Top writer Patricia Cornwell 'cracks' the case of Jack the Ripper

Walter Sickert was an influential artist with ties to the British royal family. Picture: Supplied Source: Supplied

WHO was Jack the Ripper? It's one of the most enduring mysteries in the history of crime and now best-selling author Patricia Cornwell is sure she has solved it.

The American crime writer claims to have unearthed evidence that she feels certain means she has "cracked" the case.
Cornwell has spent millions trying to find the identity of the famous serial killer, who terrorised Victorian London. She has even enlisted the help of a former head of Scotland Yard.
So who is Cornwell’s Ripper?
The writer says all the evidence points to Walter Sickert, an influential artist with ties to the British royal family.
Cornwell says she has discovered watermarks on some of the letters allegedly sent by the Ripper to police that match paper used by Sickert.
She told the London Evening Standard: “It’s a completely circumstantial case with the only real science that we can count on after all these years being the forensic analysis, which is really hard to feel is coincidental when you keep seeing watermarks on paper that Jack the Ripper and Sickert had in common.”

Crime historians have cast doubt on the methods and conclusions of Patricia Cornwell's investigation to uncover the identity of the Ripper.

Cornwell first theorised that Sickert was the man behind the murder of five prostitutes in London’s East End in her 2002 book, Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper - Case Closed.
Her claims caused anger among fans of the artist, while many historians questioned her methods and conclusions.
Over a decade later Cornwell's sticking to her guns.
“I believe it’s Sickert, and I believe it now more than ever,” she told the paper........READ MORE