Jack the Ripper unmasked

[Caliga]

The conclusion that it was the Pole doesn't seem airtight in the least.  Color me skeptical.

How so? The  victim's blood is on the shawl and so is a man's semen. DNA matches the Pole.

Well she was a hooker.  Maybe he took her to pound town at some time before her murder?

[Caliga]

Also, the tests and stuff could be fake.  A while back a diary was 'discovered' by some dude named Maybrick where he confessed to being the Ripper but it turned out to have been a fabrication.

[Malthus]

Hasn't the Ripper been unmasked by DNA evidence before?

"Cornwell found her most tangible support from a modern investigative technique: DNA testing. She visited Scotland Yard and examined several hundred documents and letters supposedly written by Jack the Ripper. Cornwell and Ripperologists are aware that most (if not all) of these letters were written by people other than the murderer. Letters from people claiming to be Jack the Ripper were sent to Scotland Yard into the 1960s, in fact. (Sickert, incidentally, died in 1942.) Some of the earliest letter forgers -- two of whom were women -- were arrested around the time of the murders [source: Ryder].

When the DNA test results were returned to Cornwell, she found a match. She had results from Ripper letters compared to samples taken from some of Sickert's known correspondence. She found a match among mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) that ruled out 99 percent of the human population, but not Sickert [source: SPT]. Mitochondrial DNA doesn't degrade as easily as nuclear DNA. This is significant, considering the Ripper letters that provided matches had been written a century before."

http://history.howstuffworks.com/history-vs-myth/jack-the-ripper-artist1.htm

Of course, the last time he was unmasked by DNA, it was a different guy ... 

[Caliga]

Oh yeah, I forgot about that.  The Sickert theory is preposterous.  IIRC he was living in France when most of the murders occurred.

[The Brain]

DNA didn't exist in the 19th century.

[Tamas]

I am SHOCKED that trying to ride on the latest craze of East Europeans fear mongering in the UK, somebody would dust this off. SHOCKED.

I bet the common cold came here from Eastern Europe as well.

[mongers]

I am SHOCKED that trying to ride on the latest craze of East Europeans fear mongering in the UK, somebody would dust this off. SHOCKED.

I bet the common cold came here from Eastern Europe as well.

I did no such thing. 

[Martinus]

Eastern European Jews are murderers. Film at 11.

You-know-who was right after all. 

[Martinus]

Bloody Poles, coming over here, taking our jobs and benefits, murdering our prostitutes...

Wouldn't murdering prostitutes improve the job market? At least if Ide is right... 

[Siege]

I withdraw my vote to reinstate Martinus.

[Sheilbh]

I am SHOCKED that trying to ride on the latest craze of East Europeans fear mongering in the UK, somebody would dust this off. SHOCKED.

I bet the common cold came here from Eastern Europe as well.

In fairness the guy wasn't Romanian

[Caliga]

Here's some music to listen to in another tab while reading about this.

http://youtu.be/coLvuP7hQCA

[Caliga]

Last I checked this claim was getting torn up left and right by Ripperologists.  Not surprising, since those guys no longer have steady income if the mystery gets solved.... and let's face it, it'll stop being so interesting if they mystery is ever solved.

All of the principal players in the Jack the Ripper drama are long dead, including the Ripper himself (herself?), so I'm not sure what the main motivation would be in solving this crime now other than bragging rights/book sales for the person who ends up solving it.

[mongers]

Last I checked this claim was getting torn up left and right by Ripperologists.  Not surprising, since those guys no longer have steady income if the mystery gets solved.... and let's face it, it'll stop being so interesting if they mystery is ever solved.

All of the principal players in the Jack the Ripper drama are long dead, including the Ripper himself (herself?), so I'm not sure what the main motivation would be in solving this crime now other than bragging rights/book sales for the person who ends up solving it.

So you're saying Jack the Ripper was a frustrated publisher of pulp?

[Valmy]

so I'm not sure what the main motivation would be in solving this crime now other than bragging rights/book sales for the person who ends up solving it.

To demonstrate the danger of allowing Poles to live in London.