The century-old mystery of who Jack the Ripper really was may have finally been solved, after a team of scientists from Liverpool John Moores University performed a fresh DNA test on a piece of clothing found beside the body of one of Jack’s victims.
According to the Liverpool team, Jack the Ripper was Aaron Kosminski, a Polish barber who lived near the scene of the crimes. The story has been published in the Journal of Forensic Sciences, a well-respected, peer-reviewed paper.
The team examined a blood-stained shawl found beside the gored body of Catherine Eddowes, one of the two women killed on the night of September 30, 1888 during the so-called “double event.”
The shawl was found to contain blood and semen, with the latter purportedly originating from the suspect. The test results link the DNA found on the shawl to that of Aaron Kosminski’s living descendants. Kosminski, who was 23 years of age at the time of the murders, had previously been mentioned as a possible culprit, but this is the first time that DNA results are used to back up the claims.
A number of experts are taking the potentially historic revelation with a pinch of salt, however, saying that a number of key details relating to possible genetic variants are missing from the final report. Previous DNA analyses concluded that the killer was painter Walter Sickert, and even that the killer was a woman, for example.
Whether or not Kosmisnki really was Jack the Ripper will add yet more depth to one of the greatest whodunnit mysteries of all times.