Jack the Ripper breakthrough as DNA 'finally unmasks serial killer'

x0x7@lemmy.world to News@lemmy.world – 62 points –
Jack the Ripper breakthrough as DNA 'finally unmasks serial killer'
express.co.uk
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The DNA match that the author claims is very suspect. Here is a good article about why. The bullet points are:

Shawl: There was no contemporary documentation that the shawl was recovered from the crime scene

There was no contemporary documentation that the Inspector that supposedly took the shawl and gifted it to his wife was at the crime scene

The shawl was silk and had an expensive design making it unlikely that Eddowes would have owned it

DNA: The DNA collected and compared was mitochondrial DNA which is far less unique than nuclear DNA, mitochondrial DNA is generally considered exclusory rather than inclusory

The shawl was not kept free from contamination, descendents of both the identified victim and the identified suspect are known to have handled the shawl prior to testing

On top of the problematic DNA match from his last book the author is now layering on conspiracy theories concerning Freemasons and antisemitism for his new book to draw even more questionable conclusions.

Edited to fix link and spelling

I'm sorry, do you mean shawl? I've been having a hard time reading and understanding things lately, so I tried Googling "shaw" and found a bunch of people named that which is extra confusing in this context

Yes, I edited my comment to fix the spelling. Thanks for letting me know about the error.

Thank you for editing. It is a good comment, sorry I got a little lost on my way through it

They meant "shawl" all 6 or so times they said "shaw", yes.

No matter how much evidence and proof you have, half the people will say it wasn't him. Especially historians who are dead set on a different suspect

Reading other sources, I doubt this claim as well.