Jack the Ripper, the notorious serial killer who terrorized Victorian London’s East End during the late 1800s, has remained unidentified for more than a century. English historian and author Russell Edwards now says he has cracked the case, identifying the killer as 23-year-old Polish immigrant Aaron Kosminski. The revelation came after DNA analysis was performed on a shawl left at the site of one of the murders.
Speaking to Today in Australia in an interview, Edwards explained when he established that the killer had been identified, “When we matched the blood DNA on the shawl to a direct descendant female of the victim, that was the singular most amazing experience of my life at the time.” Edwards added, “We did test the semen left behind on the shawl.”. When we compared that, I was amazed that we actually had found out who Jack the Ripper really was.
The killings, from 1888 to 1891, claimed the lives of five women, all but one of whom were prostitutes. Historians opine that there may have been some other victims. Mary Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and Mary Jane Kelly, those five women, were murdered horribly, and three of them had their internal organs removed.
The shawl, which was found at the murder site of Eddowes, Edwards bought in 2007 when he heard of it. Edwards recalled the experience, “It was a journey of discovery, with lots of twists and turns. The adventure was exciting from start to finish and I was fortunate to be able to do it.”
Kosminski, who immigrated to England as a child, was a barber in Whitechapel. In 1885, he started developing signs of mental illness and was admitted to a number of insane asylums. Edwards mentioned that Kosminski had auditory hallucinations, was fearful of others, and even refused to eat or bathe. Kosminski passed away in 1919 at the age of 53.
We’ve got the evidence, now we want this inquest to formally identify the murderer,” Edwards said.
This news has not been without controversy, however, with some questioning Edwards’ findings, including a claim of a staged discovery pertaining to the Moors Murders case. This controversy sparked a renewed police search for the body of Keith Bennett, one of Ian Brady and Myra Hindley’s victims, whose body has never been discovered.
