The title Dr is in inverted commas.
Executing a criminal is murder, by hanging, gas chamber, injection or firing squad. Firstly the executioner becomes a murderer himself, as destructive as the criminal he is killing. Secondly noone knows who was responsible for the crime with 100% certainty. Mistakes happen all the time.
Hawley Crippen (1862-1910) was born in Michigan US. He was working in a Philadelphia hospital when he met his first wife, Charlotte Bell, and had a son Otto. In 1892 while pregnant with their second child, Charlotte died. Crippen quickly left Otto with his parents, moved to New York and was married once again.
He was a homeopathic physician in New York when he married his second wife, singer Kunigunde Mackamotzki/Cora Turner in 1894. Having gained qualifications in both homoeopathy and ocular medicine, Crippen was working in a homeopathic pharmaceutical company but eventually he was sacked from the pharmaceutical company for spending too much time managing the wife’s stage career.
In contrast to her more amiable husband, Cora Turner Crippen was dominating, changing her stage name to Belle Elmore. After they moved to London in 1897, Cora became a music-hall singer and had affairs with several men. Because Crippen’s U.S medical qualifications weren’t recognised, he made a living selling patent medicines. He worked in his business with a young secretary, Ethel Le Neve.
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In contrast to her more amiable husband, Cora Turner Crippen was dominating, changing her stage name to Belle Elmore. After they moved to London in 1897, Cora became a music-hall singer and had affairs with several men. Because Crippen’s U.S medical qualifications weren’t recognised, he made a living selling patent medicines. He worked in his business with a young secretary, Ethel Le Neve.
Cora Crippen on stage
as Belle Elmore
The Crippen marriage was unhappy. Cora was a keen drinker and happy to indulge her taste for unfaithfulness. Hawley also enjoyed his own affairs. Then his wife disappeared in Jan 1910, the month after telling him she planned to leave him and to withdraw their savings from the bank. Crippen explained her disappearance to friends by saying that she was visiting the U.S; later he published a death notice from the U.S. Meanwhile Ethel Le Neve moved into the Crippen house and accompanied Dr Crippen in public, wearing Cora Crippen’s jewels.
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The evidence against Dr Crippen was nasty: missing wife; heap of human flesh in his basement; dodgy flight with a mistress; and international manhunt and arrest. But in court the pathologist testified he could not identify the torso remains or guess its gender. Yet after a five day trial filled with scandalous details whipped up by the media, the jury convicted Crippen in just 27 minutes of deliberation! Le Neve was found not guilty. VERY QUICKLY after the guilty verdict, Crippen was hanged at Pentonville Prison London, 23rd Nov 1910
But if Crippen’s guilt was uncertain, how could capital punishment have been considered? Since 2010, there’s been support for reopening the case. Mitochondrial DNA, discovered in the 1960s, is stably transmitted only from mothers to their daughters. Inheritance made mitochondrial DNA suitable for use in forensic science, as in analysing the body parts found in Crippen’s London basement. Forensic experts showed that the body in the basement wasn’t Cora, possibly not even female. Perhaps the body had been put in the basement by a tenant before the Crippens moved there. [Of course if Crippen was the murderer, he may have stored his wife’s body somewhere else].
Is it possible that one of Britain’s most infamous murderers was not a killer after all? So far, all attempts to reopen the murder trial have been rejected. But even if the courts didn’t know about DNA testing back in 1910, they recognise that immediate execution allowed no time for appeals, new witnesses or new medical knowledge.
39 Hilldrop Cres, Crippen’s
Edwardian "house of horrors"
Suspicions were raised, and Crippen was visited by Inspector Walter Dew of Scotland Yard. Crippen said his wife had left to live with another man. By the time Insp Dew visited the Crippen house again, Crippen and his mistress had sailed to North America. Dew ordered a thorough search of the house, leading to a grisly discovery.
Suspicions were raised, and Crippen was visited by Inspector Walter Dew of Scotland Yard. Crippen said his wife had left to live with another man. By the time Insp Dew visited the Crippen house again, Crippen and his mistress had sailed to North America. Dew ordered a thorough search of the house, leading to a grisly discovery.
SS Montrose en route to Canada
Dr Crippen boarded the SS Montrose to Canada with Le Neve, assuming he would never be located, nor identified. But did he not know that his crime had made a sensation in the British press? Ethel wore boy’s clothes on board and pretended to be Hawley’s son. But the ship captain recognised the pair holding hands and notified his superiors via the recently developed technology of wireless telegraphy, marking the first time this modern skill was used to track a criminal in the middle of the open ocean and reported back to the British police. The British public became even more rivetted to the ensuing chase!
Dr Crippen boarded the SS Montrose to Canada with Le Neve, assuming he would never be located, nor identified. But did he not know that his crime had made a sensation in the British press? Ethel wore boy’s clothes on board and pretended to be Hawley’s son. But the ship captain recognised the pair holding hands and notified his superiors via the recently developed technology of wireless telegraphy, marking the first time this modern skill was used to track a criminal in the middle of the open ocean and reported back to the British police. The British public became even more rivetted to the ensuing chase!
Police arresting Dr Crippen and Ethel Le Neve
on SS Montrose, July 1910.
Dew pursued and overtook the fugitive pair on a faster ship to Canada, and arrested them aboard. The couple returned to London, where they went on trial in mid Oct 1910. Evidence showed that Cora was definitely alive at a dinner party she hosted in their own home, in Jan 1910. As noted Hawley told everyone her that she moved back to America, raising suspicions, but it wasn’t until July that police made a grim discovery in the marital home. In the coal cellar lay human skin packs with no head and no bones. An autopsy and forensic analysis identified the remains as those of Cora, who’d been poisoned then dismembered.
Dew pursued and overtook the fugitive pair on a faster ship to Canada, and arrested them aboard. The couple returned to London, where they went on trial in mid Oct 1910. Evidence showed that Cora was definitely alive at a dinner party she hosted in their own home, in Jan 1910. As noted Hawley told everyone her that she moved back to America, raising suspicions, but it wasn’t until July that police made a grim discovery in the marital home. In the coal cellar lay human skin packs with no head and no bones. An autopsy and forensic analysis identified the remains as those of Cora, who’d been poisoned then dismembered.
Crippen and Ethel le Neve in court, London 1910
Daily Mirror
The evidence against Dr Crippen was nasty: missing wife; heap of human flesh in his basement; dodgy flight with a mistress; and international manhunt and arrest. But in court the pathologist testified he could not identify the torso remains or guess its gender. Yet after a five day trial filled with scandalous details whipped up by the media, the jury convicted Crippen in just 27 minutes of deliberation! Le Neve was found not guilty. VERY QUICKLY after the guilty verdict, Crippen was hanged at Pentonville Prison London, 23rd Nov 1910
But if Crippen’s guilt was uncertain, how could capital punishment have been considered? Since 2010, there’s been support for reopening the case. Mitochondrial DNA, discovered in the 1960s, is stably transmitted only from mothers to their daughters. Inheritance made mitochondrial DNA suitable for use in forensic science, as in analysing the body parts found in Crippen’s London basement. Forensic experts showed that the body in the basement wasn’t Cora, possibly not even female. Perhaps the body had been put in the basement by a tenant before the Crippens moved there. [Of course if Crippen was the murderer, he may have stored his wife’s body somewhere else].
Is it possible that one of Britain’s most infamous murderers was not a killer after all? So far, all attempts to reopen the murder trial have been rejected. But even if the courts didn’t know about DNA testing back in 1910, they recognise that immediate execution allowed no time for appeals, new witnesses or new medical knowledge.
Photo credits: Daily Mirror