Sickert and the Ripper Crimes: The 1888 Ripper Murders and the artist Walter Richard Sickert

by Jean Overton Fuller

In the autumn of 1888, London women lived under the shadow of the Ripper murders-killings perhaps unmatched in their sadistic brutality. Sickert & The Ripper Crimes derives from the unsuspected testimony of the woman who had particular reason to fear for her life. Florence Pash, friend and colleague of the artist Walter Sickert and herself an artist, confided to the author's mother when in her late eighties, a terrible story that she had kept even from those closest to her.



Jean Overton Fuller is known in the field of Ripperology for her book Sickert and the Ripper Crimes. A study of the enormously talented Edwardian painter Walter Richard Sickert, in which, using her artist eye she scrutinises the paintings he produced for clues about the 1888 Ripper murders. Sickert found thrill and inspiration in the music halls, and the murky regions of the demi-monde and its inhabitants. The man was an enigma, his obsession with the Ripper murders, and the atmosphere of impending gory death, with the nudity, garishness, the strong scarlet hues, and the threatening shadows depicted so disturbingly in The Camden Town Murder series of his paintings, have raised questions and suspicion about the nature of Sickert's fascination.
Jean, through her mother, was a contemporary link to these events, and with Sickert and the Ripper Crimes had generated a considerable amount of interest from the public as well from among her fellow writers, such as for instance the American best-selling author Patricia Cornwell and her contribution to the subject with her Portrait of A Jack The Ripper, Case Closed.
Paul Begg and Adam Wood of Ripperologist had invited Jean Overton Fuller to speak at the 2003 Ripper Conference in Liverpool. Mogg drove from Oxford to Wymington, a small locality in Northamptonshire to collect Jean en route to the Conference. This weekend in August was one of the hottest in the year. After the nightmare journey of the A5 to Liverpool with cars slowly moving head to tail, they were rewarded and arrived at the gigantic and labyrinthine Britannia Adelphi Hotel, a venue specially chosen for this Conference because of its Ripper connection. Jean greatly enjoyed this event and the very good and erudite company of the international fraternity of Ripperologists. The late Jeremy Beadle was the Master of Ceremony and introduced Jean to the audience, and she came alight on stage and spoke entertainingly for about half an hour without notes.
'timely and welcome...remains a curious and important book' - Paul Begg in Ripperologist , April 2002 * Ripperologist, The Journal of Jack The Ripper, East End and Victorian Studies is available in electronic format, on subscription www.ripperologist.co.uk

Genres: Nonfiction, True Crime

284 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

Reviews

[Dan Brand]

One of the better Ripper-related books.

I'm still unconvinced Sickert was JTR, but this is an interesting insight into a fascinating character, and has some intriguing personal stories. Overton Fuller's artistic expertise lends credibility to her discussion of Sickert's creepier paintings. A more balanced discussion than that of Patricia Cornwell, whose pointed silence on the earlier work of Overton Fuller does her no credit. While I don't think it makes a conclusive case for Sickert being JTR, it's a compelling look at his obsession with the killer. Much hinges on what you make of the recollections of Florence Pash, as told to the author's mum. Florence's claims to have befriended Mary Jane Kelly. The treatment of MJK is very interesting.

[Fishface]

VERY hard to put down. Yet another informant comes forward about Walter Sickert's possible connection to the Ripper killings. Thought-provoking! On the other hand, I do not see the reasoning behind some of the author's conclusions -- they call for explanations she never offers. Also, my confidence in her was seriously shaken by the fact that she consistently confuses Elizabeth Stride and Annie Chapman, not only in the photo captions but in the text. Sickert is supposed to have told his son that he tried to save Mary Jane Kelly's life by pointing out Liz, because she used Mary Kelly as an alias; yet he supposedly told Florence Pash that Annie Chapman was killed by mistake because she was confused with Kelly? She never explains how, if Sickert was the lone killer, he could possibly have confused the identities of a woman he used to live with and a woman he never met.