bob

Has anyone in London heard? I was watching a US news type show last night and this woman claimed she knew with 100 percent certainty that Jack the Ripper was some artist living in the area at the time. He would leave on vacation to France come back and another woman would be killed. His paintings were very interesting and showed what she claimed were paintings of the woman he killed. What do you Londoners think?? She seems to feel noone really wants to solve this because it is so mysterious . She said she went to the graves of the deceased and felt this is not some mysterious tale and needs some investigating. Im curious to know if it is brought up in the Ripper London walks over there? Bob

Mina

Bob, was the the one with Patricia Cornwell, the mystery writer? I saw it months ago, and while her theory was interesting, she had no proof. (they might of rerun the report) She took apart paintings and did all kinds of other things to get DNA evidence, but nada.

I wondered if anyone thought her theory was worth anything as well. But while she seemed convinced, the bottom line is that she had no irrefutable evidence, and the case is still unsolved.

And I agree...it is more interesting/mysterious/noteworthy because it's unsolved!

Sue

I saw the same show (Primetime), and found it very interesting. I guess this was an update of the first show. She spent 4 million dollars on that project!I would also be interested to know what some of the Ripper experts in London think.

xxx

Patricia Cornwell is an idiot. Walter Sickert, the painter in question, was no more Jack the Ripper than my Aunt Fanny. And who is Cornwell to destroy the work of an important artist just to try to "prove" her hare-brained theory? Would she take a hatchet to, say, the Mona Lisa if she had some crack-pot idea about Leonardo's criminal life?

yes

I agree with XXX. How dare that stupid woman destroy a work of art. Art belongs to future generations. Merely buying a picture doesn't mean you have a right to cut it up.
Anyway why all this interest in the Ripper. As a serial killer he was in a pretty small league and he killed prostitutes a hundred years ago.
Would you run tours to see where a modern killer had operated?

Scooter

I saw the show as well and Patricia Cornwell is definitely not an idiot. I thought much of her research was well thought out and painstakingly documented. She is recognized as an expert in the field of Forensics and helped establish the Virginia Institute of Forensic Science and Medicine. She has also won many Literary awards including the Edgar Award for her writing. You can't just dismiss the woman as being an idiot because you don't happen to support her conclusions.

Uncle Sam

Yes,

Excuse me but art belongs to the owner. If the museum owns it and they choose to display it for all of us that is fine,

however if an individual owns the art, then they as owners can do whatever they please. It's called private ownership of property...you know, individual property rights, they've been around for a long, long time!

US

art police

So if the Pope decides to paint over the Sistine Chapel, let's not hear any of your whining. Right, Uncle Sam?

Uncle Sam

I would suggest to you that the Sistine chapel is owned by the Catholic church and not an individual.

Always noice to see someone like you take common sense to its extremes!

US

art police

Yes, and the Pope is the head of the Catholic Church, with the power to act for that organization. What's the difference between privately owned by an individual and privately owned by an organization? Either way, it's not publicly owned.

Too bad the Medicis, the Gettys, the Tates, the Dillons, the Fricks, the kings of France, and all those other private collectors didn't take your word for it and trash all those old pieces while they were redecorating. Then the world wouldn't be all cluttered up with Michelangelos, Rubenses, Picassos, Vermeers, Monets, Van Goghs, etc.

Uncle Sam

"Too bad the Medicis, the Gettys, the Tates, the Dillons, the Fricks, the kings of France, and all those other private collectors didn't take your word for it and trash all those old pieces while they were redecorating. Then the world wouldn't be all cluttered up with Michelangelos, Rubenses, Picassos, Vermeers, Monets, Van Goghs, etc. "

No but if they had wanted to, they had the right to do so, because they owned it and you and I did not. While we would have missed the art and that would have been a shame, they still had the right to do whatever they chose!

Once again, it's called the ownership of private property!

US

PatrickW

This is way off topic for this board, but there is the point that rights also carry responsibilities, all the more so when they are attached to great wealth.

david west

Walter Sickert is not the Ripper.

This whole thing comes out of a book called "JTR The Final Solution" by Stephen Knight, in which someone CLAIMING to be Joseph Sickert, the son of Walter told a tale of Homosexual blackmail, clandestine marriages and a threat to the throne.

It's a cracking story (reccently filmed as "From Hell"), with just the one flaw.

It's cobblers.

The right people weren't in the right places at the germane times. Prince Albert was in Scotland!!!!

Incidentally Joseph never claimed his father was the ripper, merely that he knew the story (Sir William Gull, the Royal Surgeon was the man he named, despite him having suffered a stroke before the murders.)

The painting she bases her theory on is the Camden Town Murder which does look a bit like the final ripper scene.

Here it is:

http://www.johnbarber.com/CTM/sickert.html

How do I know it looks like the Kelly scene? Because I have seen photos of the scene, as did Sickert.

I would link to the crime scene photos but they are extremely gruesome, so if you need to see them email me seperately (or google away)

I have my own ideas as to who JTR may be, but I'm afraid he's not anyone famous.

hunch

I have a strong hunch that JTR was actually Uncle Sam's great-great-grandfather, who immigrated to the states after butchering a few ladies of the night, and live a life of quiet respectability ever after.....

Uncle Sam

Hunch,

Wrong hunch, I'm convinced that all my ancestors were provided travel accommodations to Australia by the British government...to the penal colonies.;~))

US

Uncle Sam

Author: PatrickW ([email protected])
Date: 08/14/2002, 04:48 am
Message: This is way off topic for this board, but there is the point that rights also carry responsibilities, all the more so when they are attached to great wealth.

Totally agree,

US

david west

there is a strong theory that JTR was indeed a septic tank. Ladies and Gentlemen I give you (possibly) America's first serial killer.....*drum roll*....

Francis Tumblety: (boom tish!)

The full story is here:

http://casebook.org/suspects/tumblety.html

He is one of the hottest suspects.

Tangential to JTR and the USA is the wife of James Maybrick (The claimed author of the Diary of JTR). Florrie MAybrick was the first American Citizen to be hanged in Britain.

full story:

http://casebook.org/suspects/james_maybrick/floriemay.html

Roger

I'm a little suspicious of someone coming to a conclusion and then trying to piece together a story that proves a crime over 100 years old. Patricia Cornwell has a lot of money to throw around and it is easy for her to get publicity. Little is proved. I respect the Jack the Ripper fanatics out there (and there are some out there) who sift information with their limited resources and are willing to eliminate their favorites when the proof is in the pudding. An example of a favorite Ripper proved innocent is Montague Druitt. He was once thought of as most-likely and now he is assuredly not the Ripper. Though I am far from convinced who the Ripper was, Bruce Paley's book points to the last victim's ex-boyfriend, Joseph Barnett, as a likely Ripper. He weaves a plausible story. However, I feel condident that we'll never be fully confident of who the Ripper really was.

david west

Its all Montague Druit's fault that I got hooked on the JTR habit.

I read a book whilst at school that named him (convincingly) as the murderer. It also mentioned that he went to the school I was then at!

A little bit of digging at the school reveled that he had been in the same house as me. In other words I was living in the same house as Jack The Ripper!!!!!

Of course it turns out the poor man was just a harmless mentalist who topped himself.

yes

Of course merely buying a work of art does not entitle you to dispose of it as you wish. You buy the pleasure of enjoying it and you buy the exclusive enjoyment of it. However you also hold it in trust for future generations.
It's the same with the earth. Little Sammy when he drives his SUV and turns his heating up to 90% is not only destroying the earth for his own generation but also for his descendents.