Hawley Harvey Crippen

Hawley Harvey Crippen
Born	(1862-09-11)September 11, 1862
Died	(1910-11-23)November 23, 1910 (aged 48)
Cause of death	Hanging
Nationality	American
Other names	Dr Crippen
Known for	Executed for murder of wife

Hawley Harvey Crippen (11 September1862 – 23 November, 1910), usually known as Dr. Crippen, was an American physician hanged in Pentonville Prison, London, England, on 23 November, 1910, for the murder of his wife. He has gone down in history as the first criminal to be captured with the aid of wireless communication.

In 2007, some American researchers concluded that their DNA tests cast doubt on his conviction, though this conclusion is not shared by a majority of experts on the case.

Brief biography

Crippen was born in Coldwater, Michigan, to Andresee Skinner and Myron Augustus Crippen. Crippen became a homeopathic doctor and started working for a homeopathic pharmaceutical company, Dr. Munyon's. His second wife was Cora Turner (stage name: 'Belle Elmore'), born Kunigunde Mackamotski to a German mother and a Polish-Russian father. She was a would-be music hall singer who openly had affairs. In 1900, Crippen and his spouse moved to England. His U.S. medical qualification was insufficient to obtain a doctor's position in the UK. After having changed multiple addresses in London, the couple finally moved to 39 Hilldrop Crescent, Camden Road, Holloway, London, where they had lodgers to compensate for Crippen's meager income.

Murder

After a party at their home on January 31, 1910, Cora 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 (1883 - 1967), moved into Hilldrop Crescent and began openly wearing Cora's clothes and jewellery. The police were informed of Cora's disappearance by her friend, strongwoman Kate Williams, better known as Vulcana. The house was searched but nothing was found, and Crippen was interviewed by Chief Inspector Walter Dew. After the interview (and a quick search of the house) Dew was satisfied and had no doubts regarding the truth of his story. However, Crippen and Le Neve did not know this and fled in panic to Brussels where they spent the night at a hotel. The following day they went to Antwerp and took the Canadian Pacific liner SS Montrose to Canada.

Transatlantic arrest

File:Hilldropcrescent.jpg

Inspector Dew (extreme right) searching the garden at 39, Hilldrop Crescent

Their disappearance led Scotland Yard to perform another three searches of the house. During the fourth and final search, they found the remains of a human body, buried under the brick floor of the basement. Sir Bernard Spilsbury found traces of hyoscine, a calming drug. The corpse 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. Captain Henry George Kendall recognised the fugitives and, just before steaming out of range of the land-based transmitters, sent a wireless telegram to the 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 Crippen travelled 3rd class he would have probably escaped Kendall's notice. On board the Montrose a wait of several days ensued because the ship was out of range of wireless communication. 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 the Montrose entered the St. Lawrence River, Chief Inspector Walter Dew, disguised as a pilot, came aboard. At that time Canada was a British dominion, so Dew was a Scotland Yard detective on duty in territory of the British Empire. If Crippen, a U.S. citizen, had sailed to the United States, even if he had been recognised, an international arrest warrant followed by extradition proceedings would have been required to bring him to trial.

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 Chief 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 July 31, 1910. Crippen was returned to England on board the SS Megantic.

Cora's body was found in his cellar, dissected and in many packages

Trial and execution

Cora Crippen's scar tissue used in evidence at the trial

Sketches from the trial of Dr. Crippen

Crippen and le Neve were tried separately at the London assizes, held at the Central Criminal Court, Old Bailey, London E.C. After just 27 minutes of deliberations, the jury found Crippen guilty of murder and he was hanged by John Ellis in November at Pentonville Prison, London. Ethel le Neve was acquitted.

Crippen's trial revealed the meticulous manner in which the body had been disposed of. After death, Cora Crippen's bones and limbs were professionally removed, and 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.

The pathologist Sir Bernard Spilsbury could not identify the body, nor even tell whether it was male or female. However, he found a piece of skin with an abdominal scar consistent with Cora's medical history.

Throughout the proceedings and at his sentencing, Crippen showed no remorse, only concern for his lover's reputation. At his request, her photograph was placed in his coffin and buried with him.

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

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 hyoscine 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.

Dornford Yates, the novelist, who was involved with the trial as a junior barrister, records that Crippen put the remains in lime so that they would be destroyed, but failed to realise that while dry quicklime destroys, if water is added it becomes slaked lime and preserves. Yates used this fact in the plot of his novel The House That Berry Built and told the story of the trial from his viewpoint in his memoirs As Berry and I Were Saying.

New evidence

In October 2007, Michigan State University forensic scientist David Foran claimed that mitochondrial DNA evidence conclusively showed that the body found beneath the cellar floor in Crippen's home was not actually Cora Crippen. This research was based on genealogical identification of three matrilineal relatives of Cora Crippen (great-nieces, tracked down by genealogist Beth Wills), whose mitochondrial DNA haplotype was compared with DNA extracted from a slide taken from the torso in Crippen's cellar. This has raised new questions about Crippen's guilt and the actual identity of the body found in the cellar. One theory is that Crippen may have been carrying out illegal abortions, and it may be that one of his patients died and he disposed of the body in the way he was accused of disposing of his wife.

It is also possible that the DNA samples were tainted or inaccurate in some way, or that the alleged relatives were not actually related. There was strong evidence presented at the trial that seemed to prove that the body was, in fact, that of his wife.

Dr. Foran's colleague, John Trestrail, claims that it would have been unusual for a poisoner to dismember and hide the corpse because he would have wanted a death certificate certifying natural causes. Of course there are other examples of murderers who poisoned victims and then dismembered the bodies, such as Belle Gunness. Furthermore, the new DNA tests do not in any way affect the fact that the body, regardless of whether it was Crippen's wife or not, was, in fact, poisoned and dismembered. On the basis of this new evidence, Crippen's relative, Patrick Crippen, has asked for Crippen's remains to be exhumed and buried in the family plot. His lawyer is Giovanni di Stefano.

In popular culture

Waxwork of Crippen at Madame Tussauds in London

• The 1961 Wolf Mankowitz musical Belle at the Strand Theatre in London was based on the case.
• The 1962 feature film Dr Crippen featured Donald Pleasance in the title role.
• The BBC series Shadow of the Noose, about the life of barrister Edward Marshall-Hall, included his abortive attempt to defend Crippen (played by David Hatton).
• Erik Larson's 2006 book Thunderstruck interweaved the story of the murder with the history of Marconi's invention of radio.
• In the first episode of the BBC series Coupling, while Steve Taylor (played by Jack Davenport)is trying to break up with his long-time girlfriend Jane Christie (played by Gina Bellman), Steve brings up the subject of Crippen as a way of telling Jane that unless they break-up, his frustration with her will lead him to do her serious physical harm. Later in the episode, Steve's soon to be girlfriend Susan Walker (played by Sarah Alexander), during a conversation they have in the ladies restroom of the bar the characters frequent, tells steve they had met a few years before at an office party and she tried to talk with him, but that she couldn't because he was having an argument with a woman about Crippen.

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
• Nicholas Connell, Walter Dew; The Man Who Caught Crippen, Sutton Publishing (2005), ISBN 0-7509-3803-X
• Erik Larson, Thunderstruck. New York, Crown Publishers, 2006. ISBN 978-1-4000-8067-0

External links

• Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen: Of Passion And Poison at the Crime Library
• Dr. Crippen: One Night In Camden
• Crippen mystery remains despite DNA claim - BBC News cited 18th October 2007