American Ripper

Interesting show, but I don't know why I cringe during the intro when he says,"My Great Great Grandfather". He almost seemed.... proud to attach himself. I'm just a weirdo so hey!

Like clearing up after a hurricane, where do you start? An appalling load of rubbish from start to finish. Here are a few facts. 1. Nobody ever saw the killer - so there are no eyewitness statements as to his appearance. 2. For anyone who thinks he has surgical skill, take a look at the Eddowes photographs, I could have done a neater job with a blunt chainsaw. 3. Not one single letter has ever been proved to have come from the killer, the one that a lot of experts say might have wasn't even mentioned. 4. There are no clues left by the killer, except possibly the Goulston Street graffito. 5. There is absolutely nothing to point to the nationality of the killer. The one American suspect Dr Tumblety was arrested for homosexual acts in a public toilet with men, not for being a suspect. 6. The killer knew the streets of the East End and knew the people, he was one of them, he wasn't a mastermind - just lucky.

Jeff Mudgett comes across as someone who only cares about proving he's right. The way it's edited, the leads seem shocked by some of the stuff they learn from 'experts' that's common knowledge of H.H. Holmes & as his grandson who has spent 20 trying to prove H.H. Holmes & Jack The Ripper are the same person he would have know these facts. The leads also take a rumour and state it as facts.

OK the main flaw that I feel throws this conspiracy theory out the window is this: We have an American in Chicago, living in a town that was familiar to him with a simple "grid" system infrastructure which would have been easy for him to navigate. However,he jumps on a ship and travels to London to commit several murders that he does under the cover of darkness in an unfamiliar city that is basically a "labyrinth" of confusing streets and gets away every time? I think not! Jack the Ripper was a local to the area and that is how he managed to elude capture - I know its not as exciting but do we want reality or entertainment.

The amount of recap in this series is astounding. Instead of 8 episodes, they could've made it into 5. I bet they said the same phrases a hundred times: what they're investigating, what they hope to find, what their expectations were, etc. It actually got mildly infuriating because it was constant recapping. The actual content was good and interesting, though. You can probably just watch the last 3 episodes to get all the info you need, and avoid literal hours of filler shots and repetition.

Don't forget the fact that this series only has one season, so it left off without answers to several questions they'd already posed. Frustrating.