Jack the Ripper: Best-selling author Patricia Cornwell prepares to publish evidence of 'Royal conspiracy'

 
Prime suspect: Walter Sickert and one of his paintings, The Camden Town Murder. Top right, Patricia Cornwell
Corbis/ BBC
Alistair Foster29 November 2013

Best-selling crime author Patricia Cornwell believes she has uncovered new evidence about the identity of London’s most famous serial killer, Jack the Ripper.

She is ready to publish 11 years of new research which she believes points the finger at artist Walter Sickert.

Cornwell, 47, also believes she has uncovered new links between her chief suspect and the royal family, seemingly backing up a “royal conspiracy” that has been suggested by many investigators of the case for decades.

The American crime writer, who has sold more than 100 million books, worked with former Scotland Yard commander John Grieve and was given access to the letters supposedly sent to police by the killer, which are held at The National Archives in Kew.

Cornwell believes a key piece of evidence is that watermarks on some of the letters match those of paper used by Sickert. She said: “I feel that I have cracked it. I believe it’s Sickert, and I believe it now more than ever.

“Will we ever prove it? No — how can you? 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 water marks on paper that Jack the Ripper and Sickert had in common.

“What some detractors will point out, and it’s a good point, ‘So you proved that he wrote some of the Ripper’s letters, that doesn’t prove he was the killer’.

“In court, a jury might struggle with that. They are very confessional and violent letters. I do think this series of crimes will forever intrigue people and be cloaked in mystery.”

Cornwell, who has just published her new novel Dust, has spent millions of her own money investigating the serial killer, who murdered at least five prostitutes in Whitechapel in 1888. She bought Sickert’s desk and 32 of his paintings to have them tested for DNA, published her first book on the case in 2002 and plans to print her new findings next year.

She added: “I have a lot more detail including more information on what I call the ‘royal conspiracy’. I think people might be surprised by my point of view on how that all came into existence. For a start — Sir William Gull was Queen Victoria’s surgeon. There have been rumours that Sir William Gull was helping to get rid of these prostitutes. Suffice to say there has been evidence that has turned up to say that Sir William was Sickert’s family physician. Some of the people that have been mentioned in the conspiracy ... Sickert had reason to know who some of these people were.”

Her first book caused much controversy among Ripper investigators, with Cornwell admitting she was “shocked” at the backlash. She said: “I suppose I very naively thought that people would appreciate a very scientific approach to the case.”

The author recently won a bitter court battle against a financial management company that was handling her fortune, with a court awarding her £30 million.

Patricia Cornwell’s new novel Dust is out now.

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