A new book entitled Naming Jack the Ripper claims to have solved the long-standing mystery surrounding the identity of the famous killer.
Russell Edwards is not a detective, rather he has a background in business and is passionate about the history of London, but he claims that he has definitive proof that the man they called Jack the Ripper, who was responsible for several grizzly murders in the Whitechapel area of London in 1888, has been positively identified in his new book.
Edwards claims that, thanks to samples taken from a shawl stained with blood and semen, and that after some DNA analysis that was done by Jari Louhelainen, a molecular biology professor who used a technique of his own devising, he has proven beyond doubt that Jack was Aaron Kosminski, a 23-year-old Polish immigrant hairdresser who was later committed to an insane asylum in London.
The story of the shawl might have a few holes, however, as it seems that it was passed down to David Melville-Hayes, who claims that it came to him unwashed and was in the same condition as it was on the day that his ancestor, Acting Sergeant Amos Simpson, took it home from the cop shop.
This new "proof" is unlikely to end all the speculation, of course, as there are still a few conspiracy theories that have been touted about previously, such as the fact that it could have been Mary "Jill The Ripper" Pearcey, or artist Walter Sickert, as famous author Patricia Cromwell claimed a few years back.
Via Mashable. Main pic via CreepyPasta.wikia.com
