Thunderstruck (59 page)

Kendall invited the Robinsons
:
Trial,
188.

“This ruse was successful”
: Ibid., 188.

“I was then fully convinced”
: Henry George Kendall Statement, 2. NA MEPO 3/198.

One afternoon Kendall spotted
:
Trial,
188.

Have strong suspicions: Henry George Kendall Statement, 3. NA-MEPO 3/198; Jeffers,
Bloody Business,
126; see photograph of Marconigram in Goodman,
Crippen Files,
28.

“MR. DEWHURST”

“It was eight o’clock”
: Dew,
I Caught Crippen,
37.

“Read it to me”
: Jeffers,
Bloody Business,
126.

“What do you think”
: This and subsequent dialogue is from Dew,
I Caught Crippen,
39.

“It was a serious step”
: Macnaghten,
Days of My Years,
199.

Moreover, the Murder Squad
: Ibid., 229–31.

Macnaghten worried
: Ibid., 199.

“Here is your authority, Dew”
: Dew,
I Caught Crippen,
39.

“That night could not fail”
: Macnaghten,
Days of My Years,
199.

An officer with the Liverpool police
: Telegram. Head Constable Leonard Dunne to Macnaghten, July 22, 1910. NA-MEPO 3/198.

Only the ship’s captain
: Dew,
I Caught Crippen,
40.

He was met
: Telegram. Head Constable Leonard Dunne to Macnaghten, July 22, 1910. NA-MEPO 3/198.

“It was hopeless”
: Dew,
I Caught Crippen,
40.

“I assumed an air”
: Macnaghten,
Days of My Years,
199–200.

Macnaghten’s anxiety increased
: Ibid., 200.

New York police
: Inspector John H. Russell, Police Department of the City of New York, to Macnaghten, July 22, 1910. NA-MEPO 3/198.

A French rail guard
:
New York Times,
July 20, 1910.

A traveler on an English train
: Charles Jones to Head Constable, Cardiff City Police, July 15, 1910. NA-MEPO 3/198.

In Brussels a Scotland Yard detective
: Central Officer’s Special Report: Re John Robinson and John Robinson Junior. July 24, 1910. NA-MEPO 3/198.

The innkeeper’s wife
:
Daily Mail,
July 27, 1910. Reproduced in Goodman,
Crippen File,
35.

AN INTERCEPTED SIGNAL

“The doctor was as calm
”: Le Neve,
Ethel Le Neve,
53.

She imagined the letter
: Ibid., 54.

“What is Inspector Dew doing”
: MarconiCalling. Search Crippen. See, “Kendall’s Message Reaches Scotland Yard.”

CAGE OF GLASS

“It is believed that”
:
Daily Telegraph,
July 25, 1910. Reproduced in Goodman,
Crippen File,
28.

The story consumed
:
Trial,
xxxi.

“At noon to-day”
:
Daily Mail,
July 26, 1910. Reproduced in Goodman,
Crippen File,
31.

One article speculated
:
Daily Mail,
July 25, 1910. Reproduced in Goodman,
Crippen File,
29.

“Mysterious voices”
:
Daily Mirror,
July 27, 1910. Reproduced in Goodman,
Crippen File,
33.

A French newspaper
: Quoted in Goodman,
Crippen File,
37.

“The people, who have a sure instinct”
: Priestley,
Edwardians,
200.

“The King’s Poisoner”
: Willcox,
Detective-Physician,
324.

He took the first steps
:
Trial,
68.

“The remains”
: Ibid., 66.

He succeeded in locating
: William Henry Willcox Statement, 58. Brief for the Prosecution, NA-DPP 1/13.

At No. 46 Brecknock Road
: Lena Lyons Statement, 133–35. Witness, NA DPP 1/13.

Another neighbor, Franziska
: Franziska Hachenberger Statement, 135A. Ibid.

The most detailed report
: Frederick Evans Statement, 136–38. Ibid.

Crutchett tracked down
: William Curtis Statement, 162–63. Ibid.

On Wednesday, July 27
: Cullen,
Crippen,
135; Jeffers,
Bloody Business,
126–27.

“What the devil”
: Jeffers,
Bloody Business,
127.

“Speaking for myself”
: London
Times,
July 29, 1910.

QUIVERING ETHER

“Kindly wireless”
: Cullen,
Crippen,
135.

“too good a thing to lose”
:
Trial,
187.

“My dear,” he told her
: This and subsequent dialogue come from Le Neve,
Ethel Le Neve,
55–56.

On Friday, July 29
:
Trial,
187–88.

“There was something”
: London
Times,
August 1, 1910.

“The suspect fugitive”
: Reproduced in Goodman,
Crippen File,
37.

“What a wonderful invention”
:
Trial,
188.

THE ST. MARY’S CAT

At St. Mary’s Hospital
:
Trial,
71; Willcox,
Detective-Physician,
28; William Henry Willcox Statement, 58–65. Brief for the Prosecution, NA-DPP 1/13.

“It is necessary”
:
Trial,
70.

He found, for example
: Willcox,
Detective-Physician,
27.

He knew of only
: William Henry Willcox Statement, 60. Brief for the Prosecution, NA-DPP 1/13.

When exposed to
:
Trial,
71.

Adopted by a medical student
: Willcox,
Detective-Physician,
31.

WHISPERS

Jones proved himself
:
New York Times,
July 30, 1910.

THE INSPECTOR ARRIVES

He was appalled
: Walter Dew Report, August 2, 1910. NA-MEPO 3/198.

On shore Dew
: Ibid.; Dew,
I Caught Crippen,
41. The Marconi station at Father Point offered an example of the costs and problems that accumulated as Marconi expanded his ship-to-shore empire. The Father Point station began operation on December 22, 1906, and almost immediately things began going awry, as recorded in the station’s log. Pipes froze. Engines failed. One entry reads, “Pump pipe thawed out by removing suction chamber and thrusting a red hot iron pipe down the other.”

The record for 1907 is full of similar interruptions. Engines broke down. Signals grew weak and spontaneous disruptions denoted by the letter X became commonplace. “Xs fierce,” the operator wrote one night. And again, “Xs bad all pm.” Weather bedeviled the station. The cruelest month was April 1908, a model of meteorological perversity.

The entry for Saturday, April 4, reads: “Hurricane from West…”

For Thursday, April 9: “Hurricane from East…”

See Log Book of Father Point, Quebec, 1906–1914. Archives Canada, MG 28 III 72 Vol. 81.

“The lighthouse foghorn”
: Dew,
I Caught Crippen,
41.

“Now I don’t pretend”
: Ibid., 42.

He called all the reporters
: Ibid., 42; Walter Dew Report, August 2, 1910. NA-MEPO 3/198.

Even the home secretary
: Central Officer’s Special Report, July 30, 1910. NA-MEPO 3/198.

They learned, for example
: John William Stonehouse Statement, 143–44. Winess, NA-DPP 1/13.

Later the clerk called
: Central Officer’s Special Report, August 1, 1910. NA-MEPO 3/198.

A BOAT IN THE MIST

“The last night was dreary”
: Priestley,
Edwardians,
199.

“I don’t think I will”
: Le Neve,
Ethel Le Neve,
56.

Inside the lining
: Walter Dew Statement, 75. Brief for the Prosecution, NA DPP 1/13.

The ship’s surgeon
:
New York Times,
August 1, 1910.

As a precaution
: Priestley,
Edwardians,
199.

TREACHEROUS WATERS

Dew realized
: Dew,
I Caught Crippen,
42–43.

Kendall led the party
: Dew,
I Caught Crippen,
44; Priestley,
Edwardians,
199.

“During my long career”
: Dew,
I Caught Crippen,
43.

Crippen, he wrote, “had been caught”
: Ibid., 44.

“I am Chief Inspector Dew”
: Ibid., 44.

EPILOGUE: INTO THE ETHER

THE TABLE OF DROPS

“If the fatal dose”
:
Trial,
69.

Investigators made another
: Dew,
I Caught Crippen,
62.

Dew’s manner was so paternal
: Le Neve,
Ethel Le Neve,
60.

“He mystified me”
: Dew,
I Caught Crippen,
56–57.

At the Quebec prison
: C. L. Gauvrea to Superintendent, Scotland Yard, December 9, 1959. Black Museum, NA-MEPO 3/3154.

Dew kept Crippen
: Dew,
I Caught Crippen,
57.

“I don’t know how things may go”
: Ibid., 54.

“I had to be present”
: Ibid., 55.

Four thousand people
: Willcox,
Detective-Physician,
28.

The spectators included
: Jeffers,
Bloody Business,
129.

On the stand Spilsbury
: Browne and Tullett,
Scotland Yard
, 53–54.

At this point a soup plate
:
Trial,
xxxii; Jeffers,
Bloody Business,
128.

Muir asked
:
Trial,
94.

A warder took his money
: Memorandum, W. Middleton to Governor of Pentonville Prison, October 25, 1910. NA-PCOM 8/30.

The fact of his incarceration
: Memorandum HM Prison Brixton, September 19, 1910. NA-PCOM 8/30.

“It is comfort”
: Ellis, 316. During Crippen’s incarceration, an old man applied to be hanged in his place, arguing that his own life was not worth as much as that of a doctor. The offer was declined. Browne,
Travers Humphreys,
78.

Ellis was known to be
: Memorandum to Commissioners, March 11, 1914. Execuion Record, Execution of Josiah Davies, March 10, 1914. NA PCOM 8/213. One notorious series of executions conducted by a hangman named Berry had demonstrated the worth of attending carefully to the physics of the process. He tried three times to hang a convicted killer named John Lee, and three times failed, prompting a judge to commute Lee’s sentence to life. Chastened, Berry resolved to correct his mistake by adding a little extra distance to the drop for future executions. His next subject was a killer named Robert Goodale. The noose tore Goodale’s head off. A year later, while trying to hang a murderer named David Roberts, he allowed too little distance. Roberts struggled in midair until prison authorities killed him by other means. See Browne,
Rise,
180.

“Character of prisoner’s neck”
: Execution Record, Execution of Hawley Harvey Crippen, November 23, 1910. NA-PCOM 8/30.

The prison warder
: Inventory, Crippen’s Clothing, August 21, 1911. NA PCOM 8/30.

Ellis continued to moonlight
: Rochdale Folk, at manchesterhistory.net/ rochdale/ellis.htm

An editor for: “To H. H. Crippen, Condemned Cell, Pentonville Gaol.” November 19, 1910. Newspaper Extracts, NA-HO /44/1719/ 195492.

One theory
: Hicks,
Not Guilty,
83.

“I never looked upon”
: Humphreys,
Criminal Days,
113.

“Full justice has not yet been done”
: Browne and Tullett,
Scotland Yard,
58.

“We carefully examined”
: Central Officer’s Special Report: Murder of Cora Crippen. Information, September 1, 1910. NA-MEPO 3/198.

“There is no bad smell
: Central Officer’s Special Report: Special Enquiry at Railway Stations re Crippen, September 16, 1910. NA-MEPO 3/198.

The Public Health Department
: Alfred Edwin Harris, Medical Officer of Health, to Sir Melville Macnaghten, October 7, 1910. NA-MEPO 3/198.

At precisely 3:15
: Memorandum: “I beg to report the funeral cortege….” NA-MEPO, 3/198.

“Dr. Crippen’s love”
: Dew,
I Caught Crippen,
47.

the Wee Hoose
: Cullen,
Crippen,
197.

“the most intriguing murder mystery”
: Dew,
I Caught Crippen,
7.

Just before two in the morning
: Canada’s national archives contain a great trove of material on the
Empress
disaster. See in particular: Commission of Enquiry into Wreckage of Empress of Ireland, June 16, 1914. Archives Canada, RG 42 Vol. 351.

As the Germans raced
: Musk,
Canadian Pacific,
74; Croall,
Fourteen Minutes,
229–30.

He joined the Royal Navy
: Croall,
Fourteen Minutes
, 230.

One mast remained
: Musk,
Canadian Pacific,
74.

Alfred Hitchcock
: Hitchcock, “Juicy Murders,” 23; Massie,
Potawatomi Tears,
277; “Hitchcock’s Favorite Crime,” members.aol.com/vistavsion/ doctorcrippen.htm.

What Hitchcock found particularly appealing about the Crippen saga was its subtlety. “The Crippen case was fraught with understatement, restraint, and characteristic British relish for drama,” he wrote. He called understatement “an occupational tradition of English police. With the most atrocious criminals, they never bluster up and say, ‘O.K.—we gotcha!’ They say: ‘I beg your pardon, but it seems that someone has been boiled in oil. We wondered if you’d mind answering a few questions about it….’” Hitchcock, “Juicy Murders,” 23.