Jack the Ripper

[eddie]

That would be amazing if true, but the lack of any corroboration suggests that it might all be a bit fanciful.

 

Examination of the evidence and subjecting the findings to peer review is required. Until that time, it will remain a theory (and 'factual' books have been written on less). Comparing DNA evidence across generations is a valid approach in order to determine the likelihood of an identity, but as to whether it will be compelling proof, that remains to be seen. 

[Gypsy Ram]

Examination of the evidence and subjecting the findings to peer review is required. Until that time, it will remain a theory (and 'factual' books have been written on less). Comparing DNA evidence across generations is a valid approach in order to determine the likelihood of an identity, but as to whether it will be compelling proof, that remains to be seen. 

Yup that's the stand out quote. 

[TigerTedd]

I thought the queens son did it, or something like that. Or it was aliens. Something like that.

[Anon]

The favoured conspiracy theory is that it was the surgeon general, acting on the orders of the royal family in order to cover up an illegitimate pregnancy involving the prince. It makes perfect sense because obviously the best way to cover something up is to go on an unprecedented spree of highly public and grisly murders.

[Shuff264]

I'm taking this with a big bucket of salt. First published in the daily mail in an article about a guy with a new book out

[Gypsy Ram]

We're a cynical bunch aren't we.

[Shuff264]

The evidence makes sense, but its still circumstantial.

 

The murders stopped after the polish guy was committed to an asylum.

[Phoenix]

DNA was pretty solid.

There's a book by Patricia Cornwell who claimed she proved another bloke did it, some artist whose name I can't remember, Walter Sickert or summat. She got DNA from under a postage stamp on some letter or other as I understand it.

[Tombo]

If Jack The Ripper had been around last week and they found the DNA a few days later, you'd have no hesitation at pointing the finger at him.

 

It's only because it's a mystery that has been going on for centuries that people aren't so quick to believe it when the truth comes out.

 

Then again, someone said, it's not the first time they've claimed to have solved it. But we've got nothing else to believe right now. You could look back through history and pick faults with almost everything we've taken to believe as fact.

[Shuff264]

If Jack The Ripper had been around last week and they found the DNA a few days later, you'd have no hesitation at pointing the finger at him.

 

It's only because it's a mystery that has been going on for centuries that people aren't so quick to believe it when the truth comes out.

 

Then again, someone said, it's not the first time they've claimed to have solved it. But we've got nothing else to believe right now. You could look back through history and pick faults with almost everything we've taken to believe as fact.

Or that the DNA was swabbed from a shawl that had been passed from generation to generation with no chain of evidence and that the DNA was then tested against a descendent of the guy not the guy himself.

[ladyram]

I want him to remain a creepy Victorian mystery, tales about him to be told on rainy, dark nights on London backstreet ghosthunts.

Not a Polish bloody Joe.

[AmericanRam]

I would take this with a grain of salt tbh. I mean if it is solved, that is of course great. But it has been solved before in terms of people claiming so. I am sure  several agencies will get together and see how this 'solving' of the case holds up.

[RamNut]

The shawl looks remarkably clean and ironed for a garment that has been blood soaked and kept for over 100 years.

And it seems remarkable that the police constable would keep it for himself.

But dna would be a great way to crack the case.

It will certainly be an interesting new theory.

I investigated it once - many years ago.

I came up with a name based on census data regarding who had lived in the house on hanbury street where the second victim was found.

I later discovered that jeremy beadle - who was a ripperologist - had come up with the same person, but i never saw his explanation.

I've got my answer buried in some files on another computer.

Whoever it was was a complete nutcase.

[Gladys' Handbag]

This is a long way from the incontrovertible proof claimed by Edwards. He's doing a really good job in promoting his new book though! This is a good summary of the issues: http://www.casebook.org/dissertations/dst-edwards.html

Has DNA Evidence Finally Solved the Jack the Ripper Case?
by Stephen Ryder

A media frenzy erupted in early September 2014 when it was announced that a British author named Russell Edwards was about to publish a book (titled Naming Jack the Ripper) in which he claims to have found DNA evidence that proves Aaron Kosminksi was Jack the Ripper. The Casebook website has been inundated with inquiries surrounding these claims, so to help answer some of the most frequently asked questions, we're offering a brief primer, below.

Has DNA evidence really proven that Aaron Kosminski was Jack the Ripper?

The claims being made in the media are certain attention-grabbing, but many of them seem to be - at least at this point - wildly overblown. What we know so far is that a British author, Russell Edwards, has claimed to have found a "DNA match" between blood and/or semen found on an old shawl purported to have been taken from the Catherine Eddowes crime scene (generally believed to have been Jack the Ripper's fourth victim) and DNA samples taken from modern-day descendants of the family of Aaron Kosminski. It sounds quite impressive, but there is more to the story.

Problem #1: The shawl has no provenance linking it to Catherine Eddowes

The shawl in question is not new evidence - it has been widely known to exist for at least two decades. The shawl was kept by a family in Essex for many years. They claimed to have had an oral tradition stating that it was taken from the Catherine Eddowes crime scene by an ancestor of theirs, police constable Amos Simpson. The shawl was never mentioned in the official police inventory of the crime scene. There is also no record of PC Amos Simpson ever being at the crime scene. Finally, the shawl is of a relatively expensive type - one unlikely to have been worn by Catherine Eddowes, who was essentially penniless and living on the streets at the time of her death. The only evidence to date linking the shawl to Catherine Eddowes is "family tradition."

That said, Mr. Edwards claims to have found DNA evidence on the shawl linking it to Catherine Eddowes. If true, this would make any concerns about the "family tradition" moot. However

[RamNut]

We seem to solve the case fairly regularly....

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2225283/Jack-Ripper-mystery-solved-Uruguayan-professor-UK-used-mathematical-approach-problem.html

http://www.examiner.com/article/jack-the-ripper-s-identity-discovered-via-forensic-evidence-killer-h-h-holmes

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/9512928/Was-Jack-the-Ripper-a-cart-driver-from-Bethnal-Green.html

[RamNut]

I have doubts about this latest claim.

For a blood stained shawl to turn up smacks of Hitlers Diaries.

The police listed Catherine Eddowes clothes and possessions in great detail - down to how many pieces of soap she had in her pockets, and how many rags - there was no shawl.

She was seen with a man ten minutes before she was killed.

He was of 'fair complexion' which doesn't match Kosminski.

He wasn't carrying a shawl either.

The killer escaped on foot to the north leaving further clues.

Kosminski lived south.

The idea that the Michaelmas daisies on a shawl were meant as a clue to the dates of the murders is fanciful in the extreme.

Etc etc etc .

[AmericanRam]

The Ripper case to me is like the Zodiac Killer case from the States in that theories and claims of solving are put out but the real culprit will never be identified.

[Cisse]

The Ripper case to me is like the Zodiac Killer case from the States in that theories and claims of solving are put out but the real culprit will never be identified.

FBI know what happened to D.B. Cooper yet ?

[i-Ram]

From semen on the clothes of a prostitute? That's pretty flimsy. It doesn't say the man who put it there killed her.

I agree with this. Why is it that prostitutes wear pretty flimsy clothing? And rarely enough of it too? Far too often I see them out on the streets climbing into cars and I think if they bought themselves a nice practical coat, and perhaps a hat, scarf and glove set, they would not need to seek temporary shelter.

[i-Ram]

The favoured conspiracy theory is that it was the surgeon general, acting on the orders of the royal family in order to cover up an illegitimate pregnancy involving the prince. It makes perfect sense because obviously the best way to cover something up is to go on an unprecedented spree of highly public and grisly murders.

To be fair they have got more subtle over the years, where more recently they chased their victim at fatally high speed through a road tunnel in France.