Doctor Crippen: The Infamous London Cellar Murder of 1910 Paperback – September 15, 2014

This book on the famous turn of the century murder case of Hawley Crippen is well done and there are quite a few never before mentioned details. The characters of the various people involved are as thoroughly delineated as possible after this length of time.The author admits that many people, women particularly, have a hard time accepting Crippen's guilt. There was simply nothing vicious about the man. We intuit that he deserved some semblance of happiness, regardless of Belle Elmore's personality. But the author doesn't think Crippen was innocent of the crime.He is comfortable with the idea that Crippen killed his wife and dismembered her body, hauling the head and bones and limbs out of the house, to what destination he doesn't say. Then he believes that Crippen deliberately left a gooey mess of innards and skin under a coating of clay and bricks in the cellar. That's what the police said they found.About 20 years ago tests were done on the microscopic slides made of the remains. The result, done in Michigan, was that they had come from a male corpse.The author goes to great lengths to list the many men (inspectors, doctors, lad techs, lawyers etc) who handled the remains without gloves and who at times sloshed chemicals and sprays of one kind or another on them, in the attempt to validate the claim that the male DNA could have been from any of these people and that as such the modern test results are flawed.Here, here Mr. Author. It don't work like that!If Belle contributed to that pile of slop no modern test can TAKE AWAY her DNA! All kinds of male DNA ca get unoaded on top of it but the female DNA can't disappear. BUT IF NO FEMALE DNA WAS FOUND it's not Cora. It's not Belle Elmore and it sure do look like a sting to get Crippen, poor man.

After having read the novel by John Boyne (which I really enjoyed), I was curious about the real story. Sure glad I found this book which not only tells the story of the case but also covers (and debunks) many of the stories told about it over the past century. Well done, Mr Connell.

More than a century has passed since Crippen met his end, and we’re still fascinated. I’ve read plenty about him, but this is an exceptionally well researched book, based on primary sources, thoughtfully analysed before any conclusions have been drawn. It rattles along at a good pace, isn’t sensationalist, covers all the major points, and ties up the loose ends that earlier studies missed. Not perhaps the last to be said of the doctor (...and the ladies in his life), but surely that’s most of it?

This book is really two stories. The life,times and death of Dr. Crippen and the story of Señor Marconi and his struggle to send electronic messages through the air. Cleverly, both tales are interwoven and both are in their own way exciting. In the end, of course, it is Marconi's wireless message from the SS Montrose that does for Crippen and his girl friend Ethel Le Neave. All lovers of true crime stories will consider this book a must-have, not forgetting wireless buffs. I could not put it down.Alan Hayhurst, author of Lancashire Murders, Cheshire Murders and Staffordshire Murders, etc.

I didn't know much about the case of Dr Crippen so thought I'd try this out.It is a well written book and kept my attention throughout. I wouldn't hesitate in recommending this!

great

Well written, intriguing even though the mystery is fairly straight-forward and often told. Why? Because there are aspects of the case which are not resolved. Crippen was certainly guilty, but the how and the when and the disposal are still well-wrapped up in the Doctor's personality. The lengths to which people went in that era to avoid the shame of divorce or gossip or whatever defies common-sense, and what did Ethel Le Neve really know or think?