We now know the identity of one of the most famous serial killers, Jack The Ripper. The man who terrorized and mutilated London women in 1888 had longed been unknown until a historian recently unearthed one of the most sought-after answers.
Thanks to a shawl that Russell Edwards came in possession of, DNA was able to be extracted and used to determine that Jack The Ripper was a man named Aaron Kosminski. The discovery has since been 100% confirmed, according to The Daily Mail. Edwards hired a team to provide certainty on the DNA match before announcing his findings.
This particular person was a Polish immigrant who worked as a barber upon moving to London. He was 23 years old when he went on his killing spree and was actually a suspect at one point during the investigation. He eventually died in a mental institute in 1919.
Jack The Ripper’s Identity Has Finally Been Revealed
Edwards had some help from Kosminski’s oldest brother’s great-great-granddaughter, who provided a DNA sample that was able to be matched with that of the shawl. The clothing article was bought by Edwards nearly 20 years prior when he learned that it had been at the sight of one of Jack The Ripper’s murders.
Discovering the identity of this fabled killer may not seem all that important at this point, besides attaching an actual person to the pseudonym that has become entrained in pop culture. But as one of the great-great-great-granddaughters of one of the victims, Catherine Eddowes, shared with the Daily Mail, it provides closure.
“Having the real person legally named in a court, which can consider all the evidence, would be a form of justice for the victims,” Karen Miller shared. “We have got proof. Now, we have this inquest to legally name the killer.”
As Miller mentioned, that inquest, which is a judicial inquiry to reinvestigate a past murder, has already been put into motion by Edwards and his team. They have reached to Britain’s High Court to reopen the murders.
Whenever this legally becomes official, I’m sure we’ll get some wild Netflix origin story on who Kosminski was and how he came to be Jack The Ripper. Will Zac Efron or Evan Peters step up to continue their convincing roles of crazed serial killers? Now we wait.
The post Jack the Ripper’s Identity Revealed 130 Years Later Through DNA Match appeared first on VICE.
