The identity of Jack the Ripper has remained one of the most famous unsolved mysteries over the past 126 years. But an amateur sleuth may have just cracked the case.
Russell Edwards, a businessman and self-proclaimed "armchair detective" says that Aaron Kosminski, a 23-year-old Polish immigrant, committed the string of murders in London's East End in 1888. Edwards goes into this theory in his new book appropriately titled "Naming Jack the Ripper," according to The Mail on Sunday.
Edwards came to this conclusion using DNA evidence found on a blood-stained shawl he purchased at an auction in March 2007. The shawl was said to have been found next to the body of Catherine Eddowes, one of Jack the Ripper's victims. It was given to the auction by an ancestor of Acting Sergeant Amos Simpson, who was on duty the night of Eddowes' murder. Edwards says he first became interested in researching the Jack the Ripper murders after watching the 2001 film "From Hell" starring Johnny Depp, which followed a police detective's search for the killer.
Kosminski had always been one of six men suspected to be the real Jack the Ripper. Edwards wrote in The Mail on Sunday that Kosminski was said to be described as a hairdresser in Whitechapel as listed on his workhouse admission papers in 1890. He was reportedly mentally ill, suffering auditory hallucinations, and also a misogynist.
Police didn't have enough evidence to convict Kosminski, according to Alan McCormack, the officer in charge of London's Crime Museum. However, a witness had identified Kosminski, and he was kept under 24-hour surveillance until he was put into mental institutions for the rest of his life.
Edwards partnered with Dr. Jari Louhelainen, a senior lecturer in molecular biology at Liverpool John Moores University. He conducted several tests on the shawl. One was using an infrared camera to determine that the blood stains were consistent with arterial blood from slashing, which was how Eddowes was killed. UV photography also revealed stains that had the characteristics of semen, possibly showing DNA from Jack the Ripper himself. Louhelainen also found what he believes to be a kidney cell on the shawl.
To extract the old DNA, Louhelainen used a special technique he calls "vacuuming," where he takes a pipette filled with a liquid "buffer" that stabilizes cells and DNA. He injected this liquid into the shawl to dissolve the material and then extracted it from the cloth without damaging the cells.
Edwards and Louhelainen matched the DNA found on the shawl with that of Karen Miller, said to be the three times great-granddaughter of Eddowes. Miller's DNA matched the DNA found on the shawl.
The team had also tracked down a descendant of Kosminski's sister to test her DNA against that of surviving cells found on the shawl. It was a match.
"Only non-believers that want to perpetuate the myth will doubt. This is it now — we have unmasked him," Edwards told The Guardian.
However, a discovery as big as this is going to have its skeptics. Since the shawl has been handled, breathed on and spat on by so many people through the years, the DNA sample supposedly belonging to Jack the Ripper might not be legitimate, said Richard Cobb, who runs Jack the Ripper conventions and tours, to The Times.
Unfortunately, after so many years have passed since the murders were committed, it's going to be difficult at this point for any sort of evidence to be conclusive. But people will surely keep trying to unmask this famous serial killer.
