Body in the basement: Dr Crippen and the 'crime of the century'

Summary

History Extra Podcast: "Body in the Basement: Dr. Crippen and the 'Crime of the Century'" Summary

Release Date: March 28, 2025
Host: Ellie Cawthorn
Guest: Hallie Rubenhold, Historian and Author of Story of a Murder

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Introduction to the Case

[00:56] Ellie Cawthorn opens the episode by introducing the infamous 1910 disappearance of Belle Elmore, a music hall performer. Her husband, Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen, initially claimed that Belle had traveled to America to visit a dying relative. However, inconsistencies in his story soon emerged, revealing that Belle had never left the house, setting the stage for an international manhunt.

Meet the Historian: Hallie Rubenhold

[02:12] Hallie Rubenhold discusses her fascination with true crime as a lens to explore historical contexts. She emphasizes that examining crimes like Dr. Crippen's murder offers a "core sample" of the era, providing insights into societal norms, medical practices, and the lives of women at the time.

Dr. Crippen: A Man of Contrasts

[05:40] Hallie Rubenhold delves into Crippen's background:

• Early Life: Born in Coldwater, Michigan in 1862, Crippen was illegitimate, with his parents marrying only in the 1890s.
• Medical Career: Initially trained in homeopathic medicine, Crippen's career took a dark turn towards patent medicine under the influence of James Monroe Munyan.
• Descent into Fraud: By the time Crippen moved to London, he was deeply involved in medical fraud, reflecting the broader context of London in 1900 as the "white collar fraud capital of the world."

Charlotte Bell: Crippen’s First Wife

[09:08] Hallie Rubenhold explains the significance of Charlotte Bell in understanding the Crippen case:

• Background: Born in Abilex, County Leash, Ireland, Charlotte came from a land-lease family impacted by the potato famine.
• Career and Marriage: She trained as a teacher and later as a nurse, meeting Crippen through his work with an abortionist.
• Suspicious Death: Charlotte died suddenly at early 30s, officially from heart failure, but evidence suggests paralysis of the sympathetic nervous system. Notably, she was buried in a pauper's grave within 48 hours in freezing January weather—a curious detail raising suspicions.

Belle Elmore: The Enigmatic Second Wife

[13:39] Hallie Rubenhold paints a complex portrait of Belle Elmore:

• Origins: Born Kunigunde Macamor in Brooklyn to poor German-Polish immigrants, she changed her name multiple times, eventually becoming Belle.
• Personality: Belle was vibrant, flamboyant, and deeply involved in the music hall scene. She embraced her role as an opera singer and later a music hall performer, adorned with an extensive wardrobe and jewelry.
• Relationship with Crippen: Initially portrayed negatively by Crippen, Rubenhold argues that Belle was a progressive woman dedicated to charitable causes through the Music Hall Ladies Guild.

The Murder and Aftermath

[22:22] Hallie Rubenhold details the circumstances leading to Belle's murder:

• Ethel Neave: Crippen's mistress, Ethel, played a pivotal role in the crime. As Crippen's relationship with Belle deteriorated, Ethel became more involved, eventually becoming complicit in the murder.
• The Crime: Crippen administered an overdose of hyosine hydrobromide to Belle, leading to her death. Attempts to conceal the body involved dismemberment and disposal beneath the basement bricks using quicklime.
• Cover-Up: Crippen fabricated the story of Belle's trip to America, leveraging his and Ethel's social circles to maintain the facade.

The International Manhunt

[36:34] Hallie Rubenhold narrates the intense manhunt that followed:

• Disappearance: Facing suspicion from Inspector Dew after a detailed police investigation, Crippen and Ethel attempted to flee by disguising themselves as father and son.
• Capture: Utilizing Marconi wireless technology, Inspector Dew tracked them to the ship Montrose. Crippen was apprehended onboard by Dew, who had boarded the faster ship Laurentic to intercept them.
• Public Reaction: Their return to Liverpool was met with frenzied crowds, and the trial captivated global attention, solidifying the case as the "crime of the century."

The Trial and Its Controversies

[35:19] Hallie Rubenhold examines the sensational trial:

• Ethel's Acquittal: Despite substantial evidence, Ethel was acquitted of murder charges, likely due to societal biases favoring the male perpetrator.
• Crippen's Conviction: Relying heavily on toxicology reports, Crippen was found guilty and executed. The trial was a media spectacle, reflecting early 20th-century fascination with celebrity barristers and courtroom drama.
• Post-Trial Lives: Ethel changed her name to Ethel Smith, led a quiet life, and remained out of public eye until her death in the 1960s.

Revisiting Historical Narratives

[42:33] Hallie Rubenhold offers a critical analysis of how historical accounts have misrepresented women involved in the case:

• Misogyny in Reporting: Early narratives demonized Belle Elmore, portraying her as the villain to exonerate Crippen and Ethel, reflecting societal backlash against the evolving role of women.
• Rethinking True Crime: Rubenhold advocates for a nuanced approach to historical true crime, urging historians to dismantle prejudiced portrayals and recognize the complex roles of women in such cases.

Conclusion: Lessons from the Past

[45:42] Hallie Rubenhold concludes by emphasizing the importance of reevaluating historical true crime with contemporary perspectives, highlighting the need to separate fact from prejudiced interpretations. By doing so, we gain a more accurate and empathetic understanding of the individuals involved and the societal contexts that shaped these infamous events.

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Notable Quotes:

• Ellie Cawthorn [03:02]: “It's like a type of reality drama. And people were completely wrapped up in this.”

• Hallie Rubenhold [04:05]: “I like to think of it as a sort of core sample of a time where it's like you stop the clock, there's a snapshot.”

• Hallie Rubenhold [14:51]: “There's absolutely no proof that she was that way. Not only that, but I mean, in what world is that acceptable to say a woman deserved to die?”

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Additional Information:

For those interested in a deeper exploration of this case, Hallie Rubenhold's book, Story of a Murder, offers an extensive analysis and is available now. To access more historical narratives and expert discussions, subscribe to the History Extra podcast, produced by Daniel Kramer Arden.

Transcript

[Hallie Rubenhold]

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[Ellie Cawthorn]

Welcome to the History Extra Podcast. Fascinating historical conversations from the makers of BBC History magazine. In 1910, a music hall performer called Belle Elmore went missing. Her husband, Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen, claimed that Bell had gone to America to visit a dying relative. But before long, Crippen's stories began to unravel and it soon became clear that Bell hadn't gone abroad. In fact, she'd never left the house. Historian Hallie Rubenhold re examines the infamous case of Dr. Crippen in her new book, Story of a Murder, and she joined me in the studio to talk more about what the crime can reveal about medicine, music hall and women's lives at the time. It's lovely to have you with me in the studio today, Hallie, to talk about your new book, Story of a Murder. When the crime that you look at in this book was uncovered in 1990, it was, I think it's fair to say, one of the biggest news stories of the day. But for any listeners who might not be familiar with Dr. Crippen and the murder of Belle Elmore, could you introduce us to this case?

[Hallie Rubenhold]

Yes. I mean, at the time, as you suggested, it was known as the crime of the century. It was in every newspaper around the world, in so many different languages, all over the world. And the reason for that was because part of what happened as it unfolded in the public was an enormous international manhunt for Crippen and Ethel Lanave, who was his mistress, who he went on the run with dressed as father and son. And the whole world was looking for them. And this was unfolding in real time in the newspapers. And the newspapers at the time would publish Two editions a day, so you could follow the progress twice a day. So like a type of reality drama. And people were completely wrapped up in this.

[Ellie Cawthorn]

So it's this huge, exciting, dramatic story. And I can see that that would have drawn you to it as an author, but as a historian, what drew you to this case?

[Hallie Rubenhold]

Well, it's really interesting. So my whole take on true crime. I use crime as a sort of lens through which we can look at a particular time in history. I like to think of it as a sort of core sample of a time where it's like you stop the clock, there's a snapshot. And that snapshot, you can go into it and it can tell you all sorts of things about what was happening in the world at that time. And it goes very, very deep because you get witness statements because you have all of this documentation about what people saw, about what they experienced, what their daily lives were like. You get this micro picture of. Of a moment in time that I think as a social historian especially is absolutely priceless.

[Ellie Cawthorn]

Well, you're able to reconstruct events in an extraordinary level of detail. So can you tell us a bit more about what sources you had to work with?

[Hallie Rubenhold]

Well, first of all, that fascinates me. It's that granular detail that is so gripping for me, where you can immerse yourself in a time. Because I think fundamentally, many of us who love history and who study history would love to be time travelers. We would love to know what it is like to breathe and hear and experience another time. Because it's only then that you truly know it and understand it. I mean, the amazing sources that exist for really any sort of high profile crime are, you know, witness statements, police documentation, the trial transcripts, which are, you know, God, I mean, reams and reams. Most of this was in the National Archives. I had to go abroad also to look at other information about the background to the crimes. Crippen and his wife, Belle Elmore, were both Americans. And his first wife, interestingly, was Irish, but she had immigrated to the United States and she died mysteriously in Salt Lake City. So I went to Utah to try to find some information there. I went to New York to find information there and I went to Dublin.

[Ellie Cawthorn]

So I wonder if we could dig into the story a bit more. Now, let's talk about some of the key characters here. I mean, it probably makes sense, I think, to start with Crippen himself. What do we know about him as a man, what he was like?

[Hallie Rubenhold]

So, Holly, Harvey Crippen was born in Coldwater Michigan, in 1862. He was actually illegitimate. His parents weren't married. And again, as a social historian, I find this really interesting. You know, how many people in the 19th century were posing as husband and wife who weren't husband and wife, and his parents wouldn't get until the 1890s. And it seems as though they both were probably married beforehand. And this is the wonderful thing about American history that I find so interesting, is people just kind of left their past in another place, moved on somewhere else and became somebody else.

[Ellie Cawthorn]

And Crippen did a lot of that.

[Hallie Rubenhold]

Himself, and Crippen did that. And fundamentally, that helped shape him. I mean, his father was, I think, a bit of a grifter and a drifter. And for a while his mother was raising him, he was working as a seamstress, and he decided he wanted to go to medical school. And she raised the money to put her son through medical school. When I say medical school. At the time, homeopathy, and he was a homeopathist, was seen as a viable alternative to conventional medicine, and it was seen as actually a progressive alternative and appealed to a lot of people, and it appealed to Crippen. So he went and he studied homeopathic medicine, for which you get a baseline kind of traditional training. You know, you learn anatomy, you do the dissection of the body, which is very important, by the way, in later events, he was very interested in having a very legitimate career in medicine. And then something happened, and we just don't know what it is, but he eventually gives up on being a kind of respectable doctor and suddenly decides he's gonna go work in patent medicine. And again, this is the time patent medicine, you know, the kind of cure all. The snake oil salesman. You could open any newspaper in the 19th century, even in the early 20th century, and find any sort of nostrum for anything or cure anything from rheumatism to acne. And this is the sort of line of work that he got into. He fell under the spell of a man called James Monroe Munyan, who was this paint medicine millionaire in the late 19th century. And Cribbin decided he was gonna make his fortune that way. And then from that point, just sort of fell deeper and deeper into medical fraud and into fraud itself. So by the time he moves to London, when Munyon wants to set up a London office, you know, Crippen is really on that slippery slope into fraud. And at the time. And again, this is really. I found this out in 1900, London was the white collar fraud capital of the world.

[Ellie Cawthorn]

It was quite extraordinary. Some of the details of these dodgy medical dealings that he essentially got into. On the slippery slope into medical fraud. As you mentioned earlier, he does meet his first wife, but she dies. When you pick up the story with Charlotte Bell, Crippen's first wife, you're starting the story a lot earlier than a lot of people would. Why did you want to cover Crippen's first wife and kind of go so far back to give us some context?

[Hallie Rubenhold]

Because it's really important. I tend to think of a crime as a historical event. I don't think of it as a fun legend. This is something that's worthy of dissection, worthy of examination. And so in order to do that, you have to look all the way around it. You have to treat it as you would any historical event. What are the background circumstances to this? What happened, what happened before, what happened after, what happened during. And Charlotte's death is really important. Was this strange death, was this the first incidence of this man murdering his wife? And there is circumstantial evidence to suggest it may have been, but we don't know. And that's one of the things that I wanted to see when I went to Utah, was to see if I could find out if there was any evidence.

[Ellie Cawthorn]

I wonder if you could tell us a little bit more about the circumstances of her death and why you could view them as suspicious.

[Hallie Rubenhold]

Yes. Well, so first a little bit about Charlotte, because I found Charlotte a very interesting and slightly enigmatic character. Charlotte Bell was born in Ireland at Abilex in County Leash, and her family were the land owning class, except they didn't own land, they were leasees. And so the potato famine affected their family as well because their land became unviable.

[Ellie Cawthorn]

It feels like with Charlotte, with Crippin, with Belle Elmore, who we'll come onto. There's so many people that have these kind of Dickensian ups and downs of fortune.

[Hallie Rubenhold]

Yes.

[Ellie Cawthorn]

Was that more common at the time?

[Hallie Rubenhold]

Oh, my gosh. I mean, there were no safety nets. Nobody was really safe. And that's the thing, again, I find the precarious position of the middle class really quite fascinating because we today seem to think, oh, you're middle class, you're fairly safe. It just wasn't the case in the 19th century at all. And, you know, people could lose everything or they can make a fortune. And really, I think that was one of the major themes of the 19th century was, you know, climbing this very kind of slippery ladder and slipping down all the time. And it's quite shocking to us and quite fascinating as well. So there was a terrible tragedy in Charlotte's life. Typhoid came to the house and killed her elder sister and her father. And that was a real problem because he was seriously in debt with the landlord. And so the family had to give up their long term lease on their family property. And so what do you do in the 19th century when you are a woman who has been well bred but has no money? Well, you become a governess or a teacher. And I believe she trained as a teacher because on a census she's at a school and she's listed as one of the teachers. And the word governess has been crossed out and the word teacher has been written in, which is very interesting because at that time it was more prestigious to be a teacher with a teaching degree than a governess. So already she's got one career. Then Charlotte decides she's gonna go for a second career. She's gonna train to become a nurse. And this is when she meets Crippen and the two of them get married. And Charlotte dies suddenly. She's in her early 30s and it is claimed that she dies of heart failure, but it seems she dies at paralysis of the sympathetic nervous system, which is a homeopathic term, which just means like a complete shutdown of the body. And her death certificate was signed by Crippen's friend. And at this time, this is how you certified deaths was. You know, a doctor would just come sign off on it. But remarkably, what's very interesting is that she was buried in a pauper's grave within, I think it was about 48 hours in the middle of winter, this time in January when the ground is frozen. What on earth was going on there? Why a pauper's grave unmarked? And Crippen was a very proud man. How could he not get the money to put her in a proper grave?

[Ellie Cawthorn]

So I think those circumstances to us today, and knowing what we now know, they do, set off alarm bells. But at the time it was let pass really. And Crippen went on to meet Belle Elmore, who would become his second wife. I wonder if you could tell us about her and how they met.

[Hallie Rubenhold]

Belle is quite extraordinary. She's traditionally been quite maligned. She was born in Brooklyn and her name was Kunigunde Macamor. And her family were German, Polish. They were very poor. And because her name was Kunigund and nobody could pronounce it, she would change her name several times to Connie Concordia and then eventually changes her name to Cora.

[Ellie Cawthorn]

I bet as a historian, you were wishing, looking through those records, that she just kept one name.

[Hallie Rubenhold]

I know, I know. It's just. But this, again, this is this thing with people in the past. I mean, names are disposable and totally changeable. I mean, you could change a name, be somebody else very easily. And I think, you know, Cora, or Belle, as she would become, really got the measure of this. You know, you are what you make yourself. And again, that's kind of a very American way of looking at the world, especially in the 19th century, the self made.

[Ellie Cawthorn]

So, as you've said, Belle has been historically quite a maligned character. I wonder if you could tell us why you think that is and how you'd like to rectify the record, as it were.

[Hallie Rubenhold]

Yeah, yeah. Well. So when she meets Crippen, she is living with another man who, it turns out, was her employer, and she was living as a servant, and he got her pregnant. Now, whether this was a consensual relationship or not, whether this pregnancy came as a result of being, you know, in a relationship she wanted to be in or whether she was raped, and we know quite a lot of domestic servants were victims of sexual violence. And she was pregnant. And at the time, the state of New York had the strictest anti abortion laws and she had an abortion. Crippen worked for an abortionist and had trained as a gynecologist, which makes everything even more creepy. And so he tended to her, and it was through this that he met her. So, of course, in the wake of the murder, when Crippen's been questioned by the police, the first thing he does is he blackens her character as much as he possibly can in his interviews with the police, because he's kind of building a sort of case for himself. Like he was pushed to do this. This was a terrible, terrible woman. Except, you know, he was in love with her at one point, he married her and he had her ovaries removed because he didn't want children and told her she needed to have this operation and there was nothing wrong with her. And she was devastated for the rest of her life. She couldn't have children, but much to her credit, decided she was going to be an opera singer and pursue a career which was incredibly progressive in the 1890s. And when Crippen then moved them to London, she decided it was too hard to break into opera in London. So she would go in for music hall and she really found herself. She loved music hall and she loved singing, and she was an incredibly flamboyant woman. And she was outspoken and she was colorful, and she liked parties and clothes. She made her own clothing. She had an enormous store of clothing. A lot of it was stage costuming because at the time you had to buy your own costumes. And people don't realize that, especially when you're reading the accounts of this. Oh, this woman had this enormous wardrobe. And, you know, she was so selfish and. No, I mean, she lived the ordinary life of any performer. And she liked jewelry. And Crippen bought her lots of jewelry because Crippen liked these trappings of wealth as well. He wore diamonds, too. And she found herself really in the company of the Music Hall Ladies Guild, who I think are an absolutely fascinating group of women. The Music Hall Ladies Guild was a kind of union. It was also a social organization and a charity. And their main function was to get together and to raise money mainly for women and children who were music hall performers who had fallen on hard times. And so they gathered clothes, they raised money for them, they gave them boxes for Christmas and various things like that. And Belle just found her metier. This was what she wanted to do. And the company of the other women, the camaraderie, and she became the treasurer of the Music Hall Ladies Guild. And she was absolutely just committed to this cause and her friends loved her and there was a lot of socializing and actually she became part of the circle of really, really famous musical performers. And, you know, so she and Crippen were going to all these famous parties with famous people and having them over to the house, and she found herself this way. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever find yourself playing the budgeting game? Shifting a little money here, a little there, and hoping it all works out well. With the name your price tool from Progressive, you can be a better budgeter and potentially lower your insurance bill, too. You tell Progressive what you want to pay for car insurance and they'll help you find options within your budget. Try it [e-mail] progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates. Price and coverage match limited by state law. Not available in all states this season. A new hot deal has arrived at Metro. $25 a line for four lines with all the data you need and four free Samsung Galaxy A15.5. 5G phones. Getting Metro's best deals is easy. No ID required, no activation fees. Get a new number or keep your own. It's up to you. That's four lines for 25 a line plus four free phones. Visit a store or go online today only at Metro. Buy T Mobile when you join Metro plus tax for limited time and subject to change Max one offer per account. This episode is brought to you by 20th Century Studios. The Amateur. When his wife is murdered, Charlie Heller, the CIA's most brilliant computer computer analyst must trek across the globe and use his only weapon, his intelligence, to hunt down her killers and enact revenge. Starring Academy Award winner Rami Malek and Academy Award nominee Laurence Fishburne. The Amateur. Rated PG13. Only in theaters April 11th.

[Ellie Cawthorn]

So we have Belle at the center of this vibrant social circle and people really love her. She's got loads of friends. She's this larger than life, flamboyant personality. But what about Crippen? Did people like him or did people think, who's Belle's creepy husband?

[Hallie Rubenhold]

Well, I mean, there was a little bit of both. And also I think again, as a historian, you have to kind of step back and go, okay, so what am I reading? Who was saying this? And when are they saying this? And this is after this man has been other accounts. You know, people are coming forward and going, oh, well, you know, I never liked him anyway. Yeah, I always knew. So you have to take things with a pinch of salt. You know, you're never going to say, well, you know, he was a murderer. What a nice guy. But, you know, they had friendships as couples. Claire Martinetti, who was the wife of Paul Martinetti, who was one of the most famous pantomime artists at the time, she was Belle's best friend. And the four of them, the Crippens and the Martinetti, spent a lot of time together several times a week playing cards, having supper, going to the theater together. And Claire Martinetti wrote this eight page count for the police of the very last night they spent together at 39 Heeld, which is where Bell and Crippen lived in such minute detail with dialogue, you know, what they ate, what they said to each other, when they played cards, what they drank, where the men were when the women were in the kitchen, what they were wearing when they left, what they were thinking. And it was like being there. And you can imagine the cigarette smoke after dinner rising to the ceiling and as the cards came out for a game of whist. And you get this real sense of the kind of intimacy between the couples and how they knew each other. And this is the sort of stuff, I think, that often slips between the cracks of history where we don't stop and really kind of take stock of the human aspects of what history is. And when you can reach right into a time and almost you know, as I was saying earlier, be there and experience it. It's so alive for us.

[Ellie Cawthorn]

There is another character that we need to bring into this story. Dr. Crippen's mistress. Can you introduce her and where she comes into this?

[Hallie Rubenhold]

Yes. Ethel the Neve, or Ethel Neave as she was born, is such a complex character. And I have to say, I mean, all of these people are fascinating to me. But Ethel haunted me, positively haunted me, because of her complexity. Ethel was born in dis in a two room cottage, and I went to that cottage. And her father was quite an ambitious man. Walter Neave becomes railway clerk, works in dis railway station and wants his children to have a better life. And he sent his daughters to Pitman's College, which was a secretarial college, which meant they could enter the workforce. And at this time, this is a really exc for women. The end of the 19th century, beginning of the 20th century. You know, women could normally work in shops, they could work in factories, they could go into domestic service. But working in an office meant that working class women could effectively enter the middle classes. They could earn their own money. It was considered a very respectable job. It required literacy training and education. They were paid much less than their male contemporaries. But women were empowered by and they earned money and then they could spend that money and they could live separately, which Ethel did from her parents. And of course, along with this comes a desire for some sort of political voice. So Ethel was right on the cusp of this. It was really exciting time. Ethel was a new woman. That's what they were calling these women, new women. She became involved with Crippen. Crippen hired her and she became his sort of right hand woman. And she was very much involved in all of the fraud and all of the schemes. But she played innocent throughout and people believed she was innocent because there was again this very double edged sword which saw women as good or bad. And if you played the traditional role of the woman and you were very demure and polite and quiet and good, you were a good woman. And if you were loud enough spoken and pushy and sexually available or on the stage, you were a bad woman. So Ethel really leaned into this Persona and it really helped her because she was involved in all of this. And she and Crippen became lovers and their relationship went on for quite some time. I mean, it was about six years. And he was promising her, well, I'm gonna marry you. I'm gonna marry you. And of course he never did because he said, belle's gonna Leave me. She's gonna leave me for this lover she had. Well, there's no absolute proof that Belle had a lover. She had a male friend with whom she was quite close. Belle was also infertile, and there were a lot of potentially physical obstructions to her having a full sexual life. So whether she was having an affair or not was another thing. But Crippen was certainly telling Ethel that his wife was having an affair. And so she was strung along on these promises. And eventually it gets to a point. Ethel gets pregnant. Ethel has an abortion. There are a number of abortions in this case, which is very interesting. Again, it's this view into women's experience and things that people don't talk about that crime can provide us with. And the abortion becomes a real kind of tipping point. And Ethel starts pushing and saying, well, when is she going? When are you gonna marry me? And eventually it gets to the point where Cribbon decides he's gonna take matters into his own hands, and he gives Ethel an engagement ring, which Ethel then starts showing to people in the weeks before the murder and telling people she's gonna get married. Crippen decides he's gonna go out and buy a drug called hyosine hydrobromide, which is a sedative, but in very high doses, it can create the opposite effect, which makes you kind of crazy, and then stop your heart. The idea was he was gonna stop her heart and make it look like a death, which occurred in her sleep. And then he would get a friend of his to just sign the death certificate. Mm. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? It's an easy way to get rid of. And then with the death certificate, he could then prove that he is no longer married. He can then marry Ethel, and then Bob's your uncle, and it's all done seamlessly. Well, it didn't quite happen like that. Something went wrong. Crippen gave her too much hyosine hydrobromamide. He gave her five grains of hyosine hydrobromid. And in order to sedate somebody or even to kind of kill them, I mean, one would have been sufficient, and most chemists would only have, like, a fifth of a grain in stock because it was such a potent drug. He gave her too much. Something went wrong. She probably started screaming, or she knew what was happening, and there may have been a physical fight. And so by the time she actually died, there was evidence on her body that something had happened. And so he couldn't pass it off as death in her sleep. So suddenly, in the middle of the night, Crippen has to get rid of a body. What the hell is it strikes me.

[Ellie Cawthorn]

That this is probably the reason why he didn't really do a very good job at concealing this murder. As you say, he went and bought poison himself. Then he comes up with this story where he tells her friends, oh, she's gone to America. I don't know what's happened. Yes, I wonder if you can tell us a bit about what he did after the murder and when people began to suspect something was wrong, how they put the pieces together.

[Hallie Rubenhold]

Yeah, so he's got a real problem because his plan is no longer viable. And his plan was, oh, my poor wife died. And now he's got to make up some excuse for her disappearance. And obviously he's got this group of women who are really good friends of his wife and of him as well. And they are unfortunately just down the hall from his office, just a couple doors down the corner. And they met every Wednesday. And so what are they gonna do? And so either he or Ethel, and I believe it may have been Ethel. Ethel almost undoubtedly had much more to do with this cover up than she would ever admit to.

[Ellie Cawthorn]

So you think she knew exactly what was going on?

[Hallie Rubenhold]

Oh, she. Absolutely. Without a shadow of a doubt. Without a shadow of a doubt. And for me, one of the greatest injustices was the fact that. Here's a spoiler. She was acquitted because she was up to her ears in this murder. I don't believe she committed the murder, but I absolutely believe she was involved in the cleanup on every level. She knew everything that was going on because she always knew crippen secrets. You know, they were partners in crime, quite literally.

[Ellie Cawthorn]

And she wasn't very subtle in the aftermath either, was she? She essentially looted those jewelry and was wearing it around town.

[Hallie Rubenhold]

Yeah. What is so shocking about this? I mean, Ethel was completely unrepentant, and throughout her entire life, never once had the slightest grain of remorse or demonstrated any sadness for Belle's family, for her friends, for anything, which I think is so shocking. As soon as Belle is gone, Ethel is appropriating all of her clothing, this enormous wardrobe of clothing and her jewelry, and is running around town in her furs. And she's wearing this brooch, which is what really gives her way. Belle had this beautiful diamond brooch called the Rising sun, sort of art nouveau style with all of these diamonds coming off it. And all her friends knew because it was a beautiful piece of jewelry, and Ethel just wears it. But the most shocking thing so it's decided that they're gonna tell people that Belle's gone to America last minute. The relative was dying and Criminal keeps changing the story. As soon as they ask him questions, he's constantly pivoting. And Ethel's just keeping stumm, you know, she's not saying anything because she's letting him do everything. And I believe the arrangement was always, they had the story rehearsed and it was, oh, he knows everything, I know nothing. Which really, again, leans into the poor, innocent little wilting Violet, which she was not. So the most shocking thing, God, I mean, the first time I read this, I couldn't believe it was there was a ball that was being held. Music Hall Ladies Guild was part of a number of other charities, performers charities that were holding this annual ball at the Criterion Rooms, just glittering rooms in Piccadilly and Crippen. Although Belle has, quote, unquote, gone to America, buys two tickets and appears with Ethel the secretary, with all of their friends sitting there wearing Belle's clothes in June.

[Ellie Cawthorn]

Do you think he just had shameless self belief or an arrogance that he could convince people?

[Hallie Rubenhold]

I think they did not care. And I think Ethel was party to this. It was like I had two fingers up at everybody, like, see if you can stop us. And in terms of the statement that was being made, I mean, bear in mind these performers, they all had quite rackety lives. So the idea of somebody having a mistress wasn't shocking, but what was brazen about it was these were Belle's friends and it was rude and it was obnoxious and it was shocking. It was shocking.

[Ellie Cawthorn]

And of course, it transpired that Belle hadn't gone to America. In fact, she'd never left the house.

[Hallie Rubenhold]

Yeah, she'd never left the house. House. Because what Crippen realized he had to do was basically dismember the body and hide it under the bricks of the cellar. And that was the only way he could do it. He bought some quicklime to try to get rid of the body as fast as he could. But what he did and what would come back to really haunt him in this crime, I mean, this was a terrible thing anyway. But it was the way in which he disposed of his wife's body. He. He removed all the bones. I mean, this was a man who understood anatomy. He was a trained medical man. He removed all the bones, he removed her head, he removed the sex organs and was disposing of these piecemeal. We don't know where the bones went. We don't know where the Head went. But the position of Hilltrop Crescent, where they lived was quite near to very, very heavy industry. So it's quite close to King's Cross and the canal, which was very pollute canal. People could throw things into the canal all the time. It was also very, very close to an abattoir and there would have been a lot of waste. So that is another possibility. But what remained, he put basically the viscera and just parts of the body under the floor of the coal cellar and put the bricks back, covered it with quicklime and just assumed it would be gone. The interesting thing is the Crippens. Well, when I say the Crippens, I'm now talking about Ethel, who called herself Mrs. Crippen because she told her family she had got married and again was just as cagey as Crippen was with his lies. And she was lying to her family and she was lying to her friends. She was lying to everybody about their life because she moved into the house. And after complaining, oh, you know, Belle and Crippen didn't keep a servant. Well, curiously they didn't keep a servant until June and she moved in in March and was complaining about how much cleaning up there was to do. And mysteriously, lots of things were being burnt. And even the dustmen who were interviewed. This is ridiculous. The amount of rubbish we're removing from here. I've never seen anything like this. And ash, what were they burning? And the house had a strange smell about it, said a couple of people who had visited. So Ethel knew what was in the basement.

[Ellie Cawthorn]

I mean, the details of what Crippen did with Belle's body are very shocking. And I guess that leads me onto something I wanted to ask you because in many ways this is. It's quite a classic domestic murder. A man murdering his wife so he can be with his mistress. But why did it become the crime of the century? Is that part of the reason?

[Hallie Rubenhold]

The reason why it became the crime of the century was, yes, in part it was. How shocking. Again, this is a crime in a suburban neighborhood. It's sort of middle class, lower middle class. The fortunes of Holloway were sort of up and down. This was Diary of a Nobody. This was Charles Pooter. This was everybody worrying about their sherry glasses and their Christmas gift. And lo and behold, here is a man who has not only murdered his wife, but cut up the body and kept it in the basement of this tree lined street. So that's shocking to the middle classes because, oh my God, this could be my neighborhood. The Crippens could be my neighbors. Are we not safe from this? And newspapers roaring trade in. Are we not safe? So that was one part of it. The other part of it was the way in which he disposed of the body. And what this otherwise respectable man, you know, in a bowler hat taking the tram to work every day and going to the theater did to his wife in private was absolutely grotesque and horrifying.

[Ellie Cawthorn]

And I guess another angle of it being crime of the century was of course, this remarkable manhunt, international manhunt that was launched afterwards. So can you take us onto that.

[Hallie Rubenhold]

Part of the story? Yes, yes. And this is where it takes a real turn. When the music hall Ladies Guild finally convince Scotland Yard they should be interested in their friend's disappearance. Because Scotland Yard weren't interested in the disappearance of this quote unquote bohemian person. They sent a man called Inspector Dew on the case and he interviewed Crippen and Ethel and he basically spooked them. And so they decided they've got to go on the run. And they were so worried about being. And you know, Crippen and all the men he worked with, his whole circle, these are all people who went on the run all the time. And Crippen disappeared many occasions. But Crippen, he got really worried and he thought the only way we're going to get out of the country is if we change our appearance. And so Ethel was given a boy's suit of clothing and he cut her hair and he shaved off his mustache. And they went via a Hoek van Holland Holland to Antwerp and to Brussels, where they stayed for a while, hiding out at a hotel and tried to get a ship somewhere. And it turned out they could eventually get a ship to Quebec. And by then Dew had discovered what was in the basement of the house, what was in the coal cellar. And it was like an all points bulletin all over the world. Every port was looking for them and the newspapers were going absolutely mad. This was the crime of the century. This was incredible, you know, and it's believed she's in boys clothing. Oh, my God. You know what could be more shocking? And they get on a ship called the Montrose going to Quebec, and they are eventually spotted by the captain, Captain Kendall, who thinks there's something slightly amiss with this father and son couple and then uses his Marconi wireless. Wireless telegraphy changed everything because Marconi's system with these transmitters on the coasts meant that you could wire to land and you could get information back and forth. And so Captain Kendall wired basically the shipping company wired Scotland Yard and said to Inspector Dew, Inspector Dew said, I think I'll get on another ship and try to beat them to Quebec. And he did. And he got on the Laurentic, which was by the way, the sister ship of the Titanic. This is two years before the Titanic and the Laurentic was one of of the fastest ships in the world. What's so exciting about this is like turn of the century, you know, everything's changing. All this technology and Marconi wireless, my God, it allows you to catch somebody who's committed a crime. You know, all this communication and the super fast ships and Du boards the ship as it comes into port and he arrests Crippen on board the Montrose. And this is like extreme explosive all over the world, you know, people absolutely gripped by this. They're arrested and then Cripp and Nevill brought back, they're brought back to Liverpool and they are literally insane crowds, people pushing and shoving and booing and hissing as they come off the ship. And then it's the same when they get into Euston Station and there are people hanging from signs and chasing the cars down the road as they're taken to Bow Street Police Station Magistrates court. And it's insane. And the trials are sensationalist. There are people climbing in through the skylights at Bow street to see the hearing. It is decided that Crippen and Ethel will be tried separately. It is eventually decided because not enough evidence has been gathered to try Ethel for murder, which she was arrested under a charge of because they couldn't be bothered because she's the woman. They just want the man that they would drop the murder charges, have her as an accomplice to murder. They just need to get him. And Ethel is just gonna be waved through. They're not even gonna try to gather more evidence on her. And there was tons of evidence against Ethel. And so in this spectacular show trial, Crippen is found guilty of murdering Belle Elmore. A lot of this resides on the toxicology again, which is fairly new, the pathology reports. And the hyosine is found in the remains. Ethel has a superstar barrister at the time. And the interesting thing about this time is trials and barristers are like celebrities, celebrities. And people go to sit in on trials and watch trials because it's like it's all unfolding, it's free drama. And so she has this barrister called Effie Smith. He's this like superstar friend of Winston Churchill. Winston Churchill was present at Crippen's trial and Effie Smith just wows them and he doesn't have to do anything. And there's this poor quivering young girl, they call her hysterical girl in the Doctor. And she is totally acquitted. Crippen is executed. Ethel goes on to try to lead an ordinary life and changes her name, becomes Ethel Smith, has children, disappears into the kind of ether and dies in the 1960s. And her children never even knew who she was.

[Ellie Cawthorn]

It strikes me with this case, as you've highlighted in our conversation, that there's just so many fascinating little tangents you can go down. You know, whether it's medical fraud or it's technology, women's health, the music, whole world. And if people want to know more about those, they can of course, turn to your book. Cause you cover a lot of them there. But finally, to wrap us up, people have talked about this case for a long time, more than 100 years now. But what do you think that people have really got and how would you like to correct it?

[Hallie Rubenhold]

What has been got so wrong about this is it's the way in which the women are portrayed. It's the way in which Belle Elmore, more than anything, has been portrayed. It became very fashionable to demonize Belle Elmore, to victim, blame her for her own death. And when this was being written about, the first account was written by a man called Alexander belfilson Young in 1920. It's important to remember what was going on in 1920. The sex disqualification Amendment act was passed, which meant that women could enter the professions. Women had been nurses at the front line, women had been police officers, women had entered the world. You know, women were bobbing their hair, they were wearing makeup, they had shortened their hemlines. Massive change was afoot. And a lot of people were really upset and really perturbed by this. And there was kind of a backlash against it. And you can see it in the way in which Filson Young writes about the trial, because he absolutely demonizes Belle Elmore. He just says she is this horrible, shrewish woman who destroyed her husband's life. And in fact, Crippen and Ethel had this very pure relationship. And she was a good girl and their love was pure. And Belle Elmore was basically a monster that needed to be slayed in order for these good people to be together. And Crippen was a good man because he was a middle class, educated man. And so he basically, because he wrote like that, and his work was the first definitive work to be written about this, everybody else followed suit. And in fact, every memoir that came out afterwards, everybody piled on to Belle. She was a slut she was a peacock. She deserved to die. She was a horrible woman. It was just complete rubbish and pure, utter, unadulterated misogyny. And she wasn't like that. There's absolutely no proof that she was that way. Not only that, but I mean, in what world is that acceptable to say a woman deserved to die? And I think that needs to be changed. We need to really, really reconsider how we approach and discuss historical true crime. It's a real problem because we take all of the prejudices of a previous era, which is just kind of frozen in aspect, and we regurgitate it. We tell it as if it's part of of the facts of what happened. And we really have to consider what we think of as fact in historical true crime. Crimes must be considered historical events, and they must be approached with the care that we approach any historical event. And this is my sort of clarion call to historians to really take historical true crime seriously.

[Ellie Cawthorn]

That was Hallie Rubenhold speaking to me. Ellie Cawthorn Halle's book, which delves into this story in much more detail, is called Story of a Murder and is out now. Thanks for listening. This podcast was produced by Daniel Kramer Arden.

[Hallie Rubenhold]

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