In terms of mysteries of the criminal world,
and the “Who done it?” question that eclipses all others, there is nothing more mysterious
then who was Jack the Ripper. You might have seen countless movies on the
subject, read myriad books on the topic, or listened to a plethora of online sleuths that
think they have cracked the mystery, but let’s face it, it was always a guessing game. There has been absurd speculation as well
as more thorough investigation, but the man that eviscerated women on the streets of London
has never had his Scooby-Doo-esque denouement. But as we speak, we are hearing some new pesky
kids are on the block and they might have figured this mystery out. We’ve already done our Jack the Ripper show,
an epic if we say so for ourselves that was welcomed by our viewers. You might not have seen that, so for those
of you who are not versed in the history of this serial killer, we’ll give you a quick
rundown on the strife and crimes of Mr. Ripper. Twas the 1880s in the city of London, perhaps
the center of the world at that time, but also in parts a dirty, rotten, festering maze
of slums replete with wandering gin addicts and foul-mouthed harlots. London was experiencing a population explosion,
with immigrants from around the world coming to the great city to find work. But it wasn’t exactly the land of hope and
glory for everybody, and some of the streets in the poorer East end of the city were a
long way from being a yellow brick road. The rise in population not surprisingly caused
friction between the new denizens and the ones born on those cobbled streets, while
the factory owners were happy for the cheap labor. These were fractious times, and outbreaks
of violence and other criminality were common. This is where our man Jack the Ripper chose
to ply his trade. You might ask what was his trade? Well, that was nabbing mostly working girls
from the streets and brutally killing them. He might tear at their faces with a sharp
blade, like a wild animal might do. But other times he skillfully removed their
organs with the deft hands of a surgeon. For this he became known as the ripper. Other rippers would follow in years to come,
The Yorkshire Ripper up north in Bradford, or over the pond The Ripper of Times Square,
but they were different. Jack may well have been educated in human
anatomy, and as we say, he had the precise skills it takes for surgical exploration and
organ removal. It’s thought he may have murdered 11 people,
but the cops only ever said for sure he killed 5. These became known as the “canonical five.” We don’t often attribute canons to killers,
but Jack was special. The British media lapped it up, publishing
piece after piece on this boogeyman that wandered the dark streets at night. Police interviewed 1000s of Londoners, they
summarily locked people up, hired sleuths and patrolled the streets and alleyways 24/7,
but Jack eluded them. Was he a surgeon, a physician? Was he some educated upper class untouchable? What made things worse is police received
letters, many with atrocious grammar and spelling skills, which were supposedly from the killer. Many were just hoaxes written by bored Eastenders
who had little or no respect for the cops. But one letter, titled “From Hell”, police
believed was real. They never got their man, and the case went
on and on for years. There have been some main suspects over time,
and no, serious ripperologists don’t give credence to the possibility of him being the
aristocrat, Prince Albert Victor Christian Edward, the Duke of Clarence. That just makes a compelling tale, and something
the poorer disenfranchised Brits would love to be true because it might vindicate their
conviction of the ruling class being wicked. No one seriously thought it was the creator
of Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll, despite the clamoring of some rather wide-eyed conspiracy
theorists. Was it a cover-up many asked? Because in such an intractable class system
you just can’t have the people at the top of the pyramid ripping young girls to pieces
and evacuating their uterus. That would have been poor play by the toffs
in charge, so perhaps Jack’s identity was known. But this theory didn’t pass muster, none
of them did…not until now. There has been one name on the list of men
behind the Ripper mask, but he hasn’t been talked about much until now. His name was Aaron Kosminski. Occupation: Barber. Yep, imagine getting a close shave from a
Polish barber with a penchant for slicing people open. How do we know it was him? Well, according to a forensic investigation
published in the Journal of Forensic Sciences in March 2019 they know this because of DNA
found on a shawl of one of his victims. Ok, so you might have heard this before, and
indeed, in our very own Jack the Ripper show we said there was one theory about Kosminski
because of his DNA. But the trouble back then was that none of
the DNA evidence was supported, it was mostly down to a well-off businessman and Ripper
researcher called Russell Edwards. The thing is, that evidence was not peer reviewed
by any number of other scientists. It has been now. We are told that two researchers called Jari
Louhelainen and David Miller ran genetic tests on semen and blood on that shawl we just mentioned
that was found next to the murdered Catherine Eddowes. They then compared mitochondrial DNA from
Eddowes present family members as well as people from the present Kosminski family. They concluded that the Ripper was indeed
one of their ancestors. They also said it is very likely Jack the
Ripper had blue eyes and brown hair. And this is what many mainstream news media
was reporting. Finally, we found our man. Jack the lad was a 23-year old Pole that went
to London and trimmed mustaches, cut hair and also the odd stomach wide open. Researchers wrote in the paper that “the
shawl referred to in this paper is the only piece of physical evidence known to be associated
with these murders.” The DNA found on that shawl should be passed
down from mother to mother, and that DNA could be traced back to the Polish man’s family. We know quite a bit about our boy, who moved
over to the Whitechapel area (slum) in London and there he set up shop. But it’s said in 1891 Mr. Kosminski was
sent to one of London’s finest insane asylums. He was apparently an on and off lunatic, doing
some barber work, then being looked after by his family, and then sometimes he was back
inside with the people screaming at the moon. It’s said he suffered a kind of psychosis. It’s also said that his utterly insane behavior
led to him being sent to the workhouse. What we have is a man who was in and out of
asylums while those murders were going on, so you could say his face now fits the picture. God knows who his customers were at the barber
shop in Whitechapel, or if he had packed that in once he started to hear voices, eat trash
from the streets and… “self-abuse”. That was a fine English euphemism for what
the Brits later would call a five-knuckle-shuffle. There is also evidence in those psychiatric
reports that he had threatened a sister with a knife. The thing is of course is he doesn’t sound
much like a skilled surgeon, nor a man who was adroit enough to never leave any evidence
behind. And then we have the naysayers. These critics were doubtful of the first time
the Polish man was connected to the murders, and say the latest conclusions were partly
predicated on that original 2014 paper. Forbes reported just after everyone was saying,
finally, we have found him, that the new paper contained three-parts hogwash. We are sorry to burst your bubble, but Forbes
cites a group of archaeological geneticists who said that even if the shawl was left behind
by a victim still the "the way it has been handled since would render DNA analysis cripplingly
problematic." Why is that? Well, it has been an item over the years that
has been passed around, touched by many, many hands, and left in places for people to view. It is hardly a fine specimen for DNA analysis,
said the scientists. Another British geneticist wrote this, “How
did this ever get past review!? Primers not listed, data not presented, was
it done in a proper forensic/DNA lab... Unpublishable!" Steady on old chap, surely you just can’t
discount the new paper? Well, one other person in the geneticist milieu
said this, “The suspect couldn't have passed on his mitochondrial DNA, as he was a man.” These academics don’t mince their words
either, sometimes sounding like they were prepared to take a straight razor to the jugular
of those that published the paper. “Nonsense like this paper and a gullible
media does nothing but foment scientific and historical illiteracy built upon the grotesque
romanticization of the brutal murders of five women,” said one of them, no doubt words
spat through a mist of strong English tea and bits of scone. But as some academics pointed out, you can’t
just go around saying it was the Kosminski kid without having absolutely irrefutable
proof if only because there are a bunch of people in Poland, or perhaps still in England,
whose friends have suddenly started hiding the knives when they’ve been invited around
for dinner. “The question of his identity, I am confident,
will never be known,” concluded the angry professor we just quoted. As some commenters say, if Kosminski did do
it was he really clever enough to just disappear after each murder? How come he never told anyone else, not even
when he was locked up? Where did he get the surgical skills from? Can we not find out if any one of the murders
happened during the spurts he had outside of the asylum? As for the new evidence, the researchers have
admitted that they would not use it if it were for a present criminal trial. Can we rely on that shawl and the new results? We might tell you what one other scientist
in the bio-game said, and he was less critical than that angry mob of geneticists, “The
data, at least in the weak form presented here, increase the likelihood that Aaron Kosminski,
who was a suspect in the murders, was the killer,” he said. “But we're a long way from knowing who butchered
those five women. Caveat lector.” What do you think about all of this? Tell us in the comments. Also, be sure to check out our other show
Why Was Jack The Ripper Never Found. Thanks for watching, and as always, don’t
forget to like, share and subscribe. See you next time.
Eeh. It's absolutely, entirely possible it's him. I hate this theory, though. Basing the identity of a prolific serial killer on the DNA found on the scarf of a prostitute wouldn't realistically hold up in court. I mean, not to be cheeky, but her job was literally helping men release those fluids lol, and he could have been bleeding from anything.
Personally, I've always maintained that somewhere, there will be something- a key piece of evidence, be it a journal, letter, or bag full of knives and scalpels with leftover DNA- that will give definitive, undeniable proof of who he was. We either just haven't found it yet, or it is a tight-lipped family secret that someone is aware of that they don't want to get out. Maybe that's my wishful thinking, but that's what I hope happens.
His DNA was found on a hooker's scarf. Hardly proof "beyond all reasonable doubt". How many other men's DNA is on that filthy thing?
One thing is they’re not entirely convinced the scarf they got DNA from was present at the scene.