"Portrait of a Killer"

• Book World • Entertainment Guide • Talk: Entertainment message boards • Live Online Transcripts • Subscribe to washingtonpost.com e-mail newsletters • mywashingtonpost. com -- customized news, traffic, weather and more

Through her acclaimed series of crime novels featuring Dr. Kay Scarpetta, and her recent number one bestsellers 'The Last Precinct' and 'Isle of Dogs,' Patricia Cornwell has become one of the best known crime authors in the world. In her newest book 'Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper, Case Closed' Cornwell delves into the 1888 serial-murder case that left at least seven women dead and London police baffled. Using her background in forensic science and 21st century investigative techniques, Cornwell exposes world famous artist Walter Sickert as the psychopathic killer.

A transcript follows.

Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.

washingtonpost.com: Thank you for joining us today, Ms. Cornwell. To get the discussion rolling maybe you could talk a bit about what made you decide to reach back over a century to re-investigate the case of Jack the Ripper?

Patricia Cornwell: It was truly an accident. I was talking to one of Scotland Yard's investigators and he knows a lot about the case from a police perspective and I knew nothing about the case and I simply asked if neither forensic science and investigative techniques had ever been applied to the case. What is left of the case is over 200 letters that Jack the Ripper wrote to the police and the press. Most have been dismissed as hoaxes, but as I began to examine these documents, what unfolded was that these letters contained a tremendous amount of info about who wrote them.

Washington, D.C.: Over 200 letters claiming to be from Jack the Ripper or the murderer were sent to various people. I do not know of any proof positively proved to have been written by the murderer. Most believe the name Jack the Ripper was created by the press or a hoaxer. Therefore, none of the letters can be proved to be written by the true murderer.

You may have proved Sickert wrote letters, but this does not prove he is the murderer. Isn't that correct?

Patricia Cornwell: It's a very good point. FIrst of all, we certainly have evidence that shows that Sickert wrote a number of the letters. And a lot of people accept that. I would quickly point out what some evidence is. We continue to have evidence come in. This continues as more evidence can be found an analyzed.

It's clear that a number were written by an artist, there is paint, paintbrushes, lithographic crayons, and several different mediums in one letter. THe most interesting being a brown substance that the ripper called blood. A microscopic evaluation on this material showed that in fact it is what's called etching ground, which is a mixture of white wax, resin and oil that was used on copper printing plates for etchings, which is what he was doing at the time. You could not buy this over the counter.

We have some drawings that are very professional and this was looked at by art experts. We have paper matches, watermark matches, a DNA mitochondrial sequence in common. So layer after layer.

SO to the second part, how do you say Okay, does this mean he committed the crimes. For one thing, that would be something a jury would decide. And I really think its up to the common sense of the people that someone who is intelligent wrote letters to the police, taunting, mocking and confessing and bragging. Why would somebody do that if he or she did not commit the crimes. Especially if there's no pattern of this in the past.

Patricia Cornwell: If you didn't have any other evidence in the sniper case, for example. The handwriting, the watermark and the paper -- it came from the same roll of paper. In the case of Sickert, we have four letters that came from one batch of 6,000 pieces of paper.

If you found that in the sniper case, the police would be all over these people.

I don't think it's possible he wrote these letters and didn't commit the crimes.

Knoxville, Tenn.: Are Sickert's paintings themselves the primary evidence you used in reaching your conclusions? If so, what method of deduction and inference do you apply to connect a painting to an action? Is it a method of general application, or does it apply only in this instance?

Patricia Cornwell: Walter Sickert's paintings remind me of when you unlock the front door and hear the burglar alarm beeping -- that something is about to happen. But interpreting art is extremely subjective. His work degrades women, is very violent and has many disturbing evidence. His favorite models were prostitutes... people who were not only the victims, but the people he focused on in his art.

I know that I see elements in this painting, including some that resemble the victims, but that would never constitute e vidence that would've led me to pursue this case to the point I had. You have to have scientific evidence and good circumstantial evidence. Things he said, things he wrote. Add all that together.

Natchitoches, La.: This is really interesting, but how about solving something a little more recent? Jon Benet, Jimmmy Hoffa and the like? I'd love to see it.

Patricia Cornwell: I don't feel inspired to at this point to solve anything recent. These are actively worked by contemporary investigators. But when you go back to Jack the Ripper, even though there is no statute of limitation on homicide, the case would no longer be active because the perpetrator is dead.

What I find extremely important about solving this case -- and I didn't do it by myself -- is first of all, the Ripper has become an industry and people have forgotten that the point is justice and the victims and remembering that this was a savage lust murderer and someone who should be halfway celebrated or entertaining.

I'm very offended when people begin to mythologize a violent offender. He does deserve to be unveiled. It is never too late for justice.

On another level, working a case this old we have stretched forensic science and art history to a place where it has never been before. We're discovering how long saliva DNA might survive and that can be very important in how quickly the police decide to analyze. Laboratories are so overworked, so if you wait 20 years and the DNA hasn't survived in saliva you're in trouble. So it is important.

Fredericksburg, Va.: What was the response of Walter Sickert's family regarding your investigation?

Patricia Cornwell: His only descendants that we know he has are two non-bloodline nephews who are related to his third wife. Their reaction is defensive. I think that they, and it would appear on things I've heard, along with other Sickert devotees and Ripper-ologists. Their reaction seems to be focused on trying to dismantle everything I have presented.

It is a shame, because why not spend your energy trying to add to this case. There's lots of information that no one has discovered yet. They should spend their energy on the killer, not discrediting me.

Baltimore, Md.: Hello,

I just purchased your Jack the Ripper book, and enjoy it so far.

I did not notice any reference to the book "Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution by (I believe) Stephen Knight, Vintage 1982 (?). It was based on a BBC documentary from c. 1973 which focused on Walter Sickert AND Sir William Gull, Queen Victoria's physician, as the killer(s).

Did you reference the Knight book and what is your opinion of William Gull's involvement in the Ripper murders?

Thank you.

Patricia Cornwell: I did not reference Knight because my method was to use primary sources, not people's theories. Although I am somewhat aware. Most of these theories are ridiculous. There is no evidence that Victoria's elderly surgeon, who had already suffered a stroke -- or the Duke of Clarence -- is simply silly.

So, plus these murders went on for a long time. They didn't end with Mary Kelly's savage death. There's plenty of reason to believe that these killings continued, but were committed in other parts of England and the police refused to attribute them to Jack the Ripper.

Why would someone like Gull suddenly become a serial killer in his 70s?

Serial killers don't stop till their caught or dead -- unless, like in the case of the ripper -- he was never caught and died at the age of 81. So we'll never know how long he continued to kill. They were unable to connect these remote killings to him as they could today. They didn't understand serial killers in that time.

Washington, D.C.: Hi Patricia:

I just finished your piece in "Vanity Fair" last night -- what sort of notoriety did Sickert actually have in the 19th Century London Art scene? You do talk about his relationship with Whistler and his acquaintances with other artists, but was he well-known in his own time?

Patricia Cornwell: Yes, he was well known. By the time he died in 1942 younger art students referred to him as "the king." And he's been forgotten by many since his death because he was his own best promoter.

He still is considered one of England's most important artists and there's no question he was a brilliant man.

washingtonpost.com: Do you want to tell us about tonight's talk at Lisner Auditorium. Is it open to the public?

Patricia Cornwell: Yes. It is open to the public.

Washington, D.C.: I read that you purchased a lot of the paintings. Do you still have them?

Patricia Cornwell: I do still have the works of art that I purchased. My view of them is that I'm a custodian of them at this time. I eventually will find an appropriate thing to do with them -- a museum, sold for charity. But right now they're in the process of being tested for fingerprints. We have three Ripper fingerprints from letters and want to try to match them.

The two letters that have the prints, there's no question that Sickert was the one that wrote them.

Ireland: What did you find so fascinating about Jack the Ripper?

Patricia Cornwell: I was never interested in Jack the Ripper until I began exploring the case. My first motivation was to eliminate suspects through science. SOme of them do have archival sources - like Gull -- and hopefully eliminate people who were falsely accused. I never would have imagined that I would find information about who committed the crimes.

So I don't have a fascination with the Ripper. But with Walter Sickert -- you should expect that these people are antisocial and unseemly. He was handsome, extraordinarily talented, a genius, charming, witty and certainly he was very cold-hearted and used people and you'll see this when you read the book.d\]

Montgomery Village, Md.: I've enjoyed your work so far and eagerly await the next Scarpetta novel. When can we expect it? Also, is there still a movie in the works of one of the earlier books and who will play Kay? Thank you and keep up the great work.

Patricia Cornwell: Thank you. Yes, the Scarpetta movie is still in the works. They are polishing the screenplay and it is based on "Post Mortem." No one has been picked to play her. You'll see the new Scarpetta book in about a year. As soon as I can get away from Jack the Ripper. Hopefully there will be a lot for her readers to look forward to. Having done the RIpper book and the fact that she's been gone for two years, she'll re-ermerge in a way that you've never seen her before and will be very demanding for me.