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Forensic Science Service helps to crack the case of Jack the Ripper – 120 years on

January 2007

The case of serial killer Jack the Ripper, who is believed to have murdered at least five prostitutes in the 1880s, has fascinated people for more than 100 years.

The identity of the killer has been hotly debated as no-one was ever been brought to trial, but now the Forensic Science Service has provided new evidence for the case thanks to its specialist skills.

Handwriting analysis was carried out by expert Dr Christopher Davies on annotations in a book believed to have been owned by Donald Swanson, the Chief Inspector who investigated the case. The notes in the autobiography, ‘The Lighter Side of my Official Life’, the author of which was Dr Robert Anderson, the Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police at the time of the crime; included one naming suspect Kosminski as the Ripper. Chief Inspector Swanson wrote the reason the only witness to one of the crimes would not speak out against him was because: “The suspect was also a Jew, and also because his evidence would convict the suspect, and witness would be the means of murderer being hanged which he did not wish to be left on his mind."

The book was given on loan to the Metropolitan Police Crime Museum in London in July 2006 and Dr Davies, who is based at the Forensic Science Service’s Lambeth Laboratory, was asked to give his expert opinion on whether the writing actually did belong to Chief Inspector Swanson by comparing it to that in a memoranda he was known to have written.

He compared the two samples of literature for their general style, the size, spacing, fluency and proportions and found it was highly likely they were written by the same person – Donald Swanson. The report containing his findings will now be kept along with the annotated book at the Crime Museum.

Dr Davies said he hopes his findings will give those interested in the Ripper mystery something new to debate.

“What was interesting about analysing the book was that it had been annotated twice in two different pencils at different times, which does raise the question of how reliable the second set of notes were as they were made some years later. There are enough similarities between the writing in the book and that found in the ledger to suggest that it probably was Swanson’s writing, although in the second, later set, there are small differences. These could be attributed to the ageing process and either a mental or physical deterioration, but we cannot be completely certain that is the explanation. The added complication is that people in the Victorian era tended to have very similar writing anyway as they were all taught the same copybook, so the kind of small differences I observed may just have been the small differences between different authors. It is most likely to be Swanson, but I’m sure the report will be cause for lively debate amongst those interested in the case.”

Curator of the Crime Museum Alan McCormick said: “The evidence provided by Dr Davies makes for fascinating reading and really helps us to judge the significance of the annotations in the book naming Kosminski as Jack the Ripper. I’m delighted he has agreed to let us keep the report at the Crime Museum permanently and I’m sure copies of it will be requested time and time again from the Forensic Science Service.”

The Forensic Science Service offers a range of analysis and interpretation tools second to none – from looking at footprints to forged signatures; from bullets to cocaine; from long-buried human remains to the contemporary technology of CCTV.