Walter Sickert and Jack the Ripper Crime novelist Patricia Cornwell has pointed the finger at the German born English painter Walter Sickert, claiming that he is Jack the Ripper. Historians have labeled her claims as "far fetched" and "Circumstantial". Sounds like great marketing to me.
The novelist is said to have 30 paintings by Sickert, and has a book called "Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper, Case Closed", so I couldn't think of a better way to get publicity.
Sickert's nemesis returns to the scene
She originally claimed to have solved the riddle of the Ripper's identity after spending about £2m of her own money gathering DNA evidence, hiring handwriting experts and buying 30 of Sickert's paintings.
This time, she is enlisting the help of a criminal psychologist and handwriting expert, and a forensic photographer, to gather more evidence for the new edition of her book, Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper, Case Closed. Guardian   ¶ 11:11 PM