Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Another Mystery Solved? Jack The Ripper

With the news coming out a few days ago that DNA may have finally solved the Whitechapel murders of 1888 along with PBS possibly solving the Servant Girl Annihilator case it seems I am way behind in solving history's greatest crimes.  So I'll just go ahead and say this: Elizabeth Borden was totally guilty. There. Take that... other historic crime... people.  However, this may not be the final word on Saucy Jack. The DNA testing method used has not been studied and the results of the tests need to be independently verified. Like many amature crime sleuths, I first discovered the world of historic true crime through Jack the Ripper. In 1988 the murders were 100 years old and TV (that's what we used to watch back in the day) was awash in Ripper specials...even an awful made for TV movie starring David Hasselhoff. But one show I really got into, The Secret Identity of Jack the Ripper , was hosted by the great Peter Ustinov and featured a panel of experts who were given information on five suspects and asked to give their assessment as to which of these was most likely the killer. I grabbed a notepad and a pencil and parked in front of the TV to studiously take notes. The only reason I remember this at all is because at the end of the program, when the experts revealed their most likely suspects, they all said what I had written down...Aaron Kosminski. One of the experts on the panel was FBI Special Agent John Douglas, one of the FBI's first criminal profilers. I am an admirer of Mr. Douglas' and find his insights into the criminal mind to be quite interesting. You can read a brief write up about the recent Ripper Revelation TM on his website and I highly recommend you read his books.

1 comment:

Chris W. said...

Hi Inspector,

Another fascinating article!

I came accross this article today by Epperly on the serial killer theory, and thought I would pass it along:

http://docublogger.typepad.com/villiscamystery/2013/07/a-closer-look-at-the-villisca-axe-murder-serial-killer-theory.html

Particularly notable is that he mentions your work in the article. The "not satisfied" angle is also interesting.

Regards,
Chris