Free Republic

On this date in 1896, New York City electrocuted Carl Feigenbaum. He’d been convicted of slaying the widow from whom he rented a room at eight cents per day … but many at the time suspected his homicidal exploits might also have traced to Whitechapel, under the dread sobriquet Jack.

Researchers tested blood and semen found on a shawl near the body of the killer's fourth victim, a woman whose mutilated body was found in September 1888. The identity of Jack the Ripper, the notorious serial killer from the late 1800s in England, may finally be known. A DNA forensic investigation published this month by two British researchers in the Journal of Forensic Science identifies Aaron Kosminski, a 23-year-old Polish barber and prime suspect at the time, as the likely killer. The "semen stains match the sequences of one of the main police suspects, Aaron Kosminski," said the study authored...

And so one of the West’s greatest, most enduring mysteries, which has spurred numerous failed attempts to crack it, continues. It’s the saga of Jack the Ripper, who committed at least five grisly murders in East London in the autumn of 1888 and then, poof, disappeared, never to be identified.

A modern-day Jack the Ripper who admitted that he “wanted to kill” a Queens woman he viciously murdered was sentenced yesterday to up to 29 years in prison. Huang Chen, 49, an illegal immigrant from China, admitted he murdered his former employment agent by tying a plastic rope around her neck and smashing her head with a hammer 30 times. Chen showed no remorse as he was sentenced for the 2010 killing of Qian Wu. “This crime shouldn’t have happened; the system failed Qian Wu,” said Queens Supreme Court Justice Richard Buchter, referring to Chen not getting deported in 2006...

THE Jack the Ripper ‘industry’ got a boost on the 120th anniversary of his first acknowledged murder. The great-grandson of the police chief in charge of the 1888 Whitechapel Murders arrived at the Ripper exhibition at the Museum in Docklands in East London—just before the 120th anniversary of the murder Mary Ann Nichols, a prostitute known as ‘Polly,’ believed by many to be his first victim. He arrived with evidence from his Victorian ancestor revealing the Ripper’s true identity. Jack the Ripper was never caught and his identity has remained a mystery for 120 years, feeding a whole ‘industry’ that...

WASHINGTON, June 19, 2007 – The beginning of a new offensive targeting al Qaeda in the Iraqi city of Baqubah highlights recent operations reported by military officials in Iraq. Troops began Operation Arrowhead Ripper in Baqubah today, killing 22 insurgents in a large-scale effort to eliminate al Qaeda members. The 2nd Infantry Division’s 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team launched the offensive with a quick-strike night air assault early this morning. By daylight, attack helicopters and ground forces had engaged and killed the enemy fighters in and around Baqubah. “The end state is to destroy the al Qaeda influences in this...

IPSWICH, England (Dec. 18) - Police hunting a suspected serial killer following the murders of five prostitutes in eastern England arrested a 37-year-old man on Monday and cordoned off a group of houses. The man was arrested at his home in Trimley St. Martin, near the port of Felixstowe, Detective Chief Superintendent Stewart Gull said in a brief statement to reporters. He declined to say where the suspect was being held. "He has been arrested on the suspicion of murdering all five women," Gull said. News reports identified the suspect as Tom Stephens, who was quoted in the Sunday Mirror...

Jack the Ripper's face 'revealed'Experts used modern techniques to create the Ripper's face An e-fit showing what detectives believe serial killer Jack the Ripper looked like has been revealed. Using new profiling techniques, investigators have created a picture of what they believe the 19th Century murderer would have looked like. The man, who evaded police in the 1880s, is thought to have killed and mutilated five London prostitutes. The Scotland Yard team describe him as "frighteningly normal" but someone capable of "extraordinary cruelty". And investigators have admitted that police at the time were probably searching for the wrong kind of...

The bloodied Jack the Ripper doll on the toy shelf at Vancouver's Virgin Megastore is drawing fire from women's groups. They say that in a city still coming to terms with its own serial killer, a doll depicting a man who murdered prostitutes is tasteless. "It doesn't display much sensitivity, does it?" asked Kate Gibson, director of the WISH Drop In Centre for sex-trade workers on the Downtown Eastside. Maggie de Vries, whose sister Sarah is one of the women missing from the streets of the eastside, said the doll suggests that violence against women is acceptable. "When other people...

Alexandria, VA -- Police in suburban Washington, D.C., are investigating the death of a woman who died while likely underoing an abortion at a local abortion business. The abortion facility is disputing the police account of the death. Alexandria police spokeswoman Amy Bertsch said authorities were continuing their inquiry into the death of a 26-year old woman who died earlier this month at the Landmark Women's Center in Alexandria. The woman, who was not identified, lived in nearby Fairfax, Virginia. According to Bertsch, paramedics were summoned to the abortion facility where the woman died on the morning of Nov. 16....

<p>Jack the Ripper's DNA could match that of respected British artist Walter Sickert, according to a new book from U.S. crime novelist Patricia Cornwell.</p> <p>In "Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper -- Case Closed," excerpted in the December issue of Vanity Fair, Cornwell describes how she and a team of investigators came to their conclusion after analyzing DNA samples from 55 letters, envelopes and stamps sent by Jack the Ripper; Sickert, as well as his wife and his mentor, and Ripper suspect Montague John Druitt.</p>