Posted on 12/17/2005 12:33:45 PM PST by wagglebee
A SCIENTIST from Blantyre is playing a key part in solving one of the world’s most famous mysteries ... the identity of serial killer Jack the Ripper.
Last week, Professor Ian Findlay (39), who grew up in Station Road, and now works in Australia, was in London to test traces of saliva on stamps attached to letters sent to police at the time they were trying to catch the notorious murderer.
Ian has developed DNA identification technology called Cell-Track ID at Brisbane forensic laboratory, Gribbles Molecular Science, which can extract and compile a DNA fingerprint from a single cell or strand of hair up to 160 years old. This could potentially help shed light on who was behind the gory deaths of five prostitutes in the Whitechapel area of London in 1888.
When the saliva samples are tested back in Australia, they will then be compared to DNA from the descendants of Ripper suspects.
Ian, whose parents Elizabeth and Charles still live in Blantyre, says being involved in the Ripper case is “daunting”.
“As a youngster growing up in Blantyre I always wanted to be a police scientist, and today I’m working on one of the world’s biggest murder mysteries,” he said.
“The Ripper case is huge, and one mention of it in Australia landed me on the front pages of some of the daily newspapers there!”
The former pupil of Blantyre High and graduate of Glasgow University is based at Griffith University in Queensland, and will also be testing a hair believed to have come from Catherine Eddowes, one of the Ripper’s victims, sent by a private collector to see if it is genuine.
“It will take until mid-January for the test results to come through and we hope members of the public who may have other items relating to Jack the Ripper, such as the famous letter thought to have contained a piece of kidney from one of the his victims, will come forward,“ continued Ian.
Much of Ian’s career has been spent studying genetic identification and analysis, and in 1994 he was the first scientist in the world to perform DNA fingerprinting on a single cell. This technique is currently being used for DNA fingerprinting single cells found at crime scenes, flakes of dandruff from ransom notes, and single sperm in rape cases.
Ian was also named Scientist of the Year by the European Society of Human Genetics in 1998 and has been published over 50 times in medical and scientific journals.
He added: “ The Ripper case is very famous and has always fascinated people, so it’s amazing to think we could really be changing history here.”
Not really sure if this qualifies for GGG or not.
Jack The Ripper was actually The Loch Ness Monster.
For his encore, he will reveal the location of Atlantis, I suppose.
Everything I've read about the Ripper murders has lead me to believe that the Ripper murders were done by a writer's circle in possession of a time machine so that the said writers' circle could make a fortune on writing about these unsolved murders. (alternative reality alert...might make a good story, anyway)
Don't you think this is a little late.
Nah, it was Bush's fault.
I remember my gandma telling me that when she was growing up in Ireland mean folks would scare children by saying "the ripper's gonna get you". Would't it be amazing if they could really prove who done it? After Cain I guess Jack the Ripper is the most famous murderer of all time.
What a coincidence--I'll be in London at the same time, but I'm taking the Jack the Ripper stabbing tour!....;^)
My money's still on Druitt.
Nope, there are plenty of unimaginative authors out there who never seem to tire of rehashing old stories. -:)
Hey, look for me. I'll be the small Asian woman with the large red fedora.
If they find out who Jack was, I hope they throw the book at him.
"Whaddam I? Chopped liver'r'sum'fin'??? I thought Kerry played me all up as bad-ass!"
--signed, Jengis Khan
It'd be very interesting to finally know who it might have been.
Though, if there's DNA involved, look out for OJ's Dream Team to try to get him off.
But it would be the ultimate conspiracy plot...maybe they didn't have a time machine. Maybe it was just a bunch of bored reporters who started a secret society with mystic handshakes, and hidden meanings, who decided that they would pass the secret down to their initiants only, and have them write all these red herring investigations. Why?? Who knows?
Perhaps it was so that in the year 2006 they could blame Bush?
nevermind
I have always believed that the British royal family was at least somewhat involved, I also think the theory that Lewis Carroll could have done it. Here is a website that contains almost everything there is on Jack the Ripper.
http://www.casebook.org/
There was a movie about that...well close.
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