this post was submitted on 13 Feb 2025
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Jack the Ripper’s identity revealed after DNA match, historian says (www.newsnationnow.com)
submitted 5 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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  • Aaron Kosminski was found to be a 100% DNA match to Jack the Ripper
  • Historian Russell Edwards made the discovery
  • A descendant of Kosminski made the revelation possible

Historian Russell Edwards says he has identified Jack the Ripper as Aaron Kosminski through a DNA match of a shawl found at the scene of one of his murders.

Kosminski was a Polish immigrant who came to Whitechapel, England, in 1881 alongside his brother. He became a barber once in the British capitol.

Edwards told the “Today Show Australia” that he came to purchase the shawl in 2007 after it was purported to be at the scene of the murder of Catherine Eddowes.

Kosminski, who was aged 23 at the time of the murders, has long been considered a suspect. He had schizophrenia and was in a mental asylum at the time of his death in 1919.

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[–] EmoDuck 17 points 5 days ago (2 children)

That story again?

The chain of evidence for that shawl is extremely questionable, as ut only entered evidence like a decade ago and was previously in private ownership

The article doesn't go into detail about the type of DNA analysis but previous if it was based on mitochondrial DNA it could be very inaccurate

That's like saying "A diary entry from 1888, found in private ownership in 2010, said that Jack the Ripper wore glasses. Kosminski wore glasses, therefore we can say with 100% certainty that he was the murderer!"

Also, don't believe articles that use phrases like "100% certain". If forensics were this good, we'd have no need for courts

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 days ago

Or to be trite "potential dna of local prostitute banger potentially found with potential dna of local prostitute"

~besides, we all know the real ripper came out the wrong end of duckett's passage into the 90's and promptly got smeared by a bus~

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

If they do have an actual 100% DNA match of 2 people who died over 100 years ago, it's pretty hard to fake even without chain of custody.

The question is, is that match actually new, because the article does say it was found because the descendants provided DNA. And that does sound like nothing is actually new and it's the very same test from the mitochondrial match a few years ago, which could just mean the descendants touched it.

100% DNA match would be conclusive if it were real, but it does sound like the historian is talking shit.