Adventures in Paranormal Investigation by Joe Nickell

Author:Joe Nickell [Nickell, Joe]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Published: 2009-10-21T12:42:00+00:00

DNA Evidence

Cornwell knows the effect that the mention of DNA testing can have on laypeople. A Publishers Weekly review of Portrait of a Killer (Editorial 2002) gushes, "The book is filled with newsworthy revelations, including the successful use of DNA analysis to establish a link between an envelope mailed by the Ripper and two envelopes used by Sickert"

In fact, nuclear DNA could not be obtained from any of the fifty-five samples in which DNA was sought (from traces of saliva that had moistened envelope flaps or stamps). Therefore, the experts switched to mitochondrial DNA, a much less specific indicator, and an expert concluded that any matching sequences could well be a coincidence. As one reviewer concluded, "it might have been Sickert who licked the stamps on the alleged Ripper letter, or it might have been any one of several hundred thousand other people" (Carr 2002). As it happened, most of the fifty-five samples were apparently contaminated by the DNA of other persons. Cornwell (2002, 168-72) also concedes, "A drawback to our testing is that the ever-elusive Walter Sickert has yet to offer us his DNA profile" (Sickert was cremated.)

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