Jack the Ripper recognized as skilled finds blood on scarf – ‘It’s 100% him’
More than 130 years since Jack the Ripper haunted the murky, foggy lanes of Victorian London, a top history buff reckons he might have finally unmasked the infamous killer’s identity
A top historian reckons he’s cracked the Jack the Ripper mystery that has baffled boffins for centuries. Author Russell Edwards based his theory on forensic testing of a shawl said to have been found near the body of Ripper victim Catherine Eddowes. And he argues it was Polish-Jewish barber Aaron Kosminski, a figure it has previously been claimed it could be.
The serial killer terrorised Whitechapel, East London, in the late 1800s but was never caught and became one of the most notorious cold cases in history and sparked a slew of theories from amateur sleuths and true crime buffs.
But Russell, who bought the shawl in 2007 and commissioned a forensic analysis of blood and semen traces found on it, said: “Without a doubt, 100% it’s him.”
Russell – who last year penned the book ‘Naming Jack the Ripper: The Definitive Reveal’ – tested the shawl using DNA provided by Kosminski’s oldest brother’s great-great-granddaughter.
He told Newsnation: “With the evidence that we have, we can actually place Aaron Kosminski at the murder scene.”
He also provided a facial reconstruction by an expert from the family photos he was given by one of Kosminski’s descendants.
Kosminski, a Polish immigrant, became a barber in Whitechapel and was in a mental health facility with schizophrenia at the time of his death in 1919.
He is said to have lived in the heart of the killing spree in Whitechapel and had attracted police suspicion as he was thought to have a “hatred of women”, especially prostitutes, and “strong homicidal tendencies”.
Kosminski was admitted to workhouses due to his violent behaviour.
Professor David Wilson used geo-profiling to narrow down where the culprit likely lived and he also came to the conclusion it was Kosminski.
But some scientists and historians are sceptical of this conclusion. The Rest Is History host Tom Holland told The Times: “There’s no evidence the shawl came from her. Even if it did, the DNA could correspond to many more people than just him.”
A shawl was not listed by the City of London police as among Eddowes’s possessions when her body was found.
Holland and co-host Sandbrook believe Jack the Ripper could have been a “knackerman, slaughterman or butcher” because his first victim Mary Ann Nichols was found near a knacker’s yard.
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