THE Limerick-born final victim of notorious Victorian serial killer Jack the Ripper is likely to be exhumed.
This decision follows the release of the latest theory surrounding the identity of the murderer, who killed five women, including 25-year-old Irish woman Mary Jane Kelly.
An exhumation license, the first to be issued for any of the Ripper’s victims, could be granted by the Ministry of Justice for the grave of the East End prostitute.
The new theory was outlined in a new book, The Real Mary Kelly, written by Dr Wynne Weston-Davies, who claims that the Ripper is Kelly’s husband Francis Spurzheim Craig.
A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Justice told The Irish Post that an application would need to be made by Dr Weston-Davies before the exhumation could be carried out.
Dr Weston-Davies believes that a journalist, who reported on police courts in the East End of London in the late 19th century, killed Kelly in a revenge attack in 1888 after she secretly returned to prostitution three years after they married.
Dr Weston-Davies believes that Kelly was his great-aunt, and he intends to prove this through DNA testing on the body.
In addition to the application, he would need to produce a letter from a laboratory willing to conduct the DNA testing in order for The Ministry of Justice to grant the licence.
By proving that the body is Kelly’s, he believes that he can establish a stronger link between her and her killer, whom he suspects to be Craig.
Last week, Britain’s first women’s museum was due to be opened in London, but a building dedicated to the victims of Jack the Ripper was controversially launched instead.
Jack the Ripper is believed to have killed at least five female prostitutes in the impoverished Whitechapel area of London in 1888.
Whilst many theories about the killer have been suggested, the real identity remains unknown.
