Many people have been suspected of being Jack the Ripper , from authorLewis Carrollto Liverpool cotton salesmanJames Maybrick , but the culprit of the grisly crimes that grip Victorian London has never been identified . Now , one of the instance ’s first suspect is back in the news . AsSmithsonianreports , Aaron Kosminski , a barber from Poland , has been relate to the Jack the Ripper murder with DNA grounds — but experts are hesitant to call the font close .
The new title come from datum now published in theJournal of Forensic Science . Several years ago , Ripperologist Russell Edwards expect researchers from the University of Leeds and John Moores University in Liverpool to analyze a stock - stain silk shawl believe to have belonged to Ripper victim Catherine Eddowes . The detail , which Edwards own , has been a primary piece of grounds in the execution investigation for years . In 2014 , Edwards write a book in which he claim Aaron Kosminski ’s DNA had been found on the garment , but his results were n’t published in a compeer - review journal .
Five years later , the researchers have released their determination . Using infrared and spectrophotometry technology , they confirm the fabric was sully with blood and discover a potential semen stain . They collected DNA fragments from the stain and compare them to DNA taken from a descendent of Eddowes and a descendent of Kosminski . The mitochondrial DNA ( the DNA passed down from mother to materialisation ) extracted from the shawl containedmatching profilesfor both subjects .
Kosminski was a 23 - twelvemonth - older Polish Samuel Barber living in London at the time of the Jack the Ripper execution . He was one of the first suspects name by the London police force , but there was n’t enough grounds to convict him in 1888 .
The shawl at the center of the report is also controversial . It was supposedly pluck up by a constabulary officer at the scene of Eddowes ’s slaying , but that translation of the narrative has been dispute . The shawl ’s origin also been retrace back to multiple eras , include the early 1800s and early 1900s , as well as different parts of Europe .
Due to many factors complicating the Jack the Ripper case , the execution may never be solve whole . The crimes spurred a flurry ofhoax lettersto the London Police department in the 1880s , and even the missive that were thought to be authentic , like the one that give Jack the Ripper his nickname , may have been invent .
[ h / tSmithsonian ]
