Jack the Ripper’s identity revealed after DNA breakthrough, historian saysOne of history’s oldest mysteries — the true identity of mythologized 19th century serial killer “Jack the Ripper” — may have finally been solved nearly 140 years later.
English historian and author Russell Edwards said DNA found on a shawl recovered from the scene of one of the killer’s vicious slayings was tested, revealing the butcher who terrorized Victorian London’s East End in the late 1800s was a 23-year-old Polish immigrant named Aaron Kosminski — who died in a mental institution in 1919.
“When we matched the DNA from the blood on the shawl with a direct female descendant of the victim, it was the singular most amazing moment of my life at the time,” Edwards told “Today” in Australia.
All five women were murdered between August and November 1888, and three had their internal organs removed.Corbis via Getty Images
“We tested the semen left on the shawl. When we matched that, I was dumbfounded that we actually had discovered who Jack the Ripper truly was.”
Jack the Ripper brutally raped and eviscerated five women, most of them sex workers, in and around the city’s impoverished Whitechapel district between 1888 and 1891 — though historians suspect the death toll was higher.
The victims were Mary Nichols, 43, Annie Chapman, 47, Elizabeth Stride, 44, Catherine Eddowes, 46, and Mary Jane Kelly, 25. Three of them had their internal organs removed.
Jack the Ripper’s identity revealed after DNA breakthrough, historian says
After 137 years of mystery, we may finally know the true identity of the killer who terrorized the streets of London in 1888.
nypost.com
