S5 E53 Dr. Crippen and The London Cellar Murder

In 1910, American-born Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen was living in London with his wife Belle, when he fell in love with Ethel Le Neve, his 20-something assistant. Crippen poisoned his wife and buried most of her in the cellar of their Hilldrop Crescent home. Then he told friends and business associates that Ethel was his housekeeper, and he moved her into his house.

When Scotland Yard started to investigate Belle’s disappearance after friends reported her missing, Crippen grabbed his young lover, cut off her long brown hair, dressed her in a boy’s suit and fled with her to Belgium.

Remains found in the cellar:

Once he realized they had gone, Inspector Walter Dew ordered an extensive search of the house. This time police found a mutilated human torso buried in quicklime under the bricks of the coal cellar. Skin and internal organs, including liver, stomach, lungs, and heart, were wrapped in a pyjama top.

Identification was impossible because the remains were missing head, hands, feet, and there were no bones. All the skin had been removed and lay in a pile. Police were baffled. Was this the missing Belle Elmore? And if so, how did the small, kind little man overpower and kill his much larger wife, and why would he not dump the skin and organs? Why bury them in the cellar – a site that was only about 15 feet from the kitchen and breakfast area.

The SS Montrose:

Crippen and Le Neve were booked into a second-class cabin on the SS Montrose under the names John Philo Robinson, a businessman from Detroit, and his 16-year-old son John Jr and they were heading to California. Unfortunately for the felons, their commander, Captain Henry Kendall, was a true crime junkie and well versed in what the newspapers were called the London Cellar Murder.

The Montrose was one of only 60 ships in the world equipped with wireless telegraph equipment, enabling messages to be sent from ship to shore. The range for sending a message was less than 250 kilometres and Kendall knew he had to make a decision fast. If he was wrong it would be career suicide, but he wanted to be the man who caught London’s most famous murderer; he wanted the attention that this would bring.

He telegrammed his boss at the CPR in Liverpool:

Have strong suspicions that Crippen London Cellar murderer and accomplice are amongst saloon passengers. Moustache taken off growing beard. Accomplice dressed as boy. Voice manner and build undoubtedly a girl. Both travelling as Mr. and Master Robinson. Kendall

Scotland Yard:

And as the Montrose sailed across the Atlantic, neither the captain or Crippen and Le Neve had any idea that Scotland Yard’s Inspector Dew was at that moment racing across the Atlantic to intercept and arrest them.