A letter that was found in an old book in Australia and sold on eBay for £240 seems to have revealed the long-hidden identity of the UK’s most notorious serial killer, Jack the Ripper.
The murderer stalked the streets of East London in the 19th century, and who he was has remained a mystery.
Walking tours are still put on to this day showing people where the grisly happenings occured.
Now, an 1889 letter, which could now be worth up £125,000, has been discovered, which appears to suggest that one of the prime suspects, Aaron Kosminski, attacked a woman with a pair of scissors less than a year after the murders.
The author of the document, Reverend William Patrick Dott, writes in an what seems to be a reference to the Ripper murders about an attack on a woman called Mary by a ‘Kosminski’, who ran at her screaming with some scissors, MailOnline reports.
Reverand Dott wrote: “It’s a wonder he hasn’t hung for what he did to those poor girls.”
He also mentions a ‘Tilly’, whom is believed to be Kosminski’s sister, Matila. Reverand Dott was a priest at All Hallows church in Barking in London at the time.
The person who bought the letter is a man called Tim Atkinson, 58. The paper is believed to have been found in an old book auctioned off by the University of Melbourne’s theology department on eBay.
Mr Atkinson asked a scientist at the University of Liverpool to take a look at the note.
The scientist found that nothing was amiss, and all was to be expected for the period as regards the authenticity of the letter.
Mr Atkinson told the Mirror: “I saw it on eBay and thought I’d take a punt on it and now I’ve got it authenticated and it came back as positive.
“It’s the most important letter to come to light. It proves Kosminksi was around and could be the murderer.
“It could be worth up to £125,000 but I’m not a money man.”
Kosminski was a Polish immigrant who lived with his two brothers and one sister in Greenfield Street, Whitechapel.
He was rumoured to have worked arrived in Whitechapel about seven years before the Ripper killed at least five women in 1888.
Kosminski was sectioned several times for what was thought to have been schizophrenia, but was he was not said to have displayed violent tendencies.
He was one of three men suspected of being the Ripper by Victorian police.
However, Detective Inspector Donald Sutherland Swanson, always thought of Kosminski as the prime suspect.
He died in an asylum in 1919.
