Dr Crippen And The Murder Of Cora Crippen
Updated: Aug 10
On January 31st, 1910, Cora Crippen disappeared from her London home, sparking one of the most puzzling and notorious murder cases in British legal history – and one that's outcome is questioned by some even today.
Cora's husband, Hawley was born in Michigan and was a qualified homeopath practicing in New York City. When the pair got together in 1894, Corrine "Cora" Turner (born Kunigunde Mackamotski), was a music hall singer who performed under the stage name Belle Elmore
That same year, Crippen started working for prominent homeopath James M. Munyon, moving to London with his wife in 1897 to manage Munyon's branch office there.
Crippen's medical qualifications from the United States were not sufficient to allow him to practice as a doctor in the UK. He initially continued working as a distributor of patent medicines, while Cora embarked on an ultimately failed stage career and socialised with a number of variety players of the time.
After Crippen was sacked by Munyon in 1899 he worked for other patent medicine companies, ultimately being hired as the manager for the Drouet Institute for the Deaf. There he hired Ethel Le Neve, a young typist, in 1900. By 1905, the two were having an affair. After living at various addresses around London, Crippen and his wife finally moved No. 39 Hilldrop Crescent, Camden Road, Holloway, where they took in lodgers to augment Crippen's meagre income. Cora had an affair with one of these lodgers, and in turn, Crippen took Le Neve as his mistress in 1908.
On the night of January 31, 1910, Cora vanished after a gathering at the Crippen home on Hilldrop Crescent. Her spouse claimed she had returned to the United States for a few months. In March, Ethel moved in with Crippen at the Hilldrop Crescent residence, where he started spreading the story that Cora had passed away in America. Suspicions arose among Cora's acquaintances, prompting Scotland Yard to be notified. Detective Inspector Walter Dew conversed with Crippen in July. Crippen panicked and fled to Brussels with Ethel, who was disguised as a boy. Authorities searched the Hilldrop Crescent property and discovered the macabre remains of a body beneath the coal cellar. The body, wrapped in a man's pajama jacket identified as Crippen's, was missing its head, limbs, bones, and genitals, but traces of a poison bought by Crippen shortly before Cora's disappearance were found. This sparked a manhunt, eagerly followed by the media. Ports and stations were monitored, and international police forces were put on alert.
On July 20th Crippen and Ethel sailed from Antwerp for Canada on the liner Montrose. He called himself Robinson and Ethel posed as his teenage son, but they behaved too lovingly and the captain grew suspicious and informed the ship’s owners by telegraph. They passed the word to Scotland Yard and Dew pursued the fugitives across the Atlantic in a faster liner, the Laurentic, which reached Father Point in the Gulf of St Lawrence ahead of the Montrose. Dew was waiting, went aboard with the pilot vessel and arrested Crippen and Ethel. He afterwards said that he had never in his life felt such a sense of triumph and achievement. The Montrose took all of them on to Quebec, accompanied by reporters who had swarmed on board. Dew regarded the latter as an infernal nuisance, but the dramatic story that George Orwell said no novelist would have dared to make up created a frenzy of excitement in the press.
The trial at the Old Bailey in October was significant, as it brought attention to the pathologist Bernard Spilsbury. He examined a piece of flesh and confirmed that a scar on it matched an operation Cora Crippen had undergone for the removal of her ovaries. While this evidence has been disputed, it played a crucial role in discrediting Crippen's assertion that the corpse had been present unnoticed by both him and Cora. Despite this, Crippen managed to convince others of Ethel's innocence. Ethel, who was tried as Crippen's accomplice, was ultimately acquitted.
Hawley Harvey Crippen was 48 years old when he was hanged in London’s Pentonville prison at 9am on November 23rd, 1910. He had spent the previous hour with the Roman Catholic prison chaplain and two warders. His plan to commit suicide with broken glass from his spectacles had been forestalled and now, though unable to finish his breakfast, he seemed perfectly calm. The hangman, a Yorkshire barber named John Ellis, who had spent time with him the day before, recalled that ‘Crippen came across to me as a most pleasant fellow.’ He was smiling as the cap was put over his head on the scaffold. The drop broke all the bones in his neck and he must have died instantly. The body was buried in the prison graveyard.
In October 2007, Michigan State University forensic scientist David Foran claimed that mitochondrial DNA evidence showed the remains found in Crippen's cellar were not those of his wife. Researchers used genealogy to identify three living relatives of Cora Crippen (great-nieces). By providing mitochondrial DNA haplotype, researchers were able to compare their DNA with that extracted from a microscope slide containing flesh taken from the torso in Crippen's cellar. The original remains were also tested using a highly sensitive assay of the Y chromosome that found the flesh sample on the slide was male.
The same research team also argued that a scar found on the torso's abdomen, which the original trial's prosecution argued was the same one Mrs. Crippen was known to have, was incorrectly identified. The scientists found hair follicles in the tissue which should not be present in scars, a medical fact which Crippen's defence used at his trial. Their research was published in the August 2010 issue of the Journal of Forensic Sciences.
John Trestrail, the toxicologist who led the new research, said: "Hawley Crippen was tried solely on the evidence that he killed Cora. The body wasn't hers, so he was convicted and hanged in error."
However, the new scientific evidence for Crippen's innocence has been disputed. In The Times, journalist David Aaronovitch wrote: "As to the body being male, well the American team was using a 'special technique' that is 'very new' and 'done only by this team' and working on a single, century-old slide, described by the team leader as a 'less than optimal sample'". Foran responded by saying "tests showed unequivocally that the remains were male".
Traces of the blonde hair found in curlers at the scene are now preserved in the Metropolitan Police's Crime Museum. Another researcher said they asked to be provided with samples from them for DNA testing, but the request has been denied several times. However, New Scotland Yard was willing to test a hair from the crime scene for a fee, which in turn was rejected by the investigators as "over the top." Researchers hypothesised that the police planted the body parts and particularly the fragment of the pyjama top at the scene to incriminate Crippen. Scotland Yard was under tremendous public pressure to find and bring to trial a suspect for this heinous crime. An independent observer points out that the case did not become public until after the remains were found.
In December 2009, the UK's Criminal Cases Review Commission, after assessing the case, announced that the Court of Appeal would not consider pardoning Crippen posthumously. James Patrick Crippen, the closest living relative of the doctor, formally requested a pardon for Hawley Crippen and the repatriation of his remains to America. However, the Criminal Cases Review Commission declined to refer the case to the Appeal Court, citing that Mr. Crippen was not closely related enough to qualify as the appellant according to legal requirements. The Commission's decision not to review the appeal's grounds was also noted.
Before he was executed, Crippen wrote in a letter to Le Neve: “Face to face with God, I believe that facts will be forthcoming to prove my innocence.” John Trestrail said: “When I read that the hairs stood up on my arms. I think he was right."
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