38 Facts About Patricia Cornwell

Patricia Cornwell was born on Patricia Carroll Daniels; June 9,1956 and is an American crime writer.

Patricia Cornwell is known for her best-selling novels featuring medical examiner Kay Scarpetta, of which the first was inspired by a series of sensational murders in Richmond, Virginia, where most of the stories are set.

Patricia Cornwell's books have sold more than 100 million copies.

Patricia Cornwell's father was one of the leading appellate lawyers in the United States and served as a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black.

Patricia Cornwell later traced her own motivations in life to the emotional abuse she says she suffered from her father, who walked out on the family on Christmas Day 1961.

Patricia Cornwell turned to Ruth Bell Graham as an authority figure, and it was she who noticed that Patricia Cornwell's talent lay in writing and encouraged her literary efforts.

In 1979, Patricia Cornwell began working as a reporter for The Charlotte Observer, initially editing TV listings, then moving to features, and finally becoming a reporter covering crime.

Patricia Cornwell continued at the newspaper until 1981, when she moved to Richmond, Virginia with her first husband, Charles Cornwell, who enrolled at the Union Theological Seminary.

Patricia Cornwell began work on her first novel in 1984, about a male detective named Joe Constable and met Dr Marcella Farinelli Fierro, a medical examiner in Richmond, and subsequent inspiration for the character of Dr Kay Scarpetta.

Patricia Cornwell worked there for six years, first as a technical writer and then as a computer analyst.

Patricia Cornwell volunteered to work with the Richmond Police Department.

Patricia Cornwell wrote three novels that she says were rejected before the publication in 1990, of the first installment of her Scarpetta series, Postmortem, based on real-life stranglings in Richmond in the summer of 1987.

Patricia Cornwell shifted back to a first-person perspective in the Scarpetta novel Port Mortuary.

Patricia Cornwell has been involved in a continuing, self-financed search for evidence to support her theory that painter Walter Sickert was Jack the Ripper.

Patricia Cornwell denied being obsessed with Jack the Ripper in full-page ads in two British newspapers and has said the case was "far from closed".

In 2001, Patricia Cornwell was criticized for allegedly destroying one of Sickert's paintings in pursuit of the Ripper's identity.

Patricia Cornwell believed the well-known painter to be responsible for the string of murders and had purchased over thirty of his paintings and argued that they closely resembled the Ripper crime scenes.

Patricia Cornwell claimed a breakthrough: a letter written by someone purporting to be the killer had the same watermark as some of Sickert's writing paper.

Patricia Cornwell made a brief appearance on the police procedural drama Criminal Minds in the episode "True Genius" as herself.

In 2000, he sent letters to Patricia Cornwell's publisher, started a web page, and placed stickers on copies of his novel alleging that Patricia Cornwell was committing plagiarism.

In 2007, during her libel suit against Sachs, Patricia Cornwell testified that Sachs had accused her in online postings of being a "Jew hater" and "neo-Nazi" who bribed judges, conspired to have him killed, and was under investigation by US authorities.

The court permanently enjoined Sachs from making defamatory accusations against Patricia Cornwell and awarded Patricia Cornwell $37,780 in damages to cover the costs of defending herself against Sachs' internet attacks.

Patricia Cornwell fired the firm after discovering in July 2009 that the net worth of her and her company, Patricia Cornwell Entertainment Inc.

The court case opened in January 2013, with Patricia Cornwell suing the firm for a combined sum of $100M.

Professor Patricia Cornwell later left his tenured professorship to become a preacher.

In 1989, the couple separated, with Patricia Cornwell retaining her married name after the divorce.

In 2006, Patricia Cornwell married Staci Gruber, an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard University.

Since childhood, Patricia Cornwell has been friends with the family of evangelist Billy Graham and his wife Ruth Bell, often serving as the family's unofficial spokesperson to the media.

Patricia Cornwell wrote an authorized biography of Ruth Bell Graham.

Patricia Cornwell has in the past suffered from anorexia nervosa and depression, which began in her late teens.

Patricia Cornwell spoke openly about her struggle with bipolar disorder, but in 2015 said that she was misdiagnosed.

On January 10,1993, Patricia Cornwell crashed her Mercedes-Benz while under the influence of alcohol.

Patricia Cornwell was convicted of drunk driving and sentenced to 28 days in a treatment center.

Since 1998, Patricia Cornwell has donated at least $130,000 to the Republican Party, and has made additional individual contributions to Republican US Senate candidates, including George Allen, John Warner, and Orrin Hatch.

Patricia Cornwell has occasionally supported specific Democratic candidates as well, including Hillary Clinton, Nicola Tsongas, Charles Robb, and Mark Warner.

Patricia Cornwell has made million-dollar donations to the John Jay College of Criminal Justice for the Crime Scene Academy and to the Harvard Art Museum.

Patricia Cornwell donated funds to the Richmond City Police Dept.

Patricia Cornwell is a major contributor at the Five Star level to the Veterans Village of San Diego, with lifetime giving of more than $250,000.