PD James on Dr Crippen
Telegraph Reporters
22 October 2015 • 10:04am
On October 22 1910, American-born Dr Hawley Crippen was convicted at the Old Bailey of poisoning his wife Corrine 'Cora' Turner, whose stage name was Belle Elmore. He was hanged on November 23 at Pentonville Prison. Here, in an article originally published in 2006, the esteemed late crime writer P D James reviews Supper with the Crippens by David James Smith.
Dr Crippen is not the only murderer who has cut up and buried his victim's body, but he is certainly the most notorious. The crime for which he was executed on November 23, 1910 can be summed up in the words of the Lord Chief Justice when, black cap on his wig, he delivered the sentence. "Hawley Harvey Crippen, you have been convicted, upon evidence which could leave no doubt on the minds of any reasonable men, that you cruelly poisoned your wife, that you concealed your crime, you mutilated her body, and disposed piecemeal of her remains; you possessed yourself of her property and used it for your own purposes. It was further established that as soon as suspicion was aroused you fled from justice and took every measure to conceal your flight. On the ghastly and wicked nature of the crime I will not dwell."
Crippen's flight from justice was as dramatic as the discovery of his wife's remains buried in the cellar of their suburban house at 39 Hilldrop Crescent, in north London. When it became apparent that the police were interested in his wife's disappearance and the discovery of the body was probably inevitable, Crippen panicked and boarded an ocean liner, the SS Montrose, to Canada with his mistress and secretary, Ethel le Neve, disguised as his son.
A Page from the scrapbook of Scotland Yard Detective Charles Belcher, who worked on the Dr Crippen case. Pictures show Dr Crippen and his wife Belle Elmore
By now the story of the buried remains and the missing husband were an international scandal with a fittingly dramatic end when Chief Inspector Dew of Scotland Yard, pursued by the world's press, chased the couple across the Atlantic and finally arrested them in the captain's cabin of the Montrose. Both were tried at the Old Bailey. Ethel, who was seen as Crippen's innocent dupe, was acquitted of being an accessory to the crime.
David James Smith, a journalist, has been meticulous in his research and this book is likely to remain the definitive account of a crime which still intrigues, and to an extent baffles, aficionados of murder. Mr Smith finds it difficult to believe that Ethel le Neve, even if not an accomplice, was unaware that she was fleeing with a murderer and he is almost certainly right in his belief that the motive for the crime was Crippen's great love for his mistress and her desperate need for marriage and respectability. In the words of that age, she wanted to be made an honest woman. It was this desire rather than any intense hatred by Crippen for his wife, which caused her death.Belle Elmore, as she styled herself, was not an easy woman to live with. They were an ill-assorted pair. Belle, a vaudeville artiste, was a domineering, dramatic and demanding mate for this mild-eyed, unassuming purveyor of homeopathic remedies.
On January 31, 1910, friends of the couple, Clara Martinetti and her husband, were invited by Belle to take potluck dinner with them. When asked about the evening nearly six months later, Clara recalled that it was a pleasant time with the Crippens happy and natural and seemingly on the best of terms. Neither the Martinettis nor anyone else was to see Belle alive after that evening.
Crippen's love for his mistress and determination to save her, and his courage in the weeks before his execution, made it difficult for some students of the case to believe that he was responsible for such a horrendous crime
Crippen's love for his mistress and determination to save her, and his courage in the weeks before his execution, made it difficult for some students of the case to believe that he was responsible for such a horrendous crime. It was suggested that the hyoscine found in Belle's body had been administered by Crippen to calm her sexual demands and that her death had been an accident.
David James Smith will have none of this. But some mysteries still remain. Since Crippen removed the head and most of the body, why did he leave any remains to be discovered? How was the evisceration carried out? Were there kitchen knives adequate to the task? Why did Crippen tell Belle's friends that she had gone to Canada and then embroider his story when Belle, an enthusiastic letter-writer, would certainly have been in touch with them had she been alive? And was she indeed killed with hyoscine?
People whose upper windows overlooked the gardens at 39 Hilldrop Crescent heard two shots at the end of January between 7 and 8am. Why bring Ethel le Neve into his house, announcing they were married, and give her Belle's clothes and jewellery? No woman would believe that another had left her husband leaving easily portable jewellery behind.It is interesting that Crippen always insisted on his innocence and, in one of his last letters, complained that an appendix scar on the body was merely a fold in the skin.
He was right in assuming that, had it not been possible to identify the remains, he would almost certainly have been safe.David James Smith has extended his investigations into the future. Ethel le Neve married in 1915 and had two children but never told her husband or her son or daughter that she had once been the notorious mistress of a murderer and had herself stood trial. Ethel's husband even wore the fob watch which Crippen had bequeathed to Ethel at his death.
Ethel continued to live a normal life with husband, children and later grandchildren, and although her siblings obviously knew the truth since it had been part of their lives too, none of them ever talked of it. As Ethel's niece said, 'You just didn't talk about things in those days, did you?' Ethel's determination to be respectable obviously remained with her to the end of her life.
Editor's note: In 2007, DNA evidence questioned the identification of the body, shown to the jury, that was supposed to be Crippen's wife. It was suggested that the remains discovered in his cellar were those of a male person. This conclusion is disputed
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