The Body In The Cellar: Dr Crippen|MurderMap - London Homicide Reported Direct from The Old Bailey
Case synopsis:
 
The name of Dr Crippen still resonates more than 100 years after the murder of his wife became an international sensation.
Born in Michigan, USA, as Hawley Harvey Crippen, he was not a real doctor but a promoter of homeopathic remedies.
It was to pursue his career that in 1900 he and his wife Cora, a mediocre music hall performer (below left), travelled to London.
But by 1910 he had lost his job and was sliding towards financial disaster due to an expensive affair with his 27 year-old secretary and a risky investment in a new business.
His solution was to murder his wife of 17 years, dispose of her body, pawn her valuables and plunder her savings.
Murdered?: Cora Crippen as Belle Elmore
The killing, in the early hours of February 1, 1910, was carried out so successfully that it is still unclear how exactly he did it.
His plan might have worked had it not been for the contradictory accounts he gave for his wife's disappearance and his lover Ethel Le Neve's fondness for wearing Cora Crippen's jewellery and furs.
The police were informed and interviewed Crippen, who claimed his wife had left him for another man. An initial search of the Crippen home at 39 Hilldrop Crescent in Holloway, north London, revealed no sign anything suspicious had taken place.
But suddenly, fearful it was only a matter of time before he would be caught, Crippen and his lover fled the country and boarded a boat from Antwerp to Canada.
Their flight prompted detectives to search the house again and this time they found a shallow grave in the cellar.
There was no head, limbs or skeleton. All that remained of Cora Crippen were a few scraps of flesh, some bleached blonde hair and fragments of a pyjama jacket.
The discovery on July 13 sparked one of the most notorious manhunts in British history as police put up a reward of £250 (roughly £100,000 in 2010).
In an attempt to disguise their true identities, Crippen shaved off his distinctive moustache and Le Neve dressed up as a boy in trousers, jacket, shirt and hat.
The ruse did not fool the captain of the ss Montrose Harry Kendall, who used the then-newfangled telegraph to message his head office: "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."
As a result, Police Chief Inspector Dew was able to catch a faster ship and intercept the pair at Quebec on July 31, making Crippen the first criminal to be caught with the help of wireless communication.
It has been reported that when confronted Crippen replied "Thank God it's over. The suspense has been too great. I couldn't stand it any longer."
Crippen's trial began on 18 October 1910, just two-and-a-half months later, at which it was claimed the remains in the cellar could be identified as those of Cora Crippen by a scar on a piece of abdominal tissue (pictured right).
The prosecution pathologist, Dr Bernard Spilsbury, said he had found evidence she was poisoned with Hyoscine, a chemical obtained from the nightshade family of plants.
Crippen had collected the drug from a shop in New Oxford Street two weeks before the murder. He had also pawned a diamond ring hours after killing his wife and nearly £200 cash had been taken out of Cora's account between 5 April and 17 June 1910.
In his evidence on oath, Crippen said that his wife had often threatened to leave him and had picked a quarrel with him over his behaviour while they were having friends round for dinner. Recounting the last time he saw her, he said:
She abused me, and said some very strong things; she said that if I could not be a gentleman she had had enough of it and could not stand it any longer and she was going to leave. That was similar to her former threats, but she said besides something she had not said before; she said that after she had gone it would be necessary for me to cover up any scandal there might be by her leaving me, and I might do it in the very best way I could. I came back the next day at my usual time, which would be about half-past seven or eight o'clock, and found that the house was vacant.
The jury took just 27 minutes to reject Crippen's explanations for his wife's disappearance and convict him of murder.
Crippen was executed on 23 November 1910, less than four months after his arrest. His last request was to have a photo of Ethel Le Neve in his top pocket when he was hanged. He was buried in the cemetery at Pentonville prison.
Le Neve was cleared of being an accessory after the fact and left for New York. She returned a few years later, got married and lived in Croydon until her death aged 84 in 1967.
The scene of the murder also vanished, destroyed by a bomb in World War Two and replaced with a block of flats.
But even now the case remains controversial. In 2007 it was claimed that DNA testing of the preserved scar tissue proved the human remains were in fact male and not those of Cora Crippen.
Two years later in December 2009 the Criminal Cases Review Commission decided not to refer it to the Court of Appeal.
An illicit photo of Crippen and Le Neve at Bow Street Magistrates Court
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Sources and further reading:
The court case transcript can be found here at the online Proceedings of the Old Bailey , including Crippen's evidence.
This case is covered in depth on several websites including the Metropolitan Police website , www.stephen-stratford.co.uk , and Wikipedia. Pictures of Ethel le Neve, Cora Crippen and the scene of the crime can be found at knowledgeoflondon.com