The most infamous murdering spree in London history has finally been solved 126 years after it occurred – at least, according to author Russell Edwards.
In his new book “Naming Jack the Ripper,” which releases this Tuesday, Edwards details how a shawl bearing the serial killer’s blood led him to DNA evidence that proves Aaron Kiminski – one of six suspects whittled down over the years – was the man behind the 1888 killing spree that terrorized London’s East End.
Kiminski was a Polish immigrant who lived in Mile End Old Town and was eventually admitted to a string of lunatic asylums before dying in 1899 of gangrene in the leg.
For his part, Edwards spent 14 years building a case – he purchased the shawl – which had been found by the body of Ripper victim Catherine Eddowes – at an auction in 2007, then elected the help of molecular biology expert Dr. Jari Louhelainen. DNA from Eddowes’ blood, as well as that of the killer, was found.
“We have definitively solved the mystery of who Jack the Ripper was,” Edwards told The Mirror. “Only non-believers that want to perpetuate the myth will doubt. This is it now – we have unmasked him.”
The tests have yet to be independently verified, but Dr. Louhelainen spent three years analyzing the DNA and is quite confident in the findings.
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