The descendant of a Jack the Ripper victim has called for a new investigation after DNA analyzes have revived speculation about the most famous serial killer in history, who raged in east London at the end of the 19th century century.
The gruesome murders of Jack the Ripper terrorized residents of the poor area of Whitechapel, east London, in 1888. His true identity has long remained a mystery: the names of dozens of suspects, including members of the royal family and prime ministers, have been put forward.
But in 2014, British author Russell Edwards claimed to have unraveled the mystery, thanks to DNA traces found on a shawl from the crime scene of the killer’s fourth victim, Catherine Eddowes, murdered on September 30, 1888.
Jack the Ripper is, according to him, Aaron Kosminski, a Jewish emigrant from Poland who worked as a barber, and already considered one of the main suspects. The item of clothing would have been recovered at the time by a police officer who wanted to give it to his wife. The latter refusing to wear it, the shawl remained as is, in a box, before joining the Scotland Yard crime museum.
Catherine Eddowes was a 46-year-old woman who occasionally worked as a prostitute. His disemboweled body had been discovered, his throat slit, his face mutilated. Russell Edwards called for an investigation into the murder, supported by a descendant of Catherine Eddowes, Karen Miller.
Jack the Ripper “went down in history as a famous character,” she said in an interview with the “Daily Mail” published Monday. “People have forgotten the victims who did not get justice at the time. Now we need this investigation to legally name the killer,” added Karen Miller.
Aaron Kosminski was born in Klodawa in central Poland in 1865. His family had moved to east London in the 1880s and he lived close to where the crimes were committed, near the city’s docks. . But barely published, Russell Edwards’ thesis was the subject of criticism.
In 2023, the great-great-granddaughter of a British police officer who had investigated Jack the Ripper also claimed to have discovered the identity of the serial killer. She had named Hyam Hyams, a cigar maker, epileptic and alcoholic who had spent several stays in the asylum, as Jack the Ripper.
