Was Jack the Ripper Positively Identified through DNA Testing?

In 2014, author Russell Edwards claimed to have finally unmasked the worlds most terrifying serial killer

If we are to understand the current events in the Jack the Ripper case, it is crucial to remember the events of Autumn, 1888, in London’s East End. At the time, Whitechapel was home to some of the UK’s poorest citizens. Because of the neighborhood’s proximity to the Thames, it became a refuge for Jewish immigrants fleeing persecution in Russia and Poland. Housing, jobs, and food were scarce and incredibly hard for women to procure. Many of these women turned to prostitution. At least five would become victims of a notorious serial killer.

These following are the canonical five victims; their deaths are generally attributed to the suspect known as Jack the Ripper.

Victims

Polly Nichols

PC Neil discovering the body of Mary Ann Nichols with his lantern, ca 1888, Public Domain Image

“The injuries are such that they could have only been inflicted by a madman” — An anonymous officer at the crime scene.

On the evening of August 31, 1888, Mary “Polly” Nichols needed money. Polly was a 43-year-old divorced mother of five with few career options. That evening, she was kicked out of Wilmot’s Public House for non-payment and had nowhere to sleep. As an officer unceremoniously evicted Polly, she snarked, “Never mind. I’ll soon get my doss money. See what a jolly bonnet I’ve got!” Polly intended to sell her body, as she had done many times over in her short life. Her mission that evening was to earn her rent.

At around 2:30 AM on August 31, 1888, Polly’s roommate, Ellen Holland, came across drunken Polly, steadying herself against a wall. When asked about the rent, Polly slurred, “I’ve had my doss money three times today and spent it. It won’t be long before I’m back.”

Polly never made it back. Before, a cart driver named Charles Cross noticed a woman lying in the front entrance to his stable on Buck’s Row in Whitechapel, London. Unsure if she was drunk or dead, he called for the police. A police surgeon confirmed, not only had the woman been dead for an estimated half-hour, she was murdered. Charles Cross must have narrowly missed interrupting the killer. The woman was Polly Nichols.

Buck’s Row where Polly Nichols’ body was found, ca 1888, Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain

Annie Chapman

Annie Chapman, shortly before her death in 1888. Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain

Eliza Ann Smith Chapman, whom everyone called Annie, was a 47-year-old mother of three, a known prostitute and an alcoholic. She also earned money selling her crochet work and flowers. Like Polly, Annie couldn’t pay rent and was evicted early that morning from a public lodging house. On the morning of September 8, 1888, she was seen around 5:30 AM, leaving Ten Bells Pub.

A witness named Elizabeth Long reported spotting Annie in front of 29 Hanbury Street — a mere quarter-mile from the site where Polly Nichols died. She was with a swarthy gentleman who wore a deerstalker hat and duster. She described him as a foreigner. Ms. Long heard the man ask Annie, “Will you?” to which Annie replied, “Yes.” A man in the next apartment over went into his backyard around that time. He heard a woman yell, “No,” followed by a thump from the other side of the fence.

A half-hour later, the tenant of residence decided to take a shortcut through his back yard to a walkway on his way to work. There he found Annie dead and even more mutilated than Polly. Annie’s killer left her with her skirts lifted over her neck, and her intestines spread over her shoulders. The murder also sliced her throat from left to right and then disemboweled her with the same knife. He also absconded with her uterus, parts bladder, and hacked away pieces of her vagina.

Location of Annie Chapman murder at 29 Hanbury Street, ca 1888, Public Domain Image

Lizzie Stride

Detail of Elizabeth Stride, The Illustrated Police News, 6 October 1888.

Elizabeth Gustafsdotter Stride, “Lizzie,” was a 45-year-old Swedish immigrant who sometimes worked as a prostitute to pay for her lodging and food. Shortly before her death, Lizzie became estranged from her on-again, off-again lover, Michael Kidney.

On September 29, 1888, Lizzie earned a half-shilling for cleaning two rooms at 32 Flower and Dean Street. Two witnesses said Lizzie was drinking at Bricklayers’ Arms pub by 11 PM, kissing a stranger in the doorway. The unknown man wore a dark coat and a bowler hat. They said he was about 5' 5" tall, with no beard, but a dark mustache and described his look as “respectable.”

Lizzie was seen again At 11:45 PM by William Marshall as he stood on his stoop. She was walking with a man who William called “stout,” wearing a sailor’s hat. Otherwise, the man William saw fit the description of the man at the pub. He heard the gentleman say to Lizzie, “You would say anything but your prayers,” and she laughed.

Police Constable William Smith saw Lizzie an hour later on Berner Street with a man who fit the previous two descriptions. He recalled Lizzie had a red rose pinned to her blouse and that the man carried a 6x18" package wrapped in newspaper.

The next two sightings happened within minutes of each other close to 1 AM on September 30, 1888. James Brow, a dockworker, walked up Berner Street and noticed Lizzie and a gentleman on the corner. The man rested his arm against the brick wall Lizzie was leaning on. He didn’t get a good look at the man, but he heard Lizzie say, “No. Not tonight. Some other night.”

Very shortly after, a recent immigrant named Israel Schwartz turned on to Berner Street. He saw a man and a woman across the road from him, at the precise spot where Lizzie would soon be found dead. The couple appeared to be arguing, but Israel was not a native English speaker and couldn’t relay what the pair said. According to Israel, this man attempted to throw Lizzie into the road forcefully, and she fought back. Israel crossed the street and noticed another man light a pipe and yell, “Lipski!” At that, the man with the pipe began to follow Israel, who ran away in fear.

At 1 AM, jewelry salesman Louis Diemschutz drove his cart up Dutifield’s yard. For no apparent reason, the horse pulling his cart became startled and refused to move forward. He used his whip to probe around in the area and discovered a heap on the road. He couldn’t tell what he’d come upon in the darkness, so he lit a match. By matchlight, he saw it was a woman, but couldn’t determine if she was asleep or dead.

Alarmed, Louise went inside the club and persuaded two men to bring candles. The men quickly realized the woman was dead and yelled for the police who were nearby. Police recognized Lizzie as she lay dead with a red rose pinned to her clothing. Her head — nearly severed.

Lizzie’s throat was slit clean down to the spine. She was still warm. Below the neck, Lizzie remained intact, suggesting the killer was interrupted. The next Murder would occur before sunrise and seems to confirm this theory.

Location of Elizabeth Stride’s murder on Berner Street, ca 1888, Whitechapel, Public Domain Image

Kate Eddowes

The Penny Illustrated Paper — October 13, 1888 — Kate Eddowes, Public Doman Image

Catherine “Kate” Eddowes was a 46-year-old mother of three at the time of her murder. Like the other victims, Kate occasionally resorted to prostitution to get by. She also made money picking hops during the autumn harvest. Kate also battled with alcohol addiction. On Saturday, September 29, 1888, police arrested Kate for public intoxication; she was drunk and pretending to be a fire engine in the street. She slept it off in jail, and was released the next day at precisely 12:55 AM, five minutes before Annie’s murder. Kate was killed less than an hour later.

After her release from jail, Kate could have gone to Cooney’s Lodging House located at Flower and Dean Street, where she split the daily rent with her common-law husband of seven years, John Kelly. Instead, she returned to the where she was arrested, presumably to earn more drinking money. Earlier that day, the deputy of the lodging house heard Kate say, “I have come back to earn the reward offered for the apprehension of the Whitechapel murderer. I think I know him.”

Three witnesses reported seeing Kate walking down Duke Street with a man at approximately 1:30 AM. The man appeared about 30-years-old, with dark hair, a dark mustache, and no beard. He wore a salt and pepper colored tweed jacket that was too large for him, with a red scarf around his neck. The witnesses guessed he was around 5'7" tall.

Police Constable Edward Watkins walked his beat as usual on that terrible Sunday. Around 1:20 AM, he checked Mitre Square, a ten-minute walk from the jailhouse. There was nothing to see, so the officer continued to the end of the road and turned back. He rechecked Mitre Square at 1:45 AM. This time, he found the dead and mutilated body of Kate Eddowes.

Kate’s body was still warm, according to police surgeon Dr. Frederick Gordon Brown. Her killer sliced open the flesh of her belly, removed her intestines, and tossed placed them around shoulders. He cut “V” shapes into her cheeks and eyelids. Her left kidney and uterus were completely missing. The murderer also took her earlobes, which latter fell from the folds in her skirts transport to the mortuary.

Each Murder was more Frenzied and gruesome than the next. But Jack the Rippers final confirmed kill would be the worst yet.

Mitre Square, ca 1888, Public Domain Image

Mary Jane Kelly

Mary Jane Kelly sketch in The Penny Illustrated Paper (November 24, 1888), Public Domain Image

October came and went without another murder. Jack the Ripper was by no means finished. Mary Jane Kelly was a pretty young woman with an elusive background. Like all of the other victims, Mary was a prostitute and addicted to alcohol. She was youngest of the Ripper victims — about 25 on the day she died. Mary usually made enough money to rent a sparsely furnished apartment in Room 13, Miller’s Court in Spitalfields.

On the night of November 7, 1888, witnesses saw Mary drinking at The Ten Bells Pub with a friend. Once home, Mary’s neighbors became annoyed at her loud rendition of the song, A Violet from my Mother’s Grave. The singing stopped sometime in the early hours of November 8, but was replaced by Mary’s screams of “Oh, murder!” No one lent any credence to her cries — Mary was drunk and misbehaving. In the morning, the young Mary Kelly would be counted as Jack the Ripper’s latest victim.

The Ten Bells Pub, David Hardaway, October 2001, Public Domain Image

Mary owed her landlord, John McCarthy, six weeks of back rent, and he sent a man named Thomas Bowyer to collect it. Mary wouldn’t answer his knocks. Thomas tried the door, but it was locked. The window had a break in it large enough for his hand to fit through and slide the curtain away. Inside, he saw Mary in her bed, mutilated beyond recognition. Blood splatter covered the walls. He swiftly notified the landlord about the discovery.

Dorset Street, Whitechapel Miller’s Court was accessed through an alleyway, ca 1902, Public Domain Image

Mr. McCarthy came with his key. Nothing could prepare him for the carnage waiting on the other side of the door. Mary’s face was sliced so profoundly that her skull was exposed. The killer cut the skin and muscle away from Mary’s Right leg, exposing her tibia. He also amputated her breast, placing one under her head and the other on her side table. The murderer made a jagged cut from her pubic area to her breast bone and removed her bowels and other organs. Her clothing was folded and set neatly in a chair. Jack the Ripper cut Mary’s uterus out of her body and placed it under her foot.

Jack the Ripper’s other murders were rushed and frenzied, but Mary Kelly’s murder was overkill. In the relative privacy of Mary’s apartment, her killer was free to do as much damage as he could. The murder of Mary Jane Kelly was his revolting masterpiece. He had the time and privacy to express his hatred of women in the bloodiest way possible.

Police and citizens of Whitechapel anticipated another murder. They cast suspicious eyes at their neighbors, wondering which one was responsible. But no other murders happened. Was he dead, incarcerated, or did he give up? The murders may have stopped, but the Autumn of Terror left its mark. Jack the Ripper has become an archetype villain in the world’s collective memory.

Letters From Hell

Police and citizens were sure the same perpetrator murdered all five women, and possibly more. They referred to the assailant as “The Whitechapel Murderer,” and based on witnesses who claimed to see a man near the time and place of both crimes who wore a butcher’s apron, “Leather Apron.” The killer would soon give himself a new moniker that would live in infamy.

Police and news outlets received hundreds of letters from various people who claimed responsibility for the murders. Most were obvious fakes. Three are believed to be valid.

On September 27, 1888, three days before the murders of Annie Chapman and Lizzie Stride, the Central News Agency received an anonymous letter. The missive dated September 25, penned in red ink and addressed, “Dear Boss.” The author claimed responsibility for the recent murders and promised there would be more. He included the ominous warning, “The next job I do, I shall clip the lady’s ears off and send to the police officers just for jolly, wouldn’t you?”

Dear Boss Letter, September 1888, Public Domain

Police largely ignored this letter, until they realized that Catherine Eddowes earlobes were indeed clipped off, just as the author promised. He signed it, “Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper.”

The next communication arrived at The Central News Agency on October 1, 1888. This time, the author sent a postcard. A full 24 hours passed between the time of the murders of Lizzie Stride and Catherine Eddowes. The author might have heard some details of the murders by this time. However, the handwriting and voice of the author give the impression that the killer wrote the letters. The postcard reads as follows:

“I was not codding dear old Boss when I gave you the tip, you’ll hear about Saucy Jacky’s work tomorrow double event this time number one squealed a bit couldn’t finish straight off. Had not got time to get ears off for police thanks for keeping last letter back till I got to work again. Jack the Ripper”

Saucy Jack Post Card, Front and Back, ca 1888, Public Domain Images

The next person to receive a letter with any credence was Mr. George Lusk. Mr. Lusk was president of the Mile End Vigilance Committee, which formed as a response to the murders. The committee members watched the neighborhood for suspicious persons. Mr. Lusk’s name was frequently published in the papers of the time in connection to the committee, and he received his fair share of threats in the mail and in person.

Tuesday, October 16, 1888, a package wrapped in butcher paper with a London postmark arrived at Mr. Lusk’s home. It bore his name and address, aside from his house number. The package gave off a foul stench, and for a good reason. It contained a rotting piece of a human kidney that the coroner would later claim belonged to Catherine Eddowes. Inside, he found another letter. The verbiage and handwriting were less eloquent than the “Dear Boss” and “Saucy Jack” missives. The header read, “From Hell.”

From Hell Letter, ca 1888, Public Domain Image

The Goulston Street Graffito

At 2:55 AM the evening of Catherine Eddowes’ murder, police constable Alfred Long patrolled Goulston Street searching for the villain. In the entrance to one of the tenement buildings, the officer discovered a strip of cloth soiled with blood and human feces. Above it, there was a message scribbled in chalk on the black painted wall. It read, “The Jewes [sometimes transcribed juwes] are the men who will not be blamed for nothing.” Officer long realized the importance of this evidence. It was the only bit of evidence the Ripper left. He blew his whistle to notify other officers.

Transcription by the London Metropolitan Police, ca 1888, Public Domain Image

The strip of cloth came from poor Kate’s apron. The fabric, discarded by the killer, was the only indication of his direction after the killing. It was a quarter-mile east of Mitre Square. But Detective Daniel Halse of London Metropolitan Police was more concerned with the chalk writing.

Whoever wrote the message wrote it on the Wentworth Model Dwellings. The double negative confuses the meaning. Did he mean the Jews won’t be blamed for anything, or they won’t be blamed for any reason? Either way, the implication that he was a Jewish person at all was dangerous.

Whitechapel was a new home to hundreds of Jewish families who fled Poland and Russia to escape persecution. As it stood, long time citizens were leery of the new residents. There was an air of anti-Semitism throughout Whitechapel already. Therefore, the potential for hate crimes and riots against the refugees existed if anyone suspected one of these recent immigrants.

Major Henry Smith of the City Police ordered his men to take photographs and remove the writing immediately. Police, in haste, wiped the message away and failed to take pictures. They transcribed what was said, but a transcription couldn’t compare the writing on the wall to the Ripper Letters — a regrettable blunder.

The Goulston Street Graffito and the strip of fabric were the only physical evidence police had. Over a century would pass before any new evidence presented itself for the scrutiny of modern technology.

Suspects

One of a series of images from the Illustrated London News for October 13, 1888 carrying the overall caption, “With the Vigilance Committee in the East End”. This specific image is entitled “A Suspicious Character,” Public Domain

“Ripperologists” and law enforcement have put forth many suspects over the years. Most have been disproven. Some of them are far fetched candidates, such as Prince Albert, Lewis Carroll, and Joseph Merrick, “The Elephant Man.”

Author Patricia Cornwell’s book Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper — Case Closed proposed an artist named Walter Sickert, but her theory was put to rest when a DNA test and a destroyed painting could not prove his guilt.

Investigators who handled the investigation had their theories. They understood that the killer had to be insane. He also needed to blend in with Whitechapel residents and probably frequented the same pubs as the victims. Because he was quick at dissecting human beings, but not necessarily skilled at it, they theorized he might be a butcher. If written by the Ripper, the letters proved he didn’t have a doctor’s education, or English was not his first language. The Goulston Street Graffito could also implicate a person of foreign birth.

Investigator Sir Melville MacNaghten researched the case in-depth and developed a shortlist of suspects. He favored a syphilitic doctor, Montague John Druitt — a man prone to violence who disappeared shortly after the last murder. Dr. Druitt was found dead in the Thames on December 31, 1888, from suicide. Another suspect was a conman of Russian descent named Michael Ostrog. Ostrog claimed he was a doctor, which was never proven. True, he was a hardened criminal. However, he lacked a violent disposition. Finally, MacNaghten thought the Ripper might be a man known only by his last name, Kosminski.

Investigators jotted down the surname in their notes because some men area insisted he, Kosminski, was the murder. Kosminski was a common name in Whitechapel, an emerging Jewish neighborhood.

MacNaghten described Kosminski as a Polish Jew who lived in Whitechapel, who had a great hatred of prostitutes. Nathan Kosminski, who sometimes went by David Cohen, was a Polish Jew with homicidal inclinations. He was admitted to Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum in London, December 1888, where he died a year later.

Another man, Aaron Kosminski, became an inmate at Colney Hatch on February 7, 1891. This suspect was more docile, and his mental illness manifested in self-injury, eating out of the street, and refusing food altogether. He didn’t have much of a criminal record, aside from having a dog without a muzzle. The judge fined him, but Aaron refused to pay on the sabbath. The men who accused “Kosminski” declined to incriminate a fellow Jewish man and wouldn’t give further identification.

At this point, the case runs cold for over a century until 2014, when a man claimed to have finally unmasked Jack the Ripper using DNA technology.

The Illustrated Police News, etc., London, Greater London, England, 13 Oct 1888, Sat • Page 1

Heirloom Evidence

The seven-feet-long silk shawl had fringed ends and four patterned sections. An intricate floral pattern adorned the end pieces, and the center was a lovely cyan, next to a bright ochre square. The shawl was older than the crime but would have been expensive.

As the story goes, Metropolitan Police officer Amos Simpson took the shawl from the Eddowes crime scene as a gag gift for his wife, a dressmaker. Mrs. Simpson, rightfully repulsed by the thing, put it in a box unwashed. It remained in the family, passed down from generation to generation for a hundred years.

On March 17, 2007, David Melville-Hayes, a descendant of officer Simpson, put the shawl up for auction. The winning bidder was a Ripper enthusiast named Russell Edwards, who purchased it for $4.5 million.

Russell suspected Aaron Kosminski was the killer, and he wanted the shawl tested for DNA evidence. To that end, he hired Dr. Jari Louhelainen, a molecular biologist at Liverpool John Moores University. Dr. Louhelainen extracted seven complete segments of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), DNA past down matrilineally virtually unchanged from generation to generation.

Dr. Louhelainen compared the DNA from these segments to that of a known descendent, Karen Miller. He concluded that one of these seven “amplified” DNA segments matched Ms. Miller, in that they shared a rare mutation — namely, DNA mutation 314.C. This mutation occurs in approximately 1 in 290,000 people.

Blood was not the only genetic material on the shawl. There was also semen. Dr. Louhelainen tested this too and declared it a positive match to Aaron Kosminski’s sister’s descendent. Unfortunately, no one elaborates on how the DNA matched, other than giving the maternal haplogroup of T1a1. The descendent also belonged to this group. Without a doubt, Russell and the team believed they had at last identified the Ripper as Aaron Kosminski.

Unfortunately, there are more reasons to doubt their conclusions than to believe them.

Provenance

Police at the crime scene inventoried all of the victims’ belongings. There is no shawl on the list of items found at the location. Oddly, there is a shawl listed among Lizzie Stride’s belongings. A shawl such as this could have paid for several nights of Doss money and gin. If it belonged to one of the victims, they likely would have sold it.

Also, Mitre Square would have fallen under the City of London Police jurisdiction, not the London Metropolitan Police. Officer Simpson had no reason to abandon his jurisdiction. For the sake of argument, we assume he did give the shawl to his wife, and it eventually made its way to the auction house. Did this study prove anything about Jack the Ripper?

Faulty Testing

Even if the shawl belonged to one of the victims, it doesn’t prove anything new. A woman who earned money ducking into dark alley’s with men to sell sex acquired semen on her shawl. That semen belonged to a man with brown hair, brown eyes, and a t1a1 maternal haplogroup. Aaron Kosminski, his sister, and the person who contributed the semen have a common female ancestor who came from Eastern Europe thousands of years ago. It still does not mean that person was the killer.

Dr. Louhelainen became convinced the shawl belonged to Kate because of the 314.C mutation. Unfortunately, he didn’t submit his findings for peer review before Russell published them in his 2014 book, Naming Jack The Ripper. If he had, he would have realized his blunder; There was no 314.C mutation in the shawl or the descendent. What he found was the exceedingly common 315.1C mutation. The only evidence that the shawl ever belonged to Kate was a family story.

There is no way to know how many men in 1888 Whitechapel shared these traits. Today, T1a1 is one of the most common maternal haplogroups in the UK. For this reason, mitochondrial DNA cannot include anyone as a suspect; it can only exclude. In this case, Aaron Kosminski could not be excluded.

Confirmation Bias

At the time of the murders, there was an unsettling, unfounded fear of the Ashkenazi refugees. The fact that “Kosminski” ended up on the list of police suspects could have been due to anti-Semitism. The events on Goulston Street certainly didn’t help. If Aaron Kosminski was Jack the Ripper, the fact that he was Jewish had nothing to do with the crimes.

We can’t miss that Russell fingered Aaron Kosminski as the killer before he ever acquired the shawl. This isn’t to say he was biased against Aaron as a Jewish man, only that he and his team bent the facts to fit a century-old narrative and proclaimed it as gospel.

Aftermath

We haven’t solved this puzzle quite yet. Perhaps, as Genetic Genealogy techniques advance, we will someday be able to name Jack the Ripper. For now, the sleuths will keep sleuthing, and the serial killer that started it all will continue to inspire nightmares.

Catherine Eddowes Grave, Courtesy of Matt Brown at Flickr ,CC BY https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)

Further Reading

Jack the Ripper: A True Love Story; Wynne Weston-Davies

Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper — Case Closed, Patricia Cornwell

Naming Jack The Ripper, Russell Edwards

Jack the Ripper: The Complete Casebook, Donald Rumbelow