Hawley Harvey Crippen

Taken pre-1910.

Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen (11 September 1862 – 23 November, 1910), usually known as Dr Crippen, was born in Coldwater, Michigan, USA, in 1862 and hanged in Pentonville, England, on November 23, 1910 for murdering his wife. He has gone down in history as the first criminal to be captured with the aid of wireless communication.

Brief biography

Circa 1885 he became a homeopathic doctor and started working for a pharmaceutical company. His second wife was Cora Turner, born Kunigunde Mackamotski to a German mother and a Polish-Russian father. She was a would-be opera singer, who went under the name of Belle Elmore. A rather overbearing woman, she tried to control every aspect of her husband's life. She openly had affairs, about which he did not complain very much. In 1900, Crippen and his spouse moved to England. Unfortunately for him, his U.S. medical qualification was insufficient to obtain a doctor's position in the UK. The couple moved to 39 Hilldrop Crescent, Holloway, London where they had lodgers to compensate Crippen's rather measly income. Crippen was not a homeopath in the classic sense in that he used many potions aside from homeopathic remedies.

Murder

After a party at their home on January 31, 1910, Belle disappeared. Hawley Crippen told everyone she had returned to the United States, and later added that she had died in California and had been cremated. Meanwhile, his lover, Ethel le Neve, moved into Hilldrop Crescent and began openly wearing Belle's clothes and jewellery. The police were informed of Belle's disappearance. The house was searched but nothing was found, and the doctor was interviewed by police Chief Inspector Walter Dew. After the interview, Dew was satisfied and had no doubts regarding the truth of his story. However, Crippen did not know this -- he and le Neve panicked and fled to Brussels spending the night in a hotel. The following day they went to Antwerp where they took the SS Montrose to Canada.

Transatlantic arrest

Their disappearance led Scotland Yard to do another search of the house, and this time they found the remains of a human body in the basement. Sir Bernard Spilsbury found traces of hyoscine, a calming drug. Mrs. Crippen had to be identified from a piece of skin from her abdomen, because her head, limbs and skeleton were never recovered. Crippen and le Neve fled across the Atlantic on the Montrose, with le Neve disguised as a boy. Unfortunately for them, Captain 'Henry George Kendall was keeping abreast of the news by wireless and was mingling among the first class passengers. He recognised the fugitives. Kendall sent a wireless telegram to British authorities: "Have strong suspicions that Crippen London cellar murderer and accomplice are among saloon passengers. Mustache taken off growing beard. Accomplice dressed as boy manner and build undoubtedly a girl." (Had Dr. Crippen and Miss le Neve travelled 2nd or 3rd class {according to Larsen, the only classes of travel available for the journey were second class and steerage}, they might well have escaped Kendall's notice.) Dew boarded the faster White Star liner, the SS Laurentic, arriving in Quebec ahead of Crippen, where he contacted the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. (As a young constable, on 9 November 1888, Dew had been the first police officer on the scene at Jack the Ripper's fifth and final known murder, that of Mary Jane Kelly).

As the Montrose entered the British territorial waters (in 1910 Canada was a crown dominion) of the St Lawrence River Inspector Dew, disguised as a pilot, came aboard. This was Crippen's second mistake concerning his evasion. Had he sailed directly to the United States, even if he had been one day eventually recognised, it would have required an international arrest warrant followed by extradition proceedings, complicated by the fact that he was a US citizen, to have him brought before the Old Bailey. As it was, Dew was a Scotland Yard detective on duty acting within the bounds of the British Empire. Kendall invited Crippen to meet the pilots as they came aboard. Dew removed his pilot's cap and said, "Good morning, Dr Crippen. Do you know me? I'm Inspector Dew from Scotland Yard." After a pause Crippen replied, "Thank God it's over. The suspense has been too great. I couldn't stand it any longer." He then held out his wrists for the handcuffs. Crippen and le Neve were arrested on board the Montrose on 31 July 1910. After discovering the circumstances of his arrest, when Crippen alighted he cursed both Kendall and his ship.

The Montrose

As World War I approached, the Admiralty feared that Dover harbour would be an easy target for U-boats, and decided to sink two obsolete ships at the harbour entry as an added defence. The Admiralty bought the SS Montrose, filled its hull with ballast and moored it at Admiralty Pier, Dover. On 28 December 1914, a storm raged and the Montrose broke her moorings, drifting up the English Channel towards the Goodwin Sands. Tugs were sent after her and four men boarded the wreck to secure cables but to no avail. She sank in the channel between the North and South banks of the sands where she can be seen to this day. The last sailor to leave the Montrose before she broke up was named Crippen.

Captain Kendall

Captain Kendall later became master of the Empress of Ireland which was wrecked on the 29 May 1914, with the loss of 1,012 lives. She took only 14 minutes to sink, a relevant fact which explains how a simple fluvial collision could reach the magnitude of a mid-Atlantic disaster (Titanic). She sank off Father Point, Quebec, the exact place where Crippen was arrested. Kendall survived the disaster and died aged 91.

Trial and execution

Crippen and le Neve were tried separately at the London assizes held at the Central Criminal Court, Old Bailey, London EC4. Dr Crippen was found guilty of murder and hanged in November. It took the jury only 27 minutes to return a verdict of guilty. Ethel le Neve was acquitted.

Crippen's trial revealed the startlingly meticulous manner in which he had disposed of his wife. After killing her, he professionally removed her bones and limbs, which he then burned in the kitchen stove. Her organs were dissolved in acid in the bathtub, and her head was placed in a handbag and thrown overboard during a day trip to Dieppe, France. Throughout the proceedings and at his sentencing, Crippen showed no remorse, only concern for Ethel's reputation and prospects. At his request, her photograph was placed in his coffin and buried with him.

Although Crippen's grave on the prison grounds is not marked by a stone, tradition has it that soon after his burial a rose bush was planted over it.

Many people consider that during the trial Crippen was shamefully bullied by Mr R.D. Muir KC, one of the three prosecuting counsel. Some accounts relate that during his trial Crippen made Masonic signs appealing for assistance, namely interlaced fingers held above the head. Whether this is true or not, the judge, Lord Chief Justice Richard Everard Webster, 1st Viscount Alverstone, who was renowned for his leniency towards prisoners, at one point during the trial definitely changed his stance towards Crippen and supported Muir up to the point where he could be equally accused of bullying the accused.

Shortly after the execution Muir made a visit to the United States where he was very aggressive toward the press. One journalist asked if he thought he would have won his case if Crippen had been tried in the US. Muir snapped back, "Since I know nothing of American law I can hardly answer that question." That evening the headlines ran: "Man who hanged Crippen boasts that he knows no law."

Question of doubt

There remains some dispute over whether Dr Crippen did, in fact, murder his wife. One theory, which was first propounded by Edward Marshall Hall (who had initially been engaged to lead Crippen's defence, although he later gave up the brief), was that Crippen was using hyoscin on his wife as a sexual depressant but accidentally gave her an overdose and then panicked when she died. In 1981, Hugh Rhys Rankin claimed to have met Ethel le Neve in 1930 in Australia. On that occasion, she is said to have told him that Crippen murdered his wife because she had syphilis.

Raymond Chandler, the novelist, commented that it seemed unbelievable that Crippen would successfully dispose of his wife's limbs and head, and then, rather stupidly, bury her torso under the cellar floor of his home. (The history of Old Bailey trials does however reveal many remarkable and fantastic mistakes made by otherwise intelligent murderers made to their detriment and police officers the world over will confirm that those who have the least reason to want to be noticed are the very ones who draw attention to themselves through unusual or exaggerated behaviour.)

Close examination of the press reports and the transcript of his trial (18 to 22 October 1910) leave open the suggestion that Belle Elmore may not have been his only victim, although no evidence was ever presented concerning this theory.

References

J.H.H. Gaute and Robin Odell, The New Murderer's Who's Who, 1996, Harrap Books, London
The World's Most Infamous Crimes and Criminals. New York: Gallery Books, 1987. ISBN 0-8317-9677-4