Jack the Ripper finally identified

Jack the Ripper finally identified

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Discussion

MartG

Original Poster:

20,622 posts

203 months

Sunday 7th September 2014
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Using DNA matching on cells from a victim's shawl, Jack the Ripper has finally been identified as one of the six prime suspects at the time, Aaron Kosminski

Sorry about the Mail link

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2746321/Ja...

tenpenceshort

32,880 posts

216 months

Sunday 7th September 2014
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[UKIP]It's those filthy immigrants again![/UKIP]

Jasandjules

69,825 posts

228 months

Sunday 7th September 2014
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How fascinating is that. I wonder whether it was indeed a clue dropped with the dates on it. Not unknown for killers to seek to taunt the police like that.

Gettoff

1,434 posts

206 months

Sunday 7th September 2014
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Bloody Eastern Europeans, comin' over 'ere stealin' our serial killer jobs smash

fathomfive

9,876 posts

189 months

Sunday 7th September 2014
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While a breakthrough indeed, the article fails to mention how much the houses were worth where he lived at the time. How are the Mails readers supposed to get foamy-mouthed when such information is missing?

I am disappoint.

Pesty

42,655 posts

255 months

Sunday 7th September 2014
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How many hundreds of people over the years have handled that shall and left DNA on it.

anonymous-user

53 months

Sunday 7th September 2014
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Apropos of nothing, my grandfather was born in the year of the Ripper murders. I'm in my mid 30's. Strange to think this was only 2 (slightly stretched) generations ago.

GTIR

24,741 posts

265 months

Sunday 7th September 2014
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Pesty said:
How many hundreds of people over the years have handled that shall and left DNA on it.
"DNA identified as one of the six prime suspects"

I doubt all the "hundreds" of people who've handled it were suspects.

MarshPhantom

9,658 posts

136 months

Sunday 7th September 2014
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OpulentBob said:
Apropos of nothing, my grandfather was born in the year of the Ripper murders. I'm in my mid 30's. Strange to think this was only 2 (slightly stretched) generations ago.
My G/fs Grandad fought in the Boer War - she's 39.

rpguk

4,458 posts

283 months

Sunday 7th September 2014
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Many people over the years nave stated with confidence that they've solved this case. A quick google shows many conflicting stories published by the DM themselves.

While this guys evidence is interesting it's hardly conclusive.

MarshPhantom

9,658 posts

136 months

Sunday 7th September 2014
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GTIR said:
Pesty said:
How many hundreds of people over the years have handled that shall and left DNA on it.
"DNA identified as one of the six prime suspects"

I doubt all the "hundreds" of people who've handled it were suspects.
He could have come into contact with it during the investigation.

grumbledoak

31,499 posts

232 months

Sunday 7th September 2014
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I doubt hundreds of people have wked over the scarf "over the years".

It all sounds pretty tight. Presumably all the killings stopped once he was locked up too, etc., etc.

Dr Jekyll

23,820 posts

260 months

Sunday 7th September 2014
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OpulentBob said:
Apropos of nothing, my grandfather was born in the year of the Ripper murders. I'm in my mid 30's. Strange to think this was only 2 (slightly stretched) generations ago.
Especially when Kosminski lived until 1919 There are PHers with parents that could theoretically have met him.

MarshPhantom

9,658 posts

136 months

Sunday 7th September 2014
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What smells of fish and doesn't like foreigners?

Jack the Ukipper.

MentalSarcasm

6,083 posts

210 months

Sunday 7th September 2014
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From reading it he says he went and looked at the Ripper documents at the National Archives, but then fails to mention if Kominski was literate enough in English to be able to write the Jack the Ripper letters which were sent to the police. If he wasn't, then who sent them?

Pesty

42,655 posts

255 months

Sunday 7th September 2014
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GTIR said:
"DNA identified as one of the six prime suspects"

I doubt all the "hundreds" of people who've handled it were suspects.
Edit I must admit the story is very compelling and seems well researched. I just don't like to instantly believe the internet. I'd like to hear some reactions to this from others first. Hitler diaries etc etc.

ok it seems they used DNA passed down the female line to varify it was the victims blood.



Just suspicious of any amateur how do we know he didn't fake it to be the one? Not like it's never happened before. He probably stands to make a lot if cash.

But I'm sure it's legit. Hope it is. Just don't get too carried away I would suggest.

I recall a recent case were a man was arrested for rape despite him not fitting the description. Turned out he worked at the hospital the victim was taken to.

This shawl wasn't taken from a box in some dusty archive under Scotland Yard by the way. It's just an alledged shawl of the victim. But the blood links it to a victim. Could it have been stored next to other artefacts and got contaminated?

But I'll say it again the story seems compelling.





Edited by Pesty on Sunday 7th September 10:59

VinceFox

20,566 posts

171 months

Sunday 7th September 2014
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It certainly throws a new light on things, i'm not sure how tight the science is though.

Also, that's a fiver i've lost, i had tumblety down as the ripper. Dammits.

Edited by VinceFox on Sunday 7th September 10:30

Pesty

42,655 posts

255 months

Sunday 7th September 2014
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Hmmmmm

By 2007, I felt I had exhausted all avenues until I read a newspaper article about the sale of a shawl connected to the Ripper case. Its owner, David Melville-Hayes, believed it had been in his family’s possession since the murder of Catherine Eddowes, when his ancestor, Acting Sergeant Amos Simpson, asked his superiors if he could take it home to give to his wife, a dressmaker.
Incredibly, it was stowed without ever being washed, and was handed down from David’s great-grandmother, Mary Simpson, to his grandmother, Eliza Smith, and then his mother, Eliza Mills, later Hayes.
In 1991, David gave it to Scotland Yard’s Crime Museum, where it was placed in storage rather than on display because of the lack of proof of its provenance. In 2001, David reclaimed it, and it was exhibited at the annual Jack the Ripper conference. One forensic test was carried out on it for a Channel 5 documentary in 2006, using a simple cotton swab from a randomly chosen part of the shawl, but it was inconclusive.

Who wouldn't wash a shawl from a well known murder where women were butchered?

Also I fear that because of csi type programmes this will automatically become fact without too much investigation by a lot of people.


But yes having an expert finding blood from the victim on the shawl is compelling.

Edited by Pesty on Sunday 7th September 10:52

Dr Jekyll

23,820 posts

260 months

Sunday 7th September 2014
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I'm always a bit suspicious of investigations that run out of evidence, make another check on something that could/should have been checked before, and 'oh golly! we missed something! and it just happens to point to our favourite suspect'.

Grumfutock

5,274 posts

164 months

Sunday 7th September 2014
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What an interesting read. Amazing how they can do this after so many years. Can we now prove which chippy Elvis is working in?