Patricia Cornwell

Patricia Cornwell (born Patricia Daniels on June 9, 1956) is the author of a popular series of crime novels featuring the fictional heroine "Dr. Kay Scarpetta", a medical examiner.

Controversies

Jack the Ripper

Cornwell has been involved in a continuing, self-financed search for evidence to support her theory that painter Walter Sickert was Jack the Ripper. She published ' in 2002 to much controversy, especially within the British art world, where Sickert's work is admired, and also among Ripperologists, who criticize her methods and conclusions. See Portrait of a Killer for further information. However, Cornwell denies a Jack the Ripper obsession in full-page ads in two British newspapers.http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/08/27/cornwell.ripper.ap/

Related Topics:
Walter Sickert - Jack the Ripper - 2002 - British - Portrait of a Killer

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Litigation surrounding The Last Precinct

Dr. Leslie Sachs, author of The Virginia Ghost Murders (1998), claimed to see similarities between his novel and Cornwell's novel The Last Precinct. In 2000 he sent letters to Cornwell's publisher, started a page on the World Wide Web, and placed stickers on his novel in order to claim that Cornwell was committing plagiarism. Cornwell successfully obtained a preliminary injunction against Sachs. The court ruled that his claims were baseless, and he was prevented from placing the stickers on his book. The court also required that booksellers remove the stickers that were already there and shut his website down for false advertising. http://www.prenhall.com/girasa/updates/ch10.html.

Related Topics:
1998 - The Last Precinct - 2000 - Plagiarism

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Sachs decided to go abroad where he was unaffected by the injunction. He continues to charge that Cornwell plagiarized his work and used her influence to subvert justice.

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