Jack the Ripper’s identity remains a mystery after error in DNA analysis revealed

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Credit: Ozgur Coskun/Shutterstock.

It was supposed to have been the definitive piece of scientific evidence that finally exposed the true identify of Jack the Ripper after he had brutally murdered at least five women on the streets of Whitechapel in the East End of London, 126 years ago.

A 23-year-old Polish immigrant barber called Aaron Kosminski was “definitely, categorically and absolutely” the man who carried out the atrocities in 1888, according to a detailed analysis of DNA extracted from a silk shawl allegedly found at the scene of one of his murders.

However, the scientist who carried out the DNA analysis has apparently made a fundamental error that fatally undermines his case against Kosminski – and once again throws open the debate over the identity of the Ripper.

The scientist, Jari Louhelainen, is said to have made an “error of nomenclature” when using a DNA database to calculate the chances of a genetic match. If true, it would mean his calculations were wrong and that virtually anyone could have left the DNA that he insisted came from the Ripper’s victim.

Read full original article: Jack the Ripper: Scientist who claims to have identified notorious killer has made ‘serious DNA error’

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