New DNA Analysis On Old Blood Pegs Aaron Kosminski As Jack the Ripper

It surely won't be the last theory offered, but a century and a quarter after the notorious crimes of Jack the Ripper, an "armchair detective" has employed DNA analysis on the blood-soaked shawl of one of the Ripper's victims, and has declared it in a new book an unambiguous match with Jewish immigrant Aaron Kosminski, long considered a suspect. Kosminski died in 1919 in an insane asylum. The landmark discovery was made after businessman Russell Edwards, 48, bought the shawl at auction and enlisted the help of Dr Jari Louhelainen, a world-renowned expert in analysing genetic evidence from historical crime scenes. Using cutting-edge techniques, Dr Louhelainen was able to extract 126-year-old DNA from the material and compare it to DNA from descendants of [Ripper victim Catherine] Eddowes and the suspect, with both proving a perfect match. (Also at The Independent.) It's not the first time DNA evidence has been used to try to pin down the identity of Jack the Ripper, but the claimed results in this case are far less ambiguous than another purported mitochondrial DNA connection promoted by crime novelist Patricia Cornwell in favor of artist Walter Sickert as the killer in a 2002 book. Update: 09/07 16:03 GMT by T : Corrected Sickert's first name, originally misstated as "William."

Comments

Mitochondrial DNA?

[ArcadeMan]

Jack the Ripper was a fucking Jedi?

Re:Mitochondrial DNA?

[tshawkins]

Jack the Ripper was a fucking Jedi?

Ohhh come on, we all know he was a godamm sontaran, who else could it have been. Jedi where never anywhere near 18th centry london, sontarans however, whole different kettle of fish... thats where Strax keeps sneaking off to. Dont belive all that bollocks about a mate called Archie from Glasgow.

Re:Mitochondrial DNA?

[maroberts]

The whoosh is strong with this one.

Strong the whoosh with this one is, FTFY

Re:Mitochondrial DNA?

[TeknoHog]

Strong the whoosh with this one is, FYFT

FYTF.

Re:I now know what age Russell Edwards is

[clovis]

This is slightly off-topic, but why this?

...businessman Russell Edwards, 48, bought the shawl...

Why do they throw his age in there? Why does it matter? Is that in any possible way related to the story? I'm not calling out this story in particular, I see this all the time. I'd like to know the motivation behind the trend.

My first thought when I heard he had the bloody shawl was that he was the Jack the Ripper. Who else would have such a gruesome souvenir? But, then I saw that he was only 48 and not 148, so I now know it wasn't Edwards after all.
That little fact saved me a lot of time from writing a "I know who Jack is" book. Unless the 48 not 148 was a typo.

Cutting edge techniques

[penguinoid]

Using cutting-edge techniques, Dr Louhelainen was able to extract 126-year-old DNA from the material

I hear Jack the Ripper also used cutting edge techniques.

Re:But thanks for all the antisemitic comments, ti

[Artifakt]

I really doubt the claim that in the victorian era, Poland was literally flooded by jews. Figuratively, maybe, but I do not think that word 'literally' means what you think it means.

Re:Ted Kaczynski

[disambiguated]

But they're both named K-vowel-consonant-consonant-vowel-nski.
That can't be a coincidence.