cineman

I just finished it and Patricia Cornwell has made a very convincing case that she (and her research team) has solved the Ripper case. They used modern day forensic techniques and theories, unavailable to the police in the 1880's.

The book (and jacket) tells from the start whom they believe the Ripper was.

Blade

I don't really follow this stuff, but I read a review of this book that strongly disagreed with Ms. Cornwell:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Conten...1/966inagj.asp

As I said, I don't follow this stuff, so you'll have to judge the rebuttal for yourself...it does make for an interesting read though.

Josh-da-man

Cornwell's book is just another "Ripper" book and really doesn't prove anything conclusively.

The true idenity of Saucy Jack will always remain a mystery. It has a mythology around it, like the assassination of JFK, that transcends any kind of prood or evidence.

Dimension X

Here's a refutation of Cornwell's case that I found to be a great companion piece to her book (I like to hear more than one side of an argument before I make up my mind.)

(Thanks to diacritic for supplying the www.casebook.org link in this Jack the Ripper thread.)

The Antipodean

I read this from the library recently. It was a good read, but I never felt like she "PROVED" it to me -- there were way too many leaps in logic. You kind of felt like she's made her mind up and is telling you she has, rather than starting out with a hypothesis and proving it to me. Sickert certainly is a good candidate to be the Ripper, of course, but the way she didn't even entertain any doubt about it kind of ruined what would have been better as a more objective book. Of course, I doubt we'll ever really "KNOW" who the Ripper was -- he's more myth than man at this point, and unless a signed confession note with DNA tracings turns up, it's history's mystery.

BoatDrinks

My feelings exactly.

BoatDrinks

Great job by Jon Breen.

cineman

Thanks for the rebuttal links. Can't wait to read them.

PalmerJoss

I just recently picked this book up, and I can't wait to get started on it. I've read other Jack books, most notably The Diary of Jack the Ripper which said that the Ripper was James Maybrick so I'm interested in reading Cornwell's take on the case.

tanman

I know very little about this case except for the facts (which are few and far between). with that premise I heard another very interesting theory that stated that the way the women were eviscerated with such surgical precision that it was a good chance that it was indeed a surgeon. A surgeon that worked for the royal family that was going around looking for the taboo pregnant lover of one of the royal family.

KayUK

Try to see the tv programme that ms. Cornwell made which covers the points in her book.
It's not so much that she is more eloquent in person, but the evidence seems to speak more strongly in favour of her argument.

Especially Sickert's paintings, which to me truly speak of a great darkness within him.

joefrog91

Just finished reading the book. Although the author gives some new evidence that I didn't know before (i.e. some of the letters were written in paint not blood), I never felt the case was closed. Some of the passages seemed like stretches in logic just to fit her suspect at the scene of each murder. I look forward to reading the rebuttals.

Geofferson

My GF is reading this now and is enjoying it very much. I'll be reading it eventually.

majorjoe23

This is the theory Alan Moore puts forth in From Hell, but he also admits that he was more concerned with telling a good story than being 100% accurate.

Giantrobo

I'm interested in Ripperology but what if it was just a regular guy with mental problems who got away with it? Just a plain ole Serial Killer who targeted Prostitutes?

Not conspiracy, No Nothing?

The fact that this case is so bogged down in LEGEND and mystery tends to cloud what could be a simple explanation.

mwj

I have yet to read the book which I want to do. I saw Cornwell on CSPAN several months ago and she was a little too sure of herself and her conclusions. In a case like this one a little detachment is a blessing if you are going to claim that you have "solved" the case.