Jack the Ripper identified through DNA traces: sleuth

[Buster's Uncle]

Jack the Ripper identified through DNA traces: sleuth
AFP
By Robin Millard  23 hours ago



DNA evidence has reportedly identified the real Jack the Ripper.



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.



Dr Jari Louhelainen, senior lecturer at Liverpool John Moores University, testing a shawl that was taken from the murder scene of Jack the Ripper's fourth victim Catherine Eddowes on September 30, 1888 (AFP Photo/)


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.



Screaming Lord Sutch, aka David Sutch, performs on stage with his Jack The Ripper show in 1974 in Copenhagen, Denmark. Jack the Ripper has been identified through DNA traces found on a shawl, claims a sleuth in a book out on Tuesday. (Photo by Jorgen Angel/Redferns via Getty Images)


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.



The front page of a newspaper reports on a 'Ghastly Murder in the East-End. Dreadful Mutilation of a Woman,' as part of its coverage of the murders of Jack the Ripper, London, England, Septermber 1888. Though the body is unidentified as of the writing of the article, it probably refers to the death of Annie Chapman on September 8, 1888. Jack the Ripper has been identified through DNA traces found on a shawl, claims a sleuth in a book out on Tuesday. (Express Newspapers/Getty Images)


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-identified-dna-traces-sleuth-024421946.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Has London's Victorian serial killer Jack the Ripper finally been identified?
Reuters
10 hours ago



Dr Jari Louhelainen, senior lecturer at Liverpool John Moores University, tests a shawl that was found at the murder scene of Jack the Ripper's fourth victim Catherine Eddowes on September 30, 1888. (AFP Photo/)



LONDON (Reuters) - Jack the Ripper, a serial killer who terrorized London in the 1880s, has finally been identified from DNA evidence from the blood-soaked shawl of one of his victims, according to a new book.

Author Russell Edwards identifies 23-year-old Polish immigrant and hairdresser Adam Kosminski as the notorious killer, suspected of the gruesome murders of at least five women in 1888.

In his book "Naming Jack the Ripper" which is released on Tuesday, Edwards, a businessman from North London, linked Kosminski to the crimes via DNA found on a shawl taken by a policeman from the murder scene of the Ripper’s fourth victim, Catherine Eddowes.

The shawl, which had never been washed and was kept safe by descendants of the policeman, was bought by Edwards at an auction in 2007.

With the help of genealogists who traced descendants of both Eddowes and Kosminski and helped by modern DNA technology, Edwards said he was able to confirm the authenticity of the shawl and attribute the murders to Kosminski.

The Ripper gained infamy with a killing spree in London’s East End in the late 19th century, targeting female prostitutes around the then-impoverished Whitechapel district.

According to the new book, Kosminski, who emigrated with his family from Poland to the End of London before the murders, was known to the police as a credible suspect.

He was committed to an asylum in 1891 and later died from gangrene.

Edwards' theory is the latest attempt to track down the killer whose story has spawned numerous books and films and who continues to fascinate to this day.

In 2002, best-selling crime novelist Patricia Cornwell thought she might have uncovered Jack the Ripper's DNA and that it could be a match for British artist Walter Sickert who liked to paint morbid scenes of violence against women.

(Reporting by Hannah Murphy; Editing by Janet Lawrence)


http://news.yahoo.com/londons-victorian-serial-killer-jack-ripper-finally-identified-164328781.html