Jack the Ripper identified through DNA traces: sleuth

[hhfarang]

"Jack the Ripper identified through DNA traces: sleuth

London (AFP) - Jack the Ripper, one of the most notorious serial killers in history, has been identified through DNA traces found on a shawl, claims a sleuth in a book out on Tuesday.

The true identity of Jack the Ripper, whose grisly murders terrorised the murky slums of Whitechapel in east London in 1888, has been a mystery ever since, with dozens of suspects that include royalty and prime ministers down to bootmakers.

But after extracting DNA from a shawl recovered from the scene of one of the killings, which matched relatives of both the victim and one of the suspects, Jack the Ripper sleuth Russell Edwards claims the identity of the murderer is now beyond doubt.

He says the infamous killer is Aaron Kosminski, a Jewish emigre from Poland, who worked as a barber.

Edwards, a businessman interested in the Ripper story, bought a bloodstained Victorian shawl at auction in 2007.

The story goes that it came from the murder scene of the Ripper's fourth victim, Catherine Eddowes, on September 30, 1888.

Police acting sergeant Amos Simpson, who had been at the scene, got permission from his superiors to take it for his dressmaker wife -- who was subsequently aghast at the thought of using a bloodstained shawl.

It had hitherto been passed down through the policeman's direct descendants, who had stored it unwashed in a box. It briefly spent a few years on loan to Scotland Yard's crime museum.

- Victim disembowelled -

Edwards sought to find out if DNA technology could conclusively link the shawl to the murder scene.

Working on the blood stains, Doctor Jari Louhelainen, senior lecturer in molecular at Liverpool John Moores University, isolated seven small segments of mitochondrial DNA, which is passed down through the female line.

They were matched with the DNA of Karen Miller, a direct descendant of Eddowes, confirming her blood was on the shawl.

Meanwhile stains exposed under ultra-violet light suggested the presence of seminal fluid.

Doctor David Miller, reader in molecular andrology at the University of Leeds, managed to find cells from which DNA was isolated.

With the help of genealogists, Edwards found a descendant of Kosminski through the female line, who offered samples of her DNA.

Louhelainen was then able to match DNA from the semen stains to Kosminski's descendant.

For Edwards, this places Kosminski at the scene of Eddowes' gruesome murder.

Eddowes, 46, was killed on the same night as the Ripper's third victim. An orphan with a daughter and two sons, she worked as a casual prostitute.

She was found brutally murdered at 1:45am. Her throat was cut and she was disembowelled. Her face was also mutilated.

The belief is that the shawl was left at the crime scene by the killer, not Eddowes.

- Calls for peer review -

Kosminski was born in Klodawa in central Poland on September 11, 1865. His family fled the imperial Russian anti-Jewish pogroms and emigrated to east London in the early 1880s. He lived close to the murder scenes.

Some reports say he was taken in by the police to be identified by a witness who had seen him with one of the victims, and though a positive identification was made, the witness refused to give incriminating evidence, meaning the police had little option but to release him.

He entered a workhouse in 1889, where he was described on admission as "destitute". He was discharged later that year but soon ended up in an insane asylum.

He died from gangrene in an asylum on March 24, 1919 and was buried three days later at East Ham Cemetery in east London.

Some have cast doubt on Edwards' findings.

The research has not been published a a peer-reviewed scientific journal, meaning the claims cannot be independently verified or the methodology scrutinised.

Professor Alec Jeffreys, who invented the DNA fingerprinting technique 30 years ago this week, called for further verification.

"An interesting but remarkable claim that needs to be subjected to peer review, with detailed analysis of the provenance of the shawl and the nature of the claimed DNA match with the perpetrator's descendants and its power of discrimination; no actual evidence has yet been provided," Jeffreys told The Independent newspaper."

http://news.yahoo.com/jack-ripper-ident ... 21946.html

[kendo]

Fascinating HHF thanks for sharing that.

Kendo.

[pdm3547]

It wasn't Kosminski.

The shawl was hardly passed down through sterilised and secure conditions. Likely it has become contaminated through the generations and a false ID made.

[Dannie Boy]

It wasn't Kosminski.

The shawl was hardly passed down through sterilised and secure conditions. Likely it has become contaminated through the generations and a false ID made.

You can't say it wasn't Kosminski, all you can say is that it cannot be proved beyond reasonable doubt that it was Kosminski - fascinating stuff all the same.

[pdm3547]

It wasn't Kosminski.

The shawl was hardly passed down through sterilised and secure conditions. Likely it has become contaminated through the generations and a false ID made.

You can't say it wasn't Kosminski, all you can say is that it cannot be proved beyond reasonable doubt that it was Kosminski - fascinating stuff all the same.

Well, I've got my own view who it was. And its not Sickert!

[caller]

Well, I've got my own view who it was. And its not Sickert!

You're not convinced by the claims about his painting 'Ennui' then?

But come on, do spill the beans, who do you think it was?

[pdm3547]

Sir William Withey Gull.

Do you have a view?

[HHTel]

If the shawl belonged to the victim (no proof that it wasn't) the presence of seminal fluid on it as well as her blood is not really surprising. She was a prostitute! I doubt the garment was professionally cleaned on a regular basis. Could be that it's just one of her clients that has been identified.

[pharvey]

It was the Royals... The Royals I tell you!!

[arcadianagain]

No it was Jock the Kipper, disguised as a salmond

[caller]

Sir William Withey Gull.

Do you have a view?

I used to. The 1st time I read of Gull was in Stephen Knights, 'Jack the ripper: The final solution', way back in the 70's, hence the reference to Sickerts 'ennui' which features in the book, as does Sickert and the Duke of Clarence. As an aside I saw 'ennui' on display in Tate St. Ives a couple of weeks back and apart from the fact it's a great painting, every time I see it, I look at the picture on the back wall to consider whether it really does depict one of the rippers victims after death? And although a really enjoyable and fascinating read, the book was soon attacked by Historians. I got a bit put off after his book had been adapted by others for drama and the interest was re-kindled, and then the whole ripper thing became an industry where fact and fiction became very blurred.

[pdm3547]

Very odd that the author of The Final Solution was"mugged" in a dark alley shortly after the book was released.

Just adds to the conspiracy, doesn't it!

[caller]

Very odd that the author of The Final Solution was"mugged" in a dark alley shortly after the book was released.

Just adds to the conspiracy, doesn't it!

I didn't know that. I know he died young and according to wiki started getting seizures in 1977 - anything to do with the mugging? He was a great talent, I really enjoyed his book on the freemasons as well.