The Ripper Project. Modern science solving mysteries of history

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Authors
Eckert, William G.
Advisors
Issue Date
1989-06
Type
Article
Keywords
Historical Article
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Citation
The American journal of forensic medicine and pathology. 1989 Jun; 10(2): 164-71.
Abstract

Modern scientific techniques may be applied to solve historical--even ancient--mysteries. Many such mysteries have been studied by forensic scientists, including anthropologists. One example is the recent examination of the artifacts and grave sites at the Little Bighorn in Montana, the scene of the battle between General George A. Custer's troops and the Northern Plains Indian tribes. Similarly, skeleton remains of the Indian tribes of the Pre-Columbian and Columbian periods have been studied to answer many questions regarding life and death in those early civilizations. The Ripper Project began as a research activity of the Milton Helpern International Center for the Forensic Sciences at Wichita State University Wichita, Kansas, in 1981, after the concept had been discussed in a night session during the annual meeting of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences in Los Angeles. These century-old serial murders of five prostitutes--The Whitechapel Murders--in London in 1888 were discussed in great detail from the standpoints of the forensic pathologist, the forensic psychiatrist, the criminalist, the forensic historian, and the forensic dentist. The information gained during this phase of the project plus the advances made possible by the development of criminal personality profiling by the FBI led to the present status of this project, which was recently discussed in a live telecast, and which is the subject of this article.

Table of Contents
Description
The full text of this article is not available in SOAR.
Publisher
Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
Journal
Book Title
Series
The American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology
Am J Forensic Med Pathol
PubMed ID
DOI
ISSN
0195-7910
EISSN