A researcher thinks he may have solved the mystery behind one of the most notorious serial killers of the 19th century— “Jack the Ripper.” The Ripper murdered at least five women over a four-month period in the Whitechapel neighborhood of East London in 1888. Since then, Jack the Ripper has been the subject of hundreds of works of fiction and movies. His identity has remained a mystery all these years, but now researcher Russell Edwards says he may have solved the mystery through DNA evidence obtained from one of the murder scenes.

The fourth victim of the Ripper was a woman named Catherine Eddowes. She was a poverty-stricken alcoholic and she was found on September 30, 1888, with her head nearly severed. Aside from the body, there were two other pieces of evidence at the scene. One was a silk shawl that was covered in blood and the other was a cryptic phrase scrawled in chalk near her body.

As Ms. Eddowes’ body was being taken to the morgue, an acting police sergeant stole the silk shawl to give to his wife as a macabre souvenir. Police chain-of-custody rules on evidence in those days were only slightly less secure than for mail-in ballots in the 2020 election. The shawl was kept in private hands and went up for auction in 2007.

The purchaser found the shawl to be very well preserved and it appeared to have blood and semen stains on it. The shawl was also far too expensive an item for Catherine Eddowes to have been the owner.  The design and dyes also appear to have been the same ones used in St. Petersburg at the time.

One of the eight original suspects identified by police was a Jewish immigrant from Poland named Aaron Kosminski. Poland was part of the Russian empire at the time, so researcher Russell Edwards thought it was possible the shawl could have belonged to Kosminksi. He tracked down descendants of Catherine Eddowes’ and Aaron Kosminksi’s and they agreed to submit to DNA testing.

The blood on the shawl was a DNA match for Ms. Eddowes’ family and the semen was a match for Kosminski’s family. It may not be enough for a jury conviction—especially considering the way the evidence was handled—but it is definitely compelling.

As for the cryptic statement scrawled on the wall near Ms. Eddowes’ body, it read, “The Juwes are the men that will not be blamed for nothing.” Edwards says this is another possible link to Kosminski.

A Jewish order of wealthy Freemasons in London at the time was the Lodge of Israel. “Juwes” was how the Masons spelled “Jews” in London, and Kosminski’s older brother Isaac was a member of the group. Edwards believes that the older brother’s connection to the Masons could be why police never arrested Aaron to question him, even though he was one of the main suspects. The fact that Kosminski was Jewish may have also played a role in why Scotland Yard never arrested him. They were worried about the appearance of anti-Semitism.

Edwards also posits that the murders may not have been the work of a serial killer at all, but that they might have been ritualistic Masonic killings. One of the Masonic blood oaths states, “That my left breast had been torn open and my heart and vitals taken,” which describes the way that some of the Ripper’s victims were mutilated post-mortem.

Aaron Kosminski suffered what is believed to have been a schizophrenic breakdown and attacked his sister with a knife. He was then locked up in an insane asylum and remained there until he died in 1919. That could explain why the Ripper’s murders suddenly stopped around the time of Kosminski’s commitment.