The Crippen Case

It is doubly ironic that Dr Crippen should have become perhaps the most famous British murderer of all time. First, he was a doctor, by profession a healer not a destroyer. Second, he wasn't even British - he was an American citizen. Some people think he was one of the world's greatest murderers - which is odd because he killed only one woman, his overbearing wife. In 1900 he and his wife, Belle, came to England, things started to go wrong in the marriage, he started to have a close friendship with another woman, Ethel, and she planned to leave him. One night after a dinner party she was never seen again. Crippen said that she had run off with her lover, but when he left the country with Ethel his house was raided and the remains of human flesh was found, although the head, limbs and bones were missing. No-one ever knew the true story, but in 1910 Crippen went to the gallows at Pentonville Prison, many believing he was still innocent.