Search - Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper-- Case Closed

I found the book to be interesting at first, but I lost interest about half-way through. I think it makes an excellent case for Sickert possibly writing some of the Ripper letters, but that is all. I didn't find any of the other evidence to be strong enough for me to conclude that he was definitely the killer.

I commend Patricia Cornwell for the effort she put into this book, for the research she funded from her own pocket, and for the new forensic testing she performed on the Ripper letters. She wrote a very good book and for anyone who is fascinated by the enduring mystery that is Jack the Ripper, this is one more book to enjoy.

However, the book gave me the impression that Cornwell got the cart before the horse. Instead of looking at the facts objectively and formulating a conclusion, she started out with her conclusion (that Walter Sickert was Jack the Ripper) and ever so gently bent her research to support that conclusion. She made a lot of assumptions, and failed to take seriously the fact that Sickert was out of the country during the time of the Ripper murders. It is true that Sickert was involved, that he did write a lot of Ripper letters, and that he depitcted the murders in his art, but those things alone do not make him the killer.

For a more factual and objective look at all things Ripper, including a list of the most popular suspects, I recommend Paul Begg's Jack the Ripper: The Facts. It reads like a history book but is just what it claims to be, a book of pretty dry and unbiased facts. Begg suspects that the killer is a man named Kosminski, but as always, it is up to the reader to decide for themselves.

In all, Cornwell's book is good. It makes you think. It paints an interesting portrait of possibilities. But it is also not quite the 'case closed' argument that it claims to be, in my opinion at least. It's still a great read, and for that I still recommend it.

Patricia Cornwell is exceptional is her research & perhaps she is right~ case closed. Very very good book.

For more than a hundred years the murders of Jack the Ripper have remained among the world's greatest unsolved crimes, and a wealth of theories have been posited which have pointed the finger at royalty, a barber, a doctor, a woman, and an artist. Using her formidable range of forensic and technical skills, bestselling author Cornwell has applied the rigorous discipline of 21st century police investigation to the extant material, and here presents the hard evidence who the perpetrator really was.

America's #1 bestselling crime writer solves the case that has baffled experts for more than a century.
For over 100 years the Jack the Ripper murders have remained among the world's greatest unsolved crimes, and theories have been posited which point the finger at royalty, a barber, a doctor, a woman, and an artist. Using her formidable range of forensic and technical skills, bestselling author Patricia Cornwell has applied the rigorous discipline of twenty-first-century police investigation to the extant material, and here unmasks the killer.

Truely Fascinating..

VERY INTERESTING CONCEPT OF WHO JACK THE RIPPER WAS...I READ IT ALL BUT STILL WONDER IF SHE'S RIGHT. WILL THE MYSTERY EVER BE SOLVED?

Very interesting explanation for Ms. Cornwall's theory on the identity of Jack the Ripper. Well researched, well deducted, and well written.

very interesting read

absorbing and convincing.

Patricia Cornwell did a great job setting up the case for Jack the Ripper. I have always loved the logic she uses when setting things up.

This book freaked me out, but I couldn't stop reading it. It was so interesting but also very scary in that it lets you see a piece of the serial killer's mind... I am now watching my back all the time!

Lots of details about life in London during the late 1800's and a very compelling argument for the identity of Jack the Ripper.

great insight to an old crime. well written.