Still a mystery: DNA hasn't named Jack the Ripper after all

The Jack the Ripper murders are the most potent cold case ever. More than a century on from the first killing in 1888 they are still attracting global attention. Academics of many disciplines publish on various aspects of the case; professional writers spend heavily on investigations; amateurs, often accompanied by a media frenzy, propound theories in futile attempts to declare "case closed". Uncritical reporters fête authors, books are sold, documentaries made, films proposed. The Ripper case was important, and not only because of the poor women who suffered dreadful deaths. Jack the Ripper was the first serial killer to catch the popular imagination, and is as fascinating now as he was 126 years ago. Jack probably did as much as anyone to persuade government to begin the task of making London's East End a more congenial place to live.