Monday, September 3, 2012

Ripperologists

By: Anjel Guyde

We all have this fascination of wanting to know the “unknown”.  We want all the puzzles solved, the missing found and criminals held accountable.  When it comes to Jack the Ripper, everyone thinks they know the answer.  On Amazon, there are almost 3,000 books on Jack the Ripper alone. 

Crimes that took place in the Whitechapel District in London in 1888 where murders by the famous “Jack the Ripper”.  An organized Serial Killer that brutally butchered women who were mostly prostitutes.  An Organized Serial Killer is one that carefully picks the victims and brings the tools to kill the victims and brings them back with him when they leave the crime scene area.  This was a calculated man that found his victim, lured her into a place where he felt comfortable and then sliced her throat.  With the slicing of the throat you do so for two main reasons, to kill quickly and to stop the victim from screaming.  If he cut the throat from behind, there would be blood spatter in front of the victim and across any wall or building.  If he cut her throat from the front, he would be soaked in blood.  I would have to say that most were cut from behind. 

We don’t know exactly how many victims “Jack the Ripper” had killed, but we can estimate with at least five to eleven women were killed by “Jack the Ripper” during the times of April 3, 1888 to November 9, 1888.  There are two women that were killed that are not included in the original five victims and they are Emma Elizabeth Smith and Martha Tabram, but these two were the first to be killed in the Whitechapel Murder Files. 

For even an organized serial killer, the first victim would have been the most traumatizing and the killer probably wouldn’t have gone to the extremes as he did with his other victims.  With the first victim, the Ripper probably would have been close to an area where he lived or worked so if someone came by, he would have a safe place to escape too. 

Emma Elizabeth Smith was robbed and sexually assaulted and she had a blunt object placed inside her vagina and she died the next day from peritonitis, on April 3, 1888.

Martha Tabram was killed by being stabbed 39 times on August 7, 1888.  There was no obvious motive for her murder.  Martha was stabbed mainly in the throat and abdomen.  Now since her throat wasn’t slashed, it is still a possibility that the “Ripper” was just beginning of his horrendous crimes.

Some may not except these two victims as a victim of “Jack the Ripper”, but I beg to differ.  It shows the crimes increasing and becoming more grotesque.  Also, the “Ripper” will venture out into different  territories that he may not be so familiar and most likely he will go further out from where he lives because he doesn’t want to be caught and being in different areas, he would have a better chance of not being caught because police departments might have had heightened security in the areas that were already hit.

Serial Killers will normally start out smaller crimes and work toward a more threatening and causing more harm, as his ego would become more excessive, inflated and would feel more powerful over all people, men and women, especially the police.  So you would expect that each victim would have more drastic wounds.  Serial Killers do not go from extremely dramatic killing to simply strangling someone.  The killer would not get that same kind of thrill as he did before. 

The other women were part of the “Ripper’s” victims due to the nature of their wounds.  Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapmen, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes and Mary Jane Kelly.  Now, the last victim, Mary Jane Kelly, was the worst victim because she was in a room that would allow the killer longer time without being seen or heard and he could take his time within the killing and could completely desecrate the Mary Jane Kelly’s body.

It is possible that “Jack the Ripper” knew these women.  It’s possible that he was rejected by these prostitutes and he eventually took his rage out on them. 

The point to all of this is that this particular case will never be solved.  There is no evidence, no witnesses and no DNA to work with.  There is no evidence that “Jack the Ripper” ever wrote a letter or any letter.  Without having a photo of what was written on the wall over Catherine Eddowes dead body that stated:

“The Juwes are The
Men That Will not be Blamed
For nothing.”

There is no way to realize that the writing is the same or could be compared to anyone else’s handwriting samples since it was ordered to wash that off of the wall.  Without that proof of the real “Jack the Ripper’s” handwriting skills, you cannot use the letters that were sent to the police and the newspaper because most of them have been found to be fraudulent.  So now you have nothing to state or to use to prove that you know who the identity of the real “Jack the Ripper”.

Patricia Cornwell had stated with the title of her book, “Portrait of a Killer, Jack the Ripper, Case Closed”, she had spent many painstaking hours and over $6 Million dollars of her own money on collecting DNA samples of the letters.  She even states that the #1 fact is Most, if not all, of these “Ripper” letters are considered to be hoaxes.  She had approximately 600 Ripper letters to go through during her investigation.  Even though she believes that she found the real killer as being Walter Sickert, again there is no proof or evidence to him being the real killer.

Then I fell across a book called “Bloodstains” by Jeffrey Mudgett.  He believes that his Great Great Grandfather, Herman Webster Mudgett aka Dr. Henry Howard Holmes aka H. H. Holmes was “Jack the Ripper”.  Although H.H. Holmes had traveled all over the United States, I have yet to find that he ever left the country, especially going to Europe.  H.H. Holmes was a very cunning man whom was attractive to very pretty ladies.  If someone he didn’t like someone who came to rent a room in his Chicago Hotel, he would simply turn them away.  Holmes was very organized especially when he created his Hotel from Hell.  He created a variety of rooms that would seal someone in their room and he could add gas to the room to kill that person from Carbon Monoxide poisoning to sealing up a person in a safe until they ran out of Oxygen.   One woman he was going to perform an abortion on her, but instead he chloroformed her and began to dissect her body along with dismembering her.  He had in at least 2 cases, extricating the body from all skin, organs, muscles, all the way down to the bones.  Once he had the bones, he meticulously wired all of the bones together and will sell the skeleton to a medical school for approximately $200 for a full skeleton.  Holmes was interested in being a doctor and did go to school  and graduated medical school at the age of 24 at the University of Michigan.  Holmes mainly killed for money through life insurance policies.  Holmes was inflicted to carry out his crimes due to his greed for money.  He might marry a woman for the land she owned and once she was married, she disappeared.  Holmes would go and sell off the property and collect the money.  He was a mastermind of defrauding people out of their money and items they owned all for greed.

Now, Mr. Jeffrey Mudgett, who wrote “Bloodstains” and is now attempting to prove that his Great Great Grandfather is the famous “Jack the Ripper”.  He has tried to use letters that Holmes allegedly wrote against some of the “Ripper Letters”.  When you have compare handwriting skills, you have to look at each letter and how it started and stopped.  Are their extra loops or a specific way that someone writes one particular letter.  Now, when you look at the two letters, the handwriting looks familiar, but they are not.  For a handwriting expert to report on this would be very difficult since that style of writing was over 100 years old.  But, once again, there is NO PROOF that “Jack the Ripper” ever wrote one letter!

Mr. Mudgett’s handwriting sample:


Mr. Mudgett believes that Holmes was overseas during the time of the killings in the Whitechapel District in London.  There is NO PROOF that Holmes was ever in Europe.  Back in the last 1800’s the only way to get to London would be by way of a Steamship which would take almost 6-7 days on board before reaching Europe.  H.H. Holmes at that time was married to Myra/Myrta Belknap in Minnesota in 1887 while Holmes was finishing his “Castle” in Englewood, Illinois.  Myra/Myrta and Holmes had a child together, Lucy, who was born in October 1888, which means that she had to have been conceived by January 1888. 

Again, let’s look back at the dates of the “Jack the Ripper” killings:

Emma Elizabeth Smith  Died April 3, 1888
Martha Tabram            Died August 7, 1888
Mary Ann Nichols        Died August 31, 1888
Annie Chapman            Died September 8, 1888
Elizabeth Stride             Died September 30, 1888
Catherine Eddowes       Died September 30, 1888
Mary Jane Kelly            Died November 9, 1888

Now getting a room on a steamship is very costly, approximately $150-$350 for a one-way passage, that would mean that Holmes would have traveled at least twice to Europe, making it four complete trips that would have cost him approximately $600-$1,400, during the time his daughter was born.  Holmes would not have stayed away from his “Castle” for almost a year, nor his new wife almost after conceiving his child.  I have not found one thing Mr. Mudgett has stated to prove to me that this is the same man that created such horrendous crimes in another country.

Holmes was convicted of killing 27 people and was hung until dead in the Moyamensing Prison on May 7, 1896.  The Castle itself was burnt down in August 19, 1985 and where the Castle once stood is now a Post Office that will be closing down soon at 63rd & Wallace in Englewood, Illinois. 

Mr. Mudgett is trying to get paranormal tours down in the basement of the Post Office, but most of that was not part of the original “Castle” property.

Mr. Mudgett is trying to prove that Holmes is “Jack the Ripper” and is creating his second book called:
“The Sequel… Two Plus Two = 5…  The Trial of H. H. Holmes as JTR!”

Seriously, anyone that believes that his Great Great Grandfather was “Jack the Ripper” has got be delusional.  Show me the proof and not make accusations in attempts to sell more books that you cannot even get in a real book store.  Mr. Mudgett states that he found this through his Great Great Grandfather’s writings, but he never has shown even one page to anyone to check the handwriting.  He will only show a small sampling.  There is only one picture of Herman Webster Mudgett and he states that he even looks like the sketches.  Of course he does, back then most men had the same kind of mustache and wore hats, just like Holmes did in those times.

The point is that finding out who the real “Jack the Ripper” will never be solved because there is NO EVIDENCE to prove who he was.  Show me the proof, real physical proof and maybe I’ll consider it, but there is nothing to be found.  It will always remain a mystery, let it stay that way.

Mr. Mudgett needs to find a new topic to write about, maybe one that he can prove his facts before stating anything that can be proven otherwise.


This article was originally posted on SciFake.com

14 comments:

GodOfWar said...

Long time no holla Mr Robinson...

I'm going to take the liberty of copy-pasta to add my already expressed views by way of blog comments on this from Scifake...


Well I see I have been away too long, excellent article.

I’m going to have to delve into this a little further as I have read “Devil in the White City” and I distinctly recollect reading about the purported parallels, speculation and finally timeline discrepancies and other factors that ultimately dismissed him (Holmes) as a suspect (JTR) but it doesn’t take a behavioral analyst from Quantico to see how much the killers greatly differed in methodology and sociopathy…

Looks to me like Mr. Mudgetts’ G-G Grandson isn’t content with trying to cash in on the horrors and atrocities committed by any one serial killer alone…

Allow me to mull this over and comment further…

-GoW-

GodOfWar said...

Jack the Ripper may have served as an inspiration for Holmes in the respect he took great pride in his ability to outsmart the police and elude detection/suspicion but the similarities stop there…

The crimes committed by JTR were of a very personal nature and very intimate and implied rage by way of the throat cutting, overkill stabbing, sexually sadistic insertion of foreign objects etc…
Holmes/Mudgett on the other hand, exhibited a very cold calculated, detached and almost clinical method of extinguishing his victims …his motivation was greed, a sense of invincibility, a self-gratification by his game of outsmarting the authorities, manipulating and exploiting what he recognized as gross inadequacies, lack of cooperation and commutation in late 1800’s criminal investigative agencies and perhaps even a bit of envy over the notoriety and celebrity Saucy Jack enjoyed oversees…

No, JTR was not H.H. Holmes LOL …

Paranormal tours in the post office basement where the H.H. Holmes murder castle once stood? …what a typical para-poser.

On a side note; I am quite familiar with that Englewood neighborhood and I assure you just being there at night is scary enough…

-GoW-

GodOfWar said...

There is not even any proof that the letters written by those claiming to be “Jack” were in fact “Jack”… most if not all were proven to be and summarily rejected as fake…

I do remember reading that the period following Holmes/Mudgett divorcing Clara Loverling and commencing construction on the infamous “Murder Castle” was a fairly active timeline in anticipation of the 1893 Columbian Exposition (The White City) to be held on the South Shore.

It’s not certain exactly when the first shovel hit the soil across from the Holden Pharmacy where Holmes /Mudgett worked but few will dispute his well-documented presence, intimate involvement and high visibility during the planning stages, architectural design, contractor negotiations, building material acquisition etc.
The castle had many of his own customizations including hidden stair cases, hidden chambers, soundproofing insulation, airtight rooms, false walls/ceilings and a chute leading from the upper floors to the basement complete with a surgical table and large crematory furnace where he would prep the bodies he planned reduce to skeletons and wire aback together to sell to medical schools (For about $200 USD a piece)...

Whether the planning stages or the actual construction began in the fall of 1888 was irrelevant as his high visibility and hands- on involvement in all aspects of The Murder Castle construction is again; well documented and irrefutable…It’s hard to imagine that Holmes/ Mudgett could have been this busy in Chicago during the fall of 1888 while at the same time being across the Atlantic committing murders that greatly deviated from his established pathology from August 7th through November 9th when the majority of the Ripper murders took place...

I don’t recollect if this was the exclusive disqualify factor Lawson attributed to his dismissal of Holmes/ Mudgett as a potential Ripper suspect and while admittedly; it’s been a while since I read T.D.I.T.W.C , the credentials of Author; Erik Lawson stand on their own:

“He studied Russian history at the University of Pennsylvania and graduated summa cum laude in 1976. After a year off, he attended the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, graduating in 1978.”

-GoW-

GodOfWar said...

Proponents of the Holmes/Mudgett as JTR also like to claim there were witnesses that swear he made the partial confession that he was Jack just before the trap door dropped …even if this was true a serial killer like Holmes/Mudgett would certainly enjoy this final complication to further confound the authorities. Study other serial/notorious killers; this is not uncommon, especially amongst those already condemned and with nothing to lose...

Others allege that Holmes/Modgett took a sudden and mysterious vacation from the Murder Castle construction project (chuckles) during the exact time frame that the bulk of the JTR slayings occurred…this appears to be just some more revisionist history at work in a feeble attempt to circumvent the very visible and notarized presence of Holmes/Modgett amid the entire planning, construction phases that coincided with the JTR killings in London...

-GoW-

X said...

Whoa! nice report, never ceases to amaze me just how far people will go for the love of money

eyeontheparanormal said...

I will have to say this anyone in the booldline of this deeply demonic person should be far less concern about any topic other cleansing the bloodline of the evil that has to be there and pasted down thru generations

X said...

Looks like the evil is what these people crave, he is working on taking donations for a LIVE exhumation of Herman Mudgett (killer) his grandpa. WTF!

I said before. for the love of money.

Money money money money, money
Some people got to have it
Some people really need it
Listen to me y'all, do things, do things, do bad things with it
You wanna do things, do things, do things, good things with it
Talk about cash money, money
Talk about cash money- dollar bills, yall

For the love of money
People will steal from their mother
For the love of money
People will rob their own brother

For the love of money
People can't even walk the street
Because they never know who in the world they're gonna beat
For that lean, mean, mean green
Almighty dollar, money

For the love of money
People will lie, Lord, they will cheat
For the love of money
People don't care who they hurt or beat

For the love of money
A woman will sell her precious body
For a small piece of paper it carries a lot of weight
Call it lean, mean, mean green


Almighty dollar

You get my message

GodOfWar said...

This man epitomized "evil"...

-GoW-

From "H. H. Holmes: Master of Illusion"

BY Katherine Ramsland


Deviant



"As for young Howard Pitezel, Holmes also had a story to tell. He had every intention of murdering the three Pitezel children, so he hid them in a hotel until he could find a way that would not draw suspicion. After a week, he poisoned the boy and then cut him into pieces small enough to go through the door of a stove he had purchased. He felt nothing about these acts, only the pleasure he gained from killing another person. He then took the girls to Chicago, Detroit, and Toronto. There, Alice and Nellie Pitezel met their fate. They were the "twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh" of his victims. He made them believe they would soon be reunited with their mother (whom he had also brought to Toronto in some diabolical game), while he plotted how he would be rid of them. He compelled them both to get inside a large trunk and closed them inside, leaving an air hole. Then he returned and pumped gas into the hole to kill the girls, even as their mother was traveling on to New York. He dug shallow graves, removed their clothing, and dumped them without a thought. He considered that "for eight years before their deaths I had been almost as much a father to them as though they had been my own children."

He had a plan to end Mrs. Pitezel's life, along with those of her two remaining children, with nitroglycerine, but he was arrested in Boston before he managed to achieve this. He closed his confession by saying that his last public utterance would be of remorse for these vile acts. He did not expect anyone to really believe him. And Geyer later says in his book that Holmes' account, published in many papers on April 12, 1896, was so inconsistent with the facts that they had gathered about the Pitezel children's demise that it was "at once discredited in police circles."

Then, in one quick move, according to Geyer, Holmes recanted the confession, and in fact it was learned that several of his "victims" were not dead at all or had died in ways clearly unassociated with him. When told by police that his tale was untrue, he supposedly said, "Of course it is not true, but the newspapers want a sensation and they got it." Nevertheless, police did believe what he had said about the murder of Benjamin Pitezel. Geyer found it vile that Holmes would not tell the truth even as he stood on the "brink of eternity.",

X said...

Seems another man has been identified as JTR in London, 2 days ago these guys are getting worldwide hits, a bit more than old Henry Mudgett.

"Authors Christer Holmgren and Edward Stow believe the most likely suspect for Jack The Ripper is Charles Cross, a cartman who claimed to have found the first victim prostitute Polly Nichols on August 31 1888."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/9512928/Was-Jack-the-Ripper-a-cart-driver-from-Bethnal-Green.html

SciFake2 said...

We have addressed this its up to Jeff but we feel he will not leave the safety of his own arena.


scifake2
September 4, 2012 at 3:50 am

We (SciFake and the orginal reporter) were given an invatation to The Mudge Report live show, we have turned that down and sent this reply to Jeff directly at FB. The ball is in Jeff’s court now.

Jeff I could not find the original post that had your invitation on, so I will start a new one. SciFake has been host to some of the biggest names in the paranormal, Jason Hawes, Donna Lacroix, Britt Griffith even Chip Coffey. The reporter and others invite to you come and talk with or debate there at the site because a live show can have many disadvantages from callers to tech problems and print makes it easier to be fair. We are a wordpress open site no registration necessary to comment.
I will tell you this, SciFake does not delete comments and we do not allow garbage attacks, honestly we have some of the brightest minds around and we just don’t need the trash talk. There are 2 articles reporting on your GG Grandfather Herman Mudget . The first is about him the second is about you called “update” concerning deleted comments from the past year. If you would like to address anything that would be great, if not, we understand. There are many ‘Ripperologists’ out there and I had no idea how bad the crimes were that your grandfather committed against children and women alike, in the general records I have found they say 27 tortured victims but rumor has it the count is in the hundreds. I would like to know how you feel about what he did and have you ever tried to find the living descendants of the victims? Thanks Jeff

SciFake2 said...

UPDATED screenshots, see bottom

http://scifake.com/special-report-update-ripperologists-part-2-includes-screenshots-of-deleted-facebook-comments-whos-hiding-what/

GodOfWar said...

I think alot of this is smoke and mirrors and self-generated hype but the A&E special of him in the Post Office basement he proposes would likely be reminiscent of Geraldo Rivera's Capone Vault catastrophe and utterly hysterical...He even seemed to have changed the details surrounding the foundation of the Post Office to fit his agenda...

I particularly enjoyed the screenshot containing this quote:

"If each one of my 3,426 Facebook friends talked one of their friends into buying "BLOODSTAINS" I'd be on the bus to Hollywood next week"

This guy is comical but alas; the academic community would eat him alive LOL

Yeah...maybe if he jumped in a time machine and tied up Holmes/Mudgett in a basement somewhere for a few months in the fall of 1888 when this was one of the most visible periods of his time in Englewood, he might have a chance in hell of convincing someone outside of his lopsided circle of brainless Facebook sycophants...

Oh sure...this sociopath with almost inhuman self-control just couldn't manage to suppress the sudden irrepressible urge to inexplicably leave his pinnacle project and run over to England on a slow steamship for a couple months to act out this new and short lived compulsion to commit sloppy, gory, risky murders focusing on old prostitutes in an unfamiliar area, in a foreign country thus defying each and every component of every composite profile composed by experts on both Holmes/Mudgett and Jack The Ripper.

Yes, it certainly all seems to add up, where can I get a copy of that $50 paperback?....

-GoW-

SciFake2 said...

I woke up thinking what kind of people support profiteers of murder and heartbreak? Not even a week ago I knew nothing of Jeff Mudgett author of Bloodstains this morning I’m sickened by the ass kissing sycophants that follow him hoping for a ride on his cash cow (and that cows looking mighty poorly right now) Author Jeff Mudgett seemed like a really nice guy and I had no problem with him at all, in fact I was liking the way he did not SEEM to mind being questioned about his
quest to link Great grandpa to Jack the Ripper real history is one thing murder profiteering is another (I know right, only in the paranormal world would this be considered “cool” )The REAL hardcore evidence does not exist, it’s as GodOfWar says, all smoke and mirrors. A publicity stunt about to go all wrong. (are you psychic GoW because last nights comment @ scifake is a doozy!)


I was given the researched article by a reporter who has been very carefully keeping records for over year on this project. I posted it for her at Scifake.com and then in all fairness asked Jeff about it. He was very cordial and in a way delightfully charming at first but that’s how grandpa operated also isn’t it? Well it did not take long to start seeing a very different person and evil little minions that follow his every whim started coming out but like cockroaches they operate in seclusion, skulking around reporting back to Jeff (you know who you are- Ahem …joe) That part I find very amusing, every person who has ever started to make a mark in the paranormal world has their houseboys right? LOL You know that someone who wishes so hard they could offer more but they just can’t cut it so they relegate to trying attachment to someone who will let them ride on their coattails, but I digress..

For even questioning Jeff Mudgett we have been attacked by his little minions, we are keeping immaculate records and will present every bit to the public for review. This was just supposed to be a discussion and an invitation to talk more about his book, UNTILL Mr. Mudgett did something my reporter already knew practiced selective deletions of comments, We declined a live invitation to talk and debate (his words) so he deleted our invitation and proceeded to send a twitter response that insinuated we turned him down out of sheer cowardess …WHAT?. That is when Jeff Mudgett showed to me who he was and that’s when I stepped in and said OH REALLY, should have just been nice Jeff because it looks like Karma has come a running… more to come- stay tuned and please do visit scifake.com and see all the comments rolling in from supporters of Jeff to those whom he has burned by selling of murder for profit, did you really think God would not see what you’re doing?
http://scifake.com/ripperologists/#comment-275

GodOfWar said...

Sure I'll re-post my Scifake comment here (since you mentioned it) ...

WGN TV…the same station that brought us “Bozo’s Circus”.

Where exactly was the “torture chamber” in the murder castle... more revisionist history at work? There is no evidence whatsoever that Holmes/Mudgett “tortured” his victims, it was more like he was simply dispatching them so he could process the bodies to sell as medical school skeletons…

I like the part at 2:49 in that WGN video where the guy shows how the foundation of the post office and the “Murder Castle” do not match up and the most anyone may find in the post office basement would be “bricks” if anything at all…

At 4:19 where is this “record” of him traveling to London to sell skeletons”? Just because reporter reading the story said it certainly does not mean he has thoroughly researched it…

I might be persuaded to believe that Holmes/Mudgett may have written a few bogus JTR letters to confound the case but no, I don’t believe he was “Saucy Jack” …

-GoW-