New DNA evidence has revealed the identity of Jack the Ripper, one of history's most notorious serial killers, as a Jewish man named Aaron Kosminski.

The Jewish immigrant from Poland, had long been considered a chief suspect in the grisly murders which took place in London's East End in 1888, but new claims assert that there is now definitive scientific proof.

Russell Edwards, the author of a new book, Naming Jack the Ripper, and Jari Louhelainen, an expert in molecular biology, based their findings on a blood-stained shawl recovered from the murder scene of Catherine Eddowes.

The men claim they were able to successfully extract the DNA from the shawl and made a positive match with the genetic profile of Kosminsky.

But according to JC columnist Geoffrey Alderman, there had already been strong historical evidence linking Kosminsky to the murders years earlier.

Prof Alderman said he had written that he believed Kosminsky was the Ripper in a JC column in 2007.

He explained that the evidence could be found in the pencilled notes of Chief Inspector Donald Swanson, which were made in the margins of the memoirs of his boss, Assistant Police Commissioner Sir Robert Anderson.

"Swanson wrote that they had identified and arrested Kosminsky and taken him to a safe house in Brighton," said Prof Alderman.

"Only one of the murders was witnessed, and that witness was a Jewish man," he continued.

"This Jewish man was taken to Brighton and identified Kosminsky. But he made it clear that he was not prepared to give evidence against a fellow Jew in a secular court.

"Swanson recorded all of this in the margins of his boss' memoirs - this became know as the 'Swanson marginalia.'"

Prof Alderman added: "I don't want to denigrate the Russell Edwards book. But to those of us interested in the whole Ripper story, this has not come as a surprise."