Posted on 03/19/2019 6:50:39 AM PDT by Red Badger
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 by Jari Louhelainen of Liverpool John Moores University and David Miller of the University of Leeds.
The murderer dubbed Jack the Ripper killed at least five women from August to November 1888 in the Whitechapel district of London.
The study's authors conducted genetic testing of blood and semen on a shawl found near the body of Catherine Eddowes, the killer's fourth victim, whose badly mutilated body was discovered on Sept. 30, 1888.
The brutal murders and the mystery behind the killer's identity and motive inspired countless novels, films and theories over the past 130 years.
Kosminski, who apparently vanished after the murders, has previously been named as a possible suspect, but his guilt has been a matter of debate and never confirmed.
The researchers said they have been analyzing the silk shawl for the past eight years and that to their knowledge "the shawl referred to in this paper is the only piece of physical evidence known to be associated with these murders."
Through analysis of fragments of the victim and suspect's mitochondrial DNA, which is passed down solely from one's mother, researchers were able to compare that with samples taken from living descendants of Eddowes and Kosminski.
The paper also states that the suspect's "observable" characteristics, derived from DNA, match the only eyewitness account to the murders, which law enforcement had ruled "considerably reliable."
The study said its findings represent the first "systematic, molecular level analysis of the only surviving physical evidence linked to the Jack the Ripper murders."
Admiring each other’s candles...........................
I will tell you an interesting DNA story. One day about a year ago I got a call from my youngest daughter, she wanted to have lunch with me on Saturday. I said ok and met her there. She told me that about a year earlier she had submitted a DNA sample to Ancestry dot com just to see the map of where she had come from. I told her that was a waste of money since I had provided her with our family history for several generations, all the way back to the 1400’s, anyway she agreed and after she got the report put it away and forgot about it.
Several days prior to our meeting she had gotten a communication from Ancestry.com that there was a person who wanted to contact her because they had some similarities in their DNA. She gave permission and the person contacted her. Well the person said that if you have over 30 matches in your DNA then you are related and if you have over 40 then you are a close relative. This person had over 900 matches.
The person asked if my daughter would get her mother and father to provide DNA samples to see where the relationship is. With my daughters mother there were 0 matches, with me there were 1700 matches and Ancestry.com explained that could only be if we were siblings.
We set up a time to meet. She lived in the Indianapolis area and I lived in the Louisville, KY area.
It turned out that she was adopted as an infant. She knew little about her birth mother’s circumstances except that she was a nurse in a Louisville Hospital (the same hospital where I was born) and had a relationship with a young soldier returning from the European theater of the 2nd World War. When she found herself pregnant she left town without telling the father she was pregnant and gave the baby up for adoption.
My father came home from the war at the same time this happened. This woman is about 2-1/2 years older than me and looks very much like my one year younger sister. She also looks a lot like my fathers mother. I am a musician. I sang with The Louisville Bach Society for 25 years and play piano and organ. In college I played trumpet in a dance band. My little sister has taught music in high school and is currently teaching music courses at the University of Maryland. My new half sister earned a scholarship to Julliard school of music and is pianist and organist.
She is definitely part of the family. While my father died several decades ago I really wish he were alive so I could needle him about what he did.
DNA is changing the world.
If these women were prostitutes, as purported, the blood and semen could've come from a customer, not necessarily the killer.
Key word: “May”.
Sooooo... they found semen, on a prostitute’s shawl, and that is the “proof” of who killed her? Do these people have any idea what prostitutes do for a living?
This is why I don’t do this DNA stuff. I was not a virgin when I got married.
That old answer to the question, “Do you have any children?” - “None that I know of.” comes to mind.
It’s theoretically possible that there could be a 49 year old person running around somewhere that is my child. Theoretically.
Wow! That is fascinating.
A child given up for adoption deserves to know where they came from. The younger siblings feelings are not paramount. 5th h
Great story and thanks for sharing.
Good catch!
So glad this worked out for you both. You can not deny dna.
I loved that movie. I usually don’t get in to time travel stuff, but that was very good.
Living decedents would be zombies!..................
mtDNA (mother’s mother’s mother’s etc. line) is what they use in most old cases. They ate able to get viable DNA from very old samples, but it really depends on where and how it was stored.
Interesting I just saw show were someone did a forensic analysis’s of where the murders occurred
And did statistically analysis’s where the murderer would live in relationship to those and came up with this exact same guy
Apparently they found that serial murders usually follow a pattern a where they murder in relationship to where they live
That old DNA might show your Mother may be a Veloc1raptor.
Remember, this was London in 1888. People walked everywhere. Hansom Cabs were expensive. Plus, a cabbie knows the streets like no one else. The police would have interviewed all cabbies in the area for any riders that were dropped off or picked up near the murder sites. The suspect would not have taken a cab, but would have walked to the scenes. A couple of miles walk was nothing back then..................
LOL
Got me, I’ll get my dunce hat and sit in the corner for an hour.
Wow. Thanks for sharing.
Me too.................
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