Hey guys, welcome back to the Conspiracy Podcast. Hello my friends, we are back again. Hope you had a great Christmas. You ready for New Year’s now? I mean, yeah, the party never stops. Do you still do that? No, I just do some random stuff at home now, like a little something something with the kids and fireworks, and that’s about it.

Literally, I swear, in like six years. Six years. We go out. The last time was probably before 2020 when we went out. Oh, okay, that’s right. I went with you and Oliger, and I have pictures of that. Look at these. Six fights with the Denedian. Yeah, that was fun. That’s cool.

You know what I heard about the other day that I felt really old because I don’t even know about this, and I kind of wish you guys would text me and tell me about this, but nobody did. Have you heard of Blackout Wednesdays? What is that? It’s the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. It’s called Blackout Wednesday. You know how you’re off for like five days straight? Wednesday night they’re off, and then that’s their holiday for the next four days. But apparently that’s when you go ham, you go really hard, and you’re not with your family. You just go out.

I don’t know if we can do that anymore. I’m too old. Yeah, seriously, after tonight it’s going to take like a week to recover. Me and Sean hit it hard last Saturday and we’re still recovering. I know, and I have a torn Achilles, which makes it even worse. Can’t do anything, super immobile. Anyways, it’s called getting old.

So let’s do some shout outs. That’s what we’ve been doing. I want to shout out Todd. He’s kind of new in the Discord. I might have already shouted him out before, but Todd, what’s up, my guy? You got a good name, it’s my dad’s name. Let’s see who else. Tiffany, I know I probably shouted you out before too, sweetie, but you’re super active. She manufactures some good stickers too, the Sinatra stickers. We got them from her.

Then we also got Battle, I’m assuming it’s like B4DDLE. These are just Discord folks. Dittle’s Raiders. Edgar Renteria. Actually, when we did Pearl Harbor, I was told that he’s related to Doolittle, the general. Really? So if you guys don’t know, after Pearl Harbor, one of the first responses of America was the Doolittle raids. That was where they took some pilots and they literally flew into Japan, and it was run by General Doolittle. Well, Doolittle Raiders, my guy, we should talk more about this. Might be a first guest on here.

And then we have Guntech. He’s playing PUBG Battlegrounds right now, just so you know, I can see that on Discord. Javelin, he’s playing League of Legends, good for you. John Week. It’s like John Wick, but it’s John Wak. And then we got Pringles. And yeah, that’s what we’re going to do for now, and we’ll shout out more next episode. And then 246 Mama, what’s up?

Appreciate you guys. As always, our Patreon keeps the show going, keeps it alive. We’re at 16 minis for the Patreon, and that’s a Patreon only episode. So if you wanted more content, that’s how you do it. You go sign up for Patreon and you get 16 episodes so far. And like I mentioned in our Christmas special, this upcoming year there’s going to be 30 to 60 additional minis added to the catalog at least. There is a very easy level and it’s $2 a month for the first thousand. Anyways, that’s the Patreon. Appreciate you guys, hope you have a great new year.

We’re going to do an episode tonight, and it’s actually Jack the Ripper part three. A little over a year ago we did the series on Jack the Ripper, and it was one of our best series actually, and it really boosted our England listenership. That’s true, obviously because it happened in England. But this year there was new information that came out on the Jack the Ripper case. I mean, we’re like Miss Cleo, we’re all over the place. You guys remember Miss Cleo? The best. She charged for these old heads. Did she have like a 900 number? She did, 100% she did, $7.99 a minute.

So if you haven’t listened to the Jack the Ripper series, we did two episodes on it, and it was episode 91 and 92. So go back. I think we’re also going to play a little snippet here, from those episodes, to kind of bring you back into the moment before we get into it. So just take a second, enjoy our beautiful voices, and then we’ll be back in a sec. This is us a year ago. We probably sound terrible. So this is only about five minutes, and basically it’s us describing one of the suspects, which is Aaron Kosminski, and then also our final summation. You know how at the end we’ll go, what do we think? That’s what that is. So here we go.

Okay, next suspect, Aaron Kosminski, and he’s the one that you sent me. Yeah, just so you know. He’s one of the most enduring suspects in the Jack the Ripper case. He was born on September 11th, 1865 in Poland, part of the Russian Empire at the time. At that time he fled Eastern Europe to escape poverty and persecution, eventually landing in the worst place on earth. True. It’s definitely not the American dream.

Aaron Kosminski’s mental health deteriorated significantly during his time in London. Reports described him as suffering from auditory hallucinations, paranoia, and other symptoms that were later identified as paranoid schizophrenia. He experienced delusions and was said to hear voices compelling him to act violently. His behavior became increasingly erratic and his family struggled to care for him. In 1891, Kosminski was declared insane and was admitted to Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum. He later transferred to Leavesden Asylum where he remained until his death in 1919.

I love how they literally call that place the lunatic asylum. Pretty straightforward, right? Records from these institutions describe him as refusing to eat food prepared by others due to paranoid fears of being poisoned, and often behaving and being in a catatonic state. He was first identified as a suspect years after the Ripper murders, largely through police memoranda written by high-ranking officials. Assistant Commissioner Robert Anderson and Chief Inspector Donald Swanson both named Kosminski as a prime suspect in their private personal writings before they died.

In Anderson’s memoirs, he stated that the Ripper had been a low-class Polish Jew who was identified by a witness but could not be prosecuted because the witness, also a Jew, refused to testify against another Jew. Do you stick together even if they aren’t murdering? Chief Inspector Swanson’s notes added more details, specifically naming Kosminski as a suspect and describing how the witness’s identification occurred but how no trial occurred because the witness was unwilling to give that evidence.

Now, this guy was also a barber, right? Is that the same guy, which would kind of help explain how he was proficient with the knife? Yeah, the knife work, exactly. Well, here are a couple of things why people think that it’s him. One is that he was put into an insane asylum right at the end of the murders. So like, you remember we were talking about the murders stopped, and why? Because he went away, right? But it’s never been definitely proven that he had any involvement in the murders, so historians are constantly arguing about it.

Then in 2014, and Jorge sent me this link in a video, there was a DNA analysis done by a shawl that was near the body of Catherine Eddowes, the Ripper’s fourth victim. So essentially, here’s what we have with Kosminski. He was psycho, he was put in an asylum, the murders stopped, and then they never happened again. And potential DNA comparables, relation. Aside from that, that’s it. Also, there was some, he was a suspect by Scotland Yard.

But again, I’m going to just throw out there that the FBI profiler, what was his name? John Douglas. He said he concluded that he was likely the individual, based on his profile and the evidence and all the suspects. That’s a strong, bold statement. And he’s on video saying it, I watched the video. And this was before 2014 when they did the whole DNA thing. Correct, this was in 1985. This guy might be on something at the gym. There you go, so put that in your little cap.

So what do you think? Jorge already gave his two cents, what about you? I kind of like the guy who was psycho in the insane asylum. Kosminski and the DNA. The DNA, and he goes in, and it seems pretty logical. It is kind of weird that it just stops. You’re a serial killer, you’re going to keep going. What is it, Aaron? That’s also why I like the thing, because they killed all five, right? And then it’s like, well, but I don’t really understand the Jew thing. I think that might have just been some random thing on the wall. They spelled Jews that way, it’s ridiculous. If you’re going to do a hate, it’s like misspelling it, how do you mess that up?

And what you had sent me, the DNA thing, I know it’s a far reach, but there is something there, some familial connection. But at the same time, they’re prostitutes, so maybe he just slept with the girl. Dude, that’s also true. There’s no evidence of that. No, but I mean, semen, it was on the shawl. Maybe he was, but I’m just saying, it could have been he just smashed, like it happens. So anyways, love to hear what you guys think. I know we’re all deflated.

So now you’ve listened to us majestically reminding you of where we’re at. We told you. And it was, you know, we did decide, we all had different kinds of theories, but the suspect itself, we did say it was Aaron Kosminski. Correct. So this is the new info, this is the new new. This is fresh, hot off the press, well, not like hot off the press, but pretty fresh. So this is the new conspiracies, it’s hot, it’s fresh. It’s the new part of the Jack the Ripper story. And what’s cool is I guess the story is still evolving, and hopefully a lot of the other episodes we’ve done also evolve eventually. Part 54 coming up. We might just start a new podcast, it’s called Solved. I like that, it’s a good name, actually. All right, don’t steal that, it’s copyrighted, it’s trademarked, it’s IP.

In 2007, a businessman named Russell Edwards bought a stained midnight blue shawl said to have been laying beside the body of Catherine Eddowes. First, real quick, people will just buy the weirdest stuff. Like, why would you buy that? In what universe are you like, this is a hot buy? If I win the lotto, I’m going to be buying weird stuff. You’re going to be living on eBay, weird stuff like a torpedo that was in one of the U-boats in World War II. Absolutely. Dude, I’d be such a good rich person. Your house would be like a museum, like weird stuff. That is Eric’s dream, to buy up all the history. Stolen paintings from the loot, you know what I mean? Eric, like black market stuff. Come to the basement, sign this NDA.

So if you don’t recall, Catherine Eddowes was murdered in Mitre Square on September 30th, 1888. She was the fourth victim of the Ripper. She was part of the double murder day, you remember? She was the second victim of the double murder day, she was killed about 45 minutes after Elizabeth Stride. Anyways, just so you guys know who that is. But then I looked it up as well, Edwards, the businessman, he bought the shawl for 4.7 million. Oh my god, at auction. But how did they confirm the validity of this, and who pays that much for a shawl? A stained shawl.

So when I was doing this I was like, okay, well, where’s the chain of custody? It could have been anyone. So this is the supposed chain of custody. He bought it at auction in 2007. It was supposedly in the possession of a family who claimed it was passed down through ancestors who never washed it, who were the descendants of a policeman named Amos Simpson. I mean, this already sounds sketch. According to that family tradition in later accounts, the shawl was allegedly taken from the scene of Catherine Eddowes’s murder by a police officer, some say Simpson, and then kept it in his family for generations, essentially in the attic.

How is that shawl still in one piece, and how is it not eaten by moths? Also, how messed up is it that you’re a police officer, you’re the man of the law, you’re passing evidence, and you snake a piece of evidence? He just puts it in his pocket, he’s like, hell yeah. Amos, what are you doing? It’s already gross negligence. This is going to be worth millions, trust me, this is going to set my family up for life, this is a family heirloom. Or just imagine for hundreds of years there’s like, what’s that shawl up in the attic? I don’t know, don’t touch it. It’s a crusted out towel, it’s never been washed, it’s disgusting.

It’s like 2004 and your grandpa’s like, come here buddy, I got something for you. On your death. He’s like, in my last will and testament, I leave you this shawl. Like, why? Grandpa, what is it? Hear me out, don’t wash it, whatever you do. The family tradition is to pass down murder evidence. I mean, here’s the problem. I’m trying to figure out why the cop would take this evidence. Maybe he was in cahoots, maybe he was his inside guy.

Let’s take it in present day. So you’re a cop, and you’re securing the scene. You’re not the detective, you’re the guy with the tape, you’re the tape guy. Ma’am, step back, we got a crime scene here. And you hawk it, you steal it. But maybe it was after everything was, oh, I got the shawl. Or maybe when he retired, he’s putting everything in his box to go home, and he’s like, man, I’m just going to take this piece of evidence as well. I can’t, there’s no logic. Souvenir. Also, my family’s going to love this.

Also then it was sold, somebody was a good marketer or something, because then it was sold for 4.7 million. I don’t know how you can make that up. The guy did. But you’re dropping 4.7 million on something that cannot be legitimately identified. There’s no way to legitimately. If we win the billy tomorrow, I would not spend it. I can see Eric at the auction, five million. Do I hear five? Do I hear 4.8? Going once.

Okay, but let’s say you’re the cop. There’s nothing you could say that makes sense. A cop at JFK’s scene and there’s a bullet, I would do that. He’s the president, you would? If I had a bunch of money, yeah. But he’s the president, he’s not the hooker. At the time though, it wasn’t what it is now. There’s no way he could have known that it was going to be this big of a thing. Maybe he was just a weirdo. I think that’s the only way to explain it. He was just a freak and he’s like, hell yeah, murder.

So it’s important to note that historians and experts question this, because there’s no official police record that such a shawl even existed near the body. I mean, look, listen to us, we’re not even experts and we’re questioning it. Everyone’s questioning it. But also, if it was stolen, there would be no log. No wonder there’s no log, because it’s in his pocket. And tell me if I’m wrong, but you log evidence. Even in the 1800s? Back then, it was probably a little more loose. There probably wasn’t this whole concept of chain of custody, but I’m sure they were like, keep it in the room and we’ll figure it out later. But the point being is there’s no record, no official police record saying evidence, a shawl, obviously because homie was sniffing it in his pocket.

So that story really is just lore within the family. Isn’t it just like money? It’s literally an idea backed by confidence. He’s like, this is legit, and they’re like, yeah, I’m paying for it, I’m rich. So Russell Edwards, he imagined it as the last silent witness to a crime, and perhaps the key to solving it. Edwards asked a Finnish-born forensic scientist, Dr. Jari Louhelainen. How did you find this guy? Anyways, I’m going to go with Dr. Jari. There you go, that’s perfect. But he went to him to test the fabric for surviving DNA. If the shawl truly came from that night, perhaps it still carried traces of both the victim and her killer.

Real quick question, when did the killings happen again? 1888. Okay, so he went to Dr. Jari to test the fabric for surviving DNA. And I looked it up, and under optimal conditions DNA can last for, the key phrase was, several years. But we’re talking like almost 200, like 150, not even. That’s way too much. It’s also not like Officer Simpson was keeping it in a hyperbaric chamber. But to be fair, 4.7 million, and we’re constantly learning too about DNA. That’s true, it’s an evolving science. Maybe, who knows?

But years of testing followed. The scientists carefully swabbed the darkest stains, drew out the biological material, and studied the genetic patterns. Jari reported finding two kinds of samples, blood from a female and semen from a male. From these, his team recovered mitochondrial DNA, which is DNA that comes from the mother’s side of the family. This kind of DNA supposedly lasts longer than ordinary nuclear DNA.

To see whose DNA it was, Dr. Jari compared it to living relatives, a descendant of Eddowes for the blood, and a descendant from the maternal line of Aaron Kosminski, a Polish Jewish barber long suspected by the police. In 2019, Jari and another scientist, David Miller, published their findings in the Journal of Forensic Sciences. They said both DNA profiles matched their living relatives, and because both samples came from the same shawl, they believe it supported the idea that the killer is Kosminski.

Did they say how, like, you know, sometimes they’re like a 99.9% probability? It’s never going to be 100, but it’s so close that it’s within the error that they’re allowed to have. If it was like a 26% chance, that’s different. To the public, this sounded like the final answer. Headlines across the planet were, Jack the Ripper identified at last. Finally. But in science, things are rarely that simple.

First, mitochondrial DNA cannot identify one person perfectly, because this type of DNA is passed from mother to child without much change. Many unrelated people can share the same pattern. So while it can show that two people belong to the same maternal line, it cannot prove a single identity. So it could be anyone technically on the maternal line. Yeah, experts pointed out that such a match is not, quote, courtroom level proof. So technically you could argue it, like plausible deniability. That’s right.

Secondly, let’s talk about the chain of custody. What chain of custody? No police records from 1888 mention it as evidence, we went over that before. The story that a constable named Amos Simpson took it from the crime scene and gave it to his wife only appeared about 30 years later in the family lore. Did she wear it? There you go, sweetheart, beautiful shawl. So the point of that is, technically speaking, we can’t even prove that the shawl was there, or from there.

Third, there’s the problem of something called contamination. Yeah, something called the earth. A 137-year-old cloth passed through many hands. It’s nearly impossible to know which DNA is old and which is modern. Critics said the study didn’t share enough technical details, like how contamination was prevented or how rare the DNA types actually are for those confirmed in the results. So it’s like, does any match Genghis Khan? They’re the same. It could be the great great grandma, the great grandma, it could be anybody down the line.

Another issue came from early newspaper reports that claimed the male DNA match was of Russian Jewish ancestry. Experts quickly corrected that. They explained that haplogroups, meaning DNA families, are broad categories that can appear in many populations, but they can’t pinpoint one person’s ethnicity or location. So it’s still such a loose thing, it’s not as exact as we believe it is. But still, recovering any genetic material from a Victorian textile is amazing. It’s impressive, right? It’s actually unbelievable.

This 2019 paper made the findings more formal and careful than the earlier 2014 stories, which had jumped to conclusions. But even in that paper, the authors admitted that the DNA only supported Kosminski as a suspect, it didn’t actually prove him as the killer. Well, I think it’s so old that it’s almost impossible to have definitive proof, like 100%. Right, exactly.

Meanwhile, Edwards and others pushed for an official recognition that the case was solved and the case should be closed. They hoped to finally close the file in one of history’s darkest mysteries. But most scientists and historians urge caution until independent lab tests are done, because there were no independent ones. So there’s only one lab that did it. That’s right. Until they share it openly and confirm that it really came from 1888, the evidence can’t really be called final.

So then the question becomes, is this discovery 100% proof? I mean, it’s the fact. It’s not, obviously, very few things in life are 100%. But it’s so close that you’ve got to. It’d be different if it was like, well, it doesn’t match, or a very low percentage match. It’s like you’re playing an odds game. It’s clearly from his mom’s line, he was one of the suspects, it’s another piece of evidence. It’s like you’re deducing fact, okay, it was him. Let’s be real, it’s calling a spade a spade.

So is this discovery 100%? No. It’s an extraordinary story and definitely news about a piece of fabric in a notorious crime. But the DNA work gives us a strong clue pointing towards Aaron Kosminski, a man who is already one of the main suspects. But the fact is, there’s missing police records, possible contamination, no chain of evidence, and the broad nature of mitochondrial DNA means yes, it maybe supports the argument, but it’s not definitive. Conclusive, that’s way better. Such a lawyer. That’s such a forensic files term, conclusive. So the shawl may whisper secrets from that bloody night, but it does not yet speak a name with 100% certainty. I think the real conspiracy here is this guy spending $4.7 million on this shawl.

So there you go, that’s the new news about the Ripper. Again, if you didn’t listen to the other ones, you should, because we went through it extensively, but there were other suspects in the case. I do still think, I mean, this would really support our original argument. It basically just strengthens our arguments, exactly. It definitely strengthens the argument for sure, and it makes it even more, but that’s the thing about the legal system, it also works both ways.

It’s like you can have enough, and that’s why I think the media makes things different. Let’s say you’re on trial, and they don’t really have DNA evidence on you, but everyone’s like, he was a piece of garbage, and the news is like, oh my god. And then the jury’s like, yeah, this guy sucks, but we don’t have conclusive evidence. It’s like the hearsay is strong enough to push it over the edge. At least here we have some evidence. It’s something.

So do you think this is the smoking gun? Do you think this is it? Jack the Ripper solved. The smoking shawl. Yes. Oh, it was already solved. But let’s also break down, remember when we went over this? So it’s the second murder of the night. You remember that? He ran, the first one he was stopped, somebody stopped him. The first murder, he didn’t get to do everything he wanted to do. Right, so then the second murder happened nearby and it was rushed.

But what does that mean? That means, if the shawl thing is true, that means he raped her and then cleaned up with the shawl, and then killed her. And probably left the shawl because no one knew about DNA. So let’s say the shawl was around Catherine’s neck as a scarf, or even on her shoulder, I don’t know. And then he rapes her, but then dumps her, and then ejaculates on the towel, because the semen, that’s what the DNA is, used it to clean up. Clean up. It’s a clean up for cleanup.

So all I’m saying is, you could see it as. No, the thing that doesn’t make sense, why did the cop take the shawl? I don’t understand. Nothing about this makes sense to me. I’m like, yes, for sure, this is probably the guy, but I’m like, rewind. Why does the cop, there’s nothing that explains that. I’m just saying I think it’s one of those things where he’s like, I’m just going to keep a little souvenir, a little piece of history. But then no one washes it, you can’t wash it. And then the odds that it lasts 137 years.

Dude, it’s the weirdest thing, you have a stained towel in your attic for hundreds of years. How many generations of freaked out kids got passed this? Like four generations of children holding on to this. I know, it’s like, don’t wash it, don’t put it near your face. But they’re like, why is there blood on it, grandpa? Shut up, stop asking.

All right, so do you want to change anything? No. Like I said, if anything, it strengthens our past previous episodes, because we brought it up in the other episode, that there’s a possibility of some sort of royalty. You had brought up there was a royal conspiracy maybe. I’m just saying, does this really narrow it down, and I’m pretty much on the Aaron Kosminski wagon. It narrows it down, even if there are clear and gaping holes, it still makes it more legitimate that it’s Kosminski. Now I think what it does is it shows that people are weirdos, people are super sketch. You’re definitely a weirdo to pay 4.7 million for this. That makes you a weirdo.

Eric’s going to be buying stuff through that money, going through proxies, through his weird shell corporations to buy weird stuff, just so we don’t judge him. I’d have a really weird sprawling estate, dark, the library, there’s no electricity, lantern, candle light. I can see you having your own little library, but it’s the historical library of all this stuff that he’s bought on eBay. I’d start, I’d have a cane, I don’t know why. I don’t need it, but I have it.

All right, there you go, guys, that’s the update on Jack the Ripper. Wild. Go back if you haven’t listened to the whole thing from start to finish, you would enjoy it. And it’s a horrible, amazing story. It’s so much worse than I thought it was initially before we got into it. The level of brutality was out of control, it was really unsettling. Fun little fact, I was Jack the Ripper for Halloween. So you were Kosminski for Halloween. I know.

All right, let us know what you guys think, let us know if you think it’s legit, and if you think it closes the case. I do want to know, comment in the, you can comment in Spotify, right? We’re going to do a poll, and be like, does this close the case? Well, here’s the thing real quick before we end off, is that we can’t judge this by our 2025 standards. We’re using 140-year-old DNA samples, so of course it’s not. It’s easy for us to be like, there’s so many holes in this, but we’re literally taking 140-year-old DNA, and there is a familial match. Come on, we’re not going to get much better than that, guys. This is the best we’re going to get. That’s very true. The tip top of what we’re going to be able to accomplish here. If anything, it’s groundbreaking. It’s actually a legit miracle that this psycho cop kept some weird shawl in his family line for so long.

But what if it was just a shawl, what if it was just a piece of a scarf? No, but dude, you know what would be super weird? What if the cop is Jack the Ripper? Oh my god. And he’s like Kosminski’s bastard brother, but he didn’t know. And he kept the shawl as a totem because he was the one who was doing it. Could you imagine? Oh my god, dude.

Well, we’d love to hear more theories. Just let us know what you guys think about this, because this is brand new, and we’re trying to provide as much as we can. Eventually we’ll do a compilation on this episode so you can listen to the full thing all together. There you go, guys, I hope you have a good new year. Happy new year, guys. 2026 is going to be your year.

We have a lot coming, a lot of cool stuff in the works. Just to give you some teasers for 2026, we’re going to do a big episode on, is climate change real. Ooh, baby, I like that. We’re going to do an episode on vaccines, in general, just a general one. Did we ever do HAARP? I don’t remember anymore. We haven’t done HAARP, we should do that. We’re going to do one on celebrity fake deaths, I love this one, so good. The 2020 election, was it rigged? Find out. We’re also, leading into the anniversary, going to be doing a 9/11 one, and it will be on the anniversary, this year for sure.

So there’s a lot in the works. So subscribe, hit the little subscribe button, share the show. That’s how we grow, honestly, that’s the way. Join the Patreon, get your shout out. And as always, we’ll catch you next time. Be safe on New Year’s. We love you guys, happy New Year, everybody.