WHITECHAPEL MURDERER, THE – Genuine criminologists rarely refer to ‘Jack the Ripper': the name is in poor taste. While the identity of the murderer is considered the Grail of the celebrity fixated psychic, the purpose of the pursuit is titillation rather than enlightenment. Patricia Cornwell, the crime writer, requested my assistance in apportioning responsibility for the slayings to artist Walter Sickert. Her evidence was almost entirely conjectural and dealt with inconvenient details that exculpated Sickert (such as the murders' explicit links to Rotarian ritual) by ignoring them. After failing to convince me as to the merits of her case, Ms Cornwell turned to Ronald Hawthorne , a man who could be convinced that black was white if he could argue his case on television. Three weeks into the investigation, however, he withdrew, claiming that Sickert's ghost, enraged by his imminent exposure, was disrupting his sleep by switching lights on and off and tweaking his nipples. The book was eventually written without any psychic insights.

 

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