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?

[Saysys]

Jack the Ripper was a fucking Jedi?

No, He was a human with a mother.

From Wikipedia:

In humans, mitochondrial DNA can be assessed as the smallest chromosome coding for 37 genes and containing approximately 16,600 base pairs. Human mitochondrial DNA was the first significant part of the human genome to be sequenced. In most species, including humans, mtDNA is inherited solely from the mother.

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?

[TerokNor]

I'm sorry, but Strax has a firm alibi. He was off playing with his grenades or training his laser monkeys.

Re:Mitochondrial DNA?

[TeknoHog]

Strong the whoosh with this one is, FYFT

FYTF.

tldr; why is blood the perpetrator's?

[smoothnorman]

it's probably after the link somewhere, but one useful explanation in this summary would be why DNA analysis of the blood:

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

wouldn't just reveal the identity of the victim. ("y'see, it was a man's- blood!" "y'see the ripper had cut 'imself shav'n that morning" "y'see the worker girl she had 'er own knife a'course")

Re:tldr; why is blood the perpetrator's?

[meerling]

Yes, and as we all know, there were no other missing persons in that region of the country during the time of Jack the Ripper was active and that the only male that could have gotten blood on a shawl obviously had to be Jack.
I guess Jack sent sent that womans shawl to police after autographing it in his own blood with the words "This is Bloody Jacks, don't touch it gov".
</sarcasm>

The provenance of the shawl is very questionable. If it is the shawl found near the body of a ripper victim, it may very well not have been hers. Even if you make the assumptions that it is the one found at the crime scene, and it's hers, you then have to make the huge unsubstantiated conclusion that the blood on it is Jacks.

Now, you aren't done yet. The DNA analysis is rather unlikely to be able to pin down someone exactly when dealing with someone from many generations ago that you don't have any samples of. About all you can do is follow lineage and say the blood is related to known ancestors of that suspect. Of course, there are bound to be a lot of other relatives that held that mitochondrial dna alive at that time, especially when dealing with close knit communities that intermarry far more than breed outside their group. Something very common, including with Jews in Europe at that time.
Still worse, the sample wasn't preserved in a fashion to reduce contamination and decay. At an age over a century, it's value for making such wild accusations against another unknown dna is absurd.
To top that all off, someone else has previously claimed to have done a dna identification, and they fingered an entirely different suspect.

This whole thing is a farce. It was probably done to sell books or something, because from a scientific evidential standpoint, it's composed more of fiction than Moby DIck.

Re: tldr; why is blood the perpetrator's?

[Artifakt]

It's the previous DNA analysis that was based on just mitochondrial DNA - This one isn't. It's based on what is allegedly a new improvement in DNA testing, but it involves testing conventional nuclear DNA. Also, given the rest of Kosminski's history, if he was, say, merely a pimp who was wounded at the same time as the death of one of his prostitutes, his subsequent behavior was rather unlikely, to say the least. He was suspected of being Jack while he still lived. I don't know about you, but if the police were looking into the possibility I was Jack the Ripper, and the real Jack had tried to kill me, then proving my own innocence by giving them information that might lead to the real killer looks a lot more rational than shutting up about it. It's pretty much killing two birds with one stone at that point. (As opposed to Jack's method of killing birds, I guess). There are people pointing to K's mental illness history, and how he might not be particulalry rational, but there's a big difference between saying someone is mentally ill, and saying, they were mentally ill, and it was definitely in a way that would make them not do what most people would do here, but definiitely also not in a way that would make them commit murder either.
        People taking the other side have to either beleive this new evidence isn't a real improvement in genetic testing and that claim is essentially false (which is fine by me if they do - time will settle whether it is or isn't), or they have to make some pretty bizarre and often self contradictory claims about the few other items of evidence we have, such as claiming Kosminski was a real bad apple who the police wanted enough for very serious crimes (just what, they never wrote down), that he couldn't have whitewashed his own reputation even by giving them Jack, or that Kosminski had some major underworld contacts who would have paniced if he had gone to the police (but these contacts couldn't take care of the Ripper if Kosminski went to them instead). ,
    Other such evidence that has to be tweaked is there are some good sketches of the crime scenes, and for this one Jack had to, for example, fight Kosminski only in places where it was too dark to see his face, then kill the prostitute and move her body indoors past some well lighted areas without K hanging around to see who the real Jack was, and do it all quickly enough that the real Jack could get out of there before K could have returned with the police. (Or somehow, the real Jack had to know K was not the type to return with police, or something else both odd and very much not in evidence.).
            There's also the claim which has been around for decades, that the word Jewes in the grafitti scrawled at one crime scene has to refer to some Masonic ritual and not be a misspellling of Jews, and other such things which have always been oddish speculations, but had better be taken as basic assumptions to make it less likely that K did it - people who seriously want to claim there's no other evidence than this 'questionable' DNA test to link Kosminski will just about have to buy into one or another of these oddish assumptions like the "It had to be a Mason" bit, as well. People willing to go down such roads usually end up "proving' that jack was Queen Victoria, or the Loch Ness Monster, or other such candidates.

forensic 'science'

[fermion]

This is where I think we get in trouble with forensic science. Certain things, like finger prints and DNA, can exonerate a suspect but we have seen enough analysis around here to know that it is a fallacy to think that these things prove guilt. it only proves guilt if we assume the probability of guilt is 100% initially. When comparing the sample to a database, random error can create a match under certain common circumstances.

So we can say that DNA evidence is part of a chain that can lead to guilt, and if we assume the known suspects represent the total population of possible suspects, then if the DNA exonerates all other suspects, then there is a case to be made for guilt, but that is a lot of caveats. As we have seen in many cases, obvious suspects are ignored because the authorities jump to quick conclusions. As said, DNA is good for exonerating people, not convicts them.

Re:forensic 'science'

[Anonymous Coward]

In 1987, Ripper author Martin Fido searched asylum records for any inmates called Kosminski, and found only one: Aaron Kosminski.[15] At the time of the murders, Aaron apparently lived either on Providence Street or Greenfield Street, both addresses of which are close to the sites of the murders.[16] The addresses given in the asylum records are in Mile End Old Town, just on the edge of Whitechapel.[17] The description of Aaron's symptoms in the case notes indicates that he was a paranoid schizophrenic, and known paranoid schizophrenics include serial killers such as Peter Sutcliffe.[6] Macnaghten's notes say that "Kosminski" indulged in "solitary vices",[9] and in his memoirs Anderson wrote of his suspect's "unmentionable vices",[18] both of which may match the claim in the case notes that Aaron committed "self-abuse".[19] Swanson's notes match the known details of Aaron's life in that he reported that the suspect went to the workhouse and then to Colney Hatch,[20] but the last detail about his early death does not match Aaron, who lived until 1919.[21

Re:forensic 'science'

[TarPitt]

There was also an eyewitness who saw him leave a bar with a prostitute hours before the prostitute was horribly murdered. The eyewitness refused to testify in court.

Story I heard was that the police were very sure this was the guy, but knowing they couldn't convict, they arranged to have him locked up in an insane asylum. The murders then abruptly stopped.

Source: Recent "Jack the Ripper" tour in London. Not peer reviewed.

I now know what age Russell Edwards is

[guises]

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.

Re:I now know what age Russell Edwards is

[Anonymous Coward]

It gives you an idea of what generation he is, and therefore what social experience he may have wrt the subject at hand.

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.

Re:I now know what age Russell Edwards is

[Idimmu Xul]

The more correct facts, however irrelevant, the salesman (journalist) can fit in their marketing (article) the more likely we are to buy the product (story) and not notice any mistakes or inconsistencies.

Re:I now know what age Russell Edwards is

[HugoMMRabson]

Probably for the same reason that they mentioned that Jack the Ripper was Jewish. They weren't picking on Jews or old people; they merely wanted to include interesting details. At least, I hope that's the reason.

Re:I now know what age Russell Edwards is

[rkww]

Why do they throw his age in there?

His age is part of his identity; it helps ensure that friends and family of e.g. businessman Robert Edwards, 33, know the story doesn't refer to 'their' Robert.

Re:I now know what age Russell Edwards is

[deuterium]

Because no one would believe it if he were 9

Bullshit claim.

[denzacar]

There was no blood other than the victims on the shawl. And even that was only determined to match through mitochondrial DNA.
What they claim to have matched "definitely, categorically and absolutely" to the murderer are "traces of semen thought to belong to the killer".
Traces of semen. On the clothes of ONE of the victims. Who was a prostitute.

Clearly, "Only non-believers that want to perpetuate the myth will doubt."
Non-believers perpetuating myths? I'm not sure that's how it goes.

From TFA:
       

A blood-stained shawl belonging to one of the Ripper's victims bought at an auction in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, in 2007 was used as the basis for the research.
As well as being soaked in her blood, it was found to have traces of semen thought to belong to the killer.
Mr Edwards said: âoeI've got the only piece of forensic evidence in the whole history of the case.
âoeI'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."

BUT WAIT! There is more... it is once again mitochondrial.
In other words...

Critics, however, have pointed out that the DNA comparisons focused on mitochondrial DNA, which could be shared by anything from between 1% and 10% of the population, so it was hardly unique to Sickert.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new...

It was impossible to extract DNA from the stains on the shawl using the method employed in current cases, in which swabs are taken. The samples were just too old.

Instead, he used a method he called âvacuumingâ(TM), using a pipette filled with a special âbufferingâ(TM) liquid that removed the genetic material in the cloth without damaging it.
As a non-scientist, I found myself in a new world as Jari warned that it would also be impossible to use genomic DNA, which is used in fresh cases and contains a humanâ(TM)s entire genetic data, because over time it would have become fragmented.

But he explained it would be possible to use mitochondrial DNA instead. It is passed down exclusively through the female line, is much more abundant than genomic DNA, and survives far better.

Making it exactly as valid as the Walter Sickert "evidence" from postage stamps.

some interesting facts

[Anonymous Coward]

1. The blood on the rag was the female's and the semen on the rag was Aaron's.
2. This doesn't necessarily prove that Aaron was the Ripper, just that he was there. It's possible that someone else killed her and left her for dead. Then Aaron walking by found the corpse and masturbated on it. He was known to have been a sicko who did unspeakable things.
3. There is a strong case that it was Cohen because he was specifically linked to murders of prostitutes, and the crimes stopped the same year he was confined to the asylum.
4. There's some suggestion that Cohen was an alias the Asylum used because Aaron's last name was too difficult to pronounce. It may have been the same man.

Re:Both a perfect match

[meerling]

Only if you accept that the results are accurate despite the decay and age of the sample that hadn't been stored in an appropriate manner to preserve the integrity of the dna as well as avoid contamination by other source which include bacteria that like to eat it, and that the blood was actually from Jack The Ripper and not from someone else, possible another victim.

Run on sentence of the year award? Nope, still too short. :P

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.

Not a great comparison to Moby-Dick.

[xmark]

Moby Dick is fiction, but was highly influenced and factually informed by the tragic events and wreck of the whaleship Essex. Melville was consumed by the stories of the surviving crew, and was inspired by them to write Moby-Dick. It's a fictional work immersed in a strong, accurate nonfiction document.

The following book about the Essex is superb, for those with further interest. It won a nonfiction National Book Award. You will stay up very late reading it.

            In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex, by Nathaniel Philbrick.

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.

Not blood, semen found on the bloody shawl.

[cduffy]

It's not the bloody that's allegedly the perpetrator's, but semen found on the shawl. I'm surprised nobody else replying to you seems to have done their homework either.

Re:Convenient

[superwiz]

Wow. What century is this again? I thought most people who said garbage like this died out a long time ago.

Re:Ted Kaczynski

[disambiguated]

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

Re:Both a perfect match

[LoyalOpposition]

Possibly because he was seen with Catherine Eddows by Joseph Lawende, Joseph Hyam Levy and Harry Harris less than eleven minutes prior to the murder, among other reasons.

~Loyal