New DNA Evidence Finally Reveals Jack the Ripper’s True Identity After 137 Years

The story begins in 2007 when Russell Edwards, a dedicated author and amateur detective, purchased a stained silk shawl at auction.

This seemingly worthless relic was said to have been found at the scene of Catherine Eddowes, one of Jack the Ripper’s canonical victims, on the night of September 30, 1888.

Passed down through the family of a police officer present at the crime scene, the shawl had long been dismissed by experts as mere memorabilia.

Edwards saw potential where others saw decay.

He partnered with Dr. Jari Louhelainen, a geneticist specializing in ancient DNA extraction, to analyze the shawl’s stains.

Despite the shawl’s age and exposure to contamination, the team focused on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), which is inherited unchanged through maternal lines, allowing for identification even after over a century.

First, they confirmed the shawl’s authenticity by matching mtDNA from blood stains on the fabric to a living descendant of Catherine Eddowes’s sister.

This proved the shawl was indeed present at the murder scene.

More startlingly, they found traces consistent with semen, indicating the killer’s biological material was also on the shawl.

The team then obtained a DNA sample from a living maternal-line relative of Aaron Kosminski, a Polish Jewish immigrant and hairdresser living in Whitechapel at the time.

Kosminski had been a prime suspect in police files and was known for his mental instability and violent tendencies.

The mtDNA matched perfectly with the genetic material on the shawl.

Kosminski was no dark genius or aristocrat.

He was a 23-year-old immigrant who fled pogroms in Eastern Europe and settled in the overcrowded, disease-ridden East End of London.

Psychiatric experts believe he suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, including auditory hallucinations

and violent outbursts, along with a deep hatred of women.

Police at the time considered him the prime suspect, but lacked the forensic tools to build a case strong enough for conviction.

His family eventually had him committed to an asylum in 1891, coinciding with the abrupt end of the Ripper murders.

The grim reality of Whitechapel in 1888 was far removed from the refined image of Victorian England.

It was a place of crushing poverty, overcrowded tenements, and suffocating “pea soup” fog that cloaked the streets in darkness.

Women like Eddowes and the other victims were trapped in desperate circumstances, vulnerable to predators who knew the labyrinthine alleys and escape routes intimately.

Despite thousands of interviews and extensive police efforts, the investigation was hampered by the era’s lack of forensic science.

Crime scenes were quickly contaminated, eyewitness descriptions were contradictory, and there was no fingerprinting or blood typing.

The infamous letters signed “Jack the Ripper” were mostly hoaxes, distracting the police from real leads.

One piece of chilling evidence—a preserved human kidney sent to the head of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee—was linked to Eddowes’s murder, but the police could not trace its origin or use it to identify the killer.

Meanwhile, anti-Semitic graffiti scrawled near the crime scene was erased by police fearing riots, erasing vital clues.

The new DNA findings, published in the Journal of Forensic Sciences in 2019, provide the strongest scientific evidence yet linking Kosminski to the crimes.

While critics question contamination risks and the degraded condition of the sample, the genetic data combined with historical records, police testimonies, and the timeline of Kosminski’s institutionalization form a compelling case.

Kosminski’s story is a sobering reminder that history’s darkest figures often hide in plain sight, shaped by the brutal conditions of their environment and the limitations of their time.

The myth of Jack the Ripper as a shadowy mastermind has overshadowed the grim truth of a disturbed man driven by madness and hatred.

Though the mystery of Jack the Ripper may finally be solved, the case raises broader questions about how many other secrets lie buried in history, waiting for modern science to uncover them.

As technology advances, the shadows of the past may yield more revelations, challenging our understanding of crime, justice, and human nature.