Researchers believe they have finally cracked the identity of notorious London serial killer Jack the Ripper 130 years after his heinous crimes.

The murderer who brutally killed five women in Whitechapel in 1888 became one of the most infamous criminals in history and still brings tourists to London today.

Though theories abound over who carried out the killings, no proof of the Ripper's identity has ever been produced.

But now a new book claims that an apparent 'confession' found beneath the floorboards of a Liverpool cotton merchant's bedroom is authentic.

Researchers believe cotton merchant James Maybrick is Jack the Ripper, after he wrote an apparent confession in his memoirs (right), which were found 25 years ago

James Maybrick, a Victorian businessman, was seen by some as the most likely suspect after a memoir found in his home 25 years ago included him admitting to being the Ripper.

The memoir includes the line: 'I give my name that all know of me, so history do tell, what love can do to a gentleman born. Yours Truly, Jack The Ripper.'

But critics questioned how the book came to be found and whether the claims were genuine.

Robert Smith, the author of a new book, 25 Years of The Diary of Jack the Ripper: The True Facts, has now researched the discovery and believes the book is authentic.

The Jack the Ripper killings in east London are among the most notorious crimes in history

He told the Daily Telegraph: 'The new and indisputable evidence, that on March 9, 1992, the diary was removed from under the floorboards of the room that had been James Maybrick's bedroom in 1889, and offered later on the very same day to a London literary agent, overrides any other considerations regarding its authenticity.

'It follows that James Maybrick is its most likely author. Was he Jack the Ripper? He now has to be a prime suspect.'

Five women were killed in Whitechapel in 1888; Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, Mary Jane Kelly.

Another historian, Withnail and I author Bruce Robinson, recently claimed in another book that Maybrick's brother, Michael Maybrick, was the Ripper.

He claimed both of the Maybricks were Freemasons and the organisation protected him from being brought to justice.

Other recent theories have suggested a meat cart driver called Charles Allen Lechmere should be considered a suspect because he early route to work coincided with locations of Ripper killings.

25 Years of The Diary of Jack the Ripper : The True Facts by Robert Smith is available from www.mangobooks.co.uk at £25 + £3.40 p&p from 4th September