H H holmes

[paul g]

There is ongoing here in the U.K a documentary series which attempts to see if there is a link between H H Holmes and J T R.

During a recent episode a box containing photos of Holmes and possibly his accomplice were discovered Ali g with some surgical Instruments.
Among the photos were some alleging to be his victims and some of females who were unknown.

All of the pictures were sent to face recognizing experts.

The experts reported back.

One thing they mentioned was that one of the photos of a unknown female had a 65% match to a known photo of Elizabeth Stride.

In the scientific world how significant or insignificant is a 65% match.

[DirectorDave]

There is ongoing here in the U.K a documentary series which attempts to see if there is a link between H H Holmes and J T R.

During a recent episode a box containing photos of Holmes and possibly his accomplice were discovered Ali g with some surgical Instruments.
Among the photos were some alleging to be his victims and some of females who were unknown.

All of the pictures were sent to face recognizing experts.

The experts reported back.

One thing they mentioned was that one of the photos of a unknown female had a 65% match to a known photo of Elizabeth Stride.

In the scientific world how significant or insignificant is a 65% match.

HH Holmes discovered Ali G?

Still...not the most ludicrous theory I have heard about the case.

Perhaps WT Stead discovered Borat?

[paul g]

The theory regarding H H Holmes being the ripper was not the question on the original post.
Had I wanted a opinion on weather H H Holmes was the ripper I would of posted that.
However thanks for taking the time out of your life to read the post.

[DirectorDave]

The theory regarding H H Holmes being the ripper was not the question on the original post.
Had I wanted a opinion on weather H H Holmes was the ripper I would of posted that.
However thanks for taking the time out of your life to read the post.

I never commented on HH Holmes candidacy...all I did was make a joke about your typo?!?

[paul g]

I have just seen the typo , typical phone post

[Harry D]

There isn't a known photo of Stride, other than the mortuary one obvs.

[peg&pie]

Check the discussion in the Audio&Visual section about the program. The topic of the photo has been mentioned.

Personally a 65% match is poor in my mind. If you think about it, that leaves a 35% chance it's someone else. Not really good odds and far from proving something one way or another.



And of course let's not forget that the photo in question is not Liz Stride, and very unlikely to be the person identified as Catherine through other research either.

So a 65% match that can surely be said to be wrong. It's not of any scientific use at this point.

[Steadmund Brand]

I have just seen the typo , typical phone post

Wait....that was a typo....darn it... I was really hoping Ali G was involved

Steadmund Brand

[The Station Cat]

Putting aside the photograph found in the box for a second.

How certain are we that the picture purported to be of Stride is in fact her?

I'd always been led to believe that it wasn't Stride, but please correct me if I'm misinformed?

[Templarkommando]

I've seen and heard this particular theory a lot lately. It seems that Mudgett is really pulling out the stops to get this in the popular mind's eye. Any time that I get a chance I raise several of the points mentioned here:

- Holmes tended to commit murders when he could make a profit off of them.
- Holmes' murders all seem to orient around some kind of scam or other.
- Holmes' had tools in the basement of the murder castle that would keep him from having to deal with all of the viscera associated with a dead body which is totally different from the way that JtR worked.
- Holmes' was busy ripping off contractors in 1888, it seems highly unlikely that he had opportunity to pop into jolly old London on at least four separate occasions for any reason to say nothing of compulsive murders.
- Chicago also had sex-workers. Were London sex-workers that much better for killing than the variety that Chicago grew?

[DirectorDave]

Just watched the first episode and dearie, dearie me...the idea that he is the Ripper just seems to have been pulled out of thin air.

Will watch the next one that at least seems to be about the Ripper crimes but it's looking like this one is in the "preposterous" pile.

[Abby Normal]

Just watched the first episode and dearie, dearie me...the idea that he is the Ripper just seems to have been pulled out of thin air.

Will watch the next one that at least seems to be about the Ripper crimes but it's looking like this one is in the "preposterous" pile.

don't waste your time

[Pcdunn]

I don't know, the London episodes of that series at least let us see several renowned Ripperologists (apparently there really is someone with the moniker "Frogg Moody"), but their recreations of certain murders are very poor.

The series overall is interesting if you want to know more about Holmes himself, and I was fascinated by the exhumation of his grave, as we get to see the extreme lengths he went to prevent his body being dug up by 19th century grave robbers.

The notion Holmes was the Ripper? Nonsense. The Thames Torso Mysteries are closer to Holmes' style, in my opinion, but if he wasn't in London at the time, then forget that too.

[Suburban Gal]

I watched the entire 8-part limited series on the History Channel. While I was slightly disappointed with the outcome (DNA testing of the shawl), I found all of the circumstantial evidence quite compelling. I can see how someone could easily believe that H.H. Holmes was indeed the Ripper.

The most compelling evidence presented during the limited series was the side-by-side photos of H.H. Holmes and the Ripper sketch, which was etched from all of the eyewitness accounts of the day. The sketch was pretty spot on. At that point it was hard to deny the possibility that H.H. Holmes could've been the Ripper.

As an avid Ripper fan (I've always been fascinated with the mystery of the Ripper), I've seen many documentaries surrounding the great debate of who he was. The circumstantial evidence surround H.H. Holmes as the Ripper tends to be the most compelling to date in terms of Ripper suspects.

Just because the DNA tests didn't deliver the results Mudgett had hoped for, it doesn't necessarily mean Holmes wasn't the Ripper.

[DirectorDave]

I'm not sure if this word has ever been used before but here it goes...Jacksploitation.

I couldn't tell if this was a deliberate case just for profit or if Mr Mudgett was just caught up in suspect fever that we have observed many times through the years.

After watching the 8 episodes (which I have to say were quite enjoyable) I'm convinced Mr Mudgett is a "true believer" in his candidacy.

The whole calligraphy sketch was hilarious, a letter by Holmes at the age of 33 does not match Dear Boss, while a receipt written by him at 17 is inconclusive. From that Mr Mudgett announces "Your inconclusive conclusion means that Homles could have been Jack the Ripper!" I spat my coffee out at that point.

And all this of course without even addressing the authenticity or otherwise of Dear Boss.

I take it in the USA the threshold for exhuming a body is a tad lower than the UK and I'm not convinced someone at the bottom of a grave saying "where are you you B*****!" is treating the whole process with respect as was promised.

The HH Holmes case does not have the glamour of Jack the Ripper and to piggyback it onto it is just spurious strawclutchery to attract the gullible punters, like me.

This will reach saturation point where there will be more Ripper suspects than people alive in 1888, as I said at the start HH Holmes = The ludicrous pile.



As to the OP about the Stride photograph recognition, this is the photo they claim is "a known photograph of Elizabeth Stride".



Even then despite having a 64% match the two women in the photographs look nothing like one another!

Just for comparison..