Has a bloody scarf finally identified Jack the Ripper? Not so fast, skeptics say

DNA tests on a bloody shawl linked to one of the Jack the Ripper slayings in 1888 in London have identified the killer, according to a new scientific paper in the Journal of Forensic Sciences.

The paper says DNA from blood and semen on the scarf, found near the body of Catherine Eddowes, the killer’s fourth known victim, points to Aaron Kosminski, a 23-year-old Polish barber considered a prime suspect at the time, Science reports.

The person known as Jack the Ripper killed at least five women, all thought to be prostitutes, in the Whitechapel district of London from August to November 1888 before apparently vanishing.

The case has inspired countless books, films and theories as to the killer’s true identity over the ensuing 130 years.

“We applied novel, minimally destructive techniques for sample recovery from forensically relevant stains on the evidence and separated single cells linked to the suspect, followed by phenotypic analysis,” says the new Journal of Forensic Sciences paper.

The DNA results were compared to descendants of both Eddowes and Kosminski, the paper says.

But skeptics say key details on “specific genetic variants” between the samples are not included in the paper, Science reports. They also question whether mitochondrial DNA can provide a positive identification, or merely rule out an individual.

And others say there’s no evidence the shawl was ever at the crime scene, Science reports, and point out it could have been contaminated in the decades since the crimes.

This story was originally published March 18, 2019 at 10:42 AM.