A Shropshire based author reveals the true Jack the Ripper.
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00:00So we're here in Bridgnorth and Russell, very nice to meet you sir, how are you?
00:04I'm absolutely fine, thank you for coming to meet me today.
00:07Interesting thing you're holding there, it's a bust, a bust of who?
00:11Well this is a bust that's taken me 24 years to get.
00:16This is Aaron Kosminski, who I named officially as Jack the Ripper.
00:21And this is his age when he was 23 when he committed the murders.
00:25So you've actually got a book out haven't you? Is it out now or coming out?
00:28Absolutely yeah, the first book's called Naming Jack the Ripper,
00:32the next book, which has got all of the more information on this is
00:36Naming Jack the Ripper, the Definitive Reveal.
00:39So it's took how many years of your life into this project then?
00:42This one's been 24 years.
00:44Yeah, so how certain are you that this is the man then?
00:48100 percent, there's just no doubt, I wouldn't put myself in the firing line if it wasn't.
00:53Yeah because yeah when you put yourself into that world you know you're gonna...
00:57You know who the irony is? He was named over 50, 60 years ago by, it was Donald Swanson.
01:06As a suspect, you mean?
01:08He was named as the guy yeah.
01:10Oh yeah, okay.
01:11He was called the Swanson Marginalian.
01:13So what happened, there was never a conviction on him then, how did he get away with it?
01:17So basically after the fifth murder, he tried to kill his own sister with a knife,
01:21his two brothers who looked after him gave him up to the police.
01:25He was shipped down to Brighton to a seaside home in Hove
01:29where he was identified in a way of confrontation by the only one eyewitness that actually saw him
01:35attacking a victim before she was murdered and that was Israel Swartz.
01:39Israel Swartz wouldn't testify, so they had the man but they couldn't prosecute him.
01:43So for fear she wouldn't testify presumably yeah.
01:46But when I did this, another 10 years of work, I'm in touch with the families obviously
01:53and lo and behold it turns out that his older brother Isaac was a Mason.
01:57Wow, yeah.
01:58So the Masonic link.
01:59Yeah.
02:00Which also then unravels the reason for the ritual.
02:03There's a famous piece of chalk writing called the Goulston Street Graffito,
02:07that's now answered by me.
02:11It's been an incredible journey.
02:14Well this is, so we've got the book and a book to come and also there's going to be potentially
02:19be some TV work up with yourself and story on story yeah.
02:22That's still in the pipeline and again all contract negotiations at the moment.
02:27But for now naming Jack the Ripper the definitive reveal
02:30will give you everything you've ever wanted to know about this story.
02:34So what do we know about him?
02:35Where was he from originally?
02:36Was he a Londoner or you know originally or?
02:39Well again in the book I've got his whole family tree going back to 1810.
02:42Yeah.
02:43This guy was born in Klodowa in Poland.
02:46Yeah.
02:47He was the youngest.
02:48His elder brother five years looked after him.
02:51Five years older wolf.
02:53His mum was in the 40s already.
02:56Basically this chap, I say this chap, this murderer suffered with schizophrenia.
03:03At the age of 16 they came over to Mile End Old Town just on the outskirts of Whitechapel.
03:08Basically 10 minutes from the murders.
03:10Yeah.
03:11Where he developed a career, I say career,
03:14a job as a hairdresser or barber surgeon.
03:17Yeah.
03:17Who would have had to have anatomical knowledge.
03:20And where he lived literally was at the back of the Royal London Hospital.
03:23Yeah.
03:25It literally had gone all awry for him.
03:29So by 1888 he committed his five murders.
03:33Where?
03:34And then identified, then locked up into a workhouse.
03:39Yeah.
03:39Then an asylum which was Colney Hatch.
03:42And then from there in 1894, in the April, he was moved to Leavesden Asylum.
03:48Where he spent the rest of his life.
03:50And he died, gangrene, in 1919, age 54, on March the 24th.
03:57So if people want to find out more about your book, what's the link?
04:00Where do they click?
04:01You can go, my Facebook page is Russell Stephen Edwards with a PH.
04:05Or the Jack the Ripper Experience.
04:07Yeah.
04:08You can go online and name it Jack the Ripper.
04:11The definitive reveal.
04:13And of course, and there's the graphic novel that I've written.
04:17Parts one and two are already out.
04:19Part three is out in about four weeks time.
04:21What are they called, chap?
04:22Jack the Ripper.
04:23Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
04:24Jack the Ripper.
04:24Yeah, yeah.
04:25And it's the whole complete story of his life.
04:28Yeah.
04:29And interestingly enough, only this time last week,
04:32I put a reel out of his house, the house he grew up in Poland.
04:35Yeah.
04:36So that's available if you want to sign up.
04:37Wow, okay.
04:39And it's fair to say there's quite a number of different projects you're working on.
04:44We can't really mention about them, but there's some quite interesting things
04:48you've been uncovering in terms of other cold case crimes.
04:51Yeah, so two cold cases.
04:54One's been completed, my lips are sealed on that.
04:56Yeah.
04:57Next is the big one over in America, which I'm really looking forward to.
05:01And of course, there's a film script out for this one.
05:04So yeah, so definitely check out the pages online and find out more, folks.
05:11Well, thank you, sir.
05:12Pleasure.