Jack the Ripper identified after 126 years!

Jack the Ripper is arguably the most infamous serial killer to ever live. He is confirmed to have killed at least 5 people in late 1880’s London, with some attributing over a dozen more to him. He has become the stuff of legends because of two reasons: first, the time period he committed his crimes during was a boom in the relatively new industry of news being able to be reported around the world and so it was the first worldwide media frenzy in regard to an active serial killer and second, quite simply, he was never caught. Until now, it seems.

According to the Uk’s Daily Mail, a businessman named Russell Edwards bought a shawl, originally found at the murder scene of ripper victim Catherine Eddowes, at an auction. He then hired a world-famous genetics expert, who specializes in analyzing DNA from historical crime scens, by the name of Dr. Jari Louhelainen to see what he could uncover from the item.

Dr. Jari was able to recover DNA from the shawl and then compared said DNA with descendants of Eddowes and of the descendants of several of the known suspects. The Eddowes descendant was a match, indicating that the shawl’s presence at the crime scene was no coincidence; it was in fact involved in the crime directly. And comparison with descendants of the suspects made a perfect match when it was made with the descendant of one Aaron Kosminski. Based on this, they are now certain beyond a reasonable doubt that Kosminksi was the Ripper.

Aaron Kosminski was an Polish born hairdresser who lived in Whitechapel during the time of the murders. He was institutionalized in an asylum in 1891, suffering from auditory hallucinations, a fear of others handling his food, and a refusal to bathe. His cause for insanity is humorously recorded by archaic shrinks to be “self abuse”, in other words, masturbation. What actually caused him to go around the bend is anyone’s guess. He died in the asylum in 1919.

They seem pretty sure of themselves.  Was Kosminski really Jack the Ripper? Well, a proven mentally ill individual living in the area at the time of the murders and already under suspicion now has his DNA found on an item from one of the murder scenes. That sounds pretty incriminating to me.

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