Nearly six years after DNA analysts claimed to identify the notorious London serial killer known as “Jack the Ripper,” a victim’s family is demanding a police investigation into the claims.
The 2019 scientific paper identified Aaron Kosminski, a Polish immigrant, as the man responsible for at least five murders in London’s Whitechapel neighborhood between 1888 and 1891.
Kosminski was identified based on DNA on a shawl, which was reportedly found at the scene of Catherine Eddowes’ murder. Genealogists said they matched DNA on the shawl to both descendants of Kosminski and Eddowes.
Eddowes’ descendants have recently gone on a press tour arguing for Metropolitan Police to relaunch the investigation into the Jack the Ripper murders and officially identify a killer.
However, forensic scientists have questioned the evidence implicating Kosminski. The shawl reportedly found at the scene of Eddowes’ murder has changed hands dozens of times in the past 130 years.
Author Russell Edwards, who wrote an entire 2014 book that concluded Kosminski was the killer, simply purchased the shawl in 2007. Edwards was also the one who hired forensic experts to test DNA in the shawl and eventually publish the results in a scientific journal in 2019.
London police investigated and detained dozens of suspects during their probe into the murders. One document mentioned a “Kosminski” with no first name.
Numerous suspects have been identified by various professional and amateur investigators in the 130 years since the murders were committed. In many cases, the sleuths note that the murders ceased after something happened to a specific suspect, whether they died, moved or simply disappeared.
Kosminski is no different; he was committed to a mental hospital in 1891 for allegedly threatening his sister with a knife.