Is this the real Jack the Ripper? Top crime writer is 'certain' 19th century artist Walter Sickert was the prostitute killer and his death toll could have been 'well over 20'
- Crime writer Patricia Cornwell claims the killer was artist Walter Sickert
- She first made her claims in a book in 2002, outraging art historians
- In a new book the American claims Sickert's stationery matches that of Jack the Ripper
- She also claims Sickert dressed up as the Ripper when painting
- Cornwell says the evidence in her new book makes her 'more convinced than ever of Sickert's guilt'
![Did he do it? Artist Walter Sickert is famous for depicting sex and sleaze in the city at the turn of the 20th Century](http://web.archive.org./web/20170220071643/http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/02/19/11/3D68605100000578-4239244-image-a-30_1487503019344.jpg)
Did he do it? Artist Walter Sickert is famous for depicting sex and sleaze in the city at the turn of the 20th Century
Top crime writer Patricia Cornwell has claimed she has vital evidence to prove the identity of Britain's most prolific serial killer, Jack the Ripper.
The bestselling author, 60, has long claimed the legendary Whitechapel killer was in fact influential artist Walter Sickert.
Her original accusations in her 2002 book, Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper - Case Closed, outraged art historians and were dismissed by Ripperologists as 'improbable'.
But now, in a new book to be released next week, Cornwell claims the proof of Sickert's guilt lies in the paper he used.
Three of the artist's letters and two of the grisly, mocking notes the Ripper supposedly sent to police at the time were scientifically analysed and were found to have come from paper run of just 24 sheets, according to the author.
And in addition to the small batch of stationery, the book claims to debunk Sickert's previous alibis and claims the artist would dress up as the Ripper when creating his paintings.
The American author, who has sold more than 100million books, also claims the artist confessed to a friend that 'he would not mind having to kill and eat raw flesh', which she compares to the killer's reference to cannibalism.
Cornwell has spent millions of pounds investigating the unidentified killer - who killed at least five women in Whitechapel in the late 1880s.
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![Crime novelist Patricia Cornwell has spent millions of pounds investigating Jack the Ripper and claims the evidence makes her 'more convinced than ever of Sickert's guilt](http://web.archive.org./web/20170220071643/http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/02/19/11/039A89330000044D-4239244-Crime_novelist_Patricia_Cornwell_has_spent_millions_of_pounds_in-m-35_1487503702989.jpg)
Crime novelist Patricia Cornwell has spent millions of pounds investigating Jack the Ripper and claims the evidence makes her 'more convinced than ever of Sickert's guilt
![An illustrated police news page on the murders of Jack the Ripper. During investigations the police received mocking letters from someone claiming to be the killer accusing them of being asleep](http://web.archive.org./web/20170220071643/http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/02/19/11/000615D500000C1D-4239244-An_illustrated_police_news_page_on_the_murders_of_Jack_the_Rippe-a-40_1487504391284.jpg)
An illustrated police news page on the murders of Jack the Ripper. During investigations the police received mocking letters from someone claiming to be the killer accusing them of being asleep
She even purchased Sickert’s desk, plus 32 of his paintings to have them tested for DNA.
Sickert is renowned within the art community for his paintings, which depicted sex and sleaze in the city at the time.
All of the Ripper's victims, barring one, were prostitutes and were found horrifically mutilated, but the Ripper was never found.
There has been much speculation as to who could have committed the murders with Queen Victoria's grandson Prince Albert Victor and Winston Churchill's father Lord Randolph even being considered suspects.
In her new book, Ripper: The secret Life of Walter Sickert, Cornwell claims the killer's death toll could be more than four times as high.
She told The Sunday Times newspaper: 'I put his toll at a dozen, maybe as many as 20, or possibly more.'
The author claims that dated music hall sketches by Sickert defeat the alibi that Sickert was in France as the killings took place.
![Gunthorpe Street in Whitechapel, east London, where Jack the Ripper is believed to have killed his first victim](http://web.archive.org./web/20170220071643/http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/02/19/11/000616F800000C1D-4239244-Gunthorpe_Street_in_Whitechapel_east_London_where_Jack_the_Rippe-a-41_1487504410152.jpg)
Gunthorpe Street in Whitechapel, east London, where Jack the Ripper is believed to have killed his first victim
![A Victorian illustration of Catherine Eddowes, the Ripper's fourth victim. She was found dead in the early hours of September 30 1888](http://web.archive.org./web/20170220071643/http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/02/19/12/2125300F00000578-4239244-image-a-53_1487507270477.jpg)
A Victorian illustration of Catherine Eddowes, the Ripper's fourth victim. She was found dead in the early hours of September 30 1888
She instead alleges that this evidence puts the post-impressionist 'within days or even hours of at least three of the killings'.
She also says Sickert was in Cornwall at the same time a guestbook at a bed and breakfast there was vandalised with sexually crude imagery and the signature 'Jack The Ripper, of Whitechapel'.
The author also supports the claims of picture-framer, Joseph Gorman, who insisted he was the illegitimate son of Sickert and that the artist confessed Ripper details to him.
![Cornwell believes the fact that the ripper and Sickert used the same stationary is more than just coincidence](http://web.archive.org./web/20170220071643/http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/02/19/11/039A89F70000044D-4239244-image-a-37_1487503851363.jpg)
Cornwell believes the fact that the ripper and Sickert used the same stationary is more than just coincidence
The man was dismissed as a fantasist and died 14 years ago but Cornwell says she has proof that he received Sickert's publishing royalties after his death in 1942.
Although she has admitted previously that the identity of the Ripper can never really be proved, the Miami-born writer believes her book provides a compelling case.
'The majority of the book is new material,' she said. ' I'm more convinced than ever of Sickert's guilt.'
Speaking to the Evening Standard in 2013, Cornwell spoke about her claim that the killers shared the same stationery.
She said: '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.'
In his letters, the Ripper mocked the police's inability to capture him and accused them of being asleep.
Cornwell's team of sleuths, which includes art experts, have found that drawings the killer made in these notes, including one of a brutish face, are the work of a professional.
In her previous book, Cornwell alluded to Sickert's paintings as evidence, claiming they depicted the Ripper's crime scenes.
In one painting, a woman is stretched across a bed, mirroring the position the killer's final victim, Mary Jane Kelly, was found in.
In another, entitled What Shall We Do to Pay the Rent?, a well-dressed man sits at the end of a bed with his head bowed and his clasped will a bare-breasted woman lies beside him, her face turned to the shadows.
Sickert's fascination with the Ripper is certainly no secret and he even attributed the name Jack the Ripper's Bedroom to one of his works.
Cornwell has also previously claimed that the artist could have been linked to the royal family and what she calls ' the royal conspiracy'.
She said in 2013 that evidence suggests Sickert's family physician was Sir William Gull, Queen Victoria's physician, who was rumoured to have been tasked with helping to get rid of prostitutes.
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