Forensic Scientists Claim They've Identified Jack the Ripper Through DNA, and It Turns Out It's Aaron Kominski, a Lunatic Barber Long Suspected of Being the Killer

So not the Prince, then.

This guy has been floated as a likely suspect a lot, including at the time of the killings. Not a very "sexy" sort of suspect -- a Polish immigrant living a grubby life and a lunatic. He was committed to an insane asylum in 1891; the last of the canonical Ripper murders occurred in 1888.

This DNA-based solution was proposed in 2014. A shawl stained with blood was found on the body of Catherine Eddoes and somehow was preserved until now.

This is the first time a Ripper suspect has been profiled (or confirmed, depending on whether you believe this) by DNA in a peer-reviewed science journal.

Researchers Jari Louhelainen and David Miller ran genetic tests on a silk shawl stained with blood and semen that investigators say was found next to the body of the killer’s fourth victim, Catherine Eddowes, Science reported.

Do you have Prince Albert in a Can?

No, but I have Aaron Kominski in a jerksock.

Researchers compared fragments of mitochondrial DNA -- which the magazine noted is inherited from one's mother -- to samples from living relatives of Eddowes and Kosminski and found they matched those of Kosminski's relative.

The study also includes an analysis of the killer’s appearance which suggests the killer had brown hair and brown eyes. which matches the only reliable witness statement, according to Science.

The study's findings may not satisfy other Ripper experts who say the shawl may have been contaminated over the years. The shawl was given to Louhelainen by Edwards, a self-proclaimed “armchair detective” and author of "Naming Jack the Ripper," who bought it at an auction in 2007, according to the Guardian.

Kominski was known by the nickname "Saucy Jack." Neighbors described him as either as "a naughty one" or "a haughty one." (The handwritten police notes are smudged and the first letter may be an "n" or "h").

So is the case finally closed? Probably not. The scientist who invented genetic fingerprinting dismisses this proof. I don't know why; maybe just because of the obviously high odds of contamination. So we'll probably have another hundred years of armchair sleuthing.

By the way, of course I added that last paragraph to the quote just for fun. Because lies are fun (the media taught me that!).

I thought maybe I could transport you, for just one moment, into a magical world where Spinal Tap were actually psychic detectives who solved crimes through song.

Via PJ Media's Morning Brief.

posted by Ace of Spades at 01:50 PM

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