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Their view: Teens constantly connected, increasingly unhappy

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‘We only kill black people,’ a cop told a woman — on camera. Now he’ll lose his job.

<p>PHILADELPHIA (AP) &#8212; Tests show that the remains in a suburban Philadelphia grave are indeed those of a 19th century serial killer, quelling rumors that he&#8217;d conned his way out of execution and escaped from prison.</p><p>A judge approved the exhumation of Dr. H.H. Holmes&#8217; grave earlier this year. Descendants requested it for a series called &#8220;American Ripper&#8221; on the History Channel. Part of the show looked at whether Holmes escaped, and scientists&#8217; findings were revealed in this week&#8217;s final episode.</p><p>Holmes, the pseudonym of New Hampshire-born physician Herman Webster Mudgett, is believed to have killed an undetermined number people at his hotel of horrors during the 1893 Chicago World&#8217;s Fair. It featured a bizarre labyrinth of windowless rooms, secret passageways, false floors, trapdoors and a vault. Most of the rooms had gas vents that were controlled from Mudgett&#8217;s bedroom. Many of the rooms were soundproof and could only be locked from the outside.</p><p>But it was the murder of his business partner in Philadelphia that led to his conviction and hanging in 1896.</p><p>Holmes had left specific instructions for his burial. He was to be laid in a pine box and the box was then filled with cement, buried 10 feet (3.05 meters) in the ground and covered again with cement.</p><p>University of Pennsylvania anthropologist Samantha Cox, who did the forensic science on the exhumed remains, tells the NewsWorks online site that because of his unique burial requests, Holmes&#8217; body had not properly decomposed.</p><p>She said his clothes were almost perfectly preserved and his moustache was intact on his skull. But the corpse had decayed.</p><p>&#8220;It stank,&#8221; Cox told the news site. &#8220;Once it gets to that point we can&#8217;t do anything with it. We can&#8217;t test it, can&#8217;t get any DNA out of it.&#8221; Holmes&#8217; teeth were used to identify him, she said.</p><p>WCAU-TV reports the remains were re-interred at Holy Cross Cemetery in Yeadon.</p><p>Holmes was the subject of the 2003 best-selling book, &#8220;The Devil in the White City,&#8221; by Erik Larson.</p><style>
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Tests confirm Philadelphia gravesite of 1800s serial killer H.H. Holmes