DNA solved former cold case, proving Jack the Ripper to be a polish immigrant named Aaron Kosminski.
According to The Daily Mail, a shawl from one of the ripper's victims contains DNA linked to Kosminski.
126 years later, a London based author named Russell Edwards bought the shawl at an auction. Edwards then recruited the help of Dr Jari Louhelainen, a celebrated forensic expert who specializes in extracting genetic evidence from historic cases, and crime scenes. Louhelainen was able to successfully link matter left on the shawl to descendants of both the perpetrator, as well as the victim.
The Advertiser reports that Dr Louhelainen told The Daily Mail, “The first strand of DNA showed a 99.2 per cent match, as the analysis instrument could not determine the sequence of the missing 0.8 per cent fragment of DNA. On testing the second strand, we achieved a perfect 100 per cent match.”
The serial killer was responsible for at least five particularly gruesome murders in East London during the late 1800s. He worked as a hairdresser and was later committed to an insane asylum.
The Independent records that Edwards' novel based on the discovery, Naming Jack the Ripper, is set to release later this week.