Welcome back to Books With Cause. Let’s dive into my latest review. In this second part of my Jack the Ripper series, I review Naming Jack the Ripper — Russell Edwards’s 2015 investigation that leans heavily on modern DNA testing and confidently names Aaron Kosminski as the killer. How strong is his case, and does it bring us closer to a definitive answer?
After my previous review where I looked at Patricia Cornwell’s offering on the Jack the Ripper case, this book is a more recent one. This one was published in 2015, and this book is part of a much wider theory that has been commonly accepted by the Ripper community. Initially I was going to attempt to complete this article without naming the suspect but seeing as they’re literally named on the back cover of the book, I suppose it doesn’t count as a spoiler. Edwards, among others believes with 99.9% certainty that Jack the Ripper was Aaron Kosminski.
This story begins with a shawl going up for auction. The shawl was believed to have been retrieved from the scene of the Catherine Eddowes murder (the fourth of the canonical five Ripper victims). The shawl has been preserved since then and still has blood splatters (as well as other stains on it). The author of this book, Russell Edwards successfully buys this shawl and the rest of the book covers his journey into having it DNA tested as well as following his own trail of research through information that is available about the crimes and eye-witness testimonies.
Before the shawl went up for auction, it spent a great deal of time in the Scotland Yard Training Museum, which is also known to some as the Black Museum. Over the years it has housed numerous artefacts from some of the most notorious crimes in British history. As part of his research, Edwards contacted the curator of the museum to ask about the genuineness of the shawl. The curator couldn’t say either way, but did drop quite the bombshell when he claimed that Scotland Yard have always know the identity of Jack the Ripper but there are reasons the name has never been confirmed to the public. Reasons that are explored in this book.
Simply owning the shawl opens up a lot of doors for Edwards. Other Ripperologists reach out to him and he’s even approached by a production company who want to test the shawl against a different Ripper suspect. Despite the results being inconclusive (as Edwards expected), it does lead to him meeting Dr Jari Louhelainen a molecular biologist who works at Liverpool John Moores University and shares an interest in using science to conclusively prove the identity of Jack the Ripper.
Like all good books, at its core this one is about a people. We learn about the lives of the Ripper victims. There are the canonical five: Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and Mary Jane Kelly. Edwards presents his theory that Martha Tabram might actually be the first victim. Almost like a practice run, if you will. Not an original theory but I can see the argument. But we also learn a lot about Edwards’ own life. How he met his wife and their initial struggles to conceive children. Near the end of the book, we’re presented with quite the revelation as to why Edwards thinks he has such a connection to the Ripper case.
The few days I spent reading this book are nothing compared to many years of their lives Edwards and Louhelainen gave to this case. Particularly as Louhelainen was carrying out all the DNA research around his day to day work. I’m not going to pretend I am scientific minded by any stretch of the imagination. So while the findings of Louhelainen’s testing is explained in explicit detail, I can’t say I entirely understand it. The long and short of it is they compared the DNA found on the shawl with that of DNA offered by a living descendent of Catherine Eddowes and a living descendent of Aaron Kosminski and they believe they have a 99% match.
There will always be some people who have their doubts and the fact is we may never know for absolute certainty. I can say that I for one am convinced and I think this is the closest we’ll ever come to knowing for sure the identity of Jack the Ripper.
My Goodreads rating: ★★★★☆ (4 stars)
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