Abstract:
At 9 am on the 23rd of November 1910, Dr Harvey Hawley Crippen,
an American who had originally trained as a homeopathic doctor,
was dispatched to the next world by public hanging in London’s
Pentonville prison for murdering his minor-celebrity singer wife,
Belle. In court, he was described as “quiet, mild and polite, a docile
husband and an apparently entirely unremarkable person.” His
wife appeared to be “a blowsy, heavy-drinking nightmare, vain,
bullying and promiscuous.” Nonetheless, after she had been
missing for some time and suspicions were raised, parts of the
unfortunate Mrs Crippen’s dissected body were found hidden
under their coal cellar, along with traces of poison. Dr Crippen
was arrested when he tried to escape to Canada by passenger
liner with his mistress, Ethel Le Neve, who had disguised herself
(unsuccessfully) as a young boy.1 The British public was entranced
with this story, one which was peppered with glamour, intrigue,
murder, adultery, conflict, a high-speed transatlantic chase and
pharmacology: Dr Crippen’s poison of choice was hyoscine.
