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Crippens' Finances

Notional Wealth - January 1910

In the unlikely event that the Crippens had prepared a summary of their wealth as at January 1910 then, assuming that they had both been fully aware of each other's bank accounts, this is how it may have appeared.

£'s Total Joint Crippen Belle Elmore
Charing Cross Bank 600 270   330
Theoretical Allocation   -270 135 135
Post Office Savings1 196     196
Birbeck Bank2 ?     ?
Rings, etc. pawned 2 Feb 1910 80     80
Brooch, etc. pawned 9 Feb 1910 115     115
Furs, etc. given away ?     ?
Notional Values - January 1910 991 - 135 856
 
  1. Ethel Le Neve withdrew these funds between 15 April and 17 June, 1910 but, clearly, they should have formed part of Belle Elmore's estate. Evidently, no one outside the Post Office or The Treasury (other than Crippen and Le Neve) knew about this account.

  2. Theresa Hunn (or certainly her solicitor) was aware that Belle Elmore had an account at Birkbeck Bank, as it was referred to when she contested Crippen's Will. The amount was never quantified.

 

Interestingly, Gilbert Mervyn Rylance. Crippen's partner in The Yale Tooth Specialists, testified at Crippen's Trial:

I now carry on business in my own name as a surgeon-dentist at Albion House. About the middle of 1907 I met prisoner for the first time. In 1908 we started business at Albion House in the name of 'The Yale Tooth Specialists'. Between March and April this year there was an agreement by which he put £200 into the business, I contributing my experience and skill, and we were to share profits. On about January 26 I saw Mrs. Crippen. On or about February 1 or 2, prisoner asked me whether I had not noticed that he was lonely, and said that his wife was half-way across to America, where she was going on legal business in connection with his mother's death.

About March 24 a lady came to my place with a telegram saying that Mrs. Crippen was dead. Prisoner was away at Dieppe with Miss Le Neve. He had told me that he was going there with her and her aunt a few days before Easter. When he returned I asked him after his wife; he told me that she was dead and said that he had not sent a telegram so as not to spoil my holiday.

On July 9 I got to business about 11 a.m. and I saw prisoner for the last time that day between 12 and 1. I did not see him again till he was at Bow Street. On the Monday morning I received this letter, dated July 9, headed on our own paper:

Dear Dr. Rylance,

I now find in order to escape trouble I shall be obliged to absent myself for a time. I believe the business as it is now going on you will run on all right so far as money matters are concerned. If you want to give notice you should give six months' notice in my name on September 25, 1910. I shall write you later on more fully.

With kind wishes for your success

Yours Sincerely

H. H. Crippen

I kept the business on in my own name. I had seen Inspector Dew in the office on July 8 and on the 9th I asked prisoner who he was. He said he was a Scotland Yard officer and he had come to find out if Mrs. Crippen had any estates on which she had to pay taxes. About a week after he returned from Dieppe, prisoner told me he had married Miss Le Neve; that would be a fortnight after the announcement of Mrs. Crippen's death.

Crippen's £200 investment in The Yale Tooth Specialists 'between March and April' suggests that he had sourced most of these funds (£195) by pawning his wife's jewellery on 2 and 9 February.

Crippen's Parents

After Crippen had hit the headlines, the New York Times tracked down Crippen's widowed father - then aged 73 - in Pasadena, California and, on 15 July 1910, it reported on his thoughts and reactions. (The Pasadena Star had reported Crippen's mother death on 8 January 1909, but the article itself has failed to surface.)

According to Myron Crippen, his son had suffered 'financial reverses' and that, in May 1909, he had stopped sending his father the six shillings a week allowance that he had started when he first went abroad.

This left the old man destitute and, when the New York Times reported his death on 18 November the same year, he was described as 'friendless and penniless'. After his son had stopped sending him his allowance, he was housed rent-free by the lodging house where he stayed and a restaurant keeper where he had used to eat in better times continued to feed him for free.

The Charing Cross Bank

The Crippens' Savings at the Charing Cross Bank had been accumulating since March 1906:

£'s   Joint Account Belle Elmore Year's Savings Total
1906 March 15 250      
  June 20   50 300 300
1907 May 27   100    
  June 10 10      
  August 12 10      
  September 3   50 170 170
1908 February 13   100    
  September 14   15 115 115
1909 March 24   15 15 15
    270 330   600

 

This raises the question of how Belle had managed to save so much (£330) after they had made their initial deposit while Crippen had only managed to save a modest £20 during the same time frame.

Of course, Crippen's courtship of Le Neve would have come at a price and, according to her dressmaker, Le Neve had been expanding her wardrobe since November 1908, presumably at Crippen's expense.

The Crippens' annual rate of savings at the Charing Cross Bank had declined progressively over the years, which may have been a reflection of Belle having stashed money away elsewhere, e.g. her Post Office Savings Account and/or the Birkbeck Bank. Clearly, she had been very prudent in spreading her savings around, despite the very attractive interest rate offered by the Charing Cross Bank.

Of course, if Belle had actually been able to withdraw the £600 that they had on deposit at the Charing Cross Bank on the 15 December 1909, she might really have disappeared, without even saying 'Goodbye'.

This thought must also have crossed Crippen's mind and hence his purchase of Hyoscine on the 19 January 1910.

It wasn't just his passion for Le Neve that drove him to murder but a far less romantic although a much more practical passion for money. Of course, he was not to know that, following the collapse of the Charing Cross Bank on 18 October 1910, all the moneys at this bank would be wiped out.

Both the Crippens died before their losses would be recognised.

References to the Charing Cross Bank at Crippen's Trial can be found in Trial Notes which show that Crippen's wife could (in theory) have obtained all the funds on deposit, after the required period of notice had matured - without any reference to Crippen!

Their Joint Account

The deposit of £250 in a Joint Account March 1906 suggests that Crippen and his wife were reasonably comfortable with each other's company at that time; whilst Belle's later deposits under her stage name also suggests some deterioration in their relationship.

At some stage and, even though they were Catholics, the question of a divorce may have entered the thinking of one or the other, or both.

Under English Law at the time, a husband did have to make provision for his divorced wife but only up to 20% of his income which, presumably, excluded any distribution of capital. (See: Married Women's Property Act 1882, although the implications of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1907 are not clear.)

A mere 20% of income is unlikely to have satisfied Belle (or any other woman) where her husband's income was on a downward spiral and this may explain why Belle had been systematically squirreling money into other accounts under her stage name, rather than under her married name.

Probate

As a consequence of the failure of the Charing Cross Bank, the Probate Values of Crippen's estate had been whittled down to £268 and his wife's down to £175, as evidenced by the records of the Probate Service. See Image.

Le Neve, as Crippen's universal beneficiary, would have inherited £268 (less her solicitor's fees) which would have helped her to set up a new life.

Interestingly, even though Le Neve was judicially 'out of reach' when she was in America (due to weaknesses in the Extradition Treaty), she was certainly not 'out of touch' because her solicitors - Hopwood and Sons - had remained in contact with her throughout her exile. Le Neve had given a UK address when she had applied for Probate through her solicitor in 1911: 313 Hornsey Road, Islington but checks on the 1911 Census have not turned up anything significant. However, she was described as a 'Spinster' so, evidently, she had abandoned her phoney marriage.

 

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