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Here we go again: Ripper murders finally solved (again)
I ran across some of post mortem photos of the victims - not very nice
I got this from techweekly so maybe not the most reliable source
Jack the Ripper “solved”: DNA evidence ends the 126-year-old mystery
Joe Frost Contributor
The author of a new book says he he has “definitely, categorically and absolutely” uncovered the identity of Jack the Ripper. While we’ve heard this claim made before, this time around some pretty hard scientific evidence backs the claim that Aaron Kosminski – one of the main suspects of the day – was the infamous Ripper.
“I’ve got the only piece of forensic evidence in the whole history of the case,” London businessman Russell Edwards told The Mirror. “I’ve spent 14 years working on it, and we have definitively solved the mystery of who Jack the Ripper was.”
Writing for The Mail on Sunday, Edwards described the process of solving the 126-year-old mystery.
In March 2007, Edwards bought a blood-stained shawl which was found beside Catherine Eddowes, one of the Ripper’s ‘canonical five’ victims. Edwards had a hunch the shawl did not belong to Eddowes, as it was too fine a garment for a woman so poor she had sold her shoes the day before her death. Edwards’ theory was that the shawl belonged to the Ripper, who had left it at the scene of the crime as a clue as to when he would next strike.
Edwards enlisted the assistance of Dr Jari Louhelainen, “a leading expert in genetic evidence from historical crime scenes” in 2011. Louhelainen’s first task was to identify the various stains on the shawl. Using UV photography, Louhelainen discovered there was more than just blood present on the garment.
Under UV photography, a set of fluorescent stains showed up which Jari said had the characteristics of semen…
He also found evidence of split body parts during the frenzied attack. One of Eddowes’ kidneys was removed by her murderer, and later in his research Jari managed to identify the presence of what he believed to be a kidney cell.
The genomic DNA present was too old to be effective, so Louhelainen instead used the mitochondrial DNA present, which is passed down through the female line. Karen Miller, Eddowes three-times great-granddaughter allowed her DNA be tested and authenticity of the shawl was proved.
Louhelainen was far less confident of the semen having any cells present which could be tested, so he enlisted the help of Dr David Miller, a world expert on the subject.
[I]n 2012 they made another incredible breakthrough when they found surviving cells. They were from the epithelium, a type of tissue which coats organs. In this case, it was likely to have come from the urethra during ejaculation.
Using the surviving cells, Louhelainen said he was able to map the DNA of the person who had ‘donated’ them.
Because of the genome amplification technique, I was also able to ascertain the ethnic and geographical background of the DNA I extracted. It was of a type known as the haplogroup T1a1, common in people of Russian Jewish ethnicity. I was even able to establish that he had dark hair.
Aaron Kosminski was a Jewish immigrant from the Polish town of Kłodawa, which was then part of the Russian Empire. While he never had children, his sister’s descendant was willing to give a mouth swab for Louhelainen to compare.
The first strand of DNA showed a 99.2 per cent match, as the analysis instrument could not determine the sequence of the missing 0.8 per cent fragment of DNA. On testing the second strand, we achieved a perfect 100 per cent match.
Kosminski was a barber in Whitechapel, where the murders took place (initially they were known as the ‘Whitechapel Murders’). So the story could soon be in for the musical treatment – ‘Jack the Ripper: The demon barber of Whitechapel’.
Kosminski had a history of mental illness, and was put in an insane asylum in 1891. He spent the rest of his days in institutions, before passing away in 1919.
The canonical five murders – considered to have definitely been the work of the Ripper – took place between 31 August and 9 November 1888, however another six grisly killings occurred in the Whitechapel area between 1888 and 1891. The fact the spree ended around the same time Kosminski was institutionalised lends weight to the theory he committed all 11 killings.
Edwards said he had long suspected Kosminski was the Ripper – indeed the police at the time identified him as their prime suspect.
I spoke to Alan McCormack, the officer in charge of the Crime Museum, also known as the Black Museum. He told me the police had always believed they knew the identity of the Ripper. Chief Inspector Donald Swanson, the officer in charge of the investigation, had named him in his notes: Aaron Kosminski…
Kosminski has always been one of the three most credible suspects… What is certain is he was seriously mentally ill, probably a paranoid schizophrenic who suffered auditory hallucinations and described as a misogynist prone to ‘self-abuse’ – a euphemism for masturbation.
McCormack said police did not have enough evidence to convict Kosminski, despite identification by a witness, but kept him under 24-hour surveillance until he was committed to mental asylums for the rest of his life.
Edwards is completely confident in his findings, saying, “Only non-believers that want to perpetuate the myth will doubt. This is it now – we have unmasked him.”
Of course the nay-sayers have already emerged, with The Metro writing, “the DNA of a Whitechapel resident on the belongings of a known Whitechapel prostitute merely proves Kosminski met Eddowes at some point”.
What do you think? Are we about to replace the term ‘smoking gun’ with ‘semen-and-blood splattered shawl’? Or with Edwards’ book Naming Jack The Ripper is set to be released this week, is this just a bloke trying to make some money?
Joe Frost Contributor
The author of a new book says he he has “definitely, categorically and absolutely” uncovered the identity of Jack the Ripper. While we’ve heard this claim made before, this time around some pretty hard scientific evidence backs the claim that Aaron Kosminski – one of the main suspects of the day – was the infamous Ripper.
“I’ve got the only piece of forensic evidence in the whole history of the case,” London businessman Russell Edwards told The Mirror. “I’ve spent 14 years working on it, and we have definitively solved the mystery of who Jack the Ripper was.”
Writing for The Mail on Sunday, Edwards described the process of solving the 126-year-old mystery.
In March 2007, Edwards bought a blood-stained shawl which was found beside Catherine Eddowes, one of the Ripper’s ‘canonical five’ victims. Edwards had a hunch the shawl did not belong to Eddowes, as it was too fine a garment for a woman so poor she had sold her shoes the day before her death. Edwards’ theory was that the shawl belonged to the Ripper, who had left it at the scene of the crime as a clue as to when he would next strike.
Edwards enlisted the assistance of Dr Jari Louhelainen, “a leading expert in genetic evidence from historical crime scenes” in 2011. Louhelainen’s first task was to identify the various stains on the shawl. Using UV photography, Louhelainen discovered there was more than just blood present on the garment.
Under UV photography, a set of fluorescent stains showed up which Jari said had the characteristics of semen…
He also found evidence of split body parts during the frenzied attack. One of Eddowes’ kidneys was removed by her murderer, and later in his research Jari managed to identify the presence of what he believed to be a kidney cell.
The genomic DNA present was too old to be effective, so Louhelainen instead used the mitochondrial DNA present, which is passed down through the female line. Karen Miller, Eddowes three-times great-granddaughter allowed her DNA be tested and authenticity of the shawl was proved.
Louhelainen was far less confident of the semen having any cells present which could be tested, so he enlisted the help of Dr David Miller, a world expert on the subject.
[I]n 2012 they made another incredible breakthrough when they found surviving cells. They were from the epithelium, a type of tissue which coats organs. In this case, it was likely to have come from the urethra during ejaculation.
Using the surviving cells, Louhelainen said he was able to map the DNA of the person who had ‘donated’ them.
Because of the genome amplification technique, I was also able to ascertain the ethnic and geographical background of the DNA I extracted. It was of a type known as the haplogroup T1a1, common in people of Russian Jewish ethnicity. I was even able to establish that he had dark hair.
Aaron Kosminski was a Jewish immigrant from the Polish town of Kłodawa, which was then part of the Russian Empire. While he never had children, his sister’s descendant was willing to give a mouth swab for Louhelainen to compare.
The first strand of DNA showed a 99.2 per cent match, as the analysis instrument could not determine the sequence of the missing 0.8 per cent fragment of DNA. On testing the second strand, we achieved a perfect 100 per cent match.
Kosminski was a barber in Whitechapel, where the murders took place (initially they were known as the ‘Whitechapel Murders’). So the story could soon be in for the musical treatment – ‘Jack the Ripper: The demon barber of Whitechapel’.
Kosminski had a history of mental illness, and was put in an insane asylum in 1891. He spent the rest of his days in institutions, before passing away in 1919.
The canonical five murders – considered to have definitely been the work of the Ripper – took place between 31 August and 9 November 1888, however another six grisly killings occurred in the Whitechapel area between 1888 and 1891. The fact the spree ended around the same time Kosminski was institutionalised lends weight to the theory he committed all 11 killings.
Edwards said he had long suspected Kosminski was the Ripper – indeed the police at the time identified him as their prime suspect.
I spoke to Alan McCormack, the officer in charge of the Crime Museum, also known as the Black Museum. He told me the police had always believed they knew the identity of the Ripper. Chief Inspector Donald Swanson, the officer in charge of the investigation, had named him in his notes: Aaron Kosminski…
Kosminski has always been one of the three most credible suspects… What is certain is he was seriously mentally ill, probably a paranoid schizophrenic who suffered auditory hallucinations and described as a misogynist prone to ‘self-abuse’ – a euphemism for masturbation.
McCormack said police did not have enough evidence to convict Kosminski, despite identification by a witness, but kept him under 24-hour surveillance until he was committed to mental asylums for the rest of his life.
Edwards is completely confident in his findings, saying, “Only non-believers that want to perpetuate the myth will doubt. This is it now – we have unmasked him.”
Of course the nay-sayers have already emerged, with The Metro writing, “the DNA of a Whitechapel resident on the belongings of a known Whitechapel prostitute merely proves Kosminski met Eddowes at some point”.
What do you think? Are we about to replace the term ‘smoking gun’ with ‘semen-and-blood splattered shawl’? Or with Edwards’ book Naming Jack The Ripper is set to be released this week, is this just a bloke trying to make some money?
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