JtR FINAL Victim Body to be exhumed

[richardh]

The body of Jack the Ripper’s final victim - Mary Kelly - is set to be exhumed as a new book claims the world’s most famous serial killer was her estranged husband.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/11771381/Jack-the-Ripper-identity-mystery-solved-in-new-book.html

[John Wheat]

Another crackpot theory.

[GUT]

Another crackpot theory.

No shortage of those it seems,

[Bridewell]

First they have to identify which of the remains in that plot are hers. Even supposing they succeed in doing that, how will it be possible, through exhumation, to identify her killer? I suppose that a familial match to someone on the DNA database might help towards establishing her identity but I can't, for the life of me, see how exhumation is going to tell us who the killer was.

Having said that, if (by some miracle) the process succeeds in proving the author's case, the Ģ2.9million price tag of Russell Edwards' shawl/table-runner is going have to drop somewhat.

[Wickerman]

As for myself I do not know how many bodies are in that plot.

That aside, potential features that might provide a clue to the identity of the remains would first be the sex: female, and then the age, somewhere in her mid twenties.
Skeletal height.
Also, possibly, protruding or false teeth at the front of the mouth.
Also, possibly, faint knife scratches consistent with facial mutilation on the face of the skull.
Depending on the condition, then there is the hair colour, if it survived.

Circumstantial evidence just might provide reasonable cause to select one out of several potential skeletons.

[c.d.]

Yeah, I read the article and the whole exhumation thing goes by me as well. As has been stated, how does that help to identify her killer?

c.d.

[c.d.]

Unless they can get DNA from blood on her clothing if any remains and then attempt to match it with DNA from a now living relative of one of the suspects. But that is based on the idea that her killer somehow cut himself in his frenzy.

That is the only thing I can think of.

c.d.

[c.d.]

The author's premise of a "cover" is also flawed just like with Barnett. That theory only works if the police were certain of the Ripper's identity, i.e., they knew that he was Joe Smith and were trying to catch him. That way you commit a copy cat killing and hopefully the police will attribute it to him. But for Barnett or Francis Craig they would not be able to deflect suspicion away from themselves because they police would have no way of knowing that they were not the Ripper since it could be anyone.

c.d.

[Errata]

Even without finding out anything about the killer, it still might answer some questions. There are some lingering questions about what happened to the heart, whether or not her external genitalia was mutilated, we can find out more about the knife used... we could learn things.

But probably not enough to dig up a poor women who has clearly been through enough.

[Robert]

But probably not enough to dig up a poor women who has clearly been through enough.

[c.d.]

I wonder what the legal basis for the exhumation order was. I would have to guess that it was because it is still an unsolved murder. I know in the U.S. that murder has no statute of limitations connected to it. I also have to wonder if publicity and/or money has something to do with it.

c.d.

[Fisherman]

I donīt think that there will be any exhumation.

If there was, my hunch is that it will prove impossible to tell which bones belong to which person.

I have grave doubts about the suggested identification of Kelly.

... but if it all comes together, if they find Kelly and if they provide her with an identity, then it will be one of the greatest leaps forward in Ripper research, opening up huge opportunities for further research.

[pinkmoon]

But probably not enough to dig up a poor women who has clearly been through enough.

At least they havnt had to suffer the royal baby,ripper diary and the shawl fiascos.

[pinkmoon]

We had shawlgate last year now this year we have shovelgate

[Brenda]

.

I think the overwhelming success of finding Richard III's remains and obtaining DNA may have opened the minds of the Powers That Be to the historical value of trying to solve other famous mysterious of the past.