There has been a huge amount of coverage this week on the revelations that a shawl, purporting to belong to Catherine Eddowes, Jack the Ripper’s fourth victim, had been tested for DNA and had given up the name of the culprit who has evaded professional and amateur detective for 126 years.
If you’ve not looked at a newspaper this week, then there’s a possibility that you may have missed this earth shattering find.
So, here is a brief re-cap.
Russell Edwards, having bought a shawl at auction in 2007, that was said to have been taken away from the Eddowes murder site in Mitre Square on 30th September 1888, had it tested for DNA.
He then had the samples compared to DNA from one of Catherine Eddowes descendants and one of the major suspect’s, Aaron Kosminski’s, descendants.
The result?
A positive match in both cases.
I don’t want to go in to the argument here as to whether or not this latest revelation does, indeed, prove beyond a shadow of a doubt, – or should that be beyond reasonable doubt? – that the case of Jack the Ripper can finally be closed, as this was covered in this previous article.
However, here at the Jack the Ripper Tour of London we love to discuss any finds on the case, with participants who join us on our nightly walk.
So, I decided that these were the people to ask as, if anyone would have a definitive answer, they would.
And so I posed the following question on our Facebook Page “Does the shawl prove that Aaron Kosminski was Jack the Ripper?”
Now, if I can just stress that the question wasn’t “was Aaron Kosminki Jack the Ripper?” but simply whether the shawl actually proved the case against him.
We simply asked for a one word answer, yes, no, or undecided.
And, the results a came in as follows.
Yes 10 votes.
No 71 votes
Undecided 6 votes
Possible 1 vote
No comment 1 vote.
So, there you have it, 71 people out of 88 people who took part were emphatic that the shawl in no way proves that Aaron Kosminski was Jack the Ripper.
The people have spoken!
Incidentally, if you would like to see our film about the police case against Kosminski you can do so on the following video.
If you would like to discuss these latest finds with our expert guides then we’d love to welcome you onto our Jack the Ripper guided tour in the course of which you will have the opportunity to, not only become your own Victorian CSI, but will also be able to analyse all the facts with your guide and fellow walkers.
You can book your places here.