True Crime: Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper--Case Closed by Patricia Cornwell

Summary

Popular crime writer Patricia Cornwell, who writes the Kay Scarpetta novels, believes she has solved the Jack the Ripper case.  In her true crime novel Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper--Case Closed, Cornwell presents her argument for naming painter Walter Sickert the serial killer previously known only as Jack the Ripper.  In the book, Cornwell details her own research into the Jack the Ripper case and her attempts to use modern forensics to finally solve the mystery. Cornwell used her own money to reopen the case. Based on her interpretations of Sickert's art, Cornwell believes that Sickert hated women, possibly because he suffered from impotence as a result of a surgery he underwent as a child. Cornwell also claims that DNA tests she had done on a stamp from one of the Ripper letters proves that Sickert wrote the letter.  The title of Cornwell work begs the question: is the case closed?  Read Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper--Case Closed and draw your own conclusions.

Review


I thought this book was terrible.  I read it because, like many people, I am intrigued by the Ripper case, I guess, because it is a mystery that can never be solved. Cornwell's purpose in this book is to prove that Sickert was Jack the Ripper, so she makes the evidence she has fit that conclusion.  The "proof" she offers would never hold up in a court of law.  Additionally, the book is poorly written.  Like much of the true crime I've read, the book reads like a textbook.  I would've thought that a mystery writer as popular as Cornwell could have made her case in a way that was enjoyable to read, but that is not the case.  That fact is that, in order to consider the case on Jack the Ripper closed, one has to take simply take Cornwell as her word and refuse, as she did, to consider any other possible scenarios besides the one she's presented.  Cornwell as certainly convinced herself that Sickert was guilty, but she didn't convince me.  Perhaps he was, but her case needs some work, as does her presentation.

References


Cornwell, P. (2003). Portrait of a killer: Jack the ripper--Case closed.

     New York: Berkley.

[Cover art for Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper--Case Closed].

     (2011). Retrieved from http://www.paperbackswap.com/Portrait-Killer-

     Jack-Patricia-Cornwell/book/0425192733/