“Jack the Ripper” Amnesia – Media Watch

Monique Wright: Well, for almost 140 years, the identity of the most infamous serial killer in the world has remained a mystery. I mean so far

– Sunrise, Network Seven, Feb 2 2025

Hullo, I am Linton Besser, welcome to the media watch.

And only bright news this evening, which we have been waiting for since 1888:

Clint Stanaway: … Jack the Ripper the Mysterios Criminal Serial, whose identity has long remained a mystery.

Alison Piotrowski: I mean …

Clint Stanaway: So far.

– Weekend Today, Nine Network, Feb 2 2025

Yes, at 140 years after five women met the end in centers in Laneways of Whitechapel, they finally cracked:

The identity of Jack the Ripper “confirmed” …

– Sun, January 31, 2025

The discovery of the bomb by the “Ripperologist” in London, Russell Edwards, was published by The Sun, and his purpose was soon whipped in Downdering Pulp.

On Nine’s Weekend Today, Alison Piotrowski, was opened with the obvious question:

Alison Piotrowski: … Who is this person behind the infamous name?

Russell Edwards: … The name is Aaron Kosminsky …

– Weekend Today, Nine Network, Feb 2 2025

The DNA scratched from a silk shawl sprinkled with blood bid in 2007 has shown a match for the descendants of one of Ripper’s victims, Catherine Eddowes, and Kosminsky, a Polish hairdresser, said it was one of the main ones. Police suspects at the time.

Edwards also spoke of his discovery on seven:

Russell Edwards: … I proved that the shawl was actually taken to the crime site by the criminal himself …

– Sunnisa weekend, network seven, February 2, 2025

What a discovery.

Although, was the sun really first with the story?

Because here is the Daily Mail with its own exclusivity two weeks earlier:

Descendants of Jack The Ripper’s victims want a new investigation after DNA discovery

– The Daily Mail (UK), January 13, 2025

I suppose that the recycling of the story in a few weeks is a little reduced, but to have solved an enigma like this was a huge revelation.

Don’t they?

The true identity of Jack the Ripper finally “revealed” …

– The Mirror, April 1, 2019

Demon barber …

… Aaron Kosminski.

– Sun, March 17, 2019

Did I know that six years ago?

Bet I did it.

In fact, I knew it five years before, in another “worldly world” Daily Mail:

Jack the Ripper was identified as … Aaron Kosminski

– The Daily Mail, September 7, 2014

Which was rapidly raised by other media from all over the world.

Okay, so it’s old news.

But is it at least true?

Hmmm …

Russell Edwards, the man behind all these statements, runs Ripper tournaments in London and is the author of a 2014 book “Naming Jack the Ripper”.

Shortly after his publication, the science in the center of Edwards’s book attracted wires from experts who claimed a basic error, the wrong placement of a decimal point, meant the DNA marker who probably identified Kosminski was actually present in more than 90 % of Europeans.

Whoops.

But Edwards and his team refused to let the theory die.

And with news five years later, that the Journal of Forensic Sciences will publish its DNA analysis – they were taken with a new round to the press.

At that time, Russell Edwards told CBS:

Russell Edwards: I proved this, the whole story is absolutely like a puzzle.

– CBS this morning Jack The Ripper eventually identified the claim of forensic science, March 18, 2019

Sure, it fits – but it falls in this way you block those pieces in the puzzle, especially when you consider this warning on academic paper in December: last year:

The expression of concern

… As for the conclusions drawn from the MTDNA analysis …

– Journal of Forensic Sciences, Expression of Preguup, December 2024

These concerns are not limited to DNA errors, but also to huge belief jumps on the provenance of the shawl, if the Kosminski in question was the right Kosminks and if the mitochondrial DNA of its descend unique.

So imagine -only the alarm in the journal, when his publishers then wanted to see the homework, just to discover that he was eaten by the dog:

… The authors said the data were no longer available, due to the failure of the data of tools and other complications …

– Journal of Forensic Sciences, Expression of Preguup, December 2024

Bugger.

Russell Edwards told us that our observations are “incorrect for most of the number”, but he didn’t say well how.

In any case, you do not have to worry, because I am only positive Jack the Ripper will continue to find bright victims, at least in the media, for the coming years.