Kosminski Shawl DNA published as peer reviewed paper in Journal of Forensic Sciences

[Takod]

One of the biggest problems with the shawl is that the evidence is contaminated anyway, so anything purloined from it is as worthless in a suspect book as would it well be in a court of law.

I also don't think it's more likely that the shawl was from Eddowes rather than Smith.

To top it all off, the man who ended up in possession of the shawl was nowhere near the scene shortly after the murder, and no shawl is mentioned in the belongings of Eddowes.

It's shawley a fools errand.

[theshamanisright]

Hi All,
First time poster here.
I'm frustrated we're on the 'Kosminski did it' train again. I've never thought there was much evidence to implicate Kosminski; he doesn't fit the suspect profile and he doesn't seem to have been violent, just sad and sick. All the dna evidence seems to be suggesting is that he can't be excluded- which, as c.d stated, also covers a great many other people.

[c.d.]

I read the article and found it a little confusing but this seems to be the main point to take away from it:

Hansi Weissensteiner, an expert in mitochondrial DNA also at Innsbruck, also takes issue with the mitochondrial DNA analysis, which he says can only reliably show that people—or two DNA samples—are not related. “Based on mitochondrial DNA one can only exclude a suspect.” In other words, the mitochondrial DNA from the shawl could be from Kosminski, but it could probably also have come from thousands who lived in London at the time.

So if I read this correctly it appears that the DNA does not exclude Kosminski but simply puts him in a pool of possible suspects (based on DNA) consisting of a great many people.

c.d.

[GUT]

And yet again unless you tie the “shawl” to the crime scene, so what.

[GUT]

I’ll have to find time to read it, then to look at the feedback.

[robhouse]

No comment, as I have not read it, nor do I know to what extent it has been peer reviewed. But I am posting here for discussion:

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/03/does-new-genetic-analysis-finally-reveal-identity-jack-ripper

Rob House