When will DNA techniques reveal who Jack the Ripper is?

Answer 1

Probably never. They didn't keep samples of DNA back then so to have DNA solve the mystery they would have to get very lucky indeed. First they would have to find some of the killers DNA on one of the victims which is highly unlikely. Then they would have to identify who the killer was and obtain a sample from a living relative. As of now several different detectives over the years have all come up with different suspects that they were surewas the real Ripper but no one has ever come up with anything conclusive on any of them.

//Never say never. Bestselliing author Patricia Cornwell did extensive DNA testing on what remained of the Ripper evidence, however sparse that may have been. The DNA that remained un-compromised within the files matched her favorite suspect, British artist Walter Richard Sickert. Several other samples matched Sickert's wife Ellen Cobbden Sickert, which is to be expected given that she would post Sickert's correspondence quite often. In a case as old as the Ripper case it would be odd if there had not been any contamination of evidence. But there was enough to make a very strong link to Sickert and the Ripper.

But even more compelling than the DNA evidence was the paper evidence. Sickert was a fanatic letter writer and newspaper reader. Several of the Ripper letters received by police, press or local residents such as the Lusk letter were identical to Sickert's personal stationery. The stationery used by the Ripper for several letters matched perfectly to Sickert's personal writing paper and in at least one example a Ripper letter came from a batch of watermarked, custom-made paper of which only 24 sheets were ever made. Those 24 sheets belonged to Sickert's mother, made especially at her instructions and which was certainly available to Sickert himself.

So Sickert either liked writing phony letters claiming to be the Ripper, or he was in fact the killer. Teamed with other evidence, some of which included Sickert's artwork*, point to a sociopathic meglamaniac of high intelligence, who had intimate knowledge of London's east end (Whitechapel). Sickert was known to wander the narrow streets and alleys of Whitechapel into the wee hours of the morning. The time of which most, if not all, the victims were attacked and killed. Convictions are made, not on one single piece of evidense, but a series of 'puzzle pieces' that when put together make a portrait This 'portrait' of Jack The Ripper bears an uncanny resemblence to artist Walter Sickert. As most homicide detectives will tell you, there are very few coincidences in life. The connection between Sickert and the Ripper would be extremely remote to be a series of coincidences.

*Sickert painted and drew some very interesting yet grusome pictures that pertain to the Ripper murders. One in fact he named 'Jack The Ripper's Bedroom' which was an exact replica of a room Sickert had once rented near Camdon Town, London, near Whitechapel. Ripper would brag to friends that he knew the identity of the Ripper and that he had once lived in a room previously rented by the Ripper himself.//