Doctor Crippen: The Infamous London Cellar Murder of 1910 (10 page)

As soon as he could, Dew sent a telegram to Scotland Yard. ‘Crippen and Leneve [
sic
] arrested wire later Dew.’ The following day he sent another, ‘Confirming former cable arrest made, arrive Quebec midnight Sunday. Suggest matron and Mitchell, Crippen threatened suicide, writing soon. Dew.’

The arrest of Crippen was the first instance of a murderer being captured thanks largely to wireless telegraphy technology. In 1845 John Tawell became the first murderer to be caught by a normal telegraph. He was observed getting onto a train at Slough after murdering his mistress. A telegraph was sent to Paddington station, and the police were waiting for him when he arrived.

The Times
explained the importance of the wireless in the Crippen case:

In the absence of wireless telegraphy the fugitives would have reached Canada in comparatively favourable circumstances. There would have been no apparatus of detention ready for their arrival. No doubt the captain’s suspicions would have been made known in the proper quarters, and means might have been found to keep them under observation for a time. But there would have been no means of absolute identification, and the action of the authorities would plainly have been very much hampered. Wireless telegraphy enabled the captain, without altering his course, and without giving the alarm to the fugitives, to communicate his suspicions to his owners, who promptly handed them on to Scotland Yard.
⁸

The
Montrose
arrived in Quebec early on the morning of 1 August. As with all the events surrounding the case, a crowd had gathered; this time it numbered around 500. Amid the flashes of camera lamps they saw a handcuffed Dr Crippen, holding his head down low, following Walter Dew down the gangplank. Ethel Le Neve followed, her boy’s attire replaced by ill-fitting garments that belonged to the stewardess of the
Montrose
. Crippen and Le Neve were taken to the city gaol.

Isolated and enduring continuous pressure from the press for a story, Inspector Dew wrote a ‘somewhat disjointed’ twenty-three page hand-written report describing the arrest and his subsequent problems with journalists. ‘I feel a little worn out after the somewhat strenuous and anxious life of the past month,’ Dew told Chief Constable Bigham at Scotland Yard.

I was absolutely mobbed. Cameras were thrust in my face and I was practically at their mercy. I was importuned to say something, but I need hardly say that I refused.
    In passing I cannot refrain from saying that the whole affair was disgraceful and should and could have been avoided and I was fearful lest this should in any way mar the success of my mission. Fabulous sums were offered me for information and permission to take the photograph of Crippen and especially Le Neve in boys’ clothing.
    My refusal to do this and declining to give information has of course gained me many enemies, as I have it on the best authority that owners of papers are complaining that no statements & information are forthcoming through them from Dew.
    The result is that
daily
the most lying reports are published as to alleged statements made by me as to confessions etc. and indeed strange as it may seem, my life has been made a perfect burden.
    I am followed and questioned in the most shameful manner, and my every movement is watched, they even intrude into my hotel and force their questions upon me at meals, and every possible ruse has been adopted to break through the reserve I have maintained from the first.
    It has cost me a prodigious effort to continue to treat them with civility, but I think the fact of my having done so has annoyed them more.

Dew requested that he be allowed to have a free hand when it came to arranging the return voyage and said that Crippen would never be left alone, no doubt fearing he might try to attempt suicide. He emphasised that Crippen and Le Neve would be kept entirely apart and expressed concern that heavy bribes might be offered by the press to the matrons in order to get to Le Neve.

At the initial police court hearing, a crowd of 3,000 women blocked the entrance to the court in the fight for admission. All the available seats were occupied by women, with forty or fifty others standing. Crippen’s physical appearance came as a disappointment to the expectant spectators. He was not ‘the hypnotic marvel which cabled stories had held up. Instead, the cringing figure with stooped head gave the lie to expectations. Crippen whined where criminals with more backbone would have answered smartly and posed serenely. He rolled his swollen eyes and twitched his head.’ Le Neve was no more inspiring. She ‘leaned weakly upon the arms of her guards like one who had risen from a sick bed’ before fainting and being carried out.
⁹

The hearing itself was a formality. Crippen confirmed his name and acknowledged he knew Le Neve and the reason they were there. He also stated he was an American citizen, a Catholic and that he would not fight extradition. The 1881 Fugitive Offenders Act meant that fugitives from British justice wanted for offences carrying a sentence of twelve months or more could be arrested on a warrant in any part of the British dominions. When caught, the fugitive would appear before a magistrate and if the evidence presented ‘raises a strong or probable presumption that the fugitive committed the offence’, they would then be sent to prison for fifteen days to allow them to appeal before being extradited. This is what happened with Crippen and it meant that he and Dew would miss the resumed coroner’s inquest in London.

Dew had anticipated a stay in Canada after Crippen’s arrest. The intensity of the Canadian public’s feelings of revulsion towards Crippen came as a surprise to him:

I had plenty of opportunities for sensing public opinion in Quebec. The people there were incensed against Crippen. They looked upon him as a monster in human form. By some he had already been judged and found guilty. The ghastly murder and mutilation of Belle Elmore, followed by his flight from justice with Miss Ethel Le Neve as his companion, had roused public feeling against him to fever point.
    It was the same the world over. I have never known anything like it. Only those who can remember the case and the intense excitement and bitterness it engendered, can have any conception of the widespread antipathy towards the little man who was now in my charge.
¹⁰

A rumour emerged on 4 August that Crippen had confessed to the murder of his wife. Dew stoutly denied this, saying, ‘There is not an iota of truth in the rumour.’ Froest described the suggestion as ‘absolutely untrue’, and the Canadian Provincial Premier, Sir Lomer Gouin, described the stories as ‘tissues of lies’. They were lies, and they would later prove costly for the newspapers that had printed them.

Another bogus report said that Dew had been sent a telegram from Scotland Yard saying that the remains had been positively identified as being female. An ‘absolute invention’ was the exasperated Froest’s verdict. Dew had not received such a communication from Scotland Yard and they had not had any more from Dew.
¹¹

Bizarre stories were published. Le Neve was offered £200 a week to star in a twenty-week tour, which included a music hall sketch called ‘Caught by Wireless’. Crippen was offered £1,000 a week for a twenty-week engagement if he was acquitted.
¹²
At this time one of the strangest stories concerning Dew’s investigations emerged. It was reported in
The Times
that Dew’s wife Kate had expressed an opinion that Belle Elmore was still alive and that the whole Crippen case had been arranged as an advertising stunt.
¹³
Stranger still, Dew was reported as saying that the remains had not even been identified as human, let alone female and if Cora Crippen were to reappear alive she would be a great attraction on the stage and could name her price.
¹⁴

Detective Sergeant Mitchell had left Liverpool and was making his way to Quebec aboard the
Lake Manitoba
to deliver extradition papers.
¹⁵
He was accompanied by Sarah Stone and Julia Foster, two stern-faced wardresses from Holloway Prison (there were no police matrons), to accompany Ethel Le Neve back home. When Mitchell was reunited with Dew on 14 August he handed him a letter from Chief Constable Bigham. Dew replied to Bigham, saying that he had received the two cables that the letter referred to. One of them appears to have contained instructions from Winston Churchill, for Dew wrote,

The wishes of H.M. Secretary of State were anticipated by me, and I would remark that I have always made it a practice to treat prisoners with courtesy & consideration no matter what their position in life.
    If I have erred in this case it has been on the side of consideration and humanity, and at great cost to my own personal convenience & comfort.

Churchill had also expressed a desire that Crippen and Le Neve should be protected from the reporters and photographers. Dew was pleased to report that ‘so far as I am personally concerned I succeeded in preventing all annoyance from these people, and I also think succeeded in preventing their photographs being taken, but no one except myself can ever realise at what a cost this was done’.

Dew went on to inform Bigham that he was ‘devising a scheme’ to get the prisoners back to England, as he was concerned about the strength of feeling the Canadians had against Crippen, which potentially jeopardised Dew’s chances of bringing him back home safely:

This of course will depend to some extent on the Police here, to whom sooner or later I must divulge my plans, but bluntly speaking, I don’t trust them too much in respect to reporters, however I shall do my best to avoid publicity and annoyance to fugitives.

The Canadian and American journalists hoped that Sergeant Mitchell might be more forthcoming than Dew, but Dew told them in no uncertain terms that, ‘Mr Mitchell is acting under my instruction, and I have instructed him not to discuss the case.’
¹⁶
Mitchell remained silent.

The adjourned coroner’s inquest went ahead in London as scheduled on 15 August without Dew, Crippen or Le Neve. Also absent was the original coroner, Dr Danford Thomas. He had been suffering from ill health and decided to take a holiday between hearings. He died suddenly at the coastal town of Hastings. It was agreed that the assistant coroner, Walter Schröder, who was familiar with the facts, should replace him. Superintendent Froest appeared and said that he could not predict exactly when Dew and Mitchell would return with the prisoners but it would probably be in about three weeks time and suggested that the inquest be adjourned until then.

The Crippen case was fraught with understatement, restraint, and characteristic British relish for drama.

Alfred Hitchcock,
New York Times

Inspector Dew’s plan to leave Canada unseen involved boarding a small steamer named
Queen
, which
would meet the liner
Megantic
downstream. There was one small mishap as Crippen walked the gangway between the steamer and the
Megantic
. Handcuffed, and with his hat pulled down over his eyes, he walked into one of the ropes holding the gangway. It struck him on the chin and jerked him backwards, but Dew caught him before he fell into the sea.
¹
On 20 August, so the story went, four people boarded the White Star liner
Megantic
under false names. Inspector Dew was Silas P. Doyle (in a parting shot a disgruntled journalist wrote ‘Sillyass P. Doyle sails for England’),
²
Dr Crippen was Cyrus Field, Ethel Le Neve was Miss J. Byrne and Sergeant Mitchell was F. M. Johnson.
³
‘No one studying the liner’s passenger list would have been any wiser,’ boasted Dew.
⁴
This is contradicted by the surviving passenger list, which gives their correct names.
⁵

On board, Dew read Crippen and Le Neve the warrant that charged them both with the wilful murder of Cora Crippen. Le Neve was also charged with being an accessory after the fact to that murder. After hearing the charge again Crippen simply said ‘Right’, while Le Neve said ‘Yes.’

One American newspaper, perhaps frustrated by Dew’s refusal to speak to the press, launched a scathing attack on the departing detective:

That ridiculous Inspector Dew has taken his two prisoners and departed. Atlas with the weight of the universe on his shoulders was never more impressed with the importance of his job than Mr Dew has been for the last twenty days. Pomposity and overweening conceit apparently pass at Scotland Yard for cleverness and efficiency.
    Dew has been very funny while in America. And he has done a good service in destroying that traditional American awe and reverence felt for Scotland Yard and London police methods in general.
⁶

Dew described the return voyage aboard the
Megantic
:

Crippen ate well and apparently slept well. I found him a good conversationalist, able to talk on almost any subject. For the most part we confined ourselves to general topics – books, the weather, the liner, the progress we were making, and so on – but several times every day he asked about Miss Le Neve.
    One would never have guessed from Crippen’s demeanour and manner, on that homeward voyage, that he was under arrest for murder, and that he had on his conscience a burden which few men could have borne without wilting.
    The more I saw of this remarkable man the more he amazed me.
    I was greatly impressed on the voyage home by the unswerving loyalty of Crippen to Miss Le Neve.
    Every morning he asked first thing how Miss Le Neve was. He never seemed to care much what happened to himself, so long as her innocence was established.
    One incident sticks out in my memory. When off the coast of Ireland we ran into a heavy storm. Most of the passengers became ill, including my girl prisoner.
    Crippen was a good sailor. He remained unperturbed through it all, or would have remained unperturbed had he not learned of Miss Le Neve’s condition. The news that she was seasick caused him great concern. He told me the best remedy was champagne, and that the patient should lie flat.
    For a moment it didn’t strike me that he had it in his mind that champagne should be given to Miss Le Neve.
    He saw this, and looked pleadingly at me as he said: ‘Oh, Mr Dew, please give her a little champagne and I will be eternally grateful to you.’
⁷