water.

- Water.
- Wow.

- We got water, lots of water.

- [Narrator] The deeper
the grave, the more

vulnerable it is
to water backing up

through the ground
during heavy rains.

At this depth,
stagnant water can have

a destructive effect on remains.

- [Tim] Yeah I've
seen that before.

- What's underneath,
how deep is it?

- Oh it's not very deep.
- Yeah.

- [Amaryllis] What
does it feel like?

- It's pretty, it's hard,
it feels like concrete.

I mean, it's hard, but it's
not like totally smooth.

- We're almost to the
bottom of a 10-foot grave,

and we have hardened
concrete which is exactly

what the report said we'd find.

We were basically just
thrown off by a fake

empty pine box at
the eight foot mark.

- Exactly, yeah.

- He's a con man to the last.

(tense music)

- [Narrator] The excavation
reveals a two-foot deep

concrete coffin with no remains,

which may have been a decoy
to ward off grave robbers.

Beneath the pine box is
a second layer of wood,

two inches thick, concealing
another block of concrete,

which appears to be hardened.

- [Sam] Yep we got wood.

Oh yeah, so you got the

crack right here,

see that, and then--
- [Tim] Got you down

about 10 foot,
- [Sam] This is wood.

- [Tim] more or less.

- [Sam] So I think
this is the side.

We've removed all the soil
that was on this side,

and we are down to
what looks like the lid

of a second coffin.

And then the really cool thing
is we seem to have a latch,

right here, that
would be used to,

attach the lid to the coffin.

The weird thing is that
all the newspapers say

Holmes's casket did not have
a lid, when he was buried.

- Interesting.

I wonder if whether
that was to hide

his body from grave
robbers, or it was to hide

some other secret that
might lie right beneath us.

(tense music)

Wow Sam, the upper box is
really completely removed now,

and from up here,
it really looks like

a lid to a casket down there.

- Every step we take
another secret is revealed,

and I really don't know
what the final result's

gonna be yet.

- [Sam] No I don't know
that any of us do.

- I want to see
whether when we lift up

that casket lid,

he's under there,
or whether we have a

second empty box on our hands.

(power tool rumbling)

- [Tim] Just take it real slow.

- We're, opening his front
door right now.

(tense music)

- [Amaryllis] Are you ready?

- Yeah.

There you go.

-[Jeff] There's chills going up
and down my spine right now.

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] Eight feet
beneath the surface,

buried under a box of
concrete two feet thick.

- [Man] And it's
sliding right off.

- [Narrator] A casket
believed to hold the remains

of H. H. Holmes is being opened

for the first time in 121 years.

- All right guys just slow
down a little bit now.

Let's all stop a minute.

- That's not dirt.

That's another concrete block.

- Oh boy.
- Now let's all catch

our breath, let Sam figure out
the smartest next move, okay?

- Yeah.

At every stage of this
investigation we've uncovered

stories of Holmes's
single-minded genius,

always outsmarting
everyone around him,

from creditors to
his numerous wives,

to law enforcement, and
now, maybe outsmarting us.

- I'm ready to start
drilling, and, get in there.

(tense music)

(stony grinding)

- [Narrator] At eight feet,
beneath the decoy box,

sits a second casket, containing
a sold block of concrete.

- [Man] Okay, here we go.

- [Sam] All right.

- [Narrator] A Burrowscope
camera deployed through

a hole in the concrete
provides a first look

at what's buried below.

- [Amaryllis] Yeah there
you can see the water

right at the bottom there.

- Water water water, uh,

pull back.
- Wait, go back.

- A little more.

Yeah there's,
- Oh yeah.

- definitely a void.

- There's definitely a void.

- Can you go in a little bit?

(eerie music)
All right, what's that?

- [Amaryllis] Look
like, bone?

- Looks like textile.
- Textile of some kind.

- I wonder if what this thing
that what I'm saying is textile

could be an intervertebral
disc or something.

- You think we could be looking
at backbone, right there?

- That could be bone.

Uh, it could be the spine.

- Are you shitting me?

- [Sam] We need to open up
something that's big enough

we can actually see.

(energetic music)

- [Narrator] A diamond-core
drill cuts through

the hardened concrete to
reveal a larger window

into the void beneath.

- [Amaryllis] That
hole's pretty big,

let's get down there
and take a look.

- Ready to start the pump?

- [Man] We're ready.

- [Narrator] A pump
clears out four inches

of stagnant water
within the cavity.

(tense music)

- [Tim] Sam I see a bone.

Can you see that?
- I do see a bone.

(dramatic music)

- Was that a bone?
- Oh wait, hold on.

- [Narrator] 10
feet underground,

at the alleged grave site of
infamous murderer H. H. Holmes.

- Yes, oh yeah, we got vertebra.

- There he is!
- Wow!

- [Sam] And we have an arm.

- [Narrator] The investigation
unearths a major discovery.

- There is a human body
in the slab of concrete.

- Right.

- Now the question
is, is that your

great great grandfather
H. H. Holmes, and,

is there any evidence to
suggest that H. H. Holmes

was Jack the Ripper?

- If that's Holmes, it is
certainly emotional, and,

you know...

- [Amaryllis] It's really
striking if it is Holmes,

that after killing so
many innocent people

he met his end
just like everybody else.

Here he lies, just
tissue and bone.

- I still believe that my
great great grandfather

escaped his own death, and
these bones are someone else's.

But the enormity of this
moment is overwhelming.

If these are the bones
of that evil man,

and even more so
if they are not,

it has enormous
implications for me,

and everything that
I've been working

toward these past 20 years.

(mechanical whirring)

- [Man] Recovery.

- [Tim] Here's the lower jaw.

(dramatic music)

And here's his upper jaw.

Can we get this off, I can
peel the skull wrapping.

There he is.
-[Amaryllis] Wow.

(dramatic music)
- There he is.

- We've now opened this
up enough to be able to

take these bones, get them
to the lab if we can

and get the final answer.

Are we looking at your
great great grandfather,

and is that man Jack the Ripper?

- [Sam] Once we have these
samples, and if we can get

some good DNA out
of them, you know,

that data is there, and
we can test it against

the Catherine Eddowes shall,
you can test it against

anything else in the future.

- Get the science
to work to solve

one of history's greatest
unsolved mysteries.

(dramatic music)

(energetic music)

Now that we have a
body, and we don't know

yet whether it's Holmes, I
think we need to regroup with

what we do know so far
in the investigation.

- Are you any
closer to believing

H. H. Holmes was
Jack the Ripper?

- I'll be honest with
you, when you first

brought this theory to
me, there were so many

reasons that I thought
it was impossible,

but through the months
of this investigation

I've been blown away by the
evidence that we've uncovered.

The first thing I wanted to
figure out was opportunity.

Could Holmes have even
committed these crimes?

Holmes was busy, he has
more of a paper trail

than any cold case
I've ever seen,

and then the paper trail,
bam, goes completely dead,

right before the Ripper murders,

and his paper trail
picks back up in Chicago,

in the beginning of 1889,
when the Ripper murders

have suddenly stopped
in Whitechapel.

It's a pretty good indicator
he wasn't in Chicago,

but, doesn't mean
he was in London.

And that's why the
passenger manifests

were the next amazing
piece of evidence.

We have not only Holmes's name
but Holmes's known aliases.

Then, the mythology of
Jack the Ripper says

that he stopped killing
in Whitechapel in 1888,

but what we found
in our investigation

is there were many more
Ripper-style killings,

just not in Whitechapel.

We have Carrie Brown, a couple
years later in New York,

found only a few blocks
from Astor House,

where Holmes was
staying, and then,

we found the coroner
reports of victims killed

in a Ripper-style in Chicago,
that mysteriously begin

when Holmes gets to Chicago,
and end when he leaves town.

Another objection I
had at the beginning

was that the method of killing
was completely different.

Right the mythology of the
Ripper is that he's walking

around the streets of London,
slashing prostitutes to death.

Holmes premeditated, he's
built a murder castle.

These seemed like very
different methods of killing.

But that's the mythology.

What we found reading
the autopsy reports,

is that wasn't the case at all.

The Ripper asphyxiated
every victim before

he dissected them.

That seems similar to
Holmes' methods of killing.

When I talked to the
coroner in London,

he estimated that the
Ripper really had to have

pretty significant
surgical skill to be able

to remove the organs
in the time that

he had available to him.

So again, that seems closer to
Holmes, the trained surgeon,

than I believed
when we got started.

- Which was reiterated in some
of the early police reports.

-[Jeff] We should talk about the
physical evidence we discovered.

- Well, physical evidence
has been hard to come by,

but what's interesting
is that none of it

disproves your theory,
for example the letters.

Dear Boss, Saucy Jack, to
hear the forensic linguists

in London say that they
were probably written

by an American, well, that
supports Scotland Yard's

theory that Jack the
Ripper was an American,

and maybe your theory
that he was H. H. Holmes.

- The linguists said the
very title of the letter,

Dear Boss, was an American
trying to sound English.

- And then, there's
the handwriting.

Handwriting analyst
says it's inconclusive,

but the fact that a
handwriting professional

can not conclusively
say that they were

written by two different hands,

is another piece of
circumstantial evidence.

- Right, and, we have
13 eyewitness accounts

of what Jack the
Ripper looked like.

Five foot seven,
roughly 150 pounds,

25 to 35 years of age.

Guess what, Holmes was five
foot seven, 150 pounds,

27 years of age during the
Jack the Ripper murders.

- What really shook me, was
seeing the composite drawing

based on those 13
eyewitness accounts

and comparing it to real
life photographs of Holmes,

I mean that's a
startling resemblance.

- It's amazing.
- Really rare even in

a modern case to have
13 eyewitness reports,

let alone in a cold case.

I never imagined we'd
uncover this much

circumstantial evidence
that points to Holmes.

There are literally hundreds
of Ripper suspects out there,

and I doubt you'd find half as
much circumstantial evidence

pointing to any one
of them as we've found

pointing to Holmes.

But we're still missing
that smoking gun,

and as an investigator,
until we have hard proof

that puts Holmes at the
scene of a Ripper crime,

or some other damning
evidence comes to light

that's been buried
for over a century,

I still can't say
for sure that Holmes

was Jack the Ripper, but I
also can't say he wasn't.

- We have a mountain of
circumstantial evidence,

we need to continue
this investigation,

we can't just stop here.

- Now we just have to
find out whether the body

we dug up is Holmes or not.

(birds chirping)

(tense music)

- So, this is our body.

- [Sam] Yeah this is him.

- He looks incredibly complete.

- [Narrator] At the
University of Pennsylvania,

the archeological team
analyzes the bones

recovered from the alleged
grave site of H. H. Holmes.

- Well, we've cleaned him up.

Some of the bones
are in great shape,

some of the bones are
in not so great shape.

- [Narrator] The results of
a DNA test may finally prove,

that either these are the
remains of H. H. Holmes,

or that the master con
man escaped his own death.

A finding that if true,
could support Jeff's theory

that H. H. Holmes
is Jack the Ripper.

- It's a really
emotional moment,

to stand here and really
be in the presence of

a human who was buried
in H. H. Holmes's grave,

whether or not it's him,
in what appears to be

almost the complete body.

Are you able to draw
any conclusions based on

the report we have of
Holmes's body at the prison,

and comparing that to the
bones we have in front of us?

- Yes, so we can say fairly
sure that it's a male.

If you look at the most
telling part of the skeleton,

it's usually the pelvis.

Men usually have
narrower longer hips,

women have kind of
shorter, wider hips.

So if you look at this
shape then you can see

it's a pretty wide
angle, and in females

it's much tighter and
narrower and sharper.

- So in comparing this skeleton
in front of us with Holmes,

we know that he's
a male, so check.

Did the teeth give you any
more conclusive evidence?

- Yeah, so as you age,
and as you chew and you

use your teeth, the enamel
wears down and it gets flat.

So there's a little bit
of wear, so we know that

the age on this skeleton
is consistent with

what we would expect
for somebody basically

in their mid- to late 30s.

- Okay, so that checks out too.

Now, this body was supposedly

executed by hanging.

Is there anything to suggest
that actually happened

with the backbone or the skull?

- There is no evidence
of it on here.

(tense music)
And again that doesn't mean

it didn't happen.

So hanging is something,
sometimes it causes

trauma, skeletal trauma,
and sometimes it doesn't.

- Can we determine his
height, based on the skeleton?

- You know it's
funny that you ask.

I did the height estimate
using two different methods,

and both methods came out
with a height estimate

that was a little
bit shorter than

what we would have expected.

- Really?
- So the reports says

he's five, 7 1/2, and
what I reconstructed gave

about five-four to five-five.

- That's a pretty
significant difference.

- He seems to be quite
well muscled too,

which I was a little
surprised, especially

looking at the photos, he
just looks like a very kind of

slender person-

-[Amaryllis] He sure does,
that's interesting.

- and there's pretty
good muscle,

musculature,
muscle development

on a lot of these bones,
they're pretty robust.

- So, we know what Holmes
looked like from photographs.

We know how tall he
was from media reports.

We know about his
activity level,

and the way that he
conducted his daily life.

And those things don't
seem to match up as well.

- I feel like I've been
investigating my ancestor's

dark history for most
of my adult life.

Holmes terrorized
victims over two decades,

In Chicago, New
York, Philadelphia,

Indiana, possibly London,

and if the bones from the
grave site aren't his,

we've only scratched the
surface of this monster's story.

- [Amaryllis] So it sounds like
we have some DNA to extract.

- Yeah we do, we'll get
set up, and do that.

- [Amaryllis] Great.

(high-speed whirring)
-[Narrator] The best chance

to extract a clean
sample from bones

of this age is to target the
dense portions of the skeleton.

The team removes a sample
from the inner ear,

which it will send to
King's College in London,

one of only three
places in the world

with the technology to
analyze ancient DNA.

There the lab will compare
the DNA from the remains

to the DNA sample
from Jeff to determine

if the body recovered
is H. H. Holmes.

- All right, so that's our
sample, that powder there,

either contains or does not
contain DNA that matches you.

- [Jeff] We've come a long
way in our investigation.

- [Sam] I think we're gonna get
the DNA sent off to the lab,

and we'll let you
know what they say.

- Um, I appreciate your help,
and I eagerly await the results.

(haunting tense music)

This doesn't deter me
from my investigation.

There are too many
coincidences for this

to be another bogus theory.

At each stage of
this investigation,

we've uncovered new
evidence which peels back

yet another layer of this
130-year old mystery.

For some people, the
identity of Jack the Ripper

is just sensationalized
true crime,

but for me it's coming
to terms with where

I come from, my origin.

I know that the evidence is
out there to prove my theory,

and I'm not going to
give up until I find it.

(dramatic music)