Doctor Crippen: The Infamous London Cellar Murder of 1910 (9 page)

The Chief Constable of Liverpool had booked Walter Dew on to the steamer
Laurentic
under the name of John Dewhurst. The ship was going to sail from Liverpool at 6.30 p.m. on 23 July, a whole three and a half days after Crippen and Le Neve had departed for Canada. The
Laurentic
could travel at about 3.5 miles per hour faster than the
Montrose
,
and sailed directly to Quebec. She was due to arrive there on 31 July, a couple of days before the
Montrose
. Dew did not even tell his wife about his mission, named ‘Operation Handcuffs’. He just said that he had to go abroad ‘on a matter of great urgency’. This was not unusual, for Dew never discussed any of his cases with his family. His daughter Kate would later recall that her father ‘was usually very reluctant to give any information or express any opinion on the work on which he was engaged’.
⁸

Dew journeyed from Euston station to Liverpool, where he was met by a Liverpudlian police officer wearing a red rose in his buttonhole for identification. News of Dew’s imminent departure had leaked and a number of reporters and photographers had assembled, but he managed to slip quietly on board and evade the gathered pressmen.
⁹

While Dew was steadily gaining ground on the
Montrose
he made numerous attempts to contact Captain Kendall via the Marconi wireless, but his messages failed to get through. The range of the wireless was limited and messages had to be sent via other vessels within 150 miles of the two ships. Somehow the passengers on the
Laurentic
suspected that the man with the large dark-grey moustache was a Scotland Yard officer. Dew had ‘made every possible effort to hide his identity. It was soon discovered, however, but by tacit consent of everyone his incognito has been respected.’ This was disputed by Dew who said nothing, kept himself to himself, giving every appearance of being ‘an Englishman out for a little pleasure jaunt’.
¹⁰
Despite what was at stake, Dew admitted, ‘I had a most pleasant voyage.’
¹¹

Captain Kendall, meanwhile, continued his surveillance on Crippen and Le Neve. Crippen was very relaxed and he and Le Neve spent one night in the saloon

enjoying songs and music, he was quite interested, and spoke to me next morning, saying how one song, ‘We All Walked Into the Shop’, had been drumming in his head all night, and how his boy had enjoyed it, and laughed heartily when they retired to their room. In the course of one conversation he spoke about American drinks, and said that Selfridge’s was the only decent place in London to get them at.

Kendall thought he saw the outline of a revolver in Crippen’s hip pocket when a gust of wind blew the tail of his jacket to one side. From then on, he carried his own gun, and ‘if he turned and fired on me I would shoot him dead’. The captain could have placed the couple under arrest, but he didn’t have enough staff to put a permanent watch on them night and day. Furthermore, they hadn’t caused the slightest trouble so far on the voyage, so he thought it best to observe them and play ‘the complete simpleton’.
¹²

Kendall sensed an almost sinister hold Crippen had over Le Neve:

At times both would sit and appear to be in deep thought. Though Le Neve does not show any signs of distress, and is, perhaps, ignorant of the crime committed, she appears to be a girl with a very weak will. She has to follow him everywhere. If he looks at her she gives him an endearing smile, as though she were under his hypnotic influence.

As the voyage progressed Crippen became more and more restless. He asked Kendall where the ship stopped to be met by the pilot boat, how he came off, how far it was from the pilot station to Quebec, and said he was anxious to get to Detroit. Crippen told Kendall that he thought about settling down in California on a fruit farm.

Newspapers had been full of the story of the Atlantic chase because Captain Kendall had been sending back regular wireless messages to the British newspapers, which told of his progress and investigations. John Nash, who had originally reported Cora Crippen’s disappearance, was elated and declared that the ‘fact that Inspector Dew has gone is splendid. This means almost certainly that Crippen will be caught.’
¹³
Some telegrams were sent to the
Montrose
from New York asking for statements from Crippen, but these were intercepted by Kendall.
¹⁴

Back in London Superintendent Froest was keeping his feet firmly on the ground, at least publicly. In a statement, Froest pointed out the realities of the situation, which were in stark contrast to the press excitement over the chase, which was seen as a foregone prelude to the capture of the fugitives. Froest said,

He [Dew] will leave the details of the arrest to the Canadian police, who will of course, make their own arrangements. His position during the proceedings in Canada, which are identical with the proceedings which are taken for extradition orders in other countries, will be first to identify the people and then to wait until they are handed over into his custody by the Canadian police. He will act exactly as a foreign officer does who is in this country waiting for the extradition of a criminal for whom he has been seeking. These proceedings will naturally take some considerable time, and it is not possible for Inspector Dew to arrive back in this country in time for the adjourned inquest, which is fixed for August 15. That is, of course, if he can identify the people. Speaking for myself, I am keeping a perfectly clear mind on the subject. We have so many houses built with cards which fall down when the last of the pack is placed on top, and for this reason we are pursuing every clue which comes to us, just as if the
Montrose
incident had never occurred. Investigations are being made in London and elsewhere by detectives with a view to building up the story of the crime which is, owing to several aspects of the mystery, somewhat incomplete.
¹⁵

It was not just the newspaper-reading public who were eagerly following Inspector Dew’s transatlantic chase. Late on 30 July Home Secretary Winston Churchill requested an update on the case, which was delivered to him at St James’ Palace.

Dew’s fears that the
Montrose
had beaten him to Canada were unfounded. As well as the assurances of the
Laurentic
’s captain, there was the sight of a pilot cutter coming out to meet the steamer at Father Point filled with press reporters and photographers. Dew surmised it never would have been there had the
Montrose
already arrived. To his annoyance they cheered, ‘Three cheers for Inspector Dew!’
¹⁶

Walter Dew’s relationship with the American and Canadian press was always uneasy, principally because he steadfastly refused to tell them anything. Dew saw this as ‘upholding the prestige of British justice and British police methods’.
¹⁷
Questions were met by blunt responses such as, ‘Let me alone’, ‘I don’t know anything about it’, and ‘I do not want any pictures taken at all’.
¹⁸
The newsmen could not understand Dew’s reticence. ‘They do things very differently in America,’ Dew sighed. ‘I prefer the British way.’
¹⁹

Has anybody here seen Crippen,
C R I double-P E N?
Has anybody here seen Crippen?
Seek him up and down.
He’s done a bunk to Canada
And left his wife in a coal cellar.
Has anybody here seen Crippen,
Crippen from Camden Town?

Contemporary verse, Versicles of Crime

Father Point was a desolate outpost on the St Lawrence River, consisting of some wooden shacks, a wireless station and a lighthouse. Inspector Dew was put up in one of the shacks, where he sleeplessly awaited the arrival of the
Montrose
amid the din of the lighthouse foghorn and rowdy singing of the congregated journalists in the other huts. As Dew had no power of arrest in Canadian waters he was met by Chief Officer McCarthy and Detective Denis of the Quebec City police, who would arrest Crippen and Le Neve.

On 31 July 1910, Inspector Dew borrowed the uniform of a pilot boat officer before being rowed up to the
Montrose
, accompanied by a genuine pilot and McCarthy and Denis. Crippen was still blissfully ignorant of having been discovered, commenting to the ship’s doctor, ‘There seem to be a good many pilots in the boat, doctor.’
¹
Captain Kendall had been forewarned by wireless about what was going to happen and was waiting for the disguised Dew on the bridge, where the pair shook hands.

While making his way towards the captain’s cabin, Dew caught sight of and instantly recognised Dr Crippen, despite his now being clean-shaven and not wearing glasses:
²

Presently only a few feet separated us. A pair of bulgy eyes were raised to mine. I would have recognized them anywhere.
    The little man was Crippen. I thrilled with the realization that this was no wild goose chase after all. My search was ended. Miss Le Neve, I felt certain, would not be far away.
    During my long career as a detective, I have experienced many big moments, but at no other time have I felt such a sense of triumph and achievement.
³

Crippen was brought by McCarthy and Denis into Kendall’s cabin, where Dew confronted him with the words, ‘Good morning, Dr Crippen; I am Chief Inspector Dew.’ Crippen simply replied, ‘Good morning, Mr Dew.’ Dew continued, ‘You will be arrested for the murder and mutilation of your wife, Cora Crippen, in London, on or about the 2nd of February last.’

Dew recalled, ‘Even though I believed him to be a murderer, and a brutal murderer at that, it was impossible at that moment not to feel for him a pang of pity. He had been caught on the threshold of freedom. Only twelve hours more and he would have been safely at Quebec.’
⁴

Macnaghten compared the confrontation between Dew and Crippen with that of Henry Morton Stanley and Dr David Livingstone, almost forty years previously in Africa.
⁵
Livingstone had embarked on an African expedition in 1866 and was not heard of for years. The editor of the
New York Herald
dispatched journalist Stanley to find out what had happened to Livingstone. Stanley set out in 1871 and eventually tracked down Livingstone eight months later, greeting him with the immortal question, ‘Dr Livingstone I presume?’

Chief Officer McCarthy and Detective Denis cautioned the now speechless Crippen. Detective Denis then searched Crippen and found several items from Cora Crippen’s jewellery collection. There were also two printed cards bearing the name ‘E. Robinson & Co., Detroit, Mich. Presented by Mr John Robinson’. On the back of one was written, ‘I cannot stand the horror I go through every night any longer and as I see nothing bright ahead and money has come to an end I have made up my mind to jump overboard tonight – I know I have spoil [
sic
] your life – but I – I hope some day you can learn to forgive me. With last words of love, your H.’ On the back of the other card was written, ‘Shall we wait until tonight about 10 or 11 o’clock? If not, what time?’

Dew thought the writing was Crippen’s, and believed they showed he would have committed suicide before the
Montrose
reached Quebec. He found Crippen’s explanation of the cards unsatisfactory:

He stated that two days before his arrival at Quebec, the Quartermaster of the
Montrose
, approached and showed him an unsigned letter, in which it said that the Police were going to arrest him on his arrival at Quebec, and he (the Quartermaster) offered to hide him amongst the cargo till all was quiet, and then at Montreal would facilitate his
    escape.
    Crippen alleged that it was arranged that Miss Le Neve should remain on board, as it was not supposed that Police wanted her, and that the cards found on him when arrested, in which he had written, that the horror was too much and that he intended jumping overboard etc., were written by him as part of the plot, and would have been produced by Miss Le Neve, when Police came on board.
    He further said that the Quartermaster was going to make a splash in the water at night, and then tell the Captain that he (Crippen) had jumped overboard.

Captain Kendall didn’t believe the story either. It appeared in the
Montreal Daily Star
and led to the
Montrose
’s four quartermasters indignantly issuing a sworn statement refuting the story and of having had any dealings with Dr Crippen on the voyage.
⁶

Leaving Crippen with McCarthy, Dew entered cabin five, where he saw Ethel Le Neve reclining on a settee. Her appearance had also altered since Dew last saw her. Not only was she dressed as a boy, wearing the same brown suit that William Long had purchased in London, but her hair had been cropped short. Dew thought Le Neve’s disguise was unconvincing and found it ‘difficult to believe that any person with an average amount of intelligence could ever have believed her to be a boy’. Dew said to her with his ‘characteristic lisp’,
⁷
‘Miss Le Neve’, to which she replied, ‘Yes.’ Dew then identified himself and told her the charge she was facing. Le Neve did not reply, but became agitated and faint. Dew left Le Neve with a stewardess and returned to the captain’s cabin to remove Crippen to another cabin. Crippen suddenly said, ‘I am not sorry; the anxiety has been too much.’ McCarthy handcuffed Crippen, explaining that, ‘We must put these on, because on a card found on you you have written that you intend jumping overboard.’ Crippen replied, ‘I won’t. I am more than satisfied, because the anxiety has been too awful.’

Dew made a further search of Crippen, finding more jewellery concealed about his person. Crippen asked Dew how Le Neve was. ‘Agitated,’ Dew replied, ‘but I am doing all I can for her.’ Crippen replied, ‘It is only fair to say that she knows nothing about it; I never told her anything.’ She had not seen any newspapers on the voyage thanks to the efforts of Captain Kendall and Chief Officer Sergent. ‘I assure you Mr Dew,’ Le Neve said, ‘I know nothing about it, I intended writing to my sister when I got to Quebec.’