19th Century serial killer's descendant claims Gilmanton native Herman Mudgett was also England's infamous 'Jack the Ripper'

GILMANTON — A descendant of one of the first documented serial killers in American history says that an analysis of the handwriting of Herman Webster Mudgett, better known to history as HH Holmes, and that of Jack the Ripper, shows that they were the same person.

Jeff Mudgett, author of ''Bloodstains'', a fictional account based on his own coming to terms with the fact that he is descended from one of the most bloody serial killers in history, maintains that there is also evidence which shows that Holmes actually visited London in 1888, just at the time the five murders attributed to Jack the Ripper took place.

Mudgett, the great-great grandson of Herman Mudgett, was in Gilmanton recently, taking part in a book signing and dinner event at the Gilmanton Winery. He later visited Mudgett's childhood home, which is located across from Gilmanton Academy at the intersection of Province Road and Cat Alley.

He said that at the invitation of the home's owners he was able to visit the attic where Mudgett, who was born in 1861, had been locked up as a little boy and walk through the entire house, which he said is being remodeled in order to get it ready for a movie which will be partially filmed at the house in 2013.

The movie, based on Erik Larson's "The Devil in the White City'', a best-selling 2003 non-fiction book that juxtaposed an account of the planning and staging of the Chicago World's Fair in 1893 with Holmes's story of murder and mayhem.

The movie rights to the book were sold at auction to Tom Cruise and then resold in 2010 to a group headed by Leonardo Dicaprio, who has said that he is reserving the role of Holmes for himself.

Holmes confessed to at least 27 murders, many of which took place in a hotel that he had built for the World's Fair, which included soundproof rooms, torture chambers and elaborate measures for disposal of the victim's remains, including an incinerator and a basement lime pit.

Some have speculated that the actual number of Holmes's victims may have been as many as 200 and his crimes received wide publicity at the time of his 1895 trial through a series of articles in William Randolph Hearst's newspapers, including memoirs written by Holmes himself in which he wrote “I was born with the devil in me. I could not help the fact that I was a murderer, no more than the poet can help the inspiration to sing — I was born with the "Evil One" standing as my sponsor beside the bed where I was ushered into the world, and he has been with me since."

Jeff Mudgett says that he doesn't think that his infamous ancestor was in any way a victim of his upbringing. “I don't think he had a psychosis. He was born evil and I think that people like him should be put down and put away,'' Mudgett told a group of people who turned out for a book signing and reading from ''Bloodstains'' at Annie's Book Stop in Laconia.

Mudgett says after his book was published in 2011, he was visited by one of his readers who, like him, believed that Holmes and Jack were one and the same.

He said that the reader’s forensic evidence, though largely circumstantial, was astounding, and that Ms. Margaret Webb of the renowned British Library had concluded that letters written by Holmes and Jack the Ripper were absolutely from the same hand. Her conclusions, released last July, were lambasted in the press.

Mudgett, an attorney by trade, contacted experts at the University of Buffalo, who had developed a computer program to differentiate millions of styles of handwriting, the so-called Cedar Fox program, which achieved a 96-percent degree of accuracy and was widely reported on ABC News. He says that the conclusion reached by these scientists was that the classifier performance number, (97.95-percent) "can be taken to indicate the JTR and Mudgett classes are similar in style."

Mudgett says that degree of certainty is unprecedented and maintains that Holmes had taken a ship to London in 1888 and stayed there for around six months. He also maintains that the surgical skills which were evident in the Ripper's removal of his victim's internal organs were something that Holmes was a master at.

Mudgett says that he didn't find out until he was 40 years old that he was descended from Herman Mudgett and that the secret had long been kept from the family by his grandfather, Bertrand, who once the name of Herbert Webster Mudgett was uttered in his presence “stood up, slammed his chair against the wall and yelled 'that name shall never be mentioned in this house again'.''

He said that had his grandmother, who had begun the search of the family's history because she thought there was a connection to General Robert E. Lee, would never have married his grandfather had she known his true lineage.

Mudgett says his grandfather had moved to California many years ago in order get away from the stigma of being related to the serial killer and that ever since he found out he has been “trying to come to grips with being a descendant of the most evil man who ever lived.''

He said that his great-grandfather was David Mudgett, who was the son of Herman Mudgett, born in Loudon in 1880, and who would later become town manager of a small city in Florida.

A Wikipedia account of the life of Herman Mudgett says that the son was named Robert and became a CPA and city manager of Orlando, Florida.

Mudgett says that the upcoming movie will focus a lot of attention on the town of Gilmanton and touch off a new round of interest in Holmes' hometown and what may have happened in Gilmanton that shaped his character.

Herman Mudgett was born in Gilmanton in 1861 to Levi Horton Mudgett and Theodate Page Price, both of whom were descended from the first non-native settlers in the area. According to the 2007 Most Evil profile on Holmes, his father was a violent alcoholic, and his mother was a devout Methodist who read the Bible to Herman.

He claimed that, as a child, schoolmates forced him to view and touch a human skeleton after discovering his fear of the local doctor. The bullies initially brought him there to scare him, but instead he was utterly fascinated, and he soon became obsessed with death.

There is already one movie out about the serial killer, "H.H. Holmes: America's First Serial Killer'' an hour-long DVD produced by John Borowski in 2003 for Waterfront Productions. Utilizing a documentary style, the film contains historic newspaper photos and articles about Holmes' castle, his childhood home in New Hampshire, and his interviews with the press as he awaited his trial in Philadelphia.

Film critics say the movie which will be filmed in 2013 should prove to be an intriguing movie with Oscar potential for Dicaprio as the anti-hero, a smooth-talking charmer whose dark side was well masked enough to allow him to talk his way into people's hearts, even those he had swindled or was about to murder, while collecting property and life insurance policies.

Larson's book describes Holmes as having been about 5'6'', 155 pounds and with mesmerizing blue eyes that were virtually hypnotic. Even his creditors, who descended as a group on him around 1890, were so impressed by his professed sincerity that some actually expressed sympathy for him.

Holmes, of course, had no sympathy for anyone and was a master manipulator of other people, including all three of his wives and even his companions in crime, at least one of whom he killed.

The grisly castle wasn't searched by police until Holmes was on trial in Philadelphia in 1895 for the murder of his long-time associate Benjamin Pitezel in another insurance fraud scheme. He also murdered three of Pitezel's children, as well as two Texas sisters who were railroad heiresses.

Following his conviction, Holmes confessed to 27 murders and was paid $7,500 ($200,000 in today's terms) by the Hearst Newspapers for his confession. On May 7, 1896, Holmes was hanged at Moyamensing Prison, ending the life of one of the most cold-blooded killers ever to walk the earth.

After Holmes was hanged, his body was encased in a concrete-filled coffin which was lowered into a 10 foot deep, concrete-filled grave.

Jeff Mudgett says that he doesn't believe that the man who was hanged was actually Holmes, maintaining that it was a prison guard instead and that Holmes survived and traced down anyone involved in his arrest, trial and/or execution and caused their deaths.

He said that he wants to raise enough money to exhume the grave and have a DNA test taken comparing his DNA to that of the body, which he says would show that the infamous "Holmes Curse" was actually a continuation of the bloody work of H.H. Holmes.

CAPTION:

Jeff Mudgett, author of Bloodstains, signs a copy of his book, in which he maintains that Herman Mudgett of Gilmanton, better known to history as the serial killer Dr. HH Holmes, was also responsible for the “Jack the Ripper” murders in London in 1888. (Roger Amsden photo for the Laconia Daily Sun)

The 19th century home located across from Gilmanton Academy at the intersection of Province Road and Cat Alley, is where serial killer Herman Mudgett was born in 1861. (Roger Amsden photo for the Laconia Daily Sun)

A police mug shot showing front view and profile of serial killer Herman Mudgett. (Courtesy photo).