By using techniques unknown in the late Victorian era, Patricia Cornwell has exposed Sickert as the author of the infamous Ripper letters to the Metropilitan Police. Her detailed analysis of his paintings shows how his art continually depicts his horrific mutilation of his victims, and her examination of this man's birth defects, the consequent genitial surgical interventions and their effect on his upbringing present a casebook example of how a psychopathic killer is created.
