Why Jack the Ripper's Identity May Soon Be Proven

Smithsonian ^

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks nickcarraway.

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

Good. Once we get this behind us we can get on to finding Jimmy Hoffa.

[kalee]

Lots of old mysteries to be solved.

[Bigg Red]

I thought it had been solved through DNA testing on a shawl worn by his last victim. I read about this story through a link someone had posted on FR some time ago.

The identity was thought to be that of a crazy Polish-born man who was a hairdresser. What happened to that story?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2746321/Jack-Ripper-unmasked-How-amateur-sleuth-used-DNA-breakthrough-identify-Britains-notorious-criminal-126-years-string-terrible-murders.html

[rdl6989]

There was a problem with the DNA sample in that case.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2798856/claim-jack-ripper-unmasked-dna-evidence-polish-immigrant-barber-wrong-say-experts.html

[SunkenCiv]

Report: How the scientist who ‘unmasked’ Jack the Ripper made a ‘serious’ error
Washington Post | 10.20.14
Posted on 10/20/2014 6:02:10 AM PDT by Perdogg
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3217328/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/jacktheripper/index

[Bigg Red]

Ah, those pesky decimal points.

Thanks for the correction.

[Boogieman]

That story was likely a bunch of hokum. The “shawl” has no provenance and can’t be connected to the murder. There was no independent DNA testing done, and the techniques used in gathering and analyzing the DNA were not standard practices. So besides the subjectivity of the tester, the accuracy of the test itself is questionable.

In fact, the man making the claim won’t reveal the identity of the supposed Kosminski relative whose DNA he used for comparison, so as far as anyone knows, she may not even exist!

[Bigg Red]

Good point. Maybe the relative does exist.

[Bigg Red]

Yipes! Meant to say that maybe the relative does NOT exist. (First time posting from a phone.)