Dear Boss P.S.

[Cap'n Jack]

Sam, was Sickert with Oscar at the time, or alone?

[Tom_Wescott]

Sam, was Sickert with Oscar at the time, or alone?

(Sickert singing) 'Oh, I wish I had an Oscar Wilde weiner!'

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[perrymason]

Wait a sec.....based on your honeymoon story Sam, it seems Sickert's spout worked about as well as Mary Kellys.

Coincidence?

Cheers.

[Emzikle]

Not only that, but because of his physically and psychologically debilitating penis fistula, Sickert was the only guy Maybrick trusted alone for 10 minutes around Florence.
Tom Wescott

Sorry if I've got this all wrong, I'm kinda new, but didn't Sickert end up having several illegitimate kids - supposedly including Joseph "Sickert" - and like three wives? Surely he wouldn't have married so many times if he was "unable to perform," and obviously no children.

And I read somewhere that the doctor he was seeing for his fistula was a proctologist who dealt with fistulas on the anus.

Is any of that right?

Emily

[Tom_Wescott]

Yes, but he didn't know any of this during his time at the Maybrick house. He apparently couldn't tell his ass from a hole in the penis.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Cap'n Jack]

A vacant nun with buck teeth explains the canvas.
'It was splattered. He must have had spunk. I see the face of God in the conception.'
Amen.

[Sam Flynn]

Sorry if I've got this all wrong, I'm kinda new, but didn't Sickert end up having several illegitimate kids - supposedly including Joseph "Sickert" - and like three wives? Surely he wouldn't have married so many times if he was "unable to perform," and obviously no children.

Hello Emily, and welcome.

There is little or no evidence that Walter Sickert suffered from a penile fistula, and there is no question about his virility, and he seems to have had normal relationships with women. There is very little reason to believe that Joseph "Sickert" was actually Walter's son, as he claimed.

[Celesta]

Paul,

It was a lame attempt on the author's part to explain why he waited two days to mail the letter. The real reason seems to have been he wanted to wait and see how the Chapman inquest played out, since he remarked about it in the P.S. Jack the Ripper likewise waited until the Nichols and Chapman inquests had finished before he killed again.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

Good grief, Tom! How dense I am. I never even thought of this, but it makes a good deal of sense. I mean even if JtR didn't write the letter, it still makes sense. Thanks. Celesta

[Emzikle]

Hey Sam, Thanks.

Thats what I thought.


And I tried looking up Joseph Sickert and Joseph Gorman on a family tree or something to see if he was related to Walter Sickert but I didn't get anywhere.

Also, do you know where the thing about him having a penile fistula originated?

Emily

[Celesta]

My colleague Keith Skinner is currently working with Ms Cornwell.

Hi Stewart,

This is very interesting. Hopefully, together, they can get some questions answered about these documents, especially if she has some data concerning aspects of them. Even if they turn out not to be JTR's, it would be a fine contribution just knowing they uncovered more about them. I feel that she did well to try and uncover evidence on her own, even if we don't like the interpretations. It don't think the original idea was a bad one, and, with Keith Skinner's knowledge, something might just turn up to surprise all of us. We can hope, can't we?

And I don't want any kind of arguments!

Best to you, Sir.

Celesta

[Christine]

Hey Sam, Thanks.

Thats what I thought.


And I tried looking up Joseph Sickert and Joseph Gorman on a family tree or something to see if he was related to Walter Sickert but I didn't get anywhere.

Also, do you know where the thing about him having a penile fistula originated?

Emily

Patricia Cornwell. At least, that's the only source I know of. She made it up to justify his (entirely unlikely) hatred of women and sex.

[Paddy Goose]

Joseph Sickert attended the unveiling of the Abberline plaque in Bornemouth. Link found on Abberline's tab on this website.

Paddy

http://www.casebook.org/images/Abberline%20Plaque.pdf

[perrymason]

It would seem that the only possible tangential connection Mr Sickert had with the Ripper crimes at this point in time is that he may have penned a Ripper letter or two...

Since its unlikely that any Ripper letter was sent by the killer of street unfortunates, he may well have done so. He was preoccupied with the crimes, and Ms Cornwell portrays him as an odd fellow in general, so who knows.

Her case for him as The Ripper though is devoid of any evidence.

Best regards all.

[Monty]

Christine,

Patricia Cornwell. At least, that's the only source I know of. She made it up to justify his (entirely unlikely) hatred of women and sex.

Not the correct thread I know, but....

...Taken from Stephen Ryders Patricia Cornwell and Walter Sickert: A Primer.

http://www.casebook.org/dissertations/dst-pamandsickert.html

Concept #5: Walter Sickert was impotent, childless, and had a fistula on his penis.

Patricia Cornwell states that Walter Sickert had no children, and was most likely impotent due to several surgeries early in life to correct a "fistula of the penis." This impotence she believes was a major cause of his intense hatred of women, and possibly spurned him on to commit the Ripper murders. Serial killers today are often found to be impotent - the act of murder becomes their only means of sexual fulfillment.

Fact #5: There is no evidence whatsoever that Sickert's fistula was on his penis. There is, to the contrary, abundant evidence that Sickert was quite a virile man who possibly sired several illegitimate children.

The only source for Walter Sickert's penis fistula is the testimony of his nephew-by-marriage, John Lessore - now an elderly man. (Mr. Lessore has since clarified that this was only "family hearsay" and that he was not absolutely sure). Although it is clear that Sickert did have a fistula of some sort, there is no documentary evidence to suggest that it was on his penis. Indeed, the fact that he was treated by Dr. Alfred Duff Cooper of St. Mark's Hospital suggests otherwise. Both Dr. Cooper and the Hospital were known for performing surgery of the rectum, anus and vagina. No records suggest at all that they were ever involved in, or qualified to perform, surgeries of the penis. The evidence here suggests that Sickert's fistula was on his rectum or anus.

Assuming for a moment that the fistula was on his penis, there is still no evidence to suggest that he was impotent because of it. He was rumored to have sired at least one child by his Dieppe mistriss, Mme. Villain, and a man named Joseph "Hobo" Sickert still contends to this day that he was Walter's illegitimate son. Indeed, a close friend, Jacques-Emile Blanche described Sickert in 1902 as an "immoralist... with a swarm of children of provenances which are not possible to count." Sickert was known to have had several mistresses, and was cited as being an adulterer by his first wife. All of this is copious evidence that Walter was perfectly able to have regular sex.

Monty

[Monty]

My colleague Keith Skinner is currently working with Ms Cornwell.

Hmmm, is Cornwell trying to make a connection between Dear Boss and Walter?

If so then tickerty boo but, to use a well worn phrase in the Cornwell/Sickert world, it doesnt put the knife in his hand.

Im comforted in a way that Keith is on board however Im not that comforted he will be allowed to do what he does best without someone attempting to pull him in a certain direction.

Monty