Naming Jack the Ripper

341 Pages·2014·7.022 MB·English

by  Russell Edwards

Bringing together ground-breaking
forensic discoveries – including vital
A
u
th DNA evidence – and gripping historical
o
r
p detective work, Naming Jack the Ripper
h
o
to constructs the first truly convincing case
g When I got back to the lab at 4.30 p.m. Jari told me that in
r
a
p for identifying the world’s most
h
© his opinion the shawl held bloodstains that were ‘consistent
T notorious serial killer.
B
C with arterial blood spatter caused by slashing’. He said the
Russell Edwards is an entrepreneur distribution of the stains was key to this finding of ‘slashing’: In 2007, businessman Russell Edwards
who has been involved in property bought a shawl believed to have been
his experience working with crime enforcement agencies and
speculation and investment for over left beside the body of fourth victim,
training crime scene investigators meant he recognized
twenty-five years. He is also studying Catherine Eddowes. He knew that,
for an MA in Psychotherapy and the pattern. The white spots that I, in my ignorance, had if genuine, the shawl would be the
Counselling. Russell has long been only piece of crime scene evidence
put down to the ageing process were in fact blood spatter.
fascinated by the East End of still in existence. It was the start of an
He explained to me that the pattern is consistent with
London and by the crimes of Jack extraordinary seven-year quest for
medium-velocity blood spatter, coming from an angle that
the Ripper. He lives in Hertfordshire Russell, as he sought to authenticate
with his wife and children. shows the blood was not just dropped on the shawl. Spatter the shawl and learn its secrets. He had
no idea this journey would take him so far.
like this is often involved with beating or stabbing . . .
After undergoing extensive forensic testing
by one of the country’s top scientists,
the shawl was not only shown to be genuine,
stained with Catherine Eddowes’ blood,
but in a massive breakthrough the killer’s
DNA was also discovered – DNA that
would allow Russell to finally put a name
to Jack the Ripper . . .
www.panmacmillan.com
£16.99
NON-FICTION
Cover image: © TBC CDN $32.99
Bringing together ground-breaking
forensic discoveries – including vital
A
u
th DNA evidence – and gripping historical
o
r
p detective work, Naming Jack the Ripper
h
o
to constructs the first truly convincing case
g When I got back to the lab at 4.30 p.m. Jari told me that in
r
a
p for identifying the world’s most
h
© his opinion the shawl held bloodstains that were ‘consistent
T notorious serial killer.
B
C with arterial blood spatter caused by slashing’. He said the
Russell Edwards is an entrepreneur distribution of the stains was key to this finding of ‘slashing’: In 2007, businessman Russell Edwards
who has been involved in property bought a shawl believed to have been
his experience working with crime enforcement agencies and
speculation and investment for over left beside the body of fourth victim,
training crime scene investigators meant he recognized
twenty-five years. He is also studying Catherine Eddowes. He knew that,
for an MA in Psychotherapy and the pattern. The white spots that I, in my ignorance, had if genuine, the shawl would be the
Counselling. Russell has long been only piece of crime scene evidence
put down to the ageing process were in fact blood spatter.
fascinated by the East End of still in existence. It was the start of an
He explained to me that the pattern is consistent with
London and by the crimes of Jack extraordinary seven-year quest for
medium-velocity blood spatter, coming from an angle that
the Ripper. He lives in Hertfordshire Russell, as he sought to authenticate
with his wife and children. shows the blood was not just dropped on the shawl. Spatter the shawl and learn its secrets. He had
no idea this journey would take him so far.
like this is often involved with beating or stabbing . . .
After undergoing extensive forensic testing
by one of the country’s top scientists,
the shawl was not only shown to be genuine,
stained with Catherine Eddowes’ blood,
but in a massive breakthrough the killer’s
DNA was also discovered – DNA that
would allow Russell to finally put a name
to Jack the Ripper . . .
www.panmacmillan.com
£16.99
NON-FICTION
Cover image: © TBC CDN $32.99
NAMING
JACK THE
RIPPER
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NAMING
JACK THE
RIPPER
New crime scene evidence
A stunning forensic breakthrough
The killer revealed
RUSSELL EDWARDS
Lyons Press
Guilford, Connecticut
Helena, Montana
An imprint of Rowman & Littlefield
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First published 2014 by Sidgwick & Jackson
an imprint of Pan Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
Pan Macmillan, 20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR
Basingstoke and Oxford
First Lyons Press edition, 2014
Lyons Press is an imprint of Rowman & Littlefield
Distributed by NATIONAL BOOK NETWORK
Copyright © 2014 by Russell Edwards
The picture acknowledgements on page 298 constitute an extension of this copyright page.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any
means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information
storage and retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted in writing from the publisher.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Information available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available
ISBN 978-1-4930-1190-2 (hardcover)
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National
Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/
NISO Z39.48-1992.
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For Sally,
Alexander and Annabel
* * * *
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CONTENTS
Introduction 1
1 From Birkenhead to Brick Lane 11
2 A Murderer Strikes in Whitechapel 24
3 A Nameless Midnight Terror – The Deaths of
Mary Ann Nichols and Annie Chapman 48
4 A Murderer Interrupted – The Death of
Elizabeth Stride 67
5 From Hell – The Death of Catherine Eddowes 84
6 Murder Most Ghastly – The Death of
Mary Jane Kelly 108
7 The History of the Shawl 124
8 Finding Human Blood 155
9 Finding DNA 178
10 Narrowing Down the Suspects 208
11 Who Was Aaron Kosminski? 235
12 Catching the Ripper 269
Conclusion 291
Acknowledgements 297
Appendix 299
Index 305
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