A problem with the "Eddowes Shawl" DNA match

[mickreed]

We may not be 'nutters' on Casebook, GUT. But there are plenty about. Check this one from the Watford Observer site, referring to the Independent article.

It is not in anyone's interest to actually solve this case. Too many people have made too much money over the years, and will no doubt continue to do so.
I highly suspect that this announcement from 'experts' came from the publishers of the book themselves. After all, if they agreed he was right, there wouldn't be a lot of point in reading it, would there? I already know the last page and how it ends.
But now I might b interested and try to decide for myself, and to do that I have to buy the book.

[GUT]

We may not be 'nutters' on Casebook, GUT. But there are plenty about. Check this one from the Watford Observer site, referring to the Independent article.

It is not in anyone's interest to actually solve this case. Too many people have made too much money over the years, and will no doubt continue to do so.
I highly suspect that this announcement from 'experts' came from the publishers of the book themselves. After all, if they agreed he was right, there wouldn't be a lot of point in reading it, would there? I already know the last page and how it ends.
But now I might b interested and try to decide for myself, and to do that I have to buy the book.

Yep nutters on casebook and nutters at Watford Observer.

[Peter Griffith aka gryff]

Hi Richardh

It's often a hard task to separate money from fame.

I'd be interested to know how much was paid at auction for this piece of material, because the investment, if substantial, can never now be recouped unless, of course, book sales to the gullible cover the shortfall.

Regards,

Simon

Simon, according to RE's website over "1 million copies sold". If he only gets £1 of the £16.99 price he has still made a lot of money. And I assume at least some of the money he has spent is tax deductible.

cheers, gryff

[Monty]

Good to see you back on form Simon

Monty

[Hatchett]

Hi all,

Dont you all think that in order to debate this sensibly you have to cut out the rather distasteful character assisnations?

Just a thought.

[mickreed]

I think only Dr Louhelainen can tell us where that figure came from. But he shows no sign of telling us anything.

This is the remarkable thing. Almost more unbelievable than 314.1C, and perhaps T1a1.

Silence just confirms impressions of guilt.

[mickreed]

Simon, according to RE's website over "1 million copies sold". If he only gets £1 of the £16.99 price he has still made a lot of money. And I assume at least some of the money he has spent is tax deductible.

cheers, gryff

You're kidding, Gryff. Please say it's not true.

Bloody hell!

[GUT]

Just had a thought [are you scared].

Jari has said he didn't get paid for the DNA tests, has he not?

I wonder if he's on "commission" for book sales, he sure seems to be putting in a lot of appearances, or has all the attention gone to his head. From a relative unknown to BBC and CNN and talk of documentaries and movies.

[Henry Flower]

Simon:

Aaron Kosminski was never a suspect, unless of course one is sufficiently naive to believe the deliberately misleading scribblings of Anderson and Macnaghten

You are right of course, Simon. Aaron Kosminski was never a suspect, unless one believes those documents in which he was named a suspect.

In the same way that Jesus was obviously a gnostic/Buddhist/atheist - unless one is naïve enough to believe the 'official' version presented in the New Testament.

Which is not to say that I entirely disagree with your position...

[mickreed]

Here is more crap news coverage: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014...n_6021122.html

After talking about the shawl, the video cuts to Martin Fido talking about the apron (!), how the killer wiped his hands on it.

Hey Rob

Who's this 'Australian blogger' they keep on about? S/he ought to get a medal ☺ but where would that leave poor old Chris Phillips, who I thought did more than anyone?

[Peter Griffith aka gryff]

I found this on wikipedia LINK

Jeffreys and others later confirmed that the evidence presented in the book for the statistical significance of the match with the DNA from Eddowes's descendant—a sequence variation described as 314.1C and claimed to be rare—was in fact the result of an error in nomenclature for the common sequence variation 315.1C.[41] It is present in more than 99% of the sequences in the EMPOP database,[42] rather than being found only in 1 in 290,000 people worldwide, as claimed in the book.

In a section that ends with:

Dubious DNA evidence was previously alleged to point definitively to a different suspect, Walter Sickert, and published in the book Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper—Case Closed.

The [42] reference is to the article in the Independent which of course references the casebook.

The hard work of Chris et al. on 314.1c/315.1c is paying off

cheers, gryff

PS: Mick as for the "1 million copies sold" click the link I posted but remember it is on RE's website ;-)

[GUT]

I wonder if the million copies included the 999,999 that RE bought for family.

[mickreed]

PS: Mick as for the "1 million copies sold" click the link I posted but remember it is on RE's website ;-)

I'll remember that Gryff. After all this is the bloke who claims to have spent £750,000 on research. How is that possible? Or is it a case of a misplaced decimal point? Or indeed, unless he stays at £2000 per night hotels when visiting JL.

[richardh]

Nope, I would say that 1m books sales is a HUGE porky. I used to have access to Nielsen BookScan data (not now alas) but I KNOW that the Mail On Sunday mag has a weekly charts which is taken directly from Nielsen. I read that list every week and I can't recall ever seeing Naming The Ripper on the top 10 Hardback Non-Fiction. I've just searched all the online book shops and checked out the top sales lists - can't find Naming The Ripper. The number 1 spot is held at the moment by The Second Half - Roy Keane which has so far sold 21,068. I'm pretty sure that Roy Keane's book is rather more popular than Naming The Ripper. AND IF Naming The Ripper really has sold a million copies do you think it would feature in any of the charts? Amazon? Waterstones? Do you think that Naming the ripper could out sell Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (882,029 sales). I think not.
The bbestselling book of 2013 was My Autobiography by Alex Ferguson which sold 647, 153 copies in that year. And RE is saying he's sold 1 million (300k more than Sir Alex) in a little under 2 months?

Nope.

Naming the Ripper came out on 9th Sept 2014. If he'd sold 1 million books in 8 weeks it would be NATIONAL HEADLINE news.

You're kidding, Gryff. Please say it's not true.

Bloody hell!

[richardh]

Do you think if Sidgwick & Jackson had sold 1 million copies of Naming Jack The Ripper they would not be shouting it from the (Victorian) roof tops?
Sidgwick & Jackson - Naming Jack The Ripper

But they're not. Because they haven't.

that claim on RE's website beggers belief IMO.