Blood on the Shawl: DNA Reveals Jack the Ripper's Identity

Welcome To The Oddity Shop, Where The Bizarre is Always on Sale.  This week, your Curator Zach, As promised has the solved tale of the Identity of Jack The Ripper

The mystery that has perplexed investigators and captivated true crime enthusiasts for over a century has finally been solved. Jack the Ripper, the shadowy figure who terrorized London's Whitechapel district in 1888, now has a name backed by science: Aaron Kosminski.

We journey through the fog-covered streets of Victorian London, where five women—Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and Mary Jane Kelly—met their brutal ends at the hands of a killer with surgical precision. 

We travel forward to the breakthrough that came when researcher Russell Edwards acquired a blood-stained shawl found near victim Catherine Eddowes. After years of forensic testing, mitochondrial DNA analysis in 2019 matched genetic material on the shawl to living descendants of Aaron Kosminski, a Polish barber who had been among the original suspects!

Reference Shout Outs: 

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_the_Ripper

• https://xaviernewswire.com/2025/02/25/ripping-up-the-truth-how-detectives-finally-found-jack-the-ripper/

• https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14234461/Descendants-Jack-Rippers-victims-DNA-breakthrough.html

• https://nypost.com/2025/02/15/world-news/jack-the-rippers-identity-revealed-after-dna-breakthrough-historian/

• https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/ripper_jack_the.shtml#:~:text=Between%20August%20and%20November%201888,took%20place%20on%2031%20August.

• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jack-the-Ripper

• https://www.history.com/topics/european-history/jack-the-ripper

• https://www.jack-the-ripper.org/kosminski.htm

Each Week at the Oddity Shop, Your Curators Kara and Zach will bring you stories from Cryptids to Conspiracies, Cults to Curiosities, Myths to Mysteries, and so much more!

JOIN US ON PATREON: Click Here!
Join the Oddity Shop on Patreon for Day Early Access to Episodes and tons of bonus content!!!

Email Us at: OddityShopPodcast@gmail.com
www.OddityShopPodcast.com
https://linktr.ee/oddityshoppodcast

The Shop's phone lines are open! Give us a call and leave a voicemail (Or two!) with your creepy personal tale/oddity, and it could be featured on a future episode!
616.320.4935

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. Affiliate programs are designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to the partner site.