Serial Killer Jack The Ripper’s Identity Finally Revealed After 140 Years
According to English historian and author Russell Edwards, the killer was a 23-year-old Polish immigrant named Aaron Kosminski.
Jack the Ripper, one of history’s most notorious serial killers, terrorised the streets of Victorian London’s East End in the late 1800s. Despite the passage of decades, his true identity remained a mystery. However, English historian and author Russell Edwards claims to have finally solved the puzzle as he revealed the killer’s identity nearly after 140 years. According to Edwards, the killer was a 23-year-old Polish immigrant named Aaron Kosminski.
This discovery came after DNA testing was done on a shawl recovered from the scene of one of the murders.
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“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 said in an interview with Today in Australia.
“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," he continued.
The killer’s rampage took place between 1888 and 1891 during which he brutally murdered five women (most of them sex workers). However, historians suspect the death toll was higher than five. These women were— Mary Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes and Mary Jane Kelly. Three of the victims had their internal organs removed.
The shawl was found at the scene of Eddowes’ murder. After learning about it, Edwards acquired it in 2007.
“It was a voyage of discovery, with many twists and turns. The adventure was thrilling from beginning to end and I was lucky to experience it," Edwards said.
Aaron Kosminski, who had moved to England as a child, worked as a barber in Whitechapel. He started showing symptoms of mental illness in 1885 and had been committed to several insane asylums. Edwards explained that Kosminski suffered from auditory hallucinations. He was also terrified of other people, refused to eat and even avoided bathing. Kosminski died in 1919 at the age of 53.
“We have got the proof, now we need this inquest to legally name the killer," Edwards said.
However, some critics online have raised doubts about Edwards’ findings alleging that he faked the discovery of a child’s skull top in 2022. This led to a renewed police search for the body of Keith Bennett, one of the victims of the infamous Moors Murders. The murders, carried out by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley between 1963 and 1965, involved the killings of five children in Manchester. Keith Bennett’s body remains the only one that has never been found.
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