Businessman claims to have solved the identity of Jack the Ripper
If any of you have ever wanted to be a detective solving exciting cases, don't give up hope.
After all, a businessman has claimed to have solved the most infamous whodunnit ever - the mystery behind the man called Jack the Ripper.
According to Russell Edwards, the man behind the grisly killings in 1888 was Aaron Kosminski,a 23-year-old Polish immigrant.
Kosminski was a suspect then but there was never enough evidence to bring him to trial. Edwards said in his new book, Naming Jack the Ripper, that Kosminski (below) was locked up in an asylum at the time the murders stopped.
He died in 1899.
DNA sample from bloody shawl identified killer
Edwards, 48, said that a blood-stained shawl that he bought at an auction in 2007 had the DNA evidence that proves without a doubt that Kosminski was the killer.
The shawl was found next to one of the victims in 1888.
Jack the Ripper murdered at least five women by slashing their throats and gruesomely removing their internal organs. He would then leave their mutilated bodies in alleyways in Whitechapel.
"I've got the only piece of forensic evidence in the whole history of the case," said Edwards, 48.
"I've spent 14 years working years on it, and we have definitely solved the mystery of who Jack the Ripper was."
Once he got hold of the shawl, he enlisted the help of an expert in molecular biology, Jari Louhelainen, and worked at uncovering the biggest whodunnit history for three-and-a-half years.
The pair used a technique that Louhelainen had developed and compared it to DNA samples from a descendant of Kosminski's sister and a descendant of one of the victims.
Of course, others have cast doubts on his claims.
Richard Cobb, who runs Jack the Ripper conventions and tours, said that the DNA sample is contaminated and not reliable because it had been touched by many people over the years.
But Edwards said: "Thank God the Shawl has never been washed."
Sources: Mashable, The Guardian
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