Jack the Ripper Exposed After 136 Years (7 photos)

The identity of Jack the Ripper has remained a mystery for over 130 years, but one author believes he has not only exposed the serial killer, but revealed his appearance. British author Russell Edwards used advanced facial reconstruction technology to create a black-and-white CGI image of the serial killer.





In 2007, Edwards acquired a shawl from one of the victims and performed DNA testing on the blood samples. He identified Aaron Kosminski, one of the main suspects in the Whitechapel murders, as the killer.

In his second book on the case, Edwards claims to have not only definitively identified the Ripper, but also revealed his motives for the killings and how the killer managed to escape justice.



Jack the Ripper According to Edwards

Between August and November 1888, Jack the Ripper brutally murdered at least five women in Whitechapel, east London. The removal of the victims' internal organs has led to speculation that the maniac possessed a surgeon's anatomical knowledge. The exact number of victims is unknown, but five are known to have been murdered: Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes and Mary Jane Kelly. All had their throats cut, and Chapman, Eddowes and Kelly had post-mortem injuries, including to the vagina, and their organs were removed.



One of Aaron Kosminsky's portraits

How did Edwards establish that Kosminsky was guilty?

PC Watkins found the mutilated body of the fourth victim, Catherine Eddowes, on the pavement in Mitre Square on 30 September 1888. The silk shawl that belonged to her was covered in blood.

Nearly 120 years later, in 2007, Edwards, a businessman from north London, saw the shawl at an auction in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.

He bought it and found that the fabric was stained with blood and even semen.

It later emerged that when the body was taken to the morgue, Police Sergeant Amos Simpson had taken the shawl for his wife, Jane. The bloody "gift" was never worn, but had remained in the family for generations before it ended up at auction.

Edward was surprised that such an exquisite floral piece belonged to Miss Eddowes, a destitute woman suffering from alcohol addiction.

However, the pattern and dyes used matched those produced in St Petersburg at the time. This led Edwards to believe that the shawl could have belonged to the suspect Kosminsky.



The Scotland Yard photograph shows Annie Chapman, one of Jack the Ripper's victims

This prompted DNA testing of blood and semen samples. Distant relatives of both the victim and suspect took part in the testing.

A request to exhume Kosminsky's body was refused, but the traces matched the DNA of one of his sister's descendants. And the blood did indeed belong to Eddowes.

Aaron Kosminski was born on September 11, 1865, and was 23 at the time of the murders. He grew up in Kłodawa, near Warsaw, the youngest of seven children. When he was eight, his father died. His mother remarried, and records suggest his stepfather may have sexually abused him. In 1882, six years before the crimes, the family fled to London's East End to escape rising anti-Semitism.

Previously confidential police reports said Aaron had "a great hatred of women, especially prostitutes, and a great propensity for murder."



Without a single reliable photograph of the Ripper, Edwards turned to his family for old portraits in order to reconstruct his appearance using a computer program. This is how the portrait of a thoughtful young man with an intense look came about.



Russell Edwards's new book is dedicated to the famous case

In February 2023, Edwards got his hands on old photographs of members of a Jewish Masonic lodge, among them was Aaron's older brother, Isaac. The writer has no doubt that it was he who helped cover up the crimes. He is also sure that the Ripper acted on orders from the community. At the scene of Eddowes's murder, there was a message: "Jews will not be held responsible for anything."