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.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 days ago (1 children)

The Daily Mail must have been feeling pretty pleased with themselves when they found out they had possible evidence to blame a series of crimes on a Polish immigrant.

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

They're writing the article now how it affects house prices.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 5 days ago

Perfectly framed by Laszlo Cravensworth.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 5 days ago (2 children)

I remain sceptical. Feel like this would be much bigger news if it were true.

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

Original source is Daily Mail, so yeah.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

The news story isn't the DNA results, they were published in the Journal of Forensic Sciences in 2019 (note the Expression of Concern published more recently, which seem to me require the tests to be rerun elsewhere), that news story is about the historian Russell Edwards pushing for an inquest to resolve this (which despite coming from the Daily Fail, I have no grounds to doubt). Given the issues with not having access to the raw DNA data (it happens, but it also makes things look a bit fishy), I suspect he needs to wait for a reanalysis or it would be thrown out.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 days ago (1 children)

The original source is author and researcher Russell Edwards who claims to have sufficient evidence.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 days ago (2 children)

And Weekly World News consistently ran stories about Bat Boy, that doesn't mean Bat Boy exists.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 days ago

The article says the source is Russell Edwards, go look into his research if you want to know more about the claim and refute it, stop relying on the name of the news outlet.

Dude is an author so obviously he has reason to want this to make the news, you aren't wrong for not believing either of them, but it doesn't stop at the name of the website

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 days ago

But Bat Boy does exist

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 days ago (1 children)

This logic is baffling.

Most news outlets are owned by billionaire assholes who are very much invested in controlling what you see and think. Don't judge the veracity of a statement based on how much the news covered it, or even people's outrage or interest.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Think I'll just wait until other experts corroborate these findings.

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

Thats fine. What you said is you were going to wait for other news outlets to corroborate these findings. Journalists aren't experts.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 5 days ago

I knew the shawl was being tested but the provenance seemed shaky. However, a match to a suspect at the time seems pretty conclusive.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 days ago (3 children)

I was predicting Bill the Ripper, but Aaron the Ripper is way better.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 days ago

Dave the Ripper would be scary.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago

👉Aa👉 the ripper

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago

A-a-ron the ripper.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 days ago (1 children)

There was another Ripper in WW2 who killed more people but you never hear about that one

[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 days ago

I guess what makes you a Ripper just depends on politics.

It reminds me of the difference between a language and a dialect. They say a language has an army and a flag.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 days ago

According to the Daily Mail, Edwards has hired a legal team to help gain an inquest after he found a 100% DNA match.

Descendants of both Eddowes and Kosminski have backed this move.

As he told “Today,” Edwards and his team have sent a letter to the attorney general requesting permission to go to Britain’s High Court for a further inquest.

That'll be a big deal if they can manage it.