Doctor Crippen

In 1910 Cora Crippen, an unsuccessful music-hall artiste known as Belle Elmore, was murdered by her husband Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen, an American quack doctor, at their London home. During a search of the house, Scotland Yard found the remains of her body under the floor of the cellar. The crime was probably the most famous murder of the twentieth century. Crippen's attempt to escape across the Atlantic with his young mistress Ethel Le Neve disguised as a boy fascinated the world, as did his subsequent Old Bailey trial and execution. Nicholas Connell provides a complete and accurate account of the notorious 'North London Cellar Murder', compiled from the surviving files of Scotland Yard, the Central Criminal Court, the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Home Office. This book draws on a variety of new material including previously unseen official government documents, memoirs of journalists who reported on the story in 1910, contemporary English, Canadian and American newspapers and four important long-forgotten and extensive sets of autobiographical articles by Ethel Le Neve.