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New appraisal of the Crippen case
Precis
This appraisal uses archival material never previously published which, together with extensive research, now provides a coherent explanation for the events that crystallised in 1910, as a consequence of dangerous undercurrents in the lives of the protagonists.
By living within easy access of The National Archives at Kew, I have had the opportunity to read the Crippen archives (not all of which have been indexed) and also to have unearthed material whose significance had apparently eluded previous researchers and, surprisingly, even the Police investigating the crime!
Finances
For example, as far as I know, Ethel Le Neve's raids on Belle Elmore's Post Office Savings Account have never been previously published. Her misdemeanour only came to light in October 1911, long after the dust had settled, and the documents themselves were buried among some Treasury files that fail to surface from a search for 'Crippen'.
I have also done an appraisal of the Crippens' Finances which includes information gleaned from the New York Times relating to Crippen's father, Myron. This illustrates the financial pressure that Crippen must have been facing in May 1909 when he stopped the old man's weekly allowance of sixty shillings a week, after sending it to him for over 10 years. Not a nice way to treat an ageing parent.
Crippen's obsession with Le Neve is demonstrated by his having bought her a diamond ring on 14 August 1909. According to the Police Report dated 21 July 1910, this had been reported 'in case it might be of interest'.
Well, evidently, it wasn't of any interest to the Police even though Sherlock Holmes (who was still active in 1910) often followed less tangible clues to a satisfactory conclusion. And he would have been over the moon if he had known that Lydia Rose - Le Neve's friend - had reported that Ethel had become engaged to Crippen 'before Christmas', while Crippen's wife was still in the Land of the Living.
(Lydia Rose's Deposition was never introduced into evidence but it is available among other Depositions in TNA: CRIM 1/117.)
Engagement and marriage
Obviously not believing in long engagements, this culminated in their 'marriage' on 12 March 1910 and Le Neve then signed herself 'Eth Crippen' in a letter to Lydia. Of course, it wasn't a marriage in the accepted sense but, apparently, it had seemed real enough to Crippen who, in his last letters to Le Neve from Pentonville Prison whist awaiting execution, referred to himself as 'hub' and to her as 'wifie'.
Clearly, Crippen had reached a crossroads in his life - maybe a mid-life crisis - and his bizarre behaviour, such as taking Le Neve to the Benevolent Fund Ball and Dinner on 20 February 1910 where Le Neve was also wearing his wife's brooch scaled the heights of insensitivity.
It also indicates that, despite his outwardly benign demeanour, Crippen was actually not thinking straight or, possibly, he was even mentally disturbed.
Cora Crippen had threatened to leave her husband, presumably taking the lion's share of their savings with her because, having scrimped and saved over the years, no woman in this world would have dreamt of leaving any of 'her' money behind for her husband's future paramour to enjoy.
For Crippen, it would then have seemed an attractive scenario to make his wife's wishes come true, although not in quite the way that she had doubtless intended.
The investigation begins
Crippen was desperately unlucky in that the Police did actually decide to investigate the case and this was entirely due to John Nash's initiative on behalf of the Music Hall Ladies' Guild, based in part on his own observations (he sat at the same table as Crippen and Le Neve at the Benevolent Fund Ball and Dinner); his familiarity with California, thanks to having worked in Show Business on both sides of the Atlantic; and his friendship with Superintendent Frank Froest of the Criminal Investigation Department at Scotland Yard. Without this personal contact, the chances are that the police investigations would have been minimal, at best.
However, Chief Inspector Dew did a terrific job when he interviewed Crippen on 8 July 1910 and, until I read Travers Humphreys' A Book of Trials, I hadn't appreciated that this cross-examination had taken six hours! Not six hours non-stop but six hours overall.
What an ordeal for Crippen who, up till then, must have thought that he had gotten away with it!
No wonder that Crippen took flight the very next day but, again, he must have been mentally disturbed to have subjected Le Neve to such a ridiculous and obvious disguise.
However, Crippen was again unlucky because if they had left sooner, instead of dawdling around before catching the Montrose, or if they had gone somewhere other than Canada, they might have made their getaway.
Crippen the Quack
In all the hysteria about Crippen being mild mannered and kindly, etc., it must be remembered that, for the last 15 or so years of his life, he had made his money from selling quack remedies - hardly a dignified calling to sell ailing folk some concoction that, at best, could be harmless but, at worst, could be damaging. (Some vendors offered opium-based nostrums which could become addictive: good for repeat business but not so good for the sufferers.)
Crippen, with his medical training, must have known better than most that he was not providing any useful service to humanity as he flitted around from one quack enterprise to another: Munyon's; The Drouet Institute; The Aural Clinic; The Sovereign Remedy Co; and The Aural Remedies Company. Only his last venture - The Yale Tooth Specialists - seems to have been in any way respectable.
His investment of £200 in Yale during March/April 1910 suggests that this is where he then saw his future and, following his 'marriage' to Le Neve on 12 March, he probably also envisaged domestic bliss. Maybe, Crippen decided to announce his wife's death on 24 March to pave the way for a real marriage but, of course, only after a suitable period of mourning.
However, Crippen apparently saw precious little of his own son (Hawley Otto) and, according to Myron Crippen, father and son had last met 12 years ago when Hawley Junior was sent to New York to meet his father.
So, Crippen was a failure as a father, a failure as a son, a failure as a husband and a failure in business, and if he had not murdered his wife or, more importantly, been caught and brought to justice then he would have been long forgotten whereas - nearly 100 years after he had hit the headlines - his effigy still appears in Madam Tussaud's Chamber of Horrors in London.