Editing Aaron Kosminski (section)

=== 2014 Louhelainen study ===
On 7 September 2014, Jari Louhelainen, an expert in historic [[DNA analysis]], announced that he had been commissioned by British author Russell Edwards<ref>{{cite news|url=http://metro.co.uk/2014/09/07/identity-of-jack-the-ripper-finally-revealed-using-cutting-edge-technology-of-course-4859504/|title=Identity of Jack The Ripper finally 'revealed' with the help of DNA evidence|newspaper=[[Metro (British newspaper)|Metro]]|date=7 September 2014}}</ref> to study a shawl said to have been found with victim [[Catherine Eddowes]] and that he had extracted [[mitochondrial DNA]] that matches female line descendants of Eddowes, and mitochondrial DNA that matches female line descendants of Kosminski's sister from the shawl.<ref name="independent"/> Louhelainen stated: "The first strand of DNA showed a 99.2 percent match, as the analysis instrument could not determine the sequence of the missing 0.8 percent fragment of DNA. On testing the second strand, we achieved a perfect 100 percent match."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.news.com.au/world/dna-tests-prove-that-jack-the-ripper-was-a-polish-immigrant-named-aaron-kosminski/story-fndir2ev-1227050842205|title=DNA tests 'prove' that Jack the Ripper was a Polish immigrant named Aaron Kosminski|website=News.com.au|date=7 September 2014|access-date=7 September 2014|archive-date=21 October 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141021130811/http://www.news.com.au/world/dna-tests-prove-that-jack-the-ripper-was-a-polish-immigrant-named-aaron-kosminski/story-fndir2ev-1227050842205|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In his book ''Naming Jack The Ripper'', Edwards names Kosminski as Jack the Ripper. Edwards was inspired to try to solve the case after the release of ''[[From Hell (film)|From Hell]]'', the 2001 [[Johnny Depp]] film about the Whitechapel murders.<ref name="smh.com.au">{{cite web|url=http://www.smh.com.au/world/johnny-depp-inspired-the-hunt-for-the-real-jack-the-ripper-20140908-10dpay.html#ixzz3Cf47s7oK|title=Johnny Depp inspired the hunt for the 'real' Jack the Ripper|newspaper=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]]|date=8 September 2014}}</ref> He bought the shawl at auction and commissioned Louhelainen, with Dr. David Miller assisting, to analyse it for forensic DNA evidence.<ref name="smh.com.au"/> Edwards states that Kosminski was on a list of police suspects but there was never enough evidence to bring him to trial at the time. Kosminski died at the age of 53 of [[gangrene]] of the leg in a London mental hospital in 1919.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thecourier.co.uk/news/uk/jack-the-ripper-mystery-solved-1.563459 |title=Jack the Ripper mystery 'solved' |newspaper=[[The Dundee Courier]]|date=7 September 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140907215225/http://www.thecourier.co.uk/news/uk/jack-the-ripper-mystery-solved-1.563459 |archive-date=7 September 2014 }}</ref> He said that the DNA samples proved that Kosminski was "definitely, categorically and absolutely" the person responsible for the Whitechapel murders committed by Jack the Ripper. He told ''[[The Independent]]'', "I've got the only piece of forensic evidence in the whole history of the case."<ref name="independent"/> He continued, "I've spent 14 years working on it, and we have definitively solved the mystery of who Jack the Ripper was. Only non-believers that want to perpetuate the myth will doubt. This is it now—we have unmasked him."<ref name="smh.com.au"/>

Criticism of the report included complaints that the findings first appeared in Britain's tabloid ''[[Daily Mail]]'' newspaper.<ref name="independent">{{cite news|first=Steve|last=Conner|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/has-jack-the-rippers-identity-really-been-revealed-using-dna-evidence-9717036.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140907202144/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/has-jack-the-rippers-identity-really-been-revealed-using-dna-evidence-9717036.html |archive-date=2014-09-07 |url-access=limited |url-status=live|title=Has Jack the Ripper's identity really been revealed using DNA evidence?|date=7 September 2014|newspaper=[[The Independent]]}}</ref> One critic, Susannah L. Bodman of ''[[The Oregonian]]'', said, "The ''Daily Mail''{{'}}s reporting on science and scientific evidence is—let's say—not known to be robust." Other criticisms include questions about "the chain of evidence or provenance on the shawl", that publishing the information in the press "is not the same as reporting and publishing your methods in a peer-reviewed journal",<ref name="oregonlive.com">{{cite web|first=Susanna L.|last=Bodman|url=http://www.oregonlive.com/today/index.ssf/2014/09/jack_the_ripper_finally_identi.html|title=Jack the Ripper finally identified by DNA? Maybe, maybe not&nbsp;...|newspaper=[[The Oregonian]]|date=6 September 2014}}</ref> and concerns regarding the entire recent body of Jack the Ripper investigative and historical forensic work in general, notably how often the work of [[Psychic|mediums]] and [[clairvoyant]]s, human interest angles, recycled evidence from coroner's courts and other sources, and the general acceptance of misinformation and urban myth as fact have undermined and hobbled previous efforts to conduct objective, scientific investigations.<ref name="history.ac.uk">{{cite web|first=L. Perry Jr.|last=Curtis|url=http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/review/333|title=Recent Scholarship on Jack the Ripper and the Victorian Media|work=Reviews in History: Covering books and digital resources across all fields of history|publisher=Institute of Historical Research, University of London|date=April 2003|access-date=7 September 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110613195708/http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/review/333|archive-date=13 June 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Professor [[Alec Jeffreys]], the forensic scientist who invented DNA fingerprinting in 1984, initially commented that the find was "an interesting but remarkable claim that needs to be subjected to peer review, with detailed analysis of the provenance of the shawl and the nature of the claimed DNA match with the perpetrator's descendants and its power of discrimination".<ref name="independent"/> Jeffreys and others later stated that a claim presented in the book as a statistically significant match with the DNA from Eddowes's descendant—a sequence variation described as 314.1C and claimed to be rare—was the result of an error in nomenclature for the common sequence variation 315.1C, which is present in more than 99% of people of European descent.<ref name="independent2">{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/jack-the-ripper-id-hinges-on-a-decimal-point-as-scientists-flag-up-dna-error-in-book-that-claims-to-identify-the-whitechapel-killer-9804325.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141019021203/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/jack-the-ripper-id-hinges-on-a-decimal-point-as-scientists-flag-up-dna-error-in-book-that-claims-to-identify-the-whitechapel-killer-9804325.html |archive-date=2014-10-19 |url-access=limited |url-status=live|title=Jack the Ripper: Scientist who claims to have identified notorious killer has 'made serious DNA error'|date=19 October 2014|work=[[The Independent]]}}</ref>

The shawl is said to have been found at the site of the murder of Catherine Eddowes and to have been passed down in the family of Amos Simpson, who was a police officer at the time of the murder. According to the family tradition, first recorded in 1988 - 100 years after the murder - Amos Simpson obtained the shawl after discovering Catherine Eddowes's body.<ref>O'Donnell, p. 211.</ref> This is certainly incorrect, as the body was discovered by PC Edward Watkins. The murder took place in the City of London, which had its own police force, separate from the Metropolitan Police. The subsequent events were recorded at the inquest, including the names of the other police officers who attended the scene, and no officers from other forces were mentioned.<ref>Evans and Skinner, pp. 224-232, 235-237.</ref> Amos Simpson was a Metropolitan Police officer and in 1888 was stationed in Cheshunt in Hertfordshire, about 14 miles from the scene of the murder.<ref>Simpson joined the force in 1868 and retired in 1893 (National Archives, MEPO 21/22, number 10850). He was posted to Cheshunt in 1881 (''Police Orders'', 30 August 1881). His obituary in the ''Suffolk and Essex Free Press'', 18 April 1917 (quoted by O'Donnell, p. 219) said he served at St Pancras for 13 years and at Cheshunt for 12. Russell Edwards claimed that he moved to Cheshunt after 1888, and in quoting his obituary he omitted the statement that disproved this (Edwards, pp. 141, 142).</ref>

As former City of London Police officer and crime historian [[Donald Rumbelow]] has noted,<ref name="australian"/><ref name="3News">{{cite web|url=http://www.3news.co.nz/world/jack-the-ripper-mystery-solved-2014090812|title=Jack the Ripper: Mystery solved?|author=Satherley, Dan|work=3 News|date=8 September 2014|access-date=8 September 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140908180916/http://www.3news.co.nz/world/jack-the-ripper-mystery-solved-2014090812|archive-date=8 September 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref> following the discovery of Catherine Eddowes's body, the police compiled a complete inventory of the clothing and other items found on the body, including descriptions of each garment and notes of bloodstains.<ref>Evans and Skinner, pp. 226-228.</ref> It did not include any item resembling the shawl.<ref>Russell Edwards has suggested that "dress ... made of green chintz, the pattern consisting of Michaelmas daisies", in one press report, was a description of the shawl, and that it was absent from the police inventory because Simpson had already taken it away (Edwards, p. 95). But in other press reports this item is described as "dark green chintz dress, with Michaelmas daisies, golden lily pattern", and it is specifically said to come from a list issued by the police (e.g. ''Pall Mall Gazette'' of 1 October 1888). It is presumably the same as the "Chintz Skirt 3 flounces, brown button on waistband ..." in the police inventory. The press descriptions do not fit the shawl, which is not a dress and is made of silk rather than chintz. Nor do the flowers on the shawl resemble either Michaelmas daisies or lilies.</ref>

Mitochondrial DNA expert Peter Gill said the shawl "is of dubious origin and has been handled by several people who could have shared that mitochondrial DNA profile".<ref name="australian">{{cite web|url=http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/dna-row-over-proof-aaron-kosminski-was-jack-the-ripper/story-fnb64oi6-1227051069719?nk=83f620bd8dda245bfe9de0dee836e235|title=DNA row over 'proof' Aaron Kosminski was Jack the Ripper|author =Burgess, Kaya|date=8 September 2014|work=[[The Australian]]}}</ref> The shawl or other material could have been contaminated before or while DNA was being tested;<ref>{{Cite journal|url=http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2014/09/jack_the_ripper_dna_evidence_was_aaron_kosminski_really_the_serial_killer.html|title=Did DNA Evidence Really Identify Jack the Ripper|author =Scheinman, Ted|date=11 September 2014|journal=Slate}}</ref> two of Eddowes's descendants are known to have been in the same room as the shawl for three days in 2007, and in the words of one critic, "The shawl has been openly handled by loads of people and been touched, breathed on, spat upon".<ref name="australian"/> Despite the criticisms, Louhelainen continued to defend his work.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=843XjYqhzdg|title=Millennium Talks: Jari Louhelainen and the case of Jack The Ripper|last=millenniumprize|date=11 October 2016|access-date=30 July 2018|publisher=[[YouTube]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.techly.com.au/2015/11/10/aint-got-jack-dna-expert-maintains-identified-historys-notorious-serial-killer/|title=Jack the Ripper: DNA expert maintains he has solved history's most notorious serial killer mystery|date=10 November 2015|website=Techly.com.au|access-date=30 July 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180522042012/https://www.techly.com.au/2015/11/10/aint-got-jack-dna-expert-maintains-identified-historys-notorious-serial-killer/|archive-date=22 May 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref>