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 1 month 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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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month 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.