Cornwell's book

[Melissa McMahan]

I own a copy of the movie "FROM HELL" which I think is a good fiction horror movie. As far as being based on the TRUE Ripper facts I give it a thumbs down. I own a few copies couple of Jack the Ripper books but as a gift I now own "Portrait of a Killer" by Patricia Cornwell. I've read this book twice and outside of 3 or 4 things, I find it useless.

First I would like to say I still find Sickert a weak suspect but I think Cornwell may have poven a couple of things in her road down " Let's Assume Road" Sickert was JTR.

I do have to say that I was glad that Cornwell found the guestbook. I would like to see someone else study it. I was not happy that she had only a couple of images of it and gave her 2 cents about it only. I would like to all see these pages in the guestbook, clear and without someone giving there point of view on them. Is that too much to ask? Also the DNA test were woth a try but the lower level DNA can't prove much. Sorry people, it's not much better than a blood type test.

Since Sickert's writing paper matched a HOAX JTR letter. It would seem he would be one of the people who worte these fake letters. Sickert had a very odd since of humor, so this you cannot put past him. However that does not make him Jack the Ripper.

His paintings some of which seem to refect Jack the Ripper's crimes, still does not make him Jack the Ripper. Even if one shows up somewhere with himself as the Ripper cutting up Mary Kelly over her bed. I doubt anything that gory is in any of his paintings but this man as an artist cannot be bashed for painting something that had all of London in terror. He was alive when these events took place, so any writer or artist who was too could have had used these events in their works.

I wrote a poem about "Jon Benet Ramsey" right after her death. That does not mean I killed her and God forbid if any of my writing or art ever points me to a killing. I wrote the poem because the story of this little girl made me so upset that I cried. Hardly ever do I cry, I'm not cold and heartless but I'm just not the type of female who cries usually. Sickert's paintings are very weak as for as a clue.

Now let's talk about the 2ed hand info and the road to ruin of her case on Sickert. She "assumes" from 2ed hand infomation that she cannot prove is ture or not. Or what this so called Sickert family member says is true or not. Cornwell spend too much time talking about Sickert's assumed penis problem. To the point of no return! While I was reading this I have to tell you if Sickert had gone through all that as a child I feel sorry for him. o_0

Alas I would give this book a grade of C - as for as putting Jack the Ripper's bloody knife in Sickert's hand.

Cornwell's book reminds me too much of Jack Nicholson's acting skills. Humor from the heart that goes for the groin and the throat.

[mrserialkiller]

I constantly find it humerous when people always compare the film From Hell with the ripper facts. The film is based on the graphic novel From Hell written by Alan Moore, he is very open as to how the novel was written. If one would turn to the rear, Moore lists every piece of evidence, his own assumtions and areas of complete fiction which make up his story. Th esecond point to make on the film, is that Depp's character is not based on Abberline, but is actually a follow up to the character he played in Sleepy Hollow.

Mart

[Melissa McMahan]

Which is why I said I give it a thubs down when it comes to TRUE facts. The film FROM HELL belong with Friday the 13th and other fiction horror movies. Nothing much in the film has to do with Jack the Ripper's REAL crimes.

[How Brown]

I second Melissa's opinion on the FROM HELL movie. I enjoy any film in that genre,even the historically distorted kind. I especially enjoyed the Abberline- toking- on- that- pipe scene....No better way of solving the crimes than being ripped on opium and laudenum,the British forerunner of crack,which I have never tried. Honest....for real...not kidding....

[Melissa McMahan]

the best par for me was the heart-betting grapes. That was so Salvador Dali. The dumbest thing was the throat cutting JTR scenes. That was way too fake looking.

[Cleopatra]

My family firmly believes that Cornwell solved the Ripper case, but I'm the black sheep in my family when it comes to this matter.
I read Cornwell's book a couple months ago and I must say that it is very poorly written and that the evindence is so weak that I found myself laughing!
Over many years authors have tried to solve the case and have claimed that the great mystery has been solved.
Patricia Cornwell bent and twisted the facts of the case to match her suspect.
And now thanks to her we can add one more book to the never ending list of authors who have "Solved" the case.

[Melissa McMahan]

I too have Cornball's book... I mean Cornwell. LOL! It fell part in my hands the other day. It was so cheaply made but the words in it already fell apart before that. LOL! Cornball is nuts! :rolleyes:

Cleo, I'm the black sheep of my familt too. Oh please... I won't get into all that but to say pretty much everything I like they hate and the other way around. They want me to be a wife and mother, do all that kind of thing. You know, PTA and bake cookies. (Sighs) I am not the mother type, for I have far too much on my mine to mind any kids. I've gone all day just painting a canvas and forgot to eat myself. Now I could not do that if I had a kid. Right? Right! I'd be put behind bars for that no doubt.

Too many people on the planet anyhow so why should I spawn?

[Melissa McMahan]

LOL! Smart kitty cat eh?

I found one thing interesting from Cornball's book... I mean Cornwell's book. That was the "GUESTBOOK" someone dude who told her he found at that old inn. Of course Cornball just gave her POV about the context inside. She showed a couple of out of focued images of 2 of the pages. I was pi$$ed off she didn't show the pages and kept her darn mouth shut about. I wish SOMEONE ELSE would study this guestbook. Please?

[How Brown]

Melissa......Thats just one of the annoying features of Cornwell. She hoards or stashes some of the material SHE claims is evidential and doesn't expose it to others....She avoids confrontation with people like Ivor or Peter or some other Ripperologists on simple points.....Her motive is simply "hit and run"....grab the moolah and go....sell the book....and the sequel.

[Melissa McMahan]

Please do me a favor people, if I ever get any sort of fame at all for anything I do. If I ever do what Cornball is doing, which I will try to avoid in any case. But if I do come get me in a WWE Smack Down head lock and knock some since back into me. JEEZE!

Cornball... I mean Cornwell, needs John Cena to diss her in one of his raps. I wonder how much he'd ask for that? :) LOL!

I think we should at least send her our own maybe huh?

[How Brown]

Uhmm...er...ah...Melissa ? You don't have to be famous for me to wrestle with ya !!! I even battle the Unknowns ! Especially Texas Wimmen !!!-------- Best 3 out of 5 ?

[Melissa McMahan]

I've heard the grapevine on the net talking about a movie deal Cornwell is working on. If she does make a JTR movie with Sickert as the killer, then perhaps she might show more of that darn GUESTBOOK. (???) I'd love to look at it myself, even if it turns out to be a hoax. The Maybrick Diary I believe to be a 100% hoax due to some of the mistakes and errors in it. Mary Kelly's heart for one thing.

Anyway, I don't think I wish to tussle with anyone who doesn't give me a good reason to do so. Sorry guy. LOL!

[D1g1TaL Gh0sT]

She's working on a movie deal now?

If she gets it, that's a surefire sign the apocalypse is near.

[How Brown]

Melissa and all.......Melissa has made a couple of posts regarding her desire to see this guestbook that Mrs. Cornwell has, with Sickert doing some scribbling on it.

I meant to post this before,but here it is now....

Back in 1977, I was invited to a really elaborate wedding between a friend of my ex-wife # 1 and the beau, a French cook.
I felt like a fish out of water as the atmosphere was a bunch of Philly 'regular people" trying to pretend they had something in common with the dozens of French relatives of the groom. I sort of steered clear,just drinking myself into oblivion. It was a strange combo,to say the least............................................. ........

Anyway, after awhile, my ex-wife came by were I was standing and handed me the Guestbook to sign. I noticed that the book had to cost over a hundred bucks easily. As the wife handed me the pen, the mind went to work....so, I signed myself in,as best as possible,as " President Jimmy Carter,Washington". I handed the book and pen back to the wife, who was oblivious as to what I did. So was I the next morning. I completely forgot about this for over 25 years !!!!!

Two years ago,my ex-wife and I were chatting on AOL. I asked her how that girl Kathy was doing ( the bride ),as I had seen the girl's Mom recently in passing. She told me that Kathy is still pizzed off at me for the wedding gaffe. I asked her why. She told me of the Carter signature. I couldn't remember at first,but then I did.

Anyway, I see Sickert just "goofing' with the scribbling in this guestbook. Maybe that girl should write a book about how Jimmy Carter came to her wedding to discuss the giving away of the Panama Canal and how she has the proof he was there !!!

[Melissa McMahan]

Oh I think I confused a few of you here about Maybrick's Diary and Mary Kelly's heart. I tend to confuse people when I explain something... Anything really. Sorry about that people. I don't know it until others say something that clues me into that fact. :)

As we all know JTR took Mary's heart off with him. However in the Maybrick's Diary it claims nothing was taken with him and he was hungry. One of the mistakes the author of this HOAX made. Nobody know what the killer did with Mary's heart but he did take it. He may have taken other smaller parts of her body as well. It's not like they could have put her body back together again. I would say with the GUESTBOOK, it may indeed be written and drawn on by Sickert. But so what? It still does mean Sickert himself was really Jack the Ripper. This man had an odd sarcastic humor, so he may have thought acting like he was JTR was funny. Some people have strange fetishes, perhaps Sickert's was this twisted. (???) I doubt he was the real Jack the Ripper myself.

[How Brown]

Ghost: With her clout in the fiction book world, I am frankly surprised that she didn't already have a film being worked on by now. This woman has a pretty decent sized fan base. Here in the U$A, that correlates into loot.

Speaking of movies.....whatever happened to the proposed Anthony Hopkins-as-lead film on Maybrick ? Why was that shelved? Anyone know ?

[Melissa McMahan]

The bad news is I also heard that Cornwell is thinking about sticking her two cents in the Zodiac case as well. Hum? I wonder who'd she finger for that? Drew Carry? LOL!

Darn it! I wish I could get a fan base like she has. :mad: The only people who like my stuff are thoughs who read any of my stupid Fan Fiction that I write every now and again. I would NOT want to be like Cornball however. I'd have to have that part of my brain taken out that has to do with REASON first. :) I'm already dyslexic but have a 120 IQ... So I guess that makes me an oxymoron? LOL!

[How Brown]

120 I.Q. ? Dammmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmn ! Thats double Ivor and Tim's !!...on a good day......with a lotta rest.....

Your work makes you feel good. Don't be harsh on yourself.

[D1g1TaL Gh0sT]

Howard...

I give her this much.

If she did, in fact, get said movie deal, she certainly wouldn't be the first person to present her own version of the "truth", of a piticular historic event. Still, the thought of her making a dime off of her blatantly factless drivel, is appaling to me. The fact that it would also be at the expense of a man, whom isn't even alive to defend himself, only makes it seem worse.

Cornwell taking on the Zodiac case? Man...Does this woman have a "God complex" or what? I can just picture her dumba$$ now, trying to re-create the crime like she did with the Ripper. Only this time, instead of slicing open a bag of innards from the local market, she'll strap on a pair of Wingwalkers, a dufflebag filled with 50 dumbell plates, and take a stroll through the park, trying to re-create the shoeprints (from which, of course, she magically be able to deduce the culprit just by looking at the imprint).

Hey Cornwell: Your proctologist called. They found your head!

[Melissa McMahan]

I agree with Ghost here. This woman Cornwell is a nut-job!

She has some sort of "complex" going, "God" or otherwise.

Maybe she's trying to fill the void left by Miss. Cleo?

MISS CLEO: "Call me for your free reading!"

CORNWELL: "Don't call me, just buy my books. I have all the answers you need to solve ice cold murder cases!"

MELISSA: (Sarcasm) "Where are my knee boots? The cow pies are getting too deep!"

[Karen]

OH PLEEEEEEEAAAAAASE, say no more!! OH MY GOD - NO WAY!!

It's got to be a pisstake of the pissiest kind!! That's it, people. The world is officially over!!

:banghead:

However, who would make a good Sickert? Hmmmm.......

How about http://www.casebook.org/images/waltersickert_sepia.jpg

[Karen]

It will probably end up going straight to video after being laughed out of the theaters during the opening credits :smoker:

[Karen]

This movie certainly doesn't warrant the $21.00 that one would normally pay for a popcorn and pop; and that is not including the cost of admission. :D

[Karen]

What would be the name of this Blockbuster (video store) opus?

"Portrait Of The Author As A Director"?

[admin tim]

http://www.artcyclopedia.com/feature-2002-11.html

[admin tim]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSKL5E3zSjs

I believe it was Chris George (or another of the regular wags) who first mentioned this selection several years ago, in reference to it being an appropriate soundtrack for Patsy and her hired guns making their way to the PRO to have their go at the ripper letters.

[Adam_Douglas]

I have this book as part of my collection, and havent read it yet - although I have skim read it. From what I know Sickert doesnt seem to be a very likely suspect and in the conclusion of the book I couldnt see that Cornwell offered any real evidence against him (except that someone who wrote a JTR letter used the same brand of stationary that Sickert once used - the DNA evidence struck me as worthless as all of the documents must have been handled by so many people by now)

But the one thing I did she feel she was right on is that she clearly feels a great deal of hostility for the killer. A lot of the stuff I have read since I became interested in JTR (when I read Alan Moore's comic earlier in the year) seems to almost admire the killer, be jokey in its tone - talking about "Saucy Jack" while the victims are just "whores" or "gin soaked drabs"... I guess sometimes in some of what I read at least the distance from the crimes makes it just a mystery rather than the horror story it was (alhough almost every book seems to have a picture of the butchered remains supposed to be Mary Kelly - and I find it pretty hard to look at the picture still)

Whether Cornwell's theory is strong or not (I think it is weak personally) I think she did at least point out to as all that JTR was still after all a murderer who deserves out contempt, a failed human being, and a monster.

[How Brown]

Adam:

Banner day on the boards for you,buddy.

I give Cornwell credit for bringing people to the field. I do have a feeling,however, she is projecting some of her own experiences with men as she vilifies Sickert....particularly her father. Just an opinion and no better than the next persons.

[Big Jon]

I give Cornwell credit for bringing people to the field. I do have a feeling,however, she is projecting some of her own experiences with men as she vilifies Sickert....particularly her father. Just an opinion and no better than the next persons.

Amen, she brought me here!

That would definetly explain her hatred of Sickert, didn't she also say on the documentary she made that she was sexually assaulted?

[How Brown]

Bigness:

And she attracts attention in a way no other Ripperologist can...by her other work which invariably leads her readers to Case Closed...and then Ripperology and then to us,where we unconfuse 'em in the most bestest way. Either you "find" Ripperology through her "Case Closed" or you find it eventually through the other stuff. People who buy her books ( Like the Nora Roberts books ) buy them ALL.

As great as Begg and Evans are, even their work isn't featured in convienence stores...and I have seen Case Closed in a 7-11.

Yes, she said she was assaulted in her youth.

[Big Jon]

Indeed, about 2 years after it's release I still saw it in Supermarkets and the like. It's also the most common book you see in charity and second hand book shops.

[Adam_Douglas]

Indeed, about 2 years after it's release I still saw it in Supermarkets and the like. It's also the most common book you see in charity and second hand book shops.


Agree on that, Ive been trying to build a little collection of books, and I go round the local charity shops - and have seen "case closed" many times.