The Incomparable Witness: Sir Bernard Spilsbury (Case Study‪)‬

On October 18, 2007, international headlines announced the possibility that Hawley Harvey Crippen, a patent salesman convicted of the 1910 murder of his wife, had been wrongly executed for this crime. Two forensic scientists, John Trestrail and David Foran, claimed to have proven with DNA analysis that the headless human remains found in Crippen's basement could not have been those of Cora Crippen (a.k.a. Belle Elmore). While a debate has ensued, one name has cropped up in many media accounts: that of Sir Bernard Spilsbury, the eminent pathologist who had testified so confidently that the remains were those of Crippen's wife. It had been his first important case and had made him a forensic celebrity in his day. Over the course of Spilsbury's 40-year career (some 25,000 autopsies), he had privileged access to so many cases, others had difficulty scoring points against him in court--even when he was wrong. His critics called him arrogant, territorial, and smug, while those who recognized his contributions said Spilsbury was among the century's geniuses in forensic science. For this, he was even knighted.