Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper—Case Closed that a paper manufacture expert she hired asserts that reams of paper supposedly used by Jack the Ripper to write several letters to Scotland Yard and paper purchased by Sickert's mother bear the same small-press watermark. She also claims that there are matches in the cutter's marks, which are a result of the rough cutting of each quire (or small package) for packaging. A "quire" was usually of 24 sheets. Though Cornwell's book sold many copies, many Ripperologists and other critics argued that Cornwell's theory was far from persuasive. Critics also note that Cornwell has said that she did not
Units of paper quantity Simon Winchester, in "The Surgeon of Crowthorne", cites a specific number, defining quire as "a booklet eight pages thick." Several European words for quire keep the meaning of "book of paper": Ger. "Buch von Papier", Dan. "bog papir", Du. "bock papier". In blankbook binding, "quire" is a term indicating 80 pages. A ream of paper is a quantity of sheets of the same size and quality. International standards organizations define the ream as 500 identical sheets. This ream of 500 sheets (20 quires of 25 sheets) is also known as a 'long' ream, and is gradually replacing the old value