Jack the Ripper: the Walter Sickert Connection

In the latter months of 1888, London's East End (also known as Whitechapel) was held in a grip of fear. Serial killer Jack the Ripper was at large, murdering known local prostitutes. The Jack the Ripper crimes remain unsolved over a century later. Many people have investigated these murders and a number of theories have emerged, as the suspect list continues to grow.

One prominent name on the suspect list is the artist, Walter Sickert, who was brought to the forefront with the publication of Stephen Knight's book, Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution. Knight's theory was based on a tale told to him by Joseph Sickert, allegedly told to him by Walter Sickert. This story maintains that the murders were carried out by the Freemason society to conceal the secret marriage of Queen Victoria's grandson, Prince Albert Victor (Duke of Clarence) and a commoner by the name of Annie Elizabeth Crook. This union is said to have produced a child, Alice Margaret Crook. The fear would have been that if this marriage became public knowledge, that it would have launched a Socialist uprising and the end of the monarchy. The young couple would have been separated, the child taken and those who knew of the union silenced. The one who needed to be silenced would have been the child's nanny, Ripper victim Mary Kelly. Walter Sickert was said to have been responsible for the union. Fearing for his life and that of the child, Sickert remained silent. Alice Margaret is said to have grown up, become Sickert's student and later his mistress. The result of this union was Knight's source, Joseph Sickert. Knight, however, concluded that Walter Sickert may have actually been more actively involved in the conspiracy than merely maintaining silence.

Sickert is named as a lone suspect in the early 1990's in Jean Overtun Fuller's Sickert and the Ripper Crimes. Fuller contends that some of the Ripper's "Dear Boss" letters are written in Sickert's own disguised handwriting.

Mystery writer, Patricia Cornwell, follows up on this theory by conducting her own forensic investigation. In her book, Portrait of a Killer Jack the Ripper: Case Closed, she concludes that Sickert was the Ripper. Through her research, she matched the watermarks on Sickert's personal stationary to the watermarks some of the Ripper letters. In addition, she found traces of etching ground, consistant with that found in an artists studio, on some of the Ripper letters. She also made connections to Sickert in the content and some of the artwork in the some of letters. However, Cornwell began her research, hoping to prove Sickert's guilt as the Ripper and her evidence is mostly circumstancial. Afterall, there were other artists living in London when the Ripper was at large.

The next story is two stories in one, beginning with the story of the "Lodger". This was born out of Sickert's claims that that he had occupied the Ripper's former rooms at the Morning Cresent in Camden. The owner's wife insisted that this "Lodger" was Jack the Ripper, claiming that he would stay out all night and then run out for the newspaper on the mornings of the murders. He was described as a "young veternary student with delicate looks and consumption". So here, Sickert connects himself with another suspect. He tell this tale to Sir Melville McNaughten ( one of the investigators of the Ripper case), who feels this description matches that of John Montague Druitt. Druitt had initially become a suspect, when he had been found drowned in the Thames River, shortly after the murder of Mary Kelly (said by many to have been the Ripper's last victim), in an apparent suicide. However, Druitt's suicide note contained no confession. Oddly, Sickert claimed that Druitt was a scapegoat in the Freemason conspiracy story.

Finally, Sickert can be connected to yet another Ripper suspect; this suspect is poet James Kenneth Stephen. Stephen was a cousin of writer Virgina Woolf (maiden name Stephen) and her sister, artist Vanessa Bell. The claim is that Stephen once was the tutor of Prince Albert Victor and the two become lovers. When the relationship ended, Stephen was crushed and believed to have begun murdering prostitutes out of jealousy.
He wrote a poem called "Air Kapoozelem", about killling ten prostitutes (the actual number of Ripper victims has never been conclusively agreed upon); he died in an insane assylum. Nigel Nicholson's biography of Virginia Woolf mentions Virginia writing an essay about Walter Sickert's work, at his request; it was a glowing review. Though this was in Sickert's later years, it does seem to establish a family connection.

With all of these things in mind, it can reasonable ascertained that Walter Sickert might be considered a common denominator in the Ripper mystery. There is no conclusive evidence to prove that he was the actual killer. However, whether he were the killer, an accomplice in a murder conspiracy, an amateur sleuth with a real interest in the case or he knew who the killer actually was, it might be wise to begin an investigation starting with him and working out toward those around him.

Sources:

1. Casebook: Jack the Ripper
Http://www.casebook/jacktheripper
2. Knight, Stephen
Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution
Chancellor Press 2000
3. Cornwell, Patricia
Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper, Case Closed
Berkely Books, New York 2003
4. Rumbelow, Donald
The Complete Jack the Ripper
New York Graphic Society Ltd. 1975
5. Nicholson, Nigel
Virginia Woolf
Viking Penquin 2000