Doctor Crippen: The Infamous London Cellar Murder of 1910 (8 page)

The
Times
referred to Crippen as ‘Dr’ Crippen rather than Dr Crippen in their coverage. There was some doubt as to the validity of Crippen’s medical qualifications. Dew found a diploma at 39 Hilldrop Crescent,

Presented and Registered in the Office of the Clerk of the County of King’s by Hawley H. Crippen, as his authority to practice physic and surgery, this 8th day of July 1900. This will certify that the within diploma is from a reputable Medical College, legally chartered under the laws of the State of Ohio.

This was good enough for Dew, who pointed out that the diploma proved Crippen ‘was not drawing on his imagination in describing himself as a doctor, at any rate, so far as the U.S.A. was concerned’.
¹⁸
Crippen’s American qualification would not, however, allow him to practice as a doctor in England.
¹⁹

The Crippen case led
The
British Medical Journal
to speak out against foreign medical practitioners and their qualifications:

The crime could hardly have been accomplished had it not been for the fact that Crippen, thanks to his American degree, was enabled to procure poisons in any quantity he desired. But for this circumstance the chemists can hardly be held to blame, since, it has become the custom in this country to accept foreigners who dub themselves medical men at their own valuation. It is quite time that this free trade in medical practice came to an end, and for both the public and the authorities to adopt and maintain the legal interpretation of the term ‘medical practitioner’. This is a person who in virtue of an approved curriculum at an approved institution had obtained admission to the Register kept by the General Medical Council. A large proportion of the degrees obtainable in America are not only absolutely worthless from the point of view of this country, but are frankly admitted to be so by Americans themselves.
²⁰

In 1898, Crippen had appeared as a witness at a trial heard at the County of London Sessions for a colleague who was accused of stealing money from Munyon’s. Crippen referred to his colleague as ‘Doctor’ Deane, which the judge queried:

Judge: You call him ‘doctor’. What are his qualifications?
Crippen: I don’t know.
Barrister: You are called ‘doctor’. You are not qualified?
Crippen: I don’t pretend to be.
²¹

Crippen’s medical career had been rather a chequered one. From early respectability he was drawn to homoeopathy, but he soon slipped into the murky world of quackery. This might suggest an unscrupulous streak in Crippen’s character as he engaged in a trade that offered diagnosis by post and dispensed cures for everything from kidney disease and asthma to the common cold.

Again at the 1898 trial, this practice was questioned:

Barrister: You advertise 24 remedies, aren’t they all the same?
Crippen: No.
Barrister: Can you tell me any other ingredients than sugar and water in these ‘cures’?
Crippen: I don’t think I need answer that question.
²²

In his youth, Crippen had been quite a well-known figure in homoeopathic circles and in 1885 was employed as a special correspondent by
The American Homeopathic Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology
. He wrote articles, book reviews and travelled to Europe, reporting on the state of the homoeopathy business in Paris and Berlin. His writings prophetically hinted at what he had done after leaving Hilldrop Crescent. Berlin offered ‘a very desirable contrast to the cloudy, damp, and smoky atmosphere of London’,
²³
while the lure of Paris ‘tempted your correspondent to brave the dangers of seasickness and cross the English channel’.
²⁴
Crippen and Le Neve had sailed to Europe.

… one of those episodes that no novelist would dare to make up, such as Crippen’s flight across the Atlantic with his mistress dressed as a boy.

George Orwell,
Decline of the English Murder

Captain Kendall seemed to be very much impressed by our interest in anything connected with murder.

Ethel Le Neve,
Thomson’s Weekly News

In 1910 it was not necessary to have a passport to travel much of the world, and Crippen and Le Neve had reached Belgium by 10 July. On that day they had booked into the Hotel des Ardennes in the Rue de Brabant in Brussels. Later enquiries established they stayed there until 18 July. Crippen signed the visitor’s register ‘John Robinson, age 55 Merchant born in Quebec Canada last place of residence, Vienna’. The hotel’s proprietress signed the book on behalf of Le Neve under the name of ‘John Robinson Junior’, for the typist was now masquerading as a boy. The only luggage they brought with them was a small basketwork trunk. To the staff at the hotel they appeared to be two people travelling for pleasure. They spent most of their time in their room, only leaving it for about two hours a day.

The story Crippen told the hotel staff was that he was a merchant travelling with his sick son and that his wife had died two months previously. Le Neve only spoke in whispers, which Crippen explained by saying that ‘he’ was deaf and suffering from an affliction of the throat. He added that they had come from Quebec and planned to go to The Hague, Rotterdam and Amsterdam, and spend a few days in the Cambre Forest before returning to Quebec. Other enquiries elicited that Crippen had said he was going to go to Vilvorde near Brussels, for the benefit of his ‘son’s’ health.

On 13 July, the day Dew discovered the remains at Hilldrop Crescent, Crippen called in at the office of M. Baur, an agent of the Red Star shipping line. He asked for a second-class cabin on a ship bound for Canada. The only one available was the steamer
Montrose
, which was due to leave Antwerp on 3 August. Crippen (still using the name Robinson) did not book it but returned the next day. Then he was told that he could get an earlier berth by booking a ship which went via England to Canada. Crippen declined and booked a cabin on the
Montrose
, a 5,000-ton steamship that travelled at a speed of 13 knots.

Crippen made another visit to Baur on 15 July. He was then informed that the
Montrose
was now sailing early, on 20 July. Crippen collected his two tickets for cabin number five, which cost 275 francs each (around £22), paying with English gold. He then asked Baur if he could recommend someone in Brussels who might lend him some money, but Baur declined to give him that information.

The
Montrose
arrived at Antwerp on 15 July. The vessel had first been launched in 1897 and initially used to transport Boer War troops. By 1910 the
Montrose
had a reputation of being a modest and reliable ship. Its captain, Henry Kendall, had sailed from London the day before. He had been given a full description of Dr Crippen by the Thames Police, which also included the detail that Le Neve might be dressed as a boy and Crippen as a clergyman.

The passengers for the
Montrose
(all second and third class) boarded the ship on 20 July between 8.30 and 10.00 a.m. There were in total 20 second-class passengers, 246 third-class and a crew of 107, making a total of 373 souls on board. Kendall did not notice anything untoward about any of the passengers. That was until he went ashore and bought a Continental edition of the
Daily Mail
, containing photographs and descriptions of Dr Crippen and Ethel Le Neve.

Kendall’s suspicions were aroused within three hours of the start of the voyage when he saw mister and master Robinson. Crippen had signed the manifest ‘John Philo Robinson, age 55, Merchant, American, of Detroit, Michegan U.S.A.’ Le Neve was described as ‘John George Robinson, age 16, single, Student’. Mr Robinson was clean-shaven, but had several days of growth on his chin. When the captain ‘saw the boy squeeze the man’s hand I thought it strange and unnatural, and it occurred to me at once that they might be Crippen and Le Neve’. Kendall wished them the time of day and observed them keenly. Already he felt ‘quite confident’ that they were the fugitives, but he did not do anything else at that point as he wished to make sure he hadn’t made a mistake.

The following day, Captain Kendall confided his suspicions to his chief officer, Alfred Sergent, and instructed him to help collect any English newspapers on the ship which mentioned the North London cellar murder. Locking himself in his cabin, Kendall took a newspaper photograph of Dr Crippen and pinned it up on a drawing board before chalking out his moustache and spectacles. He then cut out a cardboard frame and placed it over the photograph of Le Neve, obscuring her hat and hair. Looking out of his cabin port-hole, Kendall saw the Robinsons stretched out on deck chairs about 20 feet away. He was now convinced they were the London fugitives.
¹
On 22 July, Kendall engaged Crippen in conversation on the subject of sea-sickness among passengers and the remedies used for curing it. Crippen’s answers included some medical terms for certain remedies. This convinced Kendall that Robinson was a medical man.

In addition, Robinson fitted two of the points of description of Crippen. The bridge of his nose was flat, and there was a deep mark on his nose as if caused by the wearing of spectacles. Kendall also heard Robinson speak in French to the French passengers. This ‘positively convinced’ Kendall that his suspicions were justified. Kendall told Crippen stories he hoped would make him laugh out loud, to see if Crippen would open his mouth wide enough for him to ascertain if he had false teeth.
²
The captain tested Crippen two or three times by calling after him ‘Mr Robinson’, to which Crippen did not respond. It was only when Kendall repeated his call and Le Neve prompted him that Crippen replied, explaining that the cold weather had made him deaf.

Kendall now made an historic decision. He instructed his Marconi wireless operator to send the following message to the managing director of the shipping company who would pass it on to Scotland Yard:

Montrose. 130 miles West of Lizard.
Have strong suspicion that Crippen London Cellar
Murderer and accomplice are amongst saloon passengers.
Moustache shaved off, growing beard. Accomplice dressed
as boy, voice, manner and build undoubtedly a girl.
Kendall.

The wireless telegraph had come into existence in the late nineteenth century, and by the early twentieth century it was possible to send messages over ever-increasing distances. Before this it was necessary to send transatlantic messages via underwater cables that linked Britain and America. The
Montrose
was one of only about sixty ships in the world to be fitted with wireless.
³
Ironically, Crippen would often sit on deck and look up at the wireless aerial, listening to the cracking electric spark messages being sent by the operator. He once commented, ‘What a wonderful invention it is!’

Kendall continued to keep the pair under observation. He noted that Le Neve

has the manner and appearance of a very refined, modest girl. She does not speak much, but always wears a pleasant smile. She seems thoroughly under his thumb, and he will not leave her for a moment. Her suit is anything but a good fit. Her trousers are very tight about the hips, and are split a bit down the back and secured with large safety pins.
    He continually shaves his upper lip, and his beard is growing nicely. I often see him stroking it and he seems pleased, looking more like a farmer every day. The mark on his nose has not worn off since coming on board.
    He sits about on the deck reading, or pretending to read, and both seem to be thoroughly enjoying all their meals. They have not been seasick, and I have discussed various parts of the world with him. He knows Toronto, Detroit, and California well, and says he is going to take his boy to California for his health (meaning Miss Le Neve). Has in conversation used several medical terms. Crippen says that when the ship arrives he will go to Detroit by boat, if possible, as he prefers it. The books he has been most interested in have been
    
Pickwick Papers
    
Nebo the Nailer
(S.B. Gould)
    
Metropolis
    
A Name to Conjure With
    And he is now busy reading
The Four Just Men
, which is all about a murder in London and £1,000 reward.

The Robinsons dined at the captain’s table, where Le Neve’s table manners were

most lady like, handling knife and fork, and taking fruit off the dishes with two fingers. Crippen kept cracking nuts for her, and giving her half his salad, and was always paying her the most marked attention … and the more I saw of them the more I was convinced and I sent a further Marconi to Liverpool when in Mid Atlantic, saying that I was fully convinced as to the identity, passengers not suspicious am keeping everything quiet.

Dew, exhausted by the relentless and unsuccessful hunt for Crippen, received the ‘electrifying’ news of Captain Kendall’s suspicions one evening via a telegram from the Liverpool police. As Dew read the contents ‘a wave of optimism swept over me. My fatigue instantly vanished.’
⁴
Dew rushed from his Scotland Yard office and jumped into a cab that took him to the residence of Assistant Commissioner Melville Macnaghten, who had become ‘obsessed with Crippen and the hope of his capture’.
⁵
Dew handed Macnaghten the telegram, which he read with raised eyebrows. The following conversation ensued:

‘What do you think?’
‘I feel confident it’s them.’
‘So do I. What do you suggest?’
‘I want to go after them in a fast steamer. The White Star liner
Laurentic
sails from Liverpool to-morrow. I believe it is possible for her to overtake the
Montrose
and reach Canada first.’
‘Here’s your authority, Dew, and I wish you all the luck in the world.’
⁶

Despite endorsing Dew’s voyage, Macnaghten was only too aware of the risks it entailed. Dew knew every detail of the case and had spoken to Crippen. His absence could create problems. ‘But a decision had to be arrived at … the die was cast, the Rubicon was crossed. If the
coup
happened to come off, well and good, but, if otherwise, why, then, the case would have been hopelessly messed up, and I didn’t care to dwell on the eventualities of its future.’ Macnaghten’s spirits were somewhat deflated when he arrived at Scotland Yard the next morning and asked Superintendent Froest, ‘Well, what do you think of last night’s decision?’ Froest was unimpressed by Macnaghten’s ‘sanguine view’ of the chances of the Marconi message being correct, although Commisioner Sir Edward Henry shared Macnaghten’s optimism.
⁷