The best laid plans

The story begins on 11 July 1910, when a Scotland Yard police officer made a visit to a house in North London: 39 Hilldrop Crescent. He was making inquiries about a Mrs Crippen, an American music hall singer.

Cora Crippen had not been seen since the last day of January. In February her husband, Dr Crippen, had circulated news that his wife was desperately ill in America, and shortly afterwards announced her death. But several of Cora's friends became suspicious after not being able to find out where she was buried or any record of her death. In June several of those friends contacted the police.

When questioned about the matter, Dr Crippen eventually admitted to Inspector Dew, of Scotland Yard, that he had made up the story of Cora’s illness and death. In fact, he explained, she had left him for another man and gone back to live in their native America. He willingly allowed the inspector to search the house. Everything seemed in order.

Inspector Dew was a little uneasy about the situation, but initially accepted Crippen's explanation and let matters rest.

However, a couple of days later he decided to make one more call on the doctor, just to check a few facts.

But he was too late.

Crippen’s maid informed him that the Doctor had gone away. Crippen’s office confirmed that he had not been seen for hours, and neither had his young female typist. Inspector Dew decided on a more thorough search of Hilldrop Crescent.

A grim discovery

A search of Crippen's property followed, and in the cellar Dew discovered Mrs Crippen's decomposing corpse.

A warrant was issued for the arrest of Crippen and his female companion; his secretary and mistress, Ethel Le Neve.

Descriptions and pictures of Crippen and Le Neve were seen throughout the country, the story was front page news and the public’s imagination was caught by the heady mix of the gruesome cellar discovery and the affair between Crippen and a much younger woman.

The police extended the search around the world, but two weeks later there was still no convincing sighting of the couple, until late one evening when Inspector Dew was handed a telegram that would dramatically alter the course of the investigation.

Caught by the wireless telegraph

The telegram was from a ship called Montrose which had sailed out of Antwerp and was bound for Quebec, Canada. Amongst the passengers were a father and son, both called John Robinson. After two days at sea, the ship’s captain, Henry Kendall, became struck by the likeness of the Robinsons to the newspaper photos he had seen of the ‘cellar-murder fugitive and his friend.’

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