Portrait of a Killer
Encyclopedia
Patricia Cornwell
Patricia Cornwell is a contemporary American crime writer. She is widely known for writing a popular series of novels featuring the heroine Dr. Kay Scarpetta, a medical examiner.-Early life:...
which presents the theory that Walter Sickert
Walter Sickert
Walter Richard Sickert , born in Munich, Germany, was a painter who was a member of the Camden Town Group in London. He was an important influence on distinctively British styles of avant-garde art in the 20th century....
, a British painter, was the 19th-century serial killer
Serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
known as Jack the Ripper
Jack the Ripper
"Jack the Ripper" is the best-known name given to an unidentified serial killer who was active in the largely impoverished areas in and around the Whitechapel district of London in 1888. The name originated in a letter, written by someone claiming to be the murderer, that was disseminated in the...
.
Jean Overton Fuller
Jean Overton Fuller
Jean Overton Fuller was a British author best known for her book Madeleine, the story of Noor-un-nisa Inayat Khan, GC, MBE, CdG, an Indian heroine of World War II....
, in her 1990 book Sickert and the Ripper Crimes, had maintained that Sickert was Jack the Ripper. Prior to that, Stephen Knight, in his 1976 book Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution, had maintained that Sickert had been forced to be an accomplice of the Ripper. Neither of these two books is mentioned in Cornwell's book.
Cornwell's book was released to much controversy, especially within the British art world
The arts
The arts are a vast subdivision of culture, composed of many creative endeavors and disciplines. It is a broader term than "art", which as a description of a field usually means only the visual arts. The arts encompass visual arts, literary arts and the performing arts – music, theatre, dance and...
, where Sickert's work is admired, and also among “Ripperologists,” who dispute her research methods and conclusions. Cornwell has lashed back at these critics, claiming that, if she were a man or British, her theory would have been accepted. She has also made remarks indicating that those who study the Ripper case would rather have the mystery than its solution.
Theory
Cornwell contends Sickert had the psychological profileOffender profiling
Offender profiling, also known as criminal profiling, is a behavioral and investigative tool that is intended to help investigators to profile unknown criminal subjects or offenders. Offender profiling is also known as criminal profiling, criminal personality profiling, criminological profiling,...
of a killer. She asserts that many of his paintings and sketches follow a violently misogynistic
Misogyny
Misogyny is the hatred or dislike of women or girls. Philogyny, meaning fondness, love or admiration towards women, is the antonym of misogyny. The term misandry is the term for men that is parallel to misogyny...
theme. Cornwell's belief is that Sickert was unable to have intercourse because of botched surgery to correct a fistula
Fistula
In medicine, a fistula is an abnormal connection or passageway between two epithelium-lined organs or vessels that normally do not connect. It is generally a disease condition, but a fistula may be surgically created for therapeutic reasons.-Locations:Fistulas can develop in various parts of the...
on his penis. However Cornwell provides little evidence for either the fistula or the surgery. The killings coincide with the marriage of Sickert's close friend and mentor, the famous painter James Abbott McNeill Whistler, who later distanced himself from Sickert, even suing Sickert later in life. Cornwell claims this marriage and the end of the friendship provided the spark which exacerbated his awareness of his disabilities and ignited a latent anger against the opposite sex.
Departing from common belief among experts that most of the Ripper's letters were hoax
Hoax
A hoax is a deliberately fabricated falsehood made to masquerade as truth. It is distinguishable from errors in observation or judgment, or rumors, urban legends, pseudosciences or April Fools' Day events that are passed along in good faith by believers or as jokes.-Definition:The British...
es, Cornwell writes that the letters contain specific information related to crimes, and as such are unlikely to be from anyone other than the Ripper. However, Cornwell's book does not discuss exactly which details of the Ripper's murders were made known to the general public at the time. Cornwell cites Sickert's artistic genius
Genius
Genius is something or someone embodying exceptional intellectual ability, creativity, or originality, typically to a degree that is associated with the achievement of unprecedented insight....
as useful for crafting the Ripper's letters by disguising handwriting and varying sketching styles. She also points to Sickert's paintings and sketches, some of which show women in prostrate poses that Cornwell claims are similar to victims at their crime scenes.
Cornwell also had a stamp licked by the writer of one of the supposed Ripper letters analysed for DNA
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
, and claimed it pointed to Sickert. However the analysis could only be of Mitochondrial DNA
Mitochondrial DNA
Mitochondrial DNA is the DNA located in organelles called mitochondria, structures within eukaryotic cells that convert the chemical energy from food into a form that cells can use, adenosine triphosphate...
, and, while it can be of use in some cases, the entire human race only shows several dozen mutations. Sickert was at best "not excluded" by the analysis, but his typically European result would be similar to that of several million Britons alive in 1890.
Cornwell has said, including in her Desert Island Discs interview with Sue Lawley, that new evidence has come to light since 2002. She states that a paper manufacture expert she hired asserts that reams of paper supposedly used by Jack the Ripper to write several letters to Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard is a metonym for the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service of London, UK. It derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which had a rear entrance on a street called Great Scotland Yard. The Scotland Yard entrance became...
and paper purchased by Sickert's mother bear the same small-press watermark
Watermark
A watermark is a recognizable image or pattern in paper that appears as various shades of lightness/darkness when viewed by transmitted light , caused by thickness or density variations in the paper...
. She also claims that there are matches in the cutter's marks, which are a result of the rough cutting of each quire (or small package) for packaging. A "quire" was usually of 24 sheets.
Responses from critics
Though Cornwell's book sold many copies, many Ripperologists and other critics argued that Cornwell's theory was far from persuasive.- Critics point out that most, if not all, of the Ripper letters are considered hoaxHoaxA hoax is a deliberately fabricated falsehood made to masquerade as truth. It is distinguishable from errors in observation or judgment, or rumors, urban legends, pseudosciences or April Fools' Day events that are passed along in good faith by believers or as jokes.-Definition:The British...
es by other authorities and that if they really are hoaxes, then Sickert may have been one of the hoaxers. Thus, even if he did write one or more of these letters, that does not prove that he was the Ripper. - The evidence she claims supports the idea that Sickert had a disfigured penis also supports the more accepted theory that he had a fistulaFistulaIn medicine, a fistula is an abnormal connection or passageway between two epithelium-lined organs or vessels that normally do not connect. It is generally a disease condition, but a fistula may be surgically created for therapeutic reasons.-Locations:Fistulas can develop in various parts of the...
in his anus. - Details in the letters and supposedly seen in the paintings she claims only the killer would know had previously been published in newspapers and a book released in FranceFranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. Sickert could have easily got hold of the book in question, as he also lived in France off and on. In fact, evidence shows that he was probably in France on the nights of four of the five Ripper murders.
Critics also note that Cornwell has said that she did not have a theory about the murders until about a year before her book was published and believed that the first suspect mentioned to her was the one who really committed the crimes.
External links
- www.patriciacornwell.com
- Casebook: Jack the Ripper dismisses most of Patricia Cornwell's claims.