Posted on 12/17/2005 12:33:45 PM PST by wagglebee
A SCIENTIST from Blantyre is playing a key part in solving one of the world’s most famous mysteries ... the identity of serial killer Jack the Ripper.
Last week, Professor Ian Findlay (39), who grew up in Station Road, and now works in Australia, was in London to test traces of saliva on stamps attached to letters sent to police at the time they were trying to catch the notorious murderer.
Ian has developed DNA identification technology called Cell-Track ID at Brisbane forensic laboratory, Gribbles Molecular Science, which can extract and compile a DNA fingerprint from a single cell or strand of hair up to 160 years old. This could potentially help shed light on who was behind the gory deaths of five prostitutes in the Whitechapel area of London in 1888.
When the saliva samples are tested back in Australia, they will then be compared to DNA from the descendants of Ripper suspects.
Ian, whose parents Elizabeth and Charles still live in Blantyre, says being involved in the Ripper case is “daunting”.
“As a youngster growing up in Blantyre I always wanted to be a police scientist, and today I’m working on one of the world’s biggest murder mysteries,” he said.
“The Ripper case is huge, and one mention of it in Australia landed me on the front pages of some of the daily newspapers there!”
The former pupil of Blantyre High and graduate of Glasgow University is based at Griffith University in Queensland, and will also be testing a hair believed to have come from Catherine Eddowes, one of the Ripper’s victims, sent by a private collector to see if it is genuine.
“It will take until mid-January for the test results to come through and we hope members of the public who may have other items relating to Jack the Ripper, such as the famous letter thought to have contained a piece of kidney from one of the his victims, will come forward,“ continued Ian.
Much of Ian’s career has been spent studying genetic identification and analysis, and in 1994 he was the first scientist in the world to perform DNA fingerprinting on a single cell. This technique is currently being used for DNA fingerprinting single cells found at crime scenes, flakes of dandruff from ransom notes, and single sperm in rape cases.
Ian was also named Scientist of the Year by the European Society of Human Genetics in 1998 and has been published over 50 times in medical and scientific journals.
He added: “ The Ripper case is very famous and has always fascinated people, so it’s amazing to think we could really be changing history here.”
I was thinking the same exact thing. Although Cornwell has no real proof since old Scotland Yard's records were destroyed during the London Blitz, her analysis of the case's circumstantial evidence that Sickert was the Ripper is most compelling.
This may not be a good way to prove the case after all.
However, if the DNA evidence from the letters can be linked to one of the suspects, it would change a lot of things.
Democrats in Congress ask for investigation into potential Bush administration involvement. Sources say that vice president Cheney will likely be asked to testify.
Great!!! I'm a sucker for Red Fedoras
self ping for later reading
Inflation strikes again.
by Siegfried The Red (Subgeniuses are the last TRUE Americans!)
....
No they're not, they're only boring legends in their own idle vapid minds
The Ripper murders were a Victorian Watergate. Check out "Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution" by Stephen Knight. (Scroll down to the reviews.) . Interesting speculation that the Ripper was actually a team of three (one of which was Sickert) eliminating some prostitutes who were trying to blackmail British royalty over a bastard child (who was also a target) fathered by the Duke of Clarence. Heavy Masonic overtones, with Sir William Gull as the Ripper, a coachman named Netley, and Sickert doing lookouts and other go-fer duties. (Sickert supposedly had Ripperesque overtones in his paintings and their titles.)
As you mentioned, Cornwell did the DNA thing, along with noticing the similarity of writing paper used in some notes.
Knight makes an interesting observation on the spelling of one Ripper note, mentioning that "knif" for knife was a clue that an educated person was trying to impersonate someone unlettered. He said someone ignorant would have spelled it "nife".
Lots of interesting speculation that ties things together and leads me to believe he found out the truth.
It's Bush's fault!
I'd cover my bet by placing some money on "person or presons unkonwn" as well, but yeah Montague John Druitt looks good for it.
Waaaay before his time.
Patricia Cormwell had access to orignal records in London, and wrote an excellent non-fiction book which is as you say "a real page-turner". She builds a plausible case for the identity of Jack-the-Ripper.
Cornwell (like most Ripper enthusiasts) tends to skate inconventient facts. To fit her theosry that the Ripper was impotent, she declares Sickett was too, on the basis he had some kind of operation at the age of 5. Ignoring that the guy was married three times.
No motive
to blackmail British royalty over a bastard child (who was also a target) fathered by the Duke of Clarence.
Exactly 9 months before Elizabeth Crook, the alleged Royal Bastard, was born, Prince albert Edward Victor was in the middle of a two month tour of Geramay. Also there ware indicarions that he was not so much attracted to the ladies, if you know what I mean.
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Isn't she a great author?
Well, according to Cornwell, Sickert's early operation was to repair a fistula (literally a hole caused by a severe infection) in his privates and that the surgery was botched, rendering him "non-functional" physically even though both his normal biological impulses remained intact. Her argument therefore is Freudian in basis, but again, she has no real proof. However, Sickert apparently lived in White Chapel in 1888 and did have a morbid fascination with the Ripper in later life, even painting a picture entitled 'Jack the Ripper's bedroom.'
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