Doctor Crippen: The Infamous London Cellar Murder of 1910 (38 page)
Read Doctor Crippen: The Infamous London Cellar Murder of 1910 Online
Authors: Nicholas Connell
39
.
Sunday News
, 13 March 1927.
40
.
Thomson’s Weekly News
, 11 August 1928.
41
.
Ibid
., 1 September 1928.
42
.
Ibid
., 8 September 1928. Another interview with a woman claiming to be Le Neve had her living in poverty in Australia, having fled there from India. (
Daily Express
, 28 June 1932). Sir Hugh Rhys Rankin claimed to have taken tea with Le Neve in the red-light district of Perth in 1930. She had been ‘a pretty hard woman’ who had been through several divorces in Canada before emigrating to Australia. This woman told Rankin that Crippen had killed Cora because she had syphilis (
Sunday Times
, 11 October 1981).
43
.
Ibid
., 22 September 1928.
44
.
Ibid
., (Dundee edition), 22 September 1928.
45
. Le Neve,
Ethel Le Neve Her Life Story
, p. 29.
46
.
Sunday News
, 13 March 1927.
47
. Goodman,
The Crippen File
.
48
.
Evening News
, 14 December 1974. The
Sunday Times
also reported in 1974 that Ethel had married, was a grandmother and had died in 1967 (
Sunday Times
, 7 July 1974).
49
.
The Call Boy
, Summer 1980.
50
.
Living with the Legend
, a radio broadcast presented by Roger Wilkes.
51
.
You Magazine
, 14 July 1985.
52
.
Sunday Telegraph
, 16 March 1997.
53
. After his trial Crippen wrote to Le Neve that ‘it would please me so much if you would take my first name or my second Christian name, which you prefer – probably you prefer Hawley’ (Ellis,
Black Fame
, p. 309).
54
.
Living with the Legend
.
55
.
You Magazine
, 14 July 1985.
56
.
Secrets of the Black Museum
, Discovery Channel, 1999.
57
.
You Magazine
, 14 July 1985.
58
.
Living with the Legend
.
59
.
New Law Journal
, 30 May 1997. J. E. Muddock discussed the coincidences in
The Sketch
, 26 October 1910.
60
.
Daily Telegraph
, 26 January 2002.
61
. It is sometimes stated that Le Neve requested a locket containing Crippen’s photograph to be buried with her. Goodman tells the story in
The Crippen File
(p. 95), but admitted it was unconfirmed. Two years later Goodman stated ‘it is not true’ (
The Black Museum
, p. 156), but later writers have repeated it as fact. In 1928 Le Neve said that she had destroyed her photograph of Crippen years before, and that a photograph of her had been buried with Crippen (
Thomson’s Weekly News
, 22 September 1928). Le Neve left no will containing such instructions.
17. Peter and Belle
1
. Gilbert,
op
.
cit
., p. 125.
2
. Cullen’s book was provisionally titled
No Meat for the Hangman
(
Guardian
, 24 February 1976). The phrase was taken from
The Edwardians
by J. B. Priestly; ‘He must have had something that was not so much meat for the hangman.’
3
.
Thomson’s Weekly News
, 16 September 1922.
4
. Constantine-Quinn,
op
.
cit
., p. 13.
5
.
Daily Express
, 23 November 1926.
6
. Parrish and Crossland,
The Fifty Most Amazing Crimes
, p. 119.
7
.
The New Statesman
, 16 November 1940.
8
. Gardiner and Walker, Raymond Chandler Speaking, p. 197.
9
. Bloom,
op
.
cit
., p. 90.
10
.
Pall Mall Magazine
, May 1928.
11
.
Lloyd’s Weekly News
, 17 July 1910.
12
. Wood,
op
.
cit
., p. 264.
13
.
Daily Express
, 15 July 1910.
14
.
New Law Journal
, 30 May 1997.
15
.
Pall Mall Gazette
, 14 July 1910.
16
. PRO MEPO2/10996.
17
.
The People
, 17 July 1910.
18
.
John Bull
, 10 December 1910.
19
.
Ibid
.
20
.
Weekly Dispatch
, 15 February 1920.
21
.
Ibid
., 8 February 1920.
22
.
Thomson’s Weekly News
, 25 September 1920.
23
.
Ibid
., 8 January 1921.
24
.
Ibid
., 25 September 1920.
25
.
Sunday Illustrated
, 3 September 1922.
26
. Marjoribanks,
op
.
cit
., p. 277.
27
. Buchanan-Taylor,
op
.
cit
., pp. 93–4.
28
.
Ibid
., p. 94.
29
.
Ibid
., pp. 96–7.
30
.
Ibid
., pp. 98–9.
31
.
The People
, 23 April 1933.
32
.
Sunday Times
, 7 October 1934.
33
.
Ibid
., 14 October 1934.
34
.
Ibid
., 21 October 1934.
35
.
Ibid
., 23 June 1935.
36
. Thorogood,
East of Aldgate
, pp. 97–8.
37
. Dearden,
Death Under the Microscope
, p. 66.
38
. Kendall,
op
.
cit
., p. 151.
39
. Gribble,
Adventures in Murder
, pp. 114–5.
40
. Bloom,
op
.
cit
., p. 88.
41
. Lock,
Scotland Yard Casebook
, pp. 191–2.
42
. The origin of this accusation is unclear and it is probably fallacious. Cullen tells the story without giving an authority and gives the date as November 1906 (Cullen, p. 79).
43
.
Weekly Dispatch
, 15 February 1920.
44
. PRO MEPO2/10996.
45
.
The People
, 17 July 1910.
46
.
The Morning Advertiser
, 15 July 1910.
47
.
Pall Mall Gazette
, 6 August 1910.
48
. Morland,
op
.
cit
., pp. 178–9.
49
.
Ibid
., p. 149.
50
. Yates,
op
.
cit
., p. 240.
51
. Browne and Tullet,
op
.
cit
., p. 43.
52
.
Daily Express
, 3 May 1934.
18. The Innocence of Dr Crippen: An Old Myth Resurrected
1
.
San Francisco Chronicle
, 9 August 1910.
2
.
The Times
, 9 August 1910.
3
.
New York Times
, 2 August 1910.
4
.
Ibid
., 1 August 1910.
5
.
Thomson’s Weekly News
, 29 January 1921.
6
.
New York Times
, 7 November 1910.
7
.
News of the World
, 9 April 1911.
8
.
World’s Pictorial News
, 19 April 1926.
9
. Letter from Colin Bennett to Walter Dew, 18 October 1943, reproduced in the
Western Daily Press
, 10 August 2007. The letter was sold at auction in 2007 and purchased by the Crime Through Time Museum in Gloucester. Dr Crippen’s waxen effigy suffered further indignity when it was decapitated, after England was hit by an earthquake in 1931 (
Daily Mirror
, 8 June 1931).
10
. Yates,
op
.
cit
., p. 257.
11
.
Ibid
., p. 258.
12
.
Ibid
., p. 243; Oddie,
op
.
cit
., p. 82.
14
. PRO MEPO2/10996. Another example of Cora’s writing appears in
Lloyd’s Weekly News
, 17 July 1910.
19. The DNA Dilemma
1
. Connell,
Walter Dew, the Man Who Caught Crippen
; Smith,
Supper With the Crippens
; Larson,
Thunderstruck
,
and Watson,
Dr Crippen
. Surprisingly there were no centenary publications in 2010.
2
. Dew,
op
.
cit
., p. 21.
3
.
Guardian
, 17 October 2007.
4
. Le Neve,
op
.
cit
., p. 19.
5
.
Thomson’s Weekly News
, 2 October 1920.
6
. Wood,
op
.
cit
., p. 270–1. Le Neve said the cats were still there in early February (
Thomson’s Weekly News
, 2 October 1920).
7
.
Pall Mall Gazette
, 14 July 1910.
8
.
Evening News
, 15 July 1910.
9
.
John Bull
, 10 December 1910.
10
. Bloom,
op
.
cit
., p. 95. The Post Office Directory lists a Mrs Fitzgerald as the previous occupant of 39 Hilldrop Crescent, preceded by Adriana Hagart, a woman in her nineties who boarded with mechanic, Mark Ryder, his wife and four children.
11
.
Daily Mail
, 20 October 2007.
12
.
Journal of Forensic Sciences
, January 2011 (online edition).
13
. Macnaghten,
op
.
cit
., p. 196.
14.
Ibid
., p. 194.
15
. Dew,
op
.
cit
., p. 34.
16
.
Daily Mail
, 9 September 1910.
17
.
The Lancet
, 28 December 1935.
18
. Yates,
op
.
cit
., p. 259.
19
. Oddie,
op
.
cit
., p. 78.
20
.
Journal of Forensic Sciences
, January 2011 (online edition).
21
. Posted on
www.jtrforums.com
22
. The article was first published online by the
Journal of Forensic Sciences
on 23 August 2010. It was later published as part of the January 2011 online issue of the journal.
23
.
http://forum.casebook.org/
;
http://www.jtrforums.com/
.
24
.
Ibid
.
25
.
Daily Mail
, 20 October 2007.
26
. Dew,
op
.
cit
., p. 28.
27
.
New York Times
, 22 November 1910.
28
.
Guardian
, 17 October 2007.
29
. The postcard appeared as an illustration in Goodman’s
Crippen File
(p. 8). He had borrowed it from the book dealer Camille Wolff. Dr Wolff later sold it to crime historian Stewart Evans. He sold it in 2012 and it is now part of the Neil Storey Crime Collection. The PBS documentary stated that the postcard was written in 1908, but it is undated. It further alleged that the postcard was the document used to make the handwriting comparison in 1910, but the Home Office file does not say what sample of Cora’s writing the police used.
30
. Dew,
op
.
cit
., p. 87.
31
. The price of the book was 12
s
6
d
. My copy has a ‘reduced to 10
s
6
d
’ sticker on the cover and crime historian Richard Whittington-Egan bought his in 1938 for 1
s
6
d
from Boots in Liverpool.
33
. PRO MEPO21/39.
34
. PRO MEPO7/72.
35
. Alverstone,
op
.
cit
., p. 276.
20. The Aftermath of the Crippen Case
1
.
Islington News & Hornsey Gazette
, 23 December 1910.
2
. PRO IR58/43163.
3
.
Thomson’s Weekly News
, 19 November 1910. An Inland Revenue survey states that the property was only let to McNab and valued it at £580 (PRO IR58/43163).
4
.
Islington Daily Gazette
, 14 May 1963.
5
.
The Saturday Post
, 24 August 1912.
6
.
Daily Mirror
, 26 November 1913.
7
.
Kent Messenger
, 27 June 1914.
8
. Islington Local History Centre, Second World War Bomb Damage Register.
9
. Ambler,
Ability to Kill
, p. 95. Ambler suggested the house had been renumbered describing it as ‘the immortal 39 (now 30)’. The caption beneath the photograph of the house in the Notable British Trials volume also says ‘30’. This may have been a typographical error copied by Ambler. A comparison of the 1910 Finance Act map (PRO IR121/14/37) and the 1952 Ordnance Survey map of Hilldrop Crescent show the street was not renumbered. The eight surviving houses in the Crescent have retained their 1910 numbers.
10
.
Ibid
., p. 98.
11
. Islington Local History Centre, Islington Borough Council Housing Committee Minutes, volume 13. The minutes of the October 1951 meeting record that the plot of land containing 37–40 Hilldrop Crescent had been cleared.
12
.
The Times
, 17 November 1969.