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DNA tests ‘prove’ that Jack the Ripper was a Polish immigrant named Aaron Kosminski
Network Writers
News Corp Australia
September 07, 2014 10:32PM
A suspicious character ... an etching of a ‘vigilance committee’ identifying possible suspects in London in 1888. Picture: The Illustrated London News
THE search to uncover the identity of Jack the Ripper appears to be over.
DNA on a shawl found near one of the victims, Catherine Eddowes, reportedly contains a match to both her and one of the chief suspects, Aaron Kosminsky.
The Polish hairdresser, who moved to England with his family in 1881, was committed to a mental asylum at the peak of Ripper hysteria.
The breakthrough came when Dr Jari Louhelainen, an expert in historic DNA, was commissioned to study a shawl found with Eddowes, the second-last “confirmed” victim of the Ripper more than 125 years ago.
The shawl — which still retained historic stains — had been bought by a businessman at an auction in 2007.
“It has taken a great deal of hard work, using cutting-edge scientific techniques which would not have been possible five years ago,” Dr Louhelainen told a British newspaper.
“Once I had the profile, I could compare it to that of the female descendant of Kosminski’s sister, who had given us a sample of her DNA swabbed from inside her mouth.
“The first strand of DNA showed a 99.2 per cent match, as the analysis instrument could not determine the sequence of the missing 0.8 per cent fragment of DNA. On testing the second strand, we achieved a perfect 100 per cent match.”
DNA tests ‘prove’ that Jack the Ripper was a Polish immigrant named Aaron Kosminski
Network Writers
News Corp Australia
September 07, 2014 10:32PM
A suspicious character ... an etching of a ‘vigilance committee’ identifying possible suspects in London in 1888. Picture: The Illustrated London News
THE search to uncover the identity of Jack the Ripper appears to be over.
DNA on a shawl found near one of the victims, Catherine Eddowes, reportedly contains a match to both her and one of the chief suspects, Aaron Kosminsky.
The Polish hairdresser, who moved to England with his family in 1881, was committed to a mental asylum at the peak of Ripper hysteria.
The breakthrough came when Dr Jari Louhelainen, an expert in historic DNA, was commissioned to study a shawl found with Eddowes, the second-last “confirmed” victim of the Ripper more than 125 years ago.
The shawl — which still retained historic stains — had been bought by a businessman at an auction in 2007.
“It has taken a great deal of hard work, using cutting-edge scientific techniques which would not have been possible five years ago,” Dr Louhelainen told a British newspaper.
“Once I had the profile, I could compare it to that of the female descendant of Kosminski’s sister, who had given us a sample of her DNA swabbed from inside her mouth.
“The first strand of DNA showed a 99.2 per cent match, as the analysis instrument could not determine the sequence of the missing 0.8 per cent fragment of DNA. On testing the second strand, we achieved a perfect 100 per cent match.”
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