Doctor Crippen: The Infamous London Cellar Murder of 1910 Read Online Free PDF Page A

if they could return later.
    Dew insisted that she took him and Mitchell to Crippen, but she was reticent and offered to telephone him. This was unacceptable, and finally Le Neve went with Dew and Mitchell by tram car and cab to Crippen’s office at Albion House. Dew had been reluctant to leave Le Neve alone, fearing she might telephone Crippen and warn him of their arrival as they made their way to his office. Le Neve went upstairs in a lift to fetch Crippen while Dew waited downstairs at a point where no one could leave the building without his knowing about it.
    Crippen greeted the deputation, and the detectives were shown into his room, leaving Le Neve outside. Dew’s first impression of Crippen was that he was ‘an insignificant little man’. 5 The Scotland Yard man introduced himself and Mitchell, and explained that his wife’s friends were not satisfied with his story concerning her death and that his own enquiries resulted in his feeling the same way. Crippen replied, ‘I suppose I had better tell the truth,’ and immediately confessed, ‘the stories I have told them about her death are untrue. As far as I know she is still alive.’ Dew suggested he make a full statement including a history of his life, which Crippen willingly did. Sergeant Mitchell took down the following:
    I am forty-eight years of age. After being questioned by Chief Inspector Dew as to the statements made by me that my wife, known as Belle Elmore, is dead, I desire to make a voluntary statement to clear the whole matter up.
    I was born at Cold Water, Michegan, U.S.A., in the year 1862, my father’s name being Myron Augustus Crippen, a dry goods merchant. My mother’s name was Andresse Crippen, née Skinner.
    My mother is now dead, but my father lives at Los Angeles, Cal.
    I was educated first at Cold Water, Indiana, and California, and then attended the University at Michegan until I was about twenty, and finished my education at the Hospital College at Cleveland, where I took the degree of M.D.
    I came over to England in 1883, and attended various hospitals to see the operations, and returned to the States, and was assistant for three or four months to Dr Porter, of Detroit. After that I went to New York and took a degree in specialist eye and ear work at the Ophthalmic Hospital. This would be in 1885.
    After then I returned to Detroit, where I remained about two years as assistant to the same doctor. I then went to San Diego, where I practised as an eye and ear specialist for about two years. Before going to this place I was married to a lady named Charlotte Bell, of New York, and she accompanied me to San Diego.
    We then came to New York. I have had only one child by my first wife. He was born at San Diego about 1887 or 1888, and his name is Otto Hawley Crippen. He is now married and lives at Los Angeles.
    My first wife died, so far as I can remember, in 1890 or 1891. We were living at Salt Lake City, where I was practising as an eye and ear specialist. She was buried at Salt Lake City in my name.
    After this my son went to live with his grandmother, my mother, until she died. I then went to New York, and went as an assistant to Dr Jeffrey, of Brooklyn, and I lived with him.
    About 1893, while with Dr Jeffrey, I met Belle Elmore, who was being attended by him. Her name at that time was Cora Turner. I forget where she was living, but she was living alone. She was only about seventeen years of age, and I, of course, was about thirty.
    She, at this time, was living under the protection of a man named C. C. Lincoln, a stove manufacturer, of Water Street, New York. She had been living with him, but he had given up his house and had taken a room for her and was paying all her expenses.
    I took her to several places for some weeks, as I was very fond of her, and one day she told me Lincoln wanted her to go away with him. I told her I could not stand that, and would