The notorious Victorian era serial killer Jack the Ripper's identity may have been discovered after 130 years due to new DNA evidence
The notorious serial killer known as Jack the Ripper may finally have been identified more than 130 years after he terrorized Victorian era England.
The moniker 'Jack the Ripper' was first used in an 1888 letter that the suspected murderer allegedly sent to police in Whitechapel. Dubbed the 'Dear Boss' Letter, the writer referred to himself as 'Jack the Ripper' and the police he was corresponding with as 'The Boss.
Researchers have long since considered Kosminski, a Polish immigrant who moved to Whitechapel in 1881, a suspect, but there was never enough solid evidence to charge him before his death in 1919. Kosminski was living in a mental health facility at the time of his death because he was thought to have schizophrenia.
Edwards and his team found another document dated from 1891 that listed Kosminski as having 'strong homicidal tendencies' while contemporary officials found him to be 'a strong suspect' in the Jack the Ripper case. Following Edwards' initial DNA tests in 2019, molecular biologist Walther Parson and DNA researcher Hansi Weissensteiner, of the Innsbruck Medical University, expressed doubt over the shawl's authenticity and the methods of its genetic testing. They argued that genetic sequences from Eddowes and Kosminski’s living relatives were not included in the testing, in addition to questioning whether the shawl may have been contaminated due to the way it was stored.
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