Jack The Ripper Identified Using DNA Testing

Numerous news organizations are reporting that researchers have positively identified Jack the Ripper.

It is the greatest murder mystery of all time, a puzzle that has perplexed criminologists for more than a century and spawned books, films and myriad theories ranging from the plausible to the utterly bizarre.

But now, thanks to modern forensic science, The Mail on Sunday can exclusively reveal the true identity of Jack the Ripper, the serial killer responsible for at least five grisly murders in Whitechapel in East London during the autumn of 1888.

The story begins in 2007 when businessman Russell Edwards purchased a shawl at an auction in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, that was reportedly found next to the body of Catherine Eddowes, one of the Ripper’s victims.

Policy Mic reports that the shawl “has survived without ever being washed and maintained genetic material.” Edwards then enlisted the skills of Dr. Jari Louhelainen who is world-renowned as an expert in analyzing genetic-based evidence from historical crime scenes.

According to the Mail, Dr Louhelainen was “able to extract 126-year-old DNA from the material and compare it to DNA from descendants of Eddowes and the suspect,” Aaron Kosminski, with both proving a perfect match.

On Sunday in the Mail, Dr Louhelainen is quoted as saying:

It has taken a great deal of hard work, using cutting-edge scientific techniques which would not have been possible five years ago. Once I had the profile, I could compare it to that of the female descendant of Kosminski’s sister, who had given us a sample of her DNA swabbed from inside her mouth.

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.

The Guardian reported that Edwards went on to elaborate:

“I’ve got the only piece of forensic evidence in the whole history of the case. I’ve spent 14 years working on it, and we have definitively solved the mystery of who Jack the Ripper was.

“Only non-believers that want to perpetuate the myth will doubt. This is it now – we have unmasked him.”

Metro UK reports that

In 1888, Jack the Ripper began a vicious attack on female prostitutes in an area called Whitechapel. During August and November of that year, he killed Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes and Mary Jane Kelly. Continuing on through 1891, the deaths of Rose Mylett, Alice McKenzie, the ‘Pinchin Street torso’ and Frances Coles were also attached to the Ripper, though those deaths were never certifiably linked to him.

The Mail reports that Edwards says,

Kosminski was not a member of the Royal Family, or an eminent surgeon or politician. Serial killers rarely are. Instead, he was a pathetic creature, a lunatic who achieved sexual satisfaction from slashing women to death in the most brutal manner. He died in Leavesden Asylum from gangrene at the age of 53, weighing just [98 pounds].

The Mail notes that “The revelation puts an end to the fevered speculation over the Ripper’s identity which has lasted since his murderous rampage in the most impoverished and dangerous streets of London.”

In the intervening century, a Jack the Ripper industry has grown up, prompting a dizzying array of more than 100 suspects, including Queen Victoria’s grandson – Prince Albert Victor, the Duke of Clarence – the post-Impressionist painter Walter Sickert, and the former Liberal Prime Minister William Gladstone.

You can read the full story at the U.K.’s Daily Mail for all the details.

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