Walter Sickert was Jack the Ripper
‘Jack the Ripper. ... Jack was a serial killer whose crimes were never solved; whose name was never given a face. ... Since the end of the Nineteenth Century conjecture has run the gamut from the possibility of the killer being a demented member of the Royal Family, to that of Walter Sickert, a famous London artist. Arguments for Walter Sickert as the perpetrator are persuasive, and are the focus of this paper. The huge notoriety of Jack the Ripper clearly arose from British history of the late 1800’s. ... The activities of the Ripper were chronicled daily in the newspapers, as were the results of the inquiries and the actions taken by the London police. Jack the Ripper became a Nineteenth Century media celebrity. ... “The press was also… responsible for creating many myths surrounding the Ripper… turning a sad killer of women into a ‘bogey man’…. ... org) The politicians and the press were amply aided in his notoriety by the Ripper himself. ... Lastly, the Ripper was never caught and it is that puzzle that still intrigues researchers. It is not known just how many women the Ripper killed. ... The five murders that are generally accepted as the work of the Ripper are: Mary Anne Nichols murdered Friday, August 31, 1888; Annie Chapman, murdered Saturday, September 8, 1888; Elizabeth Stride, murdered Sunday, September 30, 1888; Catharine Eddowes, murdered Sunday, September 30, 1888; Mary Jane Kelly, murdered Friday November 9, 1888. ... James Maybrick is a favorite candidate of many authors because of his supposed diary describing himself as Jack the Ripper. ... Physical evidence is what draws people to Walter Sickert. ... Two types of evidence need to be examined in considering artist Walter Sickert as the criminal killer: the psychological, and the physical. ... Sickert’s probable mental state is crucial to targeting him as the murderer. He was born in Munich, Germany, on May 31st, 1860, the son of a Danish artist named Oswald Sickert and an English-Irish woman named Eleanor Louisa Moravia Henry. ... “His angry mocking words eerily portend Jack the Ripper’s (written) taunts to the police.” (Cornwell, 44) Patricia Cornwell in Portrait of a Killer further maintains that by age 5 the young Walter had undergone three surgeries for a hole in his penis. ... Walter’s great Aunt, according to Cornwell, insisted a third surgery be done in London. ... Sickert’s of early trauma to his penis are profound. ... Sickert’s problem could not have been minor since it required three surgeries. ... Cornwell notes that Sickert’s operations would no doubt have resulted in strictures and scarring that could have made erections painful or impossible.