Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper Case Closed

Between August and November 1888, at least seven women were murdered in London's Whitechapel area. The gruesome nature of their deaths caused panic and fear in the East End for months, and gave rise to the sobriquet that was to become shorthand for a serial killer-Jack the Ripper. By using techniques unknown in the late Victorian age, Patricia Cornwell has exposed Sickert as the author of the infamous Ripper letters to the metropolitan Police. Her detailed analysis of his paintings shows how his art continually depicted his horrific mutilation of his victims, and her examination of this man's birth defects, the consequent genital surgical interventions and their effects on his upbringing presents a casebook example of how a psychopathic killer is created.