Term Paper on "Patricia Cornwell a Portrait of a Killer Jack the Ripper Case Closed"

Term Paper 5 pages (1592 words) Sources: 1 Style: APA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper, Case Closed

Whenever the genre of horror is mentioned the name of Jack the Ripper comes to mind. Regarded as one of the most notorious serial slashers, many writers have used him in different works. Among those include popular crime novelist Patricia Cornwell. The novelist has tried to solve the mystery of this case in her novel.

The background of the character can be found in the Whitechapel murders. This happened when prostitutes near the Whitechapel district of London's filthy East End were slain. Five prostitutes were slain in a manner that their throats were cut and most of them were mutilated. These prostitutes were killed within days of one another. In some of these cases murderer also took away the body parts of the victims. In one case a woman's heart and in another case the kidney was taken after slash opening the whole body. These murders took place in 1884 while three suspects (people not of sound mind) were identified in 1894 by the Chief Constable, CID, Scotland Yard. However, the case became complicated right from the beginning when the Central News Agency and the Metropolitan Police started receiving letters signed "Jack the Ripper." The hunt for suspects was continued by the writers of different times. Different writers delved into this area hinting at various evidences highlighting a particular person as the culprit. Most of these characters were based in or lived in Whitechapel or at least in England. Some of these suspects were considered doctors based on the premise that culprit used his surgical skills on victims. Alternatively, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the famous writer of Sherlock Holmes, had the opinion that the murderer was a woman. All the writers claimed that the case was finally closed by them. Among those include Patricia Cornwell with her book titled Portrait of a Killer the subtitle, Jack the Ripper, Case Closed.

Cornwell Story & Investigations

The book has got mixed reviews as it has been touted as a crime investigation adventure. Some critics called it prosecution rather than investigation. In Cornwell's story the main suspect is an artist Walter Sickert (1860-1942). She has on many occasions failed to give a solid answer as to why she chose Sickert as her main suspect. Though, she has mentioned her dislike for artist's self-portrait as well as his art work. Sickert in fact used gloomy urban interiors in his painting and one painting was even titled Jack the Ripper's Bedroom. Sickert painted this building in 1906 after returning to London from France when he rented part of the upper two floors of Mornington Crescent, Camden Town and named it so because a suspect was believed to have lived there. Cornwell even hinted at the nudes done by Sickert lifeless and one of his nudes even resembled one person who got murdered. Cornwell even suggested that Sickert has had some penile dysfunctionality because of which he had a complex and so he took his frustrations out on prostitutes. Giving myriad reasons she has in many interviewed proclaimed confidently that Sickert is Jack the Ripper.

Cornwell in her book as well as in her interviews has defended her position that her case is based on evidence rather than theories postulated by other writers. She also claims to have used forensic support like DNA testing and watermark identification for this crime investigation. Her critics on the other hand argue that she has used pseudoscience and intuition rather than solid investigation based on forensics.

The letters mentioned earlier with the signature Jack the Ripper have been considered hoaxes by investigators but Cornwell considered them to be real. She believed all of these letters in different writings have been written by Sickert but failed to produce any evidence to match her claims. In the same vein without any evidence she also asserted that Sickert had an amazing ability to write in many different hand writings. In order to prove her inability to prove her point-of-view she negates the use of scientific knowledge for analyzing inks, paints, and paper and fails to recognize the expertise of investigators in their analysis. In fact, experts claim that disguising particular handwriting from experts is a very difficult task and with new words and sentences coming out, it is even more difficult and easier to detect. Cornwell on the other hand relied on someone she called 'letterer' a person who designs and draws lettering and could be a calligrapher or graphic artist. Based on the quirks and hand positions she made her conclusions that Sickert also had certain quirks and hand positions hinting to his being Jack the Ripper. Besides letterer she also mentioned an art historian, paper experts, and an archivist for her final remarks on the letters and its relevance to supposed Sickert's writing in the letters.

Cornwell also linked the language used in the letters with the Sickert in different ways. There were some specific and peculiar words used in the letters supposedly written by Jack the Ripper like, "ha ha," "catch me," "little games," and others. The connection that Cornwell created was that of Sickert's with the artist James McNeill Whistler, to whom Sickert had apprenticed who was fond of using the word games and of cackling, "ha! ha!." He did learn his craft from Whistler and certainly sharpened his considerable wit on some of Whistler's own barbs but he also learned from the French artists. Also the word 'fool' was Sickert's pet word while letter also had the same word many times.

Supposed evidence that Cornwell used in building the case against Sickert was that of drawings of long, dagger like instruments which according to her can only be drawn by a professional artist. Also she connected the short truncated blades drawn in letter to the penile problem of Sickert according to her psycho analysis. Critics of Cornwell on the other hand accuse that most evidences related to the letter purportedly written by Jack the Ripper hint towards their being a hoax.

Cornwell used the letters as the prime evidence and even connected the watermarks in the letters to ones written by Sickert to which critics argued that watermarks are generally of a company on particular paper or post card. For example, a card with Hallmark water mark can be used by two different persons for two different reasons. Similarly, the watermark of one company can be on the papers or cards used by both Ripper and Sickert. However, Cornwell also tried to establish her points by using DNA technology in creating connection between an envelope mailed by the Ripper and two envelopes used by Sickert. Cornwell utilizes modern DNA analysis of certain items of Ripper 'evidence' such as samples taken from the stamps and adhesive backing of letters sent by the Ripper, as well as letters sent by Sickert, along with samples taken from his painting overalls. DNA testing is considered an almost infallible source of evidence in modern murder cases. The ripper case however, is not one to be conclusively solved by DNA or fingerprints because Sickert was cremated and his DNA profile is not available. "Cornwell is deploying technology to sanction and excuse her at-times hackneyed circumstantial evidence, relying on the status of this technology. This issue is explored by Terry Melton (the Scientist, 2003), an expert in mitochondrial DNA analysis, who asserts of Cornwell's project: 'tragically, given the current popular belief that DNA reveals all, the average reader will not realize that these results are meaningless, or at least glaringly incomplete.' (13) Melton then goes on to explain how the method of collecting samples would have picked up the DNA of any person who had touched the evidence (in this case letters sent by Jack the Ripper and Walter Sickert) in the past 115 years. The… READ MORE

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