View source for Aaron Kosminski

{{short description|Polish barber and Jack the Ripper suspect}}
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{{Use British English|date=September 2023}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2021}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Aaron Kosminski
| birth_name         = Aron Mordke Kozmiński
| birth_date         = {{Birth date|1865|09|11|df=yes}}<ref>{{cite web | url=http://poznan.ap.gov.pl/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=412%3Ametryka-urodze-kuby-rozpruwacza-aarona-mordki-komiskiego-w-zasobie-archiwum-pastwowego-w-poznaniu-oddzia-w-koninie&catid=1%3Alatest-news | title=Akt urodzenia Aarona Mordki Kuźmińskiego |trans-title=Birth certificate of Aaron Mordke Kuźmiński | publisher=Archiwum Państwowe w Poznaniu | date=15 September 2014 | access-date=15 September 2014}}</ref>
| birth_place        = [[Kłodawa]], [[Congress Poland]], [[Russian Empire]]
| death_date         = {{Death date and age|1919|03|24|1865|09|11|df=yes}}
| death_place        = [[Leavesden Hospital]], [[Hertfordshire]], [[England]]
| death_cause        = 
| resting_place      = 
| other_names        = 
| occupation         = Hairdresser
| nationality        = [[Polish people|Polish]]
| known_for          = [[Jack the Ripper]] suspect
| parents            = <!--Do not include parents unless notable.-->
}}
{{Jack the Ripper series}}

'''Aaron Kosminski''' (born '''Aron Mordke Kozmiński'''; 11 September 1865 – 24 March 1919) was a Polish hairdresser who is a [[Jack the Ripper suspects|suspect]] in the [[Jack the Ripper]] murders of 1888.

Kosminski was a [[Polish Jew]] who emigrated from [[Congress Poland]] to England in the 1880s. He worked as a hairdresser in [[Whitechapel]] in the [[East End of London]], where [[Whitechapel murders|a series of murders]] ascribed to an unidentified person nicknamed "Jack the Ripper" were committed in 1888. Beginning in 1891, Kosminski was institutionalised after he threatened his sister with a knife. He was first held at [[Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum]] and then transferred to the [[Leavesden Hospital|Leavesden Asylum]].

Police officials from the time of the murders named one of their suspects as "Kosminski" (the forename was not given) and described him as a Polish Jew in an insane asylum. Almost a century after the final murder, the suspect "Kosminski" was identified as Aaron Kosminski. Still, there was little evidence to connect him with the "Kosminski" who was suspected of the murders, and their dates of death were different. Possibly, Kosminski was confused with another Polish Jew of the same age named Aaron or David Cohen (real name possibly Nathan Kaminsky), who was a violent patient at the Colney Hatch Asylum.

In September 2014, author Russell Edwards claimed in the book ''Naming Jack the Ripper'' to have proved Kosminski's guilt. In 2007, he bought a shawl which he believed to have been left at a murder scene and gave it to biochemist Jari Louhelainen to test for DNA.<ref>{{cite news |work=Science Magazine |title=Does a new genetic analysis finally reveal the identity of Jack the Ripper? |url=https://www.science.org/content/article/does-new-genetic-analysis-finally-reveal-identity-jack-ripper |access-date=21 November 2020}}</ref> A peer-reviewed article on the DNA analysis was published in the ''[[Journal of Forensic Sciences]]'' in 2019.<ref name="Louhelainen&Miller">{{cite journal|last1=Louhelainen|first1=Jari|last2=Miller|first2=David|date=12 March 2019|title=Forensic Investigation of a Shawl Linked to the "Jack the Ripper" Murders|journal=[[Journal of Forensic Sciences]]|volume=65|issue=1|pages=295–303|doi=10.1111/1556-4029.14038|pmid=30859587|doi-access=free}}{{Expression of Concern|doi=10.1111/1556-4029.15595|pmid=39132924|intentional=yes}}</ref> Scientists from [[Innsbruck Medical University]] criticised the paper and its conclusions, substantiating that there were mistakes and (mis)assumptions made by its authors,<ref name="Science 2019">{{cite web | title= Does a new genetic analysis finally reveal the identity of Jack the Ripper?|url= https://www.science.org/content/article/does-new-genetic-analysis-finally-reveal-identity-jack-ripper | last= Adam| first= David| date= 15 March 2019 | website= [[Science (journal)|Science]] | access-date= 19 March 2019}}</ref><ref name="WEIT">{{cite web | title= Adam Rutherford calls the Jack the Ripper identification "a joke"|url= https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2019/03/19/adam-rutherford-calls-the-jack-the-ripper-identification-a-joke/ | last= Coyne| first= Jerry| author-link= Jerry Coyne| date= 19 March 2019 | website= Why Evolution Is True blog| access-date= 19 March 2019 }}</ref> and the journal printed an [[expression of concern]].<ref name=EoC>{{cite journal|doi=10.1111/1556-4029.15595|pmid=39132924|journal=Journal of Forensic Sciences|title=Expression of Concern|date=2024 |volume=69 |issue=5 |page=1938 }}</ref>

== Life ==
[[File:Housing, Friern Barnet Road, London N11 - geograph.org.uk - 901219.jpg|thumb|left|[[Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum]], North London. Kosminski was an inmate from 1891 to 1894.]]
Aaron Kosminski was born in [[Kłodawa]] in [[Congress Poland]], then part of the [[Russian Empire]]. His parents were Abram Józef Kozmiński, a tailor, and his wife Golda née Lubnowska.<ref name=house1>{{cite magazine|first=Robert|last=House|url=https://www.casebook.org/dissertations/rip-housekoz.html|title=The Kozminski File|magazine=Ripperologist|publisher=Mango Books|location=New York City|date=March 2006|access-date=21 March 2019|via=Casebook.org}}</ref> He may have been employed in a hospital as a hairdresser or orderly for a time.<ref>This is based on a statement by George R. Sims that a police suspect "had at one time been employed in a hospital in Poland" (in ''Lloyd's Weekly News'', 22 September 1907; see [https://www.casebook.org/images/sims922.gif copy at Casebook]).</ref> Kosminski emigrated from Poland to England, arriving in or around 1881.<ref>The record of his burial in March 1919 stated that he had been in England for 37 years (Begg, ''Jack the Ripper: The Facts'', p. 506, note 52 (2006)).</ref> He probably accompanied his brother Woolf and his sister Matilda and brother-in-law Morris Lubnowski, who arrived in London in June 1881 (Woolf having married at Klodawa in May 1881, and the Lubnowskis having lived in Germany in the late 1870s).<ref>House, p. 33. The arrival of both Woolf and Morris in June is recorded in their later applications for naturalisation. Note that Aaron's brothers adopted the surname Abrahams in England, and because Woolf's wife Betsy was also a Kozminski it was wrongly assumed by earlier researchers that she was Aaron's brother and Woolf was Aaron's brother-in-law.</ref> Woolf and Aaron may have left Poland as a result of the April 1881 pogroms following the assassination of Tsar Alexander II, the impetus for many other Jews to emigrate. His mother, who was listed as a widow, apparently did not emigrate with the family immediately, but had joined them by 1894.<ref>House, p. 195.</ref> His father died in 1874.<ref>House, pp. 32, 33.</ref>

In London, the family settled in [[Whitechapel]], an impoverished slum in London's East End that had become home to many Jewish refugees who were fleeing economic hardship in Eastern Europe and pogroms in Tsarist Russia.<ref name=house1/> English records describe him as a hairdresser, but he may have worked only sporadically: it was reported that he had "not attempted any kind of work for years" by 1891. He presumably relied on his siblings for financial support, and is known to have lived with his brother Woolf at 3 Sion Square in 1890 and his sister Matilda at 16 Greenfield Street in 1891, indicating that his siblings possibly shared responsibility for caring for him and he alternated living between their family homes.<ref name=casebook>{{cite web|first=Robert|last=House|url=http://www.casebook.org/dissertations/robhouse-kosminski.html|title=Casebook: Jack the Ripper – Aaron Kosminski Reconsidered|website=casebook.org|access-date=30 July 2018}}</ref>

On 14 December 1889 Aaron was fined 10 shillings at the City of London Summons Court for having a dog unmuzzled in Cheapside. He was also accused of having given the police a false name and address. Apparently he had given his name as Abrahams rather than Kosminski, and in court he explained that "I goes by the name of Abrahams sometimes, because Kosmunski [sic] is hard to spell", and called his brother as a witness to confirm this. According to one report, he refused to pay the fine on Saturday because it was the Sabbath, and was given until Monday to pay.<ref>''Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper'', 15 December 1889; ''Times'', 16 December 1889; ''City Press'', 18 December 1889.</ref>

On 12 July 1890, Kosminski was placed in [[Mile End]] Old Town [[workhouse]] due to his worsening mental illness, with his brother Woolf certifying the entry, and was released three days later. On 4 February 1891, he was returned to the workhouse, possibly by the police, and on 7 February, he was transferred to [[Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum]]. A witness to the certification of his entry, recorded as Jacob Cohen, gave some basic background information and stated that Kosminski had threatened his sister with a knife. It is unclear whether this meant Kosminski's sister or Cohen's.<ref name="casebook"/> Kosminski remained at the Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum for the next three years until he was admitted on 19 April 1894 to [[Leavesden Hospital|Leavesden Asylum]].<ref>Colney Hatch Register of Admissions, quoted in Begg, pp. 269–270</ref><ref name=lekh/> Case notes indicate that Kosminski had been ill since at least 1885. His insanity took the form of auditory hallucinations, a paranoid fear of being fed by other people that drove him to pick up and eat food dropped as litter, and a refusal to wash or bathe.<ref>Asylum case notes quoted by Begg, p. 270; Fido, p. 216 and Rumbelow, p. 180</ref> The cause of his insanity was recorded as "self-abuse", which is thought to be a euphemism for masturbation.<ref name=lekh>{{cite journal|vauthors=Lekh SK, Langa A, Begg P, Puri BK |title=The case of Aaron Kosminski: was he Jack the Ripper?|journal=Psychiatric Bulletin|volume=16|date=1992|issue=12|pages=786–788 |doi=10.1192/pb.16.12.786|doi-access=free}}</ref> His poor diet seems to have kept him in an emaciated state for years; his low weight was recorded in the asylum case notes.<ref name=lekh/> By February 1919, he weighed just {{convert|96|lb|kg}}. He died the following month, aged 53.<ref name=lekh/>

== Jack the Ripper suspect ==
{{main|Jack the Ripper suspects}}
[[File:Macnaghten memorandum.JPG|thumb|right|The 1894 memorandum written by Sir [[Melville Macnaghten]], Assistant [[Chief Constable]] of the London [[Metropolitan Police]], naming "Kosminski" as one of three suspects in the Jack the Ripper case. The other two suspects he named were [[Montague Druitt]] and [[Michael Ostrog]].]]

Between 1888 and 1891, the deaths of 11 women in or around the [[Whitechapel]] district of the [[East End of London]] were linked in a single police investigation known as the "[[Whitechapel murders]]". Seven of the victims suffered a slash to the throat, and in four cases the bodies were mutilated after death. Five of the cases, between August and November 1888, show such marked similarities that they are generally agreed to be the work of a single [[serial killer]], known as "[[Jack the Ripper]]". Despite an extensive police investigation, the Ripper was never identified and the crimes remained unsolved. Years after the end of the murders, documents were discovered that revealed the suspicions of police officials against a man referred to as "Kosminski".<ref>Begg, ''Jack the Ripper: The Facts'', p. 345 (2006)</ref>

An 1894 memorandum written by Sir [[Melville Macnaghten]], the Assistant [[Chief Constable]] of the London [[Metropolitan Police]], names one of the suspects as a Polish Jew called "Kosminski" (without a forename). Macnaghten's memo was discovered in the private papers of his daughter, [[Henry McLaren, 2nd Baron Aberconway#Family|Lady Aberconway]], by television journalist [[Dan Farson]] in 1959,<ref>Woods and Baddeley, p. 125</ref> and an abridged version from the archives of the Metropolitan Police was released to the public in the 1970s.<ref name=lekh/> Macnaghten stated that there were strong reasons for suspecting "Kosminski" because he "had a great hatred of women&nbsp;... with strong homicidal tendencies".<ref name=macn>Macnaghten's notes quoted by Evans and Skinner, pp. 584–587; Fido, p. 147 and Rumbelow, p. 142</ref>

In 1910, [[Assistant Commissioner]] Sir [[Robert Anderson (police official)|Robert Anderson]] claimed in his memoirs ''The Lighter Side of My Official Life''<ref name="Anderson-Lighter">{{cite book |last1=Anderson |first1=Robert |author1-link=Robert Anderson (Scotland Yard official) |title=The Lighter Side of My Official Life |date=1910 |publisher=Hodder and Stoughton |url=http://www.casebook.org/ripper_media/rps.lighterside.html |access-date=26 August 2022 |language=en |quote= full text}}</ref> that the Ripper was a "low-class Polish Jew".<ref name=anderson>Quoted in Begg, p. 266; Evans and Rumbelow, p. 236 and Evans and Skinner, pp. 626–633</ref> Chief Inspector [[Donald Swanson]], who led the Ripper investigation, named the man as "Kosminski" in notes handwritten in the margin of his presentation copy of Anderson's memoirs.<ref>Begg, p. 269; Evans and Rumbelow, p. 243; Evans and Skinner, p. 635; Rumbelow, p. 179</ref> He added that "Kosminski" had been watched at his brother's home in Whitechapel by the police, that he was taken with his hands tied behind his back to the workhouse and then to Colney Hatch Asylum, and that he died shortly after.<ref>Begg, p. 269; Evans and Rumbelow, p. 253; Evans and Skinner, p. 635; Rumbelow, p. 179</ref> The copy of Anderson's memoirs containing the handwritten notes by Swanson was donated by his descendants to [[New Scotland Yard]]'s [[Crime Museum]] in 2006.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/5173314.stm|title=Ripper case notes given to museum|website=[[BBC News]]|date=13 July 2006|access-date=20 January 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|first=Stewart|last=Tendler|url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,29389-2269526,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080905182012/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,29389-2269526,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=5 September 2008|title=Official: Jack the Ripper identified|newspaper=[[The Times]]|date=14 July 2006|access-date=20 January 2010}}</ref>

In 1987, Ripper author [[Martin Fido]] searched asylum records for any inmates called Kosminski, and found only one: Aaron Kosminski.<ref>Begg, p. 269; Fido, p. 215</ref> At the time of the murders, Aaron apparently lived either on Providence Street or Greenfield Street, both of which are close to the sites of the murders.<ref>Pat Marshall and Chris Phillips, "New Light on Aaron Kozminski", ''Ripperologist'' no 128, pp. 59-69 (October 2012).</ref> The addresses given in the asylum records are in Mile End Old Town, just on the edge of Whitechapel.<ref>Begg, pp. 269–270</ref> The description of Aaron Kosminski's symptoms in the case notes indicates that he had [[paranoid schizophrenia]].<ref name=lekh/> Macnaghten's notes say that "Kosminski" indulged in "solitary vices",<ref name=macn/> and in his memoirs Anderson wrote of his suspect's "unmentionable vices",<ref>Fido, p. 170</ref> both of which may match the claim in the case notes that Aaron Kosminski committed "self-abuse".<ref>e.g. Fido, p. 229</ref> Swanson's notes match the known details of Aaron Kosminski's life in that he reported that the suspect went to the workhouse and then to Colney Hatch,<ref>Begg, p. 273</ref> but the last detail about his early death does not match Aaron Kosminski, who lived until 1919 (see [[#Kosminski and "David Cohen"|below]]).<ref name="w&r109">Whitehead and Rivett, p. 109</ref>

Anderson claimed that the Ripper had been identified by the "only person who had ever had a good view of the murderer", but that no prosecution was possible because both the witness and the culprit were Jews and Jews were not willing to offer testimony against fellow Jews.<ref name=anderson/> Swanson's notes state that "Kosminski" was identified at "the Seaside Home". It has been suggested{{by whom|date=February 2025}} that this was the [[Police Convalescent Home]] in [[Hove]] near [[Brighton]], though other possibilities{{vague|date=February 2025}} have been proposed. Some authors express scepticism that this identification ever happened, while others use it as evidence for their theories. For example, [[Donald Rumbelow]] thought the story unlikely,<ref>Evans and Rumbelow, pp. 249–253; Rumbelow, p. 182</ref> but fellow Ripper authors [[Martin Fido]] and Paul Begg thought there was another witness, perhaps [[Israel Schwartz]],<ref>Begg, p. 276</ref> [[Joseph Lawende]], or a policeman.<ref>Fido, pp. 77, 152, 207</ref> In his memorandum, however, Macnaghten stated that "no-one ever saw the Whitechapel murderer", which directly contradicts Anderson's and Swanson's recollection.<ref>Evans and Rumbelow, p. 255</ref> [[Henry Smith (police official)|Sir Henry Smith]], Acting Commissioner of the [[City of London Police]] at the time of the murders, scathingly dismissed Anderson's claim that Jews would not testify against one another in his own memoirs written later in the same year, calling it a "reckless accusation" against Jews.<ref>Wilson and Odell, p. 78</ref> [[Edmund Reid]], the initial inspector in charge of the investigation, also challenged Anderson's opinion.<ref>Interview with Reid in the ''Morning Advertiser'', 23 April 1910, quoted in Cook, p. 178</ref> There is no record of Aaron Kosminski in any surviving official police documents except Macnaghten's memo.<ref>Evans and Skinner, pp. 262, 604</ref>

In Kosminski's defence, he was described as harmless<!--ref>Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum, Male Patient Casebook, 1890-1, GLRO H12/CH/B13/39</ref--> in the asylum. He had originally been taken into custody for threatening either his sister or the sister of a witness to his admittance with a knife, and brandished a chair at an asylum attendant in January 1892, but these two incidents are the only known indications of violent behaviour.<ref>Fido, p. 228; Rumbelow, p. 182; Whitehead and Rivett, p. 108</ref> In the asylum, Kosminski preferred to speak his native language, [[Yiddish language|Yiddish]], which indicates that his English may have been poor, and that he was unable to persuade English-speaking victims into dark alleyways, as the Ripper was supposed to do.<ref>Marriott, pp. 237, 240</ref> However, the "canonical five" killings that are most frequently blamed on the Ripper concluded in 1888; Kosminski's movements were not restricted until 1891.<ref>Whitehead and Rivett, p. 108</ref>

== DNA evidence claims ==
=== 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>

=== 2019 Louhelainen study ===
Louhelainen's 2014 findings were criticised as they had not been subject to [[peer review]] by other scientists or investigators.<ref name="independent"/><ref name="Us">{{cite news|url=http://usvsth3m.com/post/96977532433/are-you-jack-the-ripper-no-and-neithers-aaron |title=Are YOU Jack The Ripper? No. And neither's Aaron Kosminski |work=Us Vs Th3m |location=London |date=8 September 2014 |access-date=8 September 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140909004636/http://usvsth3m.com/post/96977532433/are-you-jack-the-ripper-no-and-neithers-aaron |archive-date=9 September 2014 }}</ref> In March 2019, the ''[[Journal of Forensic Sciences]]'' published a study analysing the mitochondrial DNA from cells extracted from a shawl claimed to have been found near the body of victim Catherine Eddowes, as well as samples from maternal relations of the victim and suspect (Kosminski). This study, conducted by scientists at [[Liverpool John Moores University]] and the [[University of Leeds]], stated in its conclusion that "the presence of mtDNA on the shawl matches the female victim's mtDNA derived from stains on it and that mtDNA also on the shawl matches the suspect candidate's mtDNA"; however, Figure 7 of the same paper shows two differences between the suspect candidate's mtDNA sequence and the sequence obtained from the shawl, and in their conclusion the authors state, "According to the SWGDAM 2013 guidelines, if samples have two or more nucleotide position differences, they can be excluded as coming from the same source or maternal lineage, except when [[heteroplasmy]] is encountered." There is no suggestion that heteroplasmy is present.<ref name="Louhelainen&Miller"/> The journal later printed an [[expression of concern]] after the study was criticised and the authors were unable to produce the original data.<ref name=EoC/> 

Russell Edwards tried unsuccessfully to get permission to exhume Aaron Kosminski's body in 2012, before the publication of his book, and again in 2016. He then applied unsuccessfully for a new inquest to be held on Catherine Eddowes in 2019 and again in 2021.<ref>Russell Edwards, ''Naming Jack the Ripper: The Definitive Reveal'', pp. 270-272, 297-314, 327, 354 (2024, revised edition).</ref> In 2025 it was reported that Edwards and his legal team were seeking a new inquest for a third time.<ref>{{cite news |last=Harris |first=Chris |date= February 15, 2025 |title= Jack the Ripper's identity revealed after DNA breakthrough, historian says |url= https://nypost.com/2025/02/15/world-news/jack-the-rippers-identity-revealed-after-dna-breakthrough-historian/ |work= [[New York Post]] |access-date= 2025-02-15}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Soriano |first1=Ashley |first2=Ashleigh |last2=Banfield|date= February 15, 2025 |title= Historian who discovered Jack The Ripper's real identity says '100% him' |url= https://www.newsnationnow.com/crime/jack-the-ripper-real-identity-discovered-historian-claims/ |work= [[NewsNation]] |access-date= 2025-02-15}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |author=<!-- not stated --> |date= 2025-02-01 |title= Jack the Ripper identified after DNA breakthrough - Today Show Australia |url= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFI-AH2GxiM |work= [[Nine Network]] |access-date=2025-02-15}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |author=<!-- not stated --> |date= 2025-02-14 |title= Historian who identified Jack the Ripper: 'It's 100% him' - Banfield |url= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWOYNMQj888|work= [[NewsNation]] |access-date=2025-02-15}}</ref> This aim has been supported by living descendants of Catherine Eddowes and one relation of Aaron Kosminski.<ref>{{cite news |last=Wilkinson|first=Joseph |date= February 13, 2025 |title= Jack the Ripper victim's family demands investigation after alleged DNA ID of killer |url= https://www.yahoo.com/news/jack-ripper-victim-family-demands-011900940.html |work= [[Yahoo]] |access-date= 2025-02-15}}</ref>

== Kosminski and "David Cohen" ==
[[File:Wanted poster.jpg|thumb|alt=Ghastly murder in the East End. Dreadful mutilation of a woman. Capture: Leather Apron|Newspaper [[broadsheet]] referring to the Whitechapel murderer as "Leather Apron", September 1888]]
Another Polish Jew proposed as a suspect in the Jack the Ripper murders was [[Jack the Ripper suspects#David Cohen|Aaron Davis Cohen or David Cohen]], whose incarceration at [[Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum]] roughly coincided with the end of the murders. He was committed on 12 December 1888, about one month after the murder of [[Mary Jane Kelly]] on 9 November. He was described as violently antisocial, exhibited destructive tendencies while at the asylum, and had to be restrained. He was the same age as Kosminski, and died at the asylum in October 1889.<ref>Fido, pp. 219–220</ref> Author [[Martin Fido]] suggested in his book ''The Crimes, Detection and Death of Jack the Ripper'' (1987) that the name "David Cohen" was used by the asylum as a simple name for an inmate whose true name (Kosminski or Kaminsky) was too difficult to spell or easily misunderstood.<ref>Fido, pp. 219, 231</ref> Fido identified Cohen with "Leather Apron", a Polish Jewish bootmaker blamed for the murders in local gossip, and speculated that Cohen's true identity was Nathan Kaminsky, a bootmaker living in Whitechapel who had been treated at one time for [[syphilis]]. Fido was unable to trace Kaminsky after May 1888, and records of Cohen began that December.<ref>Fido, pp. 216–219</ref> Fido suggested that police officials confused the name Kaminsky with Kosminski, resulting in the wrong man coming under suspicion.<ref name=w&r109 /> As with Kosminski, the asylum case notes say he spoke only [[Yiddish]].<ref>Fido, p. 220</ref>

The implication is that Kaminsky's syphilis was not cured in May 1888 but in remission, and he began to kill prostitutes as an act of revenge because it had affected his brain. However, Cohen's death certificate makes no mention of syphilis but gives the cause of death as "exhaustion of mania" with [[Phthisis pulmonalis|phthisis]], a then prevalent form of [[pulmonary tuberculosis]], as the secondary cause. Kaminsky might have died as an "unknown" as hundreds of people did each year in the late 19th century. That would account for Fido's inability to find a record of his death in England and Wales during the probable period of his life.<ref>Kendell, p. 80</ref>

[[Nigel Cawthorne]] dismissed Cohen as a likely suspect because in the asylum his assaults were undirected, and his behaviour was wild and uncontrolled, whereas the Ripper seemed to attack specifically and quietly.<ref>Cawthorne, Nigel (2000) "Foreword", in Knight, p. 2</ref> In contrast, former FBI criminal profiler [[John E. Douglas|John Douglas]] said in his 2000 book ''[[The Cases That Haunt Us]]'' that behavioural clues gathered from the murders all point to a person "known to the police as David Cohen&nbsp;... or someone very much like him".<ref>{{cite book|first1=John E. |last1=Douglas|author-link1=John E. Douglas|first2=Mark|last2=Olshaker|author-link2=Mark Olshaker|date=2001|title=The Cases That Haunt Us |publisher=[[Simon and Schuster]]|location=New York City|pages=79–80|isbn=978-0-7432-1239-7}}</ref>

== In popular culture ==
A [[BBC]] documentary ''Jack the Ripper: The Case Reopened'', broadcast in 2019 and presented by [[Emilia Fox]], concluded that Kosminski was the most likely suspect.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Brown |first1=Helen |title=Jack the Ripper: the Case Reopened review – not even Emilia Fox could crack this one |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2019/04/04/jack-ripper-case-reopened-review-not-even-emilia-fox-could-crack/ |access-date=14 September 2023 |work=The Telegraph |date=4 April 2019}}</ref>

A waxwork with Kosminski's likeness was created for the 2022 reopening of the [[Madame Tussauds|Madame Tussauds']] [[Chamber of Horrors (Madame Tussauds)|Chamber of Horrors]] exhibition.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.walesonline.co.uk/whats-on/whats-on-news/chamber-horrors-returns-madame-tussauds-25222631|title=The Chamber of Horrors returns to Madame Tussauds this October
|date=16 October 2022|publisher=Wales Onlin|accessdate=2023-02-17}}</ref>

== See also ==
*[[Joseph Silver]]

== References ==
'''Notes'''
{{Reflist}}
'''Sources'''
*{{cite book |last1=Anderson |first1=Robert |title=The Lighter Side of My Official Life |date=1910 |publisher=Hodder and Stoughton |url=http://www.casebook.org/ripper_media/rps.lighterside.html |access-date=26 August 2022 |language=en }}{{open access}}
* Begg, Paul (2003). ''Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History''. London: Pearson Education. {{ISBN|0-582-50631-X}}
* Cook, Andrew (2009). ''Jack the Ripper''. Stroud, Gloucestershire: Amberley Publishing. {{ISBN|978-1-84868-327-3}}
* Edwards, Russell (2014). ''Naming Jack the Ripper''. London: Sidgwick and Jackson. {{ISBN|978-1493011902}}
* Evans, Stewart P.; [[Donald Rumbelow|Rumbelow, Donald]] (2006). ''Jack the Ripper: Scotland Yard Investigates''. Stroud, Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing. {{ISBN|0-7509-4228-2}}
* Evans, Stewart P.; [[Keith Skinner|Skinner, Keith]] (2000). ''The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook: An Illustrated Encyclopedia''. London: Constable and Robinson. {{ISBN|1-84119-225-2}}
* [[Martin Fido|Fido, Martin]] (1987). ''The Crimes, Death and Detection of Jack the Ripper''. Vermont: Trafalgar Square. {{ISBN|978-0-297-79136-2}}
* House, Robert (2010). ''Jack the Ripper and the Case for Scotland Yard's Prime Suspect''. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley. {{ISBN|978-0-470-93899-7}}
* Kendell, Colin (2010). ''Jack the Ripper – The Theories and the Facts''. Stroud, Gloucestershire: Amberley. {{ISBN|978-1-4456-0084-0}}
* [[Stephen Knight (author)|Knight, Stephen]] (1976; rev. 1984; repr. 2000). ''Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution''. London: Bounty Books. {{ISBN|0-7537-0369-6}}
* Marriott, Trevor (2005). ''Jack the Ripper: The 21st Century Investigation''. London: John Blake. {{ISBN|1-84454-103-7}}
* O'Donnell, Kevin (1997). ''The Jack the Ripper Whitechapel Murders''. St Osyth, Essex: Ten Bells Publishing. {{ISBN|978-0953126903}}
* [[Donald Rumbelow|Rumbelow, Donald]] (2004). ''The Complete Jack the Ripper: Fully Revised and Updated''. Penguin Books. {{ISBN|0-14-017395-1}}
* Werner, Alex (editor) (2008). ''Jack the Ripper and the East End''. London: Chatto & Windus. {{ISBN|978-0-7011-8247-2}}
* Whitehead, Mark; Rivett, Miriam (2006). ''Jack the Ripper''. Harpenden, Hertfordshire: Pocket Essentials. {{ISBN|978-1-904048-69-5}}
* [[Colin Wilson|Wilson, Colin]]; Odell, Robin (1987) ''Jack the Ripper: Summing Up and Verdict''. Bantam Press. {{ISBN|0-593-01020-5}}
* Woods, Paul; [[Gavin Baddeley|Baddeley, Gavin]] (2009). ''Saucy Jack: The Elusive Ripper''. Hersham, Surrey: Ian Allan Publishing. {{ISBN|978-0-7110-3410-5
}}

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[[Category:1865 births]]
[[Category:1919 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century Polish Jews]]
[[Category:20th-century Polish Jews]]
[[Category:People from Koło County]]
[[Category:People from Warsaw Governorate]]
[[Category:Emigrants from Congress Poland to the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:British people of Polish-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:Jack the Ripper suspects]]
[[Category:People from Whitechapel]]
[[Category:People with schizophrenia]]
[[Category:Deaths from gangrene]]
[[Category:Barbers]]
[[Category:British people with disabilities]]
[[Category:Polish people with disabilities]]
[[Category:19th-century Polish people]]
[[Category:20th-century Polish people]]