In HISTORY's new eight-part limited series American Ripper in London, the great-great-grandson of serial killer H.H. Holmes, Jeff Mudgett, is determined to prove an astonishing, controversial theory: that H.H. Holmes and Britain's notorious serial killer, Jack the Ripper, were the same man.
Herman Mudgett, alias H.H. Holmes, was America's first serial killer rumoured to have claimed as many as 200 lives in the late 19th century. Simultaneously, an unidentified murderer known as Jack the Ripper was terrorising the streets of London.
Mudgett leads an investigation that secured permission to exhume the presumed body of H.H. Holmes for DNA testing to determine whether he pulled off the ultimate con, escaping his own execution to lead a second secret life.
We start on the night Jeff's grandfather revealed the family's dark secret, which then sparked an investigation guiding Jeff to infamous sites all around the US. Jeff will team up with a crime detective who will help link these two sinister historical characters together.
We watch the story of Holmes and his 1,000 targets unfold through recreations that are combined with first person, doc-style story-telling.
| CHANNEL |
HISTORY (DStv 186) |
| PREMIERE |
23 February 2018 |
| TIMESLOT |
Fridays, 21h10 |
| REPEATS |
Saturdays, 00h45 / 03h30
Mondays, 12h00 |