Aaron Kosminki (1865-1919)

Suggested by Russell Edwards

Aaron Kosminski was a Polish born Jew who emigrated with his family to England in 1881.

Kosminski lived with his 2 brothers and 1 sister in the heart of Whitechapel, and worked as a hairdresser. His home, on Greenfield Street, was in the direct vicinity of where Elizabeth Stride was murdered on September 30, 1888.

Kosminski, who would have been 23 years old during the time of the murders in 1888, had in 1885 been described as suffering from mental problems. For reasons unknown, Kosminski was detained by police for questioning and positive identification, but was later released due to lack of evidence.

In February of 1891, Kosminski was officially deemed of ‘unsound mind' and was committed to the insane asylum at Colney Hatch, north London. Case notes indicate that his insanity took the form of hallucinations, a paranoid fear of being fed by other people that drove him to pick up and eat food that had been discarded on the floor, and a refusal to wash or bathe.

Kosminski has always been considered a prime suspect in the Ripper case. He was a favored suspect amongst a number of senior officers involved in the case, most notably, Sir Robert Anderson and Sir Donald Sutherland Swanson.

In 1910, Robert Anderson wrote his memoirs entitled, “The Lighter Side of My Official Life”, and in those memoirs he stated:

“Undiscovered murders are rare in London, and the Jack the Ripper crimes do not fall into this category. I am almost tempted to disclose the identity of the murderer but no public benefit would result from such a course. In saying that he was a Polish Jew I am merely stating a definitely ascertained fact. I will merely add that the only person who ever had a good view of the murderer unhesitatingly identified the suspect the instant he was confronted with him, but he refused to testify.”

Sir Melville Leslie Macnaghten, Chief Constable of the Metropolitan Police at the time of the killings, stated in 1894 that "...there were strong reasons for suspecting “Kosminski” because he “had a great hatred of women...with strong homicidal tendencies”.

More recently, Russell Edwards conducted DNA tests on a shawl supposedly owned by Catherine Eddowes and claims that he found a match with the DNA of Kosminski's descendants which makes him "100% certain" that Kosminski was the killer.