[Image: Goodfon]
British researcher Russel Edwards claims to have definitively identified Jack the Ripper through DNA evidence found on a shawl from victim Catherine Eddowes.
Using DNA analysis, Edwards used the evidence from the 1888 murder to show a 100% DNA match to living relatives of one Aaron Kosminski.
Kosminski was a 23-year-old Polish barber who immigrated to London shortly before the first murder occurred. After the Whitechapel murders, he was believed to be one of the prime suspects interviewed by the police. Although at the time, and with primitive policing techniques at the time unable to prove his guilt, he was never charged.
Suffering from mental illness, Kosminski was later locked up in an asylum, where he died in 1919.
Historically the police actually investigated the killings of 11 women, primarily prostitutes from April 1888 to February 1891. Known as the Whitechapel murders, only the third to the seventh of these murders, known as the Canonical Murders, were confirmed to have been committed by the Ripper.
Not all DNA experts agree with Edwards’ finding though, with many pointing to the fact that mitochondrial DNA can only exclude suspects and not confirm them with 100% accuracy. The ‘chain of custody’ of the bloody shawl has also made some forensic experts doubt the ‘proof’ of Kosminski’s guilt.
One of Catherine Eddowes’ descendants, Karen Miller, has now called for an official inquest. Kosminski’s own great-great-great niece has also asked for the findings to be scrutinised by other experts.
[Source: Cornwall Live & News]
