Customer Reviews
some interesting thoughts - By: Vanessa, 25 Dec 2008 
I'm really sorry to say it that way, but this is a stupid book. I have read a couple of books on the case, most of which pretended to be objective, & Cornwell's (who doesn't), & though I found Cornwell's conclusions only partially convincing, her book was at least well written & proved her to be quite informed about forensic science. Overton Fuller not only repeatedly dwells on her own person & experiencein many quite uninteresting paragraphs which have nothing to do with the topic (and one wonders if she doesn't have a hairdresser to whom she might tell all that stuff...), but it seems she knows next to nothing about psychopathology & serial killers. Not that it would be admirable if she did - but some of her assumptions are frankly ridiculous. On the whole, she seems to entertain the opinion that Sickert committed the crimes, though this is also no more than an assumption made on the grounds of what she was allegedly told by her mother 60 years ago, but that this is really no reason to think that he might have been a bad guy. He did it, allright, but couldn't it happen to anyone to kill five prostitutes? that seems to be the credo of the author. The only merit of the book liesin the reproduction of some of the images of Sickert's work & the author's interpretations of them,in her research work &in some interesting reflections about artists & pictures of violence, e.g. Hogarth. Sorry.
Nonsense... - By: bartlet, 04 Jul 2007 
Utter stuff 'n' nonsense. A good read it may be (if you like that sort of thing), but if you care who the ripper was - my fellow reviewers - you need to investigate a bit more than just reading this nonsense. If i could give it -5 stars i would.
Hearsay...a book of less value than the paper and ink that comprise it - By: kingrizla2000, 04 Oct 2006 Walter Sickert is possibly the greatest British interiors artist of all time. It is nothing short of a disgrace that whilst his art is almost completely ignoredin his own country, hacks such as this get rich publishing hearsay. It is a damning indictment of our national culture that the reading audience are more interestedin gossip & tittle-tattle than they arein great art.
There has never been a truer artist than Walter Sickert. It is a shame the same cannot be said of this author...
excellent, engaging, honest, meticulous - By: Dog in a Flat Cap, 19 Nov 2003 
i can hardly praise this book highly enough. although i have to thank patricia cornwell's high-profile mission to expose sickert as the perpetrator of the ripper crimes for inadvertently leading me to overton-fuller's work, i have no hesitationin recommending this work as the far superior.
i am no 'ripperologist',in fact the very idea of devoting an entire 'science' to the deeds committed by a common-or-garden sexually & socially deficient psychopath (read any scientific report on sexual homicides & serial killers & you will see how paltry these individuals are... neither can the 'ripper' claim to have been the first of his type, as a swift glance through krafft-ebbing's 'psychopathia sexualis' details numerous similar cases of individuals compelled to slice up dead women, amongst other equally banal sexual peccadillos) would be humorous if it weren't so terribly sad.
he was no criminal geniusin evading detection; killing women out of doorsin a london smog means there are no bodiesin the cellar to give you away, & where there is no close connection between victim & murderer, asin apparently random attacks such as these, police might as well be looking for a needlein a haystack... so what is there to admire? the ripper's enduring celebrity is doubtless down to another, whichever 'spin-doctor' it was who dubbed him 'jack the ripper', a catchy title if ever there was one. maybe if he was dubbed 'willie the sexually deficient retentive' he would not have so many books, films, tours, etc, etc, etc... devoted to him?
anyway, the point is that you should buy this book as it is superb, whether or not you agree with overton-fuller's conclusions (which,in her hands, are only ever suggestions); her handling of the evidence is breathtaking, her discussion of Sickert's painting admirable, her honesty inspirational, & deserves to thoroughly eclipse the cringeworthy efforts of patricia cornwell (who disdains to mention overton-fuller's prior work, & who, what's more, seems to believe herself the bodily incarnation of jessica fletcher).
Jack the Ripper identified as famous artist. - By: , 12 Oct 2003 Jean Overton Fuller's SICKERT AND THE RIPPER CRIMES, first published thirteen years ago & republished nowin a revised & updated edition, becomes more topical than ever following the appearancein November 2002 of Patricia Cornwell's book PORTRAIT OF A KILLER.
Both these works identify the English tonal painter Walter Richard Sickert (1860 - 1942) as the Victorian serial killer Jack the Ripper.
Between them, they present overwhelming evidence of Sickert's guilt. However, while Ms. Cornwell (reviewed elsewhere) makes this diagnosis from modern-style forensic & chemical evidence, Jean Overton Fuller reaches the same conclusion through a unique first-hand personal connection with the original events.
In 1948 Miss Fuller learned from her artist mother about a friend of the mother's, Florence Pash (1860 - 1951), whoin her youth had been closely associated with Sickertin Victorian London.
Through Sickert, Florence became caught upin a terrifying sequence of events, revelations & threats - all of which, either directly or indirectly, pointed to his involvementin the Ripper murders.
Too frightened at the time to tell anybody about her situation or her suspicions, after Sickert's death she finally divulged them to Miss Fuller's mother - who,in turn, imparted them to Miss Fuller.
With hindsight, & taking into account a great deal of supporting evidence unearthed by herself, Miss Fuller presents a case for Sickert's identification as Jack the Ripper which (even without the additional material now put forward now by Patricia Cornwell - though that, of course, is welcome corroboration) unanswerably identifies Walter Richard Sickert as "Jack the Ripper", the Whitehall murderer.
This is a scholarly book which is also readable, well illustrated, & tremendously exciting, & I warmly recommend it to anybody interestedin social history, art, thrillers, detection, the joy of the chase or - quite simply - a good read.
