The mystery of Jack the Ripper, one of history’s most infamous and elusive serial killers who killed five women in London’s Whitechapel district between 1888 and 1891, has been finally solved as after 137 years, his true identity has been revealed.
Jack the Ripper, whose true identity was never really known, was back in the news in January this year when the family of one of his victims called for a police investigation into claims that DNA has finally identified the notorious serial killer.
The demand was made after forensic scientists alleged in a 2019 study that Aaron Kosminski, a Polish immigrant, was responsible for the gruesome murders. In a fresh development in this decades-old mystery, historian and author Russell Edwards claimed to have made a breakthrough.
Edwards said the test of DNA found on a shawl recovered from the scene of one of the killer’s murder revealed that he was a 23-year-old Polish immigrant named Aaron Kosminski, who died in a mental institution in 1919.
“When we matched the DNA from the blood on the shawl with a direct female descendant of the victim, it was the singular most amazing moment of my life at the time,” Edwards told “Today” in Australia.
“We tested the semen left on the shawl. When we matched that, I was dumbfounded that we actually had discovered who Jack the Ripper truly was.”
JACK THE RIPPER’S VICTIMS
Jack the Ripper’s brutal murders terrorised the slums of Whitechapel in east London. His primary targets were women, most of them sex workers. The case baffled the investigators as it had hundreds of suspects. Historians suspect the number of his victims was higher.
The victims were identified as Mary Nichols (43), Annie Chapman (47), Elizabeth Stride (44), Catherine Eddowes (46), and Mary Jane Kelly (25). Three of the victims reportedly had their internal organs removed. All of them were killed between 3 April 1888 to 13 February 1891.
The body of Mary Ann Nichols was discovered on 31 August, 1888 in Whitechapel. The body of Annie Chapman was discovered a week later on 8 September, 1888 near the steps to the doorway of the back yard of 29 Hanbury Street, Spitalfields. Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes were both killed on 30 September 1888. The mutilated and disembowelled body of Mary Jane Kelly was discovered lying on the bed in the single room where she lived in Spitalfields on 9 November 1888.
WHO WAS JACK THE RIPPER?
Historians believe that the real name of the murderer, who became infamous as Jack the Ripper in the absence of an identity, was originally named Aaron Kosminski. He was born in central Poland and later moved to London where he worked as a barber.
Kosminski was known to have been institutionalised for schizophrenia and was considered a suspect during the investigation. Police reports from 1894 cited his “great hatred of women, especially of the prostitute class” and his “homicidal tendencies” as reasons for suspicion.
Kosminski was committed to a mental asylum in 1891 for allegedly threatening his sister with a knife and he died in 1919.
The killings spawned hundreds of theories, books and films. There is, in fact, a museum in his name called ‘Jack the Ripper Museum’ at 12 Cable Street, London E1 8JG.
HOW WAS HE IDENTIFIED?
A shawl found at the crime scene of one of his victims helped historians make a breakthrough in the case after more than a century. The shawl was recovered from the murder scene of the Ripper’s fifth victim, Catherine Eddowes, on September 30, 1888.
On Edwards’ request, Doctor Jari Louhelainen, a senior lecturer at Liverpool John Moores University, isolated seven small segments of DNA from blood stains on the shawl, news agency AFP reported. The DNA samples were then matched with the DNA of Karen Miller, a direct descendant of Eddowes, confirming her blood was on the shawl.
Also, DNA from semen stains on the garment was matched with Kosminski’s descendant, and it was a match.
Kosminski’s oldest brother’s great-great-granddaughter provided a DNA sample to Edwards that were matched with that of the shawl. Edwards had bought the shawl nearly 20 years ago when he learnt that it had been at the sight of one of Jack The Ripper’s murders.
“Considering his DNA is on the shawl that was at the murder scene and he was named, I have never considered anyone else to be the Ripper,” Edwards told news.com.au.
“I have, however, looked into every other suspect in order to eliminate them.
Even though Edwards claims that it is a “100% match”, his claims have been met with skepticism, with critics questioning his credibility. He has faced allegations in the past of faking discovering the top of a child’s skull in 2022, which prompted a renewed police search for the remains of Keith Bennett who was one of the victims of the notorious Moors Murders.
Besides, critics also raised concerns about the DNA sample, noting that over the past century, the shawl could have passed through many hands.
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