Walter Dew: The Man Who Caught Crippen Page 8

  Dr Crippen was not a stage performer, but like his theatrical associates was also called by another name; to his friends and acquaintances he was known as Peter. The Crippens lived at 39 Hilldrop Crescent, Camden Town, in north London. Crippen had told the Nashes that Cora had left England for America on 2 February, and died there on 23 March, although several cheques had been presented during that period bearing her signature.

  Dew was initially nonplussed. The cheques could easily have been signed by Cora before she left for America, or been forged. The story he had heard was ‘a somewhat singular one, although’, he mused, ‘having regard to the Bohemian character of the persons concerned, is capable of explanation’. Nevertheless, Dew knew that the matter did require clearing up, as ‘[t]he whole circumstances, one must admit, are mysterious, and this being so the persons referred to, the others, have made various enquiries with a view to clear the matter up but without any good result, nor can they discover any trace of Mrs Crippen going by any ship’.

  Despite the apparently mundane nature of the inquiry, Dew did not hesitate in taking it up:

  Without a second’s hesitation I replied: ‘I think it would be just as well if I made a few inquiries into this personally.’

  Why did I not suggest that the inquiry should be handed over to the uniformed branch or given to a subordinate?

  Well, my experience as a police officer had taught me that it is better to be sure than sorry.

  Supposing I had considered myself too big for such an apparently trivial job.

  If I had turned the inquiry down all that could have happened was the transfer of the matter to the uniformed branch for the routine inquiries into an ordinary case of a missing person.

  Then only in the event of some suspicious circumstances coming to light, would the case have been referred back to the Yard.

  Dew set about making his enquiries. He first spoke to the members of the Music Hall Ladies’ Guild, and took a large number of statements from Cora’s friends. The members of the Guild all told a similar story.

  Paul Martinetti, a retired music hall artist, and his wife Clara had known the Crippens for some eighteen months. On 31 January Dr Crippen had called at their address in Shaftesbury Avenue to invite them to dinner that night. Despite Paul having been unwell earlier that day, they accepted the invitation and arrived at Hilldrop Crescent at about 8 p.m. At some time during the evening, Paul went to the lavatory; the lavatory window was open, and he consequently caught a chill from the draught.

  Clara Martinetti saw nothing unusual in Cora’s behaviour that night other than that she complained of a headache, for which Dr Crippen had given her something. She described her friend as ‘very jolly … she was nice’. The Martinettis left Hilldrop Crescent around 1.30 a.m. It was the last time they, or anyone else (besides Dr Crippen), would ever see Cora Crippen alive.

  The next morning Dr Crippen called at the Martinettis’ flat at around midday, to see how Paul was. Clara told him that her husband was still in bed. She then asked after Cora, and Crippen said, ‘Oh, she is all right.’ Crippen visited again about one week later, by which time Clara Martinetti had heard from the secretary of the Guild, Melinda May, that Cora had apparently gone to America. Clara expected Cora to send her a card from her ship but nothing arrived either from the ship or from New York. When Clara told Crippen this he told her that his wife was not stopping at New York, but heading straight to California.

  At the Music Hall Ladies’ Benevolent Fund’s ball on 20 February, Clara saw Dr Crippen with his typist, 27-year-old Ethel Le Neve, who was wearing a brooch that looked very similar to one she knew Cora possessed. Crippen visited the Martinettis once again after the ball and Clara repeated her concern that she had not heard from Cora. Crippen professed to be as surprised as she was. He did, however, have some worrying news: he said that he had heard from his relatives in America that Cora was very ill, and that there was something the matter with one of her lungs, but he had also heard from Cora to say that she was ‘not as bad as they say’.

  The Martinettis received a letter dated 20 March, which read:

  Dear Clara and Paul,

  Please forgive me not running in during the week but I have been so upset by very bad news from Belle that I did not feel equal to talking about anything. And now I have just a cable saying she is so dangerously ill with double pleuro-pneumonia that I am considering if I had not better go over at once. I do not want to worry you with my troubles, but I felt I must explain why I had not been to see you. I will try and run in during the week and have a chat. Hope both of you are well. With love and best wishes.

  Yours sincerely

  Peter.

  After a meeting of the Guild on 23 March, Clara Martinetti, along with fellow Guild member Annie Stratton, went downstairs to find Dr Crippen at the entrance door. He said that he had received a cable saying Cora was dangerously ill, and he expected another any minute to say that she had died. Furthermore, he said that if he were widowed then he would go to France for a week for a change of air.

  There was worse news to follow. On Thursday 24 March Clara Martinetti received a telegram from Victoria Station, which read, ‘Belle died yesterday at six o’clock. Please ’phone to Annie [Stratton]. Shall be away a week. Peter.’ When Clara later went to offer her condolences to Dr Crippen at Albion House, he informed her that Cora had died at Los Angeles with his relations. He subsequently told her that Cora was going to be cremated, and that her ashes would be sent to London.

  Crippen had a son from his previous marriage to Charlotte Bell, which had taken place in San Diego in 1887 and had ended with the death of his wife in 1891 or 1892 from apoplexy (according to newspaper reports, she had been buried on 26 January 1892). When the son, Otto Hawley Crippen, was contacted in Los Angeles his answers to the Guild’s questions must only have heightened their confusion and suspicion:

  The death of my step mother was as great a surprise to me as anyone. She died at San Francisco and the first I heard of it was through my father who wrote to me immediately afterwards. He asked me to forward all letters to him and he would make all the necessary explanation. He said he had, through a mistake given out my name as my step mother’s death place. I would be very glad if you find out any particulars of her death if you would let me know of them, as I know as a fact that she died in San Francisco.

  Even more worrying news came from America. Following an enquiry from the Guild to the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, they were told that no one of the name of Crippen had died there in the month of March, although a man named Crippen had died in April.

  Louise Smythson, a member of the committee of the Guild, had known the Crippens for around fifteen months. She had last seen Cora Crippen at the Guild meeting on 26 January, when she seemed to be in perfect health and high spirits. She had also seen Dr Crippen at the ball on 20 February, where she had asked him about Cora. Crippen was initially vague, saying he had heard from his wife somewhere ‘up in the wilds of the mountains of California’. When pressed later for an address, he gave Smythson his son’s address in Los Angeles. When she asked where Cora died, Crippen brusquely told her that it was irrelevant, as she was dead, and anyway the Guild meant nothing to Cora’s American friends.

  The secretary of the Music Hall Ladies’ Guild, Melinda May, had known Cora Crippen for some two years. Like Louise Smythson, she had seen Cora at the meeting on 26 January, but noticed that she was unusually absent from the 2 February meeting. Melinda May went round to 39 Hilldrop Crescent, where she was greeted by Ethel Le Neve, who handed her a pass-book, a paying-in book, a cheque book, a letter to Melinda and a letter to the committee. The letter to Melinda May was not in Cora’s handwriting. It read:

  39 Hilldrop Crescent, February 2nd

  Dear Miss May,

  Illness of a near relative has called me to America on only a few hours’ notice, so I must ask you to bring my resignation as treasurer before the meeting to-day, so that a new treasurer can be elected at once. You
will appreciate my haste when I tell you that I have not been to bed all night packing, and getting ready to go. I shall hope to see you again a few months later, but cannot spare a moment to call on you before I go. I wish you everything nice till I return to London again. Now, good-bye, with love hastily,

  Yours, Belle Elmore, p.p. H.H.C.

  The letter to the committee was also not in Cora Crippen’s hand:

  39 Hilldrop Crescent, London, N.

  To the Committee of the Music Hall Ladies’ Guild.

  Dear Friends,

  Please forgive me a hasty letter and any inconvenience I may cause you, but I have just had bad news of the illness of a near relative and at only a few hours’ notice I am obliged to go to America. Under the circumstances I cannot return for several months, and therefore beg you to accept this as a formal letter resigning from this date my hon. treasurership of the M.H.L.G. I am enclosing the cheque book and deposit book for the immediate use of my successor, and to save any delay I beg to suggest that you vote to suspend the usual rules of election and elect to-day a new honorary treasurer. I hope some months later to be with you again, and in meantime wish the Guild every success and ask my good friends and pals to accept my sincere and loving wishes for their own personal welfare.

  Believe me, your [sic] faithfully,

  Belle Elmore.

  A new treasurer was elected that afternoon. When Melinda May saw Dr Crippen on 23 March he told her that Cora was very ill, and that he was waiting for worse news.

  Dr John Herbert Burroughs was the honorary physician to the Guild and his acquaintance with the Crippens stretched back to 1902. He described Cora as being ‘a vivacious woman, I should say about thirty years of age, bright and cheerful, a very pleasant woman generally. She was very fond of dress, and dressed very well indeed. At times she wore a quantity of jewellery. As far as I know she was in the very best of health. She was a stoutish woman.’ Cora was in fact thirty-four years old, which made her Dr Crippen’s junior by fourteen years. Like the other members of the Guild (eight or nine usually attended the meetings), Burroughs last saw Cora Crippen alive in January. He heard of her death via the Martinettis, and sent Dr Crippen a letter of condolence:

  Dear Peter

  Both Maud and myself were inexpressibly shocked and astounded to learn of poor Belle’s death. We hasten to send our very heartfelt condolences on your great loss. As two of her oldest friends, why ever did not you send us a line? Do please give us some details of how and where she died. Maud is very much upset, and so anxious to hear. Only quite casually we heard she had suddenly left for America, and were daily expecting a letter or a card from her. Maud could not understand it, as Belle always wrote her on such important occasions, so could only think Belle wanted to cut all her old friends. And now to learn she is no more. It is all so sudden, that one hardly realises the fact. We should so like to send a letter of condolence to her sister, of whom she was so fond, if you would kindly supply her address.

  Yours sincerely,

  J.H.B.

  Crippen replied on black-edged mourning paper:

  My Dear Doctor,

  I feel sure you will forgive me for my apparent neglect, but really I have been nearly out of my mind with poor Belle’s death so far away. She was not with her sister, but out in California on business for me, and, quite like her disposition, would keep up when she should have been in bed, with the consequence that pleuro-pneumonia terminated fatally. Almost to the last she refused to let me know there was any danger, so that the cable that she had gone came as a most awful shock to me. I fear I have sadly neglected my friends, but pray forgive, and believe me to be most truly appreciative of your sympathy. Even now I am not fit to talk to my friends, but as soon as I feel I can control myself I will run in on you and Maud one evening. I am, of course, giving up the house, and every night packing things away. With love to both, and again thanking you for your kindness, I am, as ever, yours,

  Peter.

  Besides the members of the Guild, Crippen had also communicated with Cora’s family in America. Cora’s younger sister, Theresa Hunn, known as Tessie, had first met Dr Crippen in 1892 or 1893. Tessie’s half-sister Louise Mills showed her a black-edged letter she had received from 39 Hilldrop Crescent:

  My dear Louise and Robert,

  I hardly know how to write to you of my dreadful loss. The shock to me has been so dreadful that I am hardly able to control myself. My poor Cora is gone, and, to make the shock to me more dreadful, I did not even see her at the last. A few weeks ago we had news that an old relative of mine in California was dying, and, to secure important property for ourselves, it was necessary for one of us to go and put the matter into a lawyer’s hands at once. As I was very busy, Cora proposed she should go, and as it was necessary for some one to be there at once, she would go straight through from here to California without stopping at all and then return by way of Brooklyn, and she would be able to pay all of you a long visit. Unfortunately, on the way my poor Cora caught a severe cold, and not having while travelling taken proper care of herself, it has settled on her lungs, later to develop into pleuro-pneumonia. She wished not to frighten me, so kept writing not to worry about her and it was only a slight matter, and the next I heard by cable was that she was dangerously ill, and two days later after I cabled to know should I go to her I had the dreadful news that she had passed away. Imagine if you can the dreadful shock to me – never more to see my Cora alive nor hear her voice again. She is being sent back to me, and I shall soon have what is left of her here. Of course, I am giving up the house; in fact, it drives me mad to be in it alone, and I will sell out everything in a few days. I do not know what I shall do, but probably find some business to take me travelling for a few months until I can recover from the shock a little, but as soon as I have a settled address again I will write again to you. As it is so terrible to me to have to write this dreadful news, will you please tell all the others of our loss. Love to all. Write soon again, and give you my address probably next in France.

  From Doctor.

  There was nothing in Crippen’s behaviour since Cora’s disappearance and supposed death to cause any undue suspicion. Between February and June Crippen had been attending work as normal and had been ‘working very hard indeed’. However, on 2 February he visited Attenborough’s pawnbroker’s shop in Oxford Street, and asked the manager Ernest Stuart for a loan against a diamond ring and diamond earrings. Stuart considered the items to be worth £100, and agreed to an £80 loan against them. One week later Crippen returned to Attenborough’s with a diamond brooch and six diamond rings, for which he was given a loan of £115.

  Crippen had given notice to his landlord that he was going to leave 39 Hilldrop Crescent. The house was to play a pivotal role in the story. It was owned by Frederick Lown, who had let it to Dr Crippen for a three-year period in September 1905. After three years the arrangement continued on a yearly basis at the rental price of £52 10s per year. On 16 March 1910 Crippen had told Lown that he wanted to leave Hilldrop Crescent, as he had been left some property in America, and that his wife had already gone there. Crippen agreed to vacate the property on 24 June, but shortly before that date he asked Lown if he could stay until 29 September. Lown asked after Cora Crippen, and was shocked to hear Crippen tell him that his wife had died in America.

  Dew also learned that, after he had told Cora’s friends that she was dead, Crippen had journeyed to Dieppe, where he had stayed for several days with Ethel Le Neve under the names of Mr and Mrs Crippen. Dew needed to know more and admitted to himself that, ‘taken as a whole, my inquiries had yielded little. I was no nearer solving the problem I had set myself.’ In a report written on 6 July, Dew wrote that he thought it necessary to interview Dr Crippen himself.

  10

  Doctor Crippen

  His was that rare thing in English annals, a crime passionel.

  Filson Young, The Trial of Hawley Harvey Crippen

  At this point of his investigation Dew
did not harbour the grave doubts of Cora’s friends about her apparent death, but he did have some suspicions:

  Mrs Crippen appears to have been a great favourite with all whom she came into contact with, always cheerful, and apparently in excellent health, and does not seem to have expressed any intention of leaving England, to her most intimate friends.

  … there are most extraordinary contradictions in the story told by Crippen, who is an American citizen, as is Mrs. Crippen, otherwise Belle Elmore.

  From the action taken by the various friends of hers there can be but little doubt that Crippen has heard, or will soon hear, of the enquiries that have been made and, without adopting the suggestion made by her friends as to foul play, I do think that the time has now arrived when ‘Doctor’ Crippen should be seen by us, and asked to give an explanation as to when, and how, Mrs. Crippen left this country, and the circumstances under which she died, which resulted in him causing the advertisement mentioned to be published.

  This course, I venture to think, may result in him giving such explanation as would clear up the whole matter and avoid elaborate enquiries being made in the United States.

  The ‘advertisement mentioned’ was an obituary notice that had appeared in the theatrical newspaper the Era, on 26 March. It was brief, reading, ‘Elmore – March 23, in California, U.S.A., Miss Belle Elmore (Mrs H.H. Crippen).’ Crippen had sent the newspaper a 10s postal order to insert the obituary, but the cost was only 1s 6d, so the remainder was returned to Crippen. Further and fuller obituaries appeared on 7 April in the Music Hall and Theatre Review and the Stage. These were of a more affectionate nature, and were possibly placed by the Guild.

  On 8 July, at around 10.00 a.m., Walter Dew, accompanied by Detective Sergeant Arthur Mitchell, made an unannounced visit to 39 Hilldrop Crescent – what was to be the first of many visits to the quiet, leafy crescent off the Camden Road. Dew described the house as ‘rather a large semi-detached dwelling of the old type standing well back from the road and partially screened from the street by overgrown trees’.