Finding Evidence to Link a Suspect
The mtDNA testing, which traces a person's matrilineal or mother-line ancestry, confirmed Kosminski by connecting Kosminski’s semen stains on the shawl with DNA from one of Kosminski’s relatives, who Edwards referred to the relative as “M” to protect identity. Edwards also located Karen Miller, “the three times great-granddaughter of Catherine Eddowes,” and matched Miller’s DNA to that of Eddowes.
Two tests showed a 99.2% and a 100% match, and with that, Edwards feels he got the answers he was looking for.
“We’d got the evidence we needed to name Kosminski definitively as the Ripper, with his perfect match with his descendant M,” he writes in Naming Jack the Ripper. “My search is over: Aaron Kosminski is Jack the Ripper.”
Other suspects for Jack the Ripper have been considered over the decades: Montague Druitt, a barrister and teacher with an interest in surgery who disappeared after the final murders but was later found dead; Russian criminal and physician Michael Ostrog, who had been placed in an asylum because of his homicidal tendencies; Aaron Kosminski, a Polish Jewish man and Whitechapel resident who was known to have a great animus toward women and was hospitalized in an asylum several months after the last murder; and Joseph Barnett, who lived with Kelly and was sometimes called "Jack." James Maybrick admitted to the killings in a diary but later called it a “hoax.”
The Accuracy of mtDNA
Dr. Connie Bormansa works with mtDNA testing regularly as the Chief Scientific Officer at forensic DNA testing company RGEN Inc. “mtDNA is the easiest DNA to work with when you have low amounts and degraded, because it’s different than nuclear DNA,” she tells A&E Crime + Investigation. “Those tests are accurate to third, fourth cousins. So if you have two DNA profiles, you can tell if they're related, even very distantly, but you have to remember that the original sample is very, very old.”
However, she also calls mtDNA testing “one of the least informative.”
“It's used in conjunction or alongside other types of DNA testing, and mtDNA testing itself is generally not used as an ID,” she explains. “It’s used as an exclusion.”
She says other people could have the same exact mtDNA profile as the suspect.
“Millions of people can have the same mtDNA profile,” Bormans says. “It just means that they come from a common maternal ancestor.”
Bormans questions the amount and the quality of the mtDNA from the shawl who the shawl originally belonged to, whether the shawl was contaminated with another individual’s DNA and if the shawl was actually at the crime scene. She also wonders about the STRs (DNA markers) and their interpretations. Bormans believes a peer review would be valuable to verify the procedures used, such as the vacuum technique of collecting the DNA.
“I don’t think that you could say with any accuracy or any confidence that it’s from this particular person back then,” she says.
What’s Next?
Edwards now hopes for authorities to confirm the link to Kosminski to help family members of victims feel closure and to eliminate other suspects.
In order to move forward with a linking, the attorney general in England would have to grant permission to bring an application before the High Court. Edwards says several requests have been submitted to different attorney generals over the years, but they have been unsuccessful in getting an order requiring the coroner to open a new inquest. In 2023, Michael Ellis, England's attorney general at the time, said there was not sufficient new evidence to do so.
UK Attorney General Lord Richard Hermer KC’s office did not respond to A&E Crime + Investigation’s request for comment.
Some scientists have questioned the methods used for analyzing the stains from the shawl, specifically the calculations used.
“The DNA is evidence, but it is just a piece of evidence,” Bormans says, adding that today’s crime scenes look for a 100% DNA match with suspects. “They [the authorities] still have to do a lot of other investigating and build the case around it.”
Bormans notes that if more DNA could be extracted from the scarf today, there are more recent DNA testing techniques that could be more accurate than what was used at the time of the testing. She feels the procedure and DNA analysis were correct but thinks the interpretation of the results and conclusion may not be accurate.
“It is entirely plausible that the profiles are the same, but just because the profiles are the same, doesn't mean it's those two individuals and they are closely related,” she says.
Bormans says it would be interesting to track down descendants of other suspects.
However, clinical forensic psychologist Lindsay Davis, a psychology professor at William James College and Harvard University, points out the potential side effects for victims.
“On the one hand, there can be great value to family members to get some closure on the loss of a loved one that is so horrific and unexpected,” she says. “On the other hand, you’re experiencing the trauma of dealing with a legal proceeding can sometimes render those outcomes kind of moot.”
Davis says re-opening the case could possibly expose families to unwanted media attention: “I can see the value in trying to find the truth, and that is the goal of the criminal legal system is to find the truth, but sometimes it's best to let sleeping dogs lie and I would let the victim's families be the guide on that."
Edwards' descent Miller told the Daily Mail in January 2025 that getting an inquest to legally name a killer in the Jack the Ripper case, which she believes has been "sensationalized," would mean "a lot" to her and her family.
"It has all been about him, this iconic name, but people have forgotten about the victims who did not have justice at the time," she said. "What about the real name of the person who did this? Having the real person legally named in a court which can consider all the evidence would be a form of justice for the victims."
