Thunderstruck (55 page)

“I never interfered”
:
Trial,
37.

“Of course, I hoped”
: Ibid., 89.

“She got an engagement”
: Ibid., 36.

“She would probably”
: Ibid., 36.

“There was hardly”
: Macqueen-Pope,
Goodbye Piccadilly,
300–1.

“When her hair was down”
:
Trial,
77.

“She wasn’t a top-rank artist”
: Rose,
Red Plush,
29.

“To fail at even an East End”
: Machray,
Night Side,
118.

A photographer captured
: Goodman,
Crippen File,
15.

“Oh Belle does it hurt”
: Clara Martinetti Statement. Brief for the Prosecution. NA-DPP, 1/13.

“A GIGANTIC EXPERIMENT”

Why bother at all
: For an excellent discussion of this, see Aitken,
Syntony,
240–41. Aitken argues that the cable companies could have confronted any competitor with deep cuts in price. The business was lucrative, the companies profitable. They also had the capacity to handle far more business. In a price war, he argues, the cable trust would have proven a dangerous competitor.

He recognized
: Interview, Francesco Paresce, Marconi’s grandson, Munich, April 11, 2005. “He had no limits,” Paresce told me. “I think he felt from day one that radio waves would be able to link any two points on the earth.” That Marconi would propose so grand an experiment was due largely to his personality and to his appraisal of his company’s prospects. “In order to win the race he could not continue as he had done before, with little steps,” Paresce said. “Commercially he was realizing it wasn’t working, the system really wasn’t working.”

Paths that might have seemed more prudent did exist, Paresce said. “You would have thought he would have pushed much harder simply to communicate with a ship farther and farther away.” But to settle for this and not test his vision would have run against the grain of Marconi’s character. “I think it was something that was really him,” Paresce said. “He was a very stubborn man, he was a very driven man, and he was self-educated.” But Marconi also understood on some deep level that what science held to be immutable law might easily with time prove to be false. “He learned very early on not to take too seriously the science of the moment,” Paresce said. Marconi perhaps believed “there were enough unknowns about the problem that there was something that would come to his rescue.”

However outlandish Marconi’s idea might have seemed, it did have a practical dimension. “He was an extremely able media manipulator,” Paresce said. “I’m almost certain that the basic reason he did it is he had to give a big impetus to his commercial operation. By making a big splash he could attract more attention to his effort, and attract the best people to help solve its problems.”

“I have not the slightest doubt”
: Hong,
Wireless,
60.

“When you meet Marconi”
: Quoted in Marconi,
My Father,
76.

A frightened guest
: Ibid., 76.

“peculiar semi-abstract air”
: Ibid., 76.

“a bit absent-minded”
: Quoted in Weightman,
Signor Marconi’s,
59.

He found it
: Marconi,
My Father,
76–77. For more details on the America’s Cup episode, see pp. 77–80. See also, Weightman,
Signor Marconi’s,
60–61 and Baker,
History,
48–49.

“The shock from the sending coil”
: Quoted in Marconi,
My Father,
80; Faulkner,
Watchers,
7.

“I noticed”
: Marconi,
My Father,
168.

“Well try using the other foot”
: Isted, I, 55.

The
St. Paul
suited him
: The
St. Paul
had a twin, the
St. Louis,
which in 1907 carried a four-year-old boy named Leslie Townes Hope, later Bob Hope, from England to a new life in America. Of his emigration he later said, “I left England at the age of four when I found out I couldn’t be king.” Fox,
Transatlantic,
391; Hope’s quip comes from BobHope.com/bob.htm.

“The Needles resembled”
: Quoted in Marconi,
My Father,
82–83.

“As all know”
: Hancock,
Wireless,
20.

Josephine Bowen Holman
: To gather details about Holman and her roots, I conducted research in the Indiana State Library, and there consulted the following sources:
Indianapolis News,
December 20, December 21, 1901; January 21, January 22, 1902; June 5, 1972;
Indianapolis Star,
December 20, 1909, May 24, 1948; August 4, 1979;
Indianapolis Star Magazine,
March 8, 1970;
Indianapolis Times,
July 23, 1937. Also, Lewis,
“Woodruff Place,”
pp. 3–8; McDonald,
Indianapolis,
29–31; McKenzie,
Blue Book;
and
Woodruff Place Centennial,
2, 4.

“absolute certitude”
: For material on Tesla and his
Century
article, see: Cheney and Uth,
Tesla,
87, 90, 99–100; Hong,
Wireless,
72; the article is quoted at length in Sewall,
Wireless,
51–52.

As welcome as
: Aitken,
Syntony,
232–35.

“But greater wonders followed”
: London
Times,
October 4, 1900.

“After you left”
: Marconi,
My Father,
93.

“I am thinking”
: Ibid., 93.

“extreme demands on my time”
: Fleming to Flood Page, November 23, 1900. UCL, Fleming Collection, 122/47.

“I am desired to say”
: Flood Page to Fleming, December 1, 1900. UCL, Fleming Collection, 122/47.

“As regards any special recognition”
: Fleming to Flood Page, December 3, 1900. UCL, Fleming Collection, 122/47.

In December Nevil Maskelyne
: Bartram, I, 50.

And there was Lodge
: Lodge’s discussions with Muirhead are cited in a letter from George Fitzgerald to Lodge, June 14, 1899. UCL, Lodge Collection, 89/35 iv.

He accepted the position
: Jolly,
Lodge,
132.

THE END OF THE WORLD

“The most noticeable thing”
: Hicks,
Not Guilty,
68.

In 1898
: Massie,
Dreadnought,
180; Clarke,
Voices,
133.

“At first there will be”
: Ibid., 134.

“I wonder if”
: Weintraub,
Edward,
387.

PART III: SECRETS

MISS LE NEVE

Drouet produced
: Cullen,
Crippen,
48.

“For dolls or other girlish toys”
: Le Neve,
Ethel Le Neve,
6.

“Very soon afterwards”
: Ibid., 8.

“For some reason”
: Ibid., 8.

“I quickly discovered”
: Ibid., 8.

On one occasion
: Ibid., 8.

“With her departure”
: Ibid., 9.

“Her coming was”
: Ibid., 9.

An even stormier visit
: Ibid., 9.

Crippen brought with him
: Cullen,
Crippen,
61. Cullen contends Crippen also brought with him Drouet’s mailing lists.

“This places within”
: Goodman,
Crippen File,
12.

In time Aural Remedies
: Ibid., 13.

Crippen said, “although”
:
Trial,
37.

“Give me your hand”
: Further Statement of Maud Burroughs, September 16, 1910. NA-DPP 1/13.

“we had a whole day together”
: Ellis,
Black Flame,
318.

“the only person in the world”
: Le Neve,
Ethel Le Neve,
10.

“by sheer accident”
: Ibid., 12.

“THE THUNDER FACTORY”

“They thought”
: Marconi,
My Father,
100.

“There was nothing”
: Thoreau,
Cape Cod,
59.

“Plenty of water”
: “Report for G. Marconi on his recent visit to America.” Cape Cod National Seashore.

One bit of historical resonance
: Kittredge,
Cape Cod,
94.

Cook assured Marconi
: Marconi,
My Father,
100.

“The barren aspect”
: Thoreau,
Cape Cod,
45–46.

Clouds often filled
: For weather details throughout this chapter see
Monthly Weather Review,
49, 53, 77, 80, 85, 99, 123, 144, 182, 206, 224, 246, 272, 277, 291, 295, 318–22, 348, 380, 385, 403, 428, 433, 450, 470, 490, 493–94, 516, 536, 543, 569, 572, 596, 606, 610.

“It was clear to me”
: Vyvyan,
Marconi and Wireless,
28.

“period of exceptionally severe storms”
:
Monthly Weather Review,
99.

“In view of the isolation”
: Bradfield to Executive Committee, March 30, 1906. Cape Cod National Seashore.

“a vast
morgue”: Thoreau,
Cape Cod,
182.

“There is naked Nature”
: Ibid., 182.

A photograph
: “Marconi Site.” Wellfleet Historical Society.

“To lose him to anyone”
: Marconi,
My Father,
80.

“I wish I had got this letter”
: Ibid., 82.

He formed
: Aitken,
Syntony,
143; Hong,
Wireless,
46.

And Marconi endured
: Aitken,
Syntony,
246–47, fn 67 on 293.

On May 21, 1901
:
Daily Graphic,
May 28, 1901, in UCL, Fleming Collection, 122/66; Faulkner,
Watchers,
11; Hancock,
Wireless,
29–30.

Only years later
: Faulkner,
Watchers,
11.

“If you opened the door”
:
Cape Codder,
June 18, 1970, in Cape Cod National Seashore, File 4.7-2.

“In August”
: Vyvyan,
Marconi and Wireless,
28.

“We used to call it”
: Crowley to Fleming, January 11, 1938. UCL, Fleming Collection, 122/3.

“We had an electric phenomenon”
: Kemp Diary, August 9, 1901.

“The weather is still boisterous”
: Ibid., August 14, 1901.

“Caution. Very Dangerous.”
: See photograph, Kemp Diary, opposite p. 154.

“the thunder factory”
: Weightman,
Signor Marconi,
170.

The most important clause
: Aitken,
Syntony
, 235–36; Bartram, I, 51.

CLAUSTROPHOBIA

On September 21
:
Trial,
9.

Trees lined the crescent
: The following description of Hilldrop Crescent and its surrounding neighborhood is derived primarily from the online archives of the Bolles and Booth collections, with additional detail from Baedeker, and a statement by Chief Inspector Walter Dew, in Brief for the Prosecution, 77, NA-DPP 1/13, in which he describes the layout of No. 39. I gleaned other details from two police photographs of the house and its garden, in NA-MEPO 3/198.

In 1902 the prison
: Execution had been a neighborhood theme for more than a century. In the 1700s an inn stood in Camden Town by the name of Mother Red Cap, a common stop for omnibuses but also the end of the line for many condemned prisoners, who were hung in public across the street. The
Morning Post
of 1776 reported that “Orders have been given from the Secretary of State’s Office that the criminals, capitally convicted at the Old Bailey, shall in future be executed at the cross road near the Mother Red Cap—the half-way house to Hampstead….” One of the last things the condemned saw was the sign at the Mother Red Cap representing a woman thought to be Mother Damnable, identified in a bit of 1819 verse as a woman “so curst, a dog would not dwell with her.” Bolles: Henry B. Whealey,
London Past and Present,
John Murray, 1891.

The law required
: Minutes. Executions at Pentonville. NA-HO 45/10629/200212.

One immediate neighbor
: Cole to Churchill, November 11, 1910. Executions at Pentonville. NA-HO 45/10629/200212.

“I do not think”
: Davies to Prison Commission, November 22, 1910. Execuions at Pentonville. NA-HO 45/10629/200212.

“Gee. You have got a hoo-doo”
:
Trial,
xvii.

“Mrs. Crippen was strictly economical”
: Ibid., xviii.

“Mrs. Crippen disliked”
: Ibid., xix.

“I followed her”
: Ibid., xix.

“They always appeared”
: Jane Harrison Statement. Witness, 103. NA-DPP 1/13.

“Mr. and Mrs. Crippen”
: Rhoda Ray Statement. Witness, 139. NA-DPP 1/13.

“somewhat hasty”
:
Trial,
12.

At one point
:
Trial,
xviii.

He told his story
: Karl Reinisch Account, “Dr. Crippen on Board.” Black Museum. NA-MEPO 2/10996. This document was off-limits to researchers until 2001.

Another tenant, however
:
Trial,
xix.

“He had to rise”
:
Trial,
xviii–xix.

In June 1906
: Cora Crippen to Reinisch, June 23, 1906. Black Museum. NA-MEPO 2/10996.

“He was a man”
:
Trial,
xviii.

Soon after the move
: Ibid., xviii.

On January 5, 1909
: Ibid., 108.

“His eccentric taste”
: Ibid., xviii.

“I have always hated”
: Paul Martinetti Statement. Supplemental Information, 27. (The bulk of the master document, Supplemental Information, is housed in NA-DPP 1/13, but portions, including the Martinetti Statement, appear in NA-CRIM 1/117.)

“The rooms which Frankel”
: William Burch Statement. Witness, 160–61. NA-DPP 1/13.