Jack the Ripper’s Identity Finally Revealed by DNA — And It’s Not Who You Think

For more than a century, the identity of Jack the Ripper—the infamous Victorian-era serial killer—remained one of history’s greatest mysteries. But after 137 years, new DNA evidence has finally closed the case, pointing to a suspect few expected: Aaron Kosminski.

The breakthrough came from a shawl found at the scene of the fourth murder, that of Catherine Eddowes. Long dismissed as a fake, the shawl was purchased at auction in 2007 by author Russell Edwards, who was determined to settle the mystery with modern science.

He enlisted Dr. Jari Louhelainen, a genetic expert skilled at extracting DNA from old, degraded samples. The process was painstaking: the silk shawl was centuries old, contaminated by time and countless hands. But using advanced techniques, the team extracted mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), which is passed down exclusively from mother to child and can last for generations.

First, they had to prove the shawl’s authenticity. The team found a living descendant of Catherine Eddowes’s sister and compared her DNA to the blood stains on the shawl—a perfect match. The artifact was genuine, present at the crime scene in 1888.

But the real shock came next. Mixed with the victim’s blood was another genetic signature—semen. The scientists tracked down a living female descendant of a prime suspect’s sister and compared her mtDNA to the sample. Again, the match was perfect. The suspect? Aaron Kosminski.

Kosminski was a Polish immigrant living in London’s Whitechapel, the epicenter of the Ripper murders. He worked as a hairdresser, was known to be mentally unstable, and had a history of violent behavior. Remarkably, Kosminski was already on the police’s radar in 1888. Chief Constable Melville Macnaghten named him in an 1894 memo as a prime suspect, describing him as having “strong homicidal tendencies.” Chief Inspector Donald Swanson, who oversaw the investigation, even scribbled in the margin of his boss’s memoirs that Kosminski was the perpetrator, later committed to an asylum where he died.

The killings abruptly stopped when Kosminski was institutionalized in 1891. The DNA, the timeline, and police records all point to him as the Ripper. Yet, despite being the prime suspect, police never arrested him—largely because forensic science was in its infancy. Evidence was routinely contaminated, and police relied on unreliable witness reports.

The Ripper’s victims, known as the “canonical five,” were poor, desperate women living in the squalor of Whitechapel’s lodging houses. The killer exploited the foggy, crowded streets and the city’s lack of resources, vanishing into the night after each brutal attack.

Despite the compelling DNA evidence, controversy remains. Critics argue that the shawl’s age and history make contamination possible, and some Ripper enthusiasts dispute the findings. Nevertheless, the science, historical records, and timing strongly suggest that Aaron Kosminski was Jack the Ripper—a violent, mentally ill man hiding in plain sight, whose crimes terrorized London and baffled the world for more than a century.

The case may finally be closed, but the debate over Jack the Ripper’s legacy will likely continue for years to come.

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