Final Victim of Jack the Ripper Might Be Exhumed for DNA

Jack the Ripper, the first serial killer to terrorize a modern city, gruesomely killed five prostitutes in the East End of London. He sent mocking letters to police and the press, and managed to evade unprecedented attention from investigators.

After little more than two months of mayhem in 1888, the killer apparently vanished. The mystery remains, despite a drumbeat of new theories and bestselling books that look at the case from new angles over the decades since the crimes.

The latest new theory comes from a man who claims to be a descendant of the fifth and final accepted Ripper victim – whose grave might be disinterred for new DNA evidence, according to a report by The Guardian.

Wynne Weston-Davies, a surgeon and researcher, recently published "The Real Mary Kelly," an investigation into the life of the final Ripper victim, killed on November 9, 1888.

The work sprung from his investigation into his lineage; Weston-Davies believes that he is a descendant of Mary Jane Kelly, whose real name was Elizabeth Weston-Davies, according to his theory.

The new theory is that the fifth and final victim was killed by her jilted husband, Francis Spurzheim Craig – an East End courts reporter. His theory is Craig, through his profession, would know how to evade authorities — and he would also be adept at writing letters like the infamous “Dear Boss” missive to get exposure for his crimes.

Weston-Davies is now seeking approval to dig up the grave of the woman he says is his great-aunt — which will prove that she had a nasty divorce from the man who was Jack the Ripper, according to The Guardian report.

“The only way of absolutely proving that the Ripper’s final victim was my great aunt is to exhume Mary Jane Kelly’s body,” the former surgeon reportedly told the British newspaper. “I’ve already obtained an indication from the Ministry of Justice that they are minded to issue an exhumation license. There’s a bit more red tape to complete but I believe that exhuming her body will solve the Ripper mystery once and for all.”

An email to the Ministry of Justice in London was not immediately returned.

The new book is the latest in a long line of breakthroughs which have not yet cracked the Ripper case. Famed crime author Patricia Cornwell wrote a 2002 book entitled “Portrait of a Killer” which claimed to have closed the case by naming artist Walter Sickert as the killer. The Duke of Clarence, a member of the British royal family, was named as the Ripper in several competing theories, beginning in 1970. Just last year, the hopes that forensic science would conclusively link the bloodstains on fourth victim Catherine Eddowes’ shawl to Polish barber Aaron Kosminski were dashed when the results proved inconclusive.