Revealed: Crippen murder mystery ‘solved by women’
ONE of the most notorious murders in British criminal history carried out by the “Mild Murderer” Dr Crippen was solved by a group of women, a new book will claim.
The case of Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen shocked the world in the early 20th century when he was found to have murdered his wife, a music hall actress who went by the stage name Belle Elmore.
It was understood that a brave, male police officer was the person who brought him to justice after the singer was found buried under the basement.
Dr Crippen previously claimed she had run away to America with a lover when she mysteriously disappeared after their New Year’s Eve party in 1910.
He was caught while fleeing to the US with his mistress on a boat, and returned to England where he was tried and hanged for the murder.
However, a forthcoming book, Bad Women by Hallie Rubenhold, will reveal that it was in fact a group of female performers who raised the alarm about their friend’s death and brought evidence to the police.
Ms Rubenhold said: “I am also going to look at the involvement of Belle’s colleagues, friends and family in catching Crippen.
“Belle was part of an early union, a proto-entertainers union called the Music Hall Ladies’ Guild. It was just amazing, it was open to women who were performers.
“Everyone from circus performers to minstrels, and they were a very close-knit circle of friends.
“It is because of them that Scotland Yard looked at Crippen in the first place. They weren’t listened to when they said ‘something has happened to my friend’.
“Scotland Yard wouldn’t listen to them as they were performing women so they had to bring their husbands along to get the police to listen.”
She said that their “testimony swung his conviction”, and that Belle’s sisters in New York, along with other women in the guild, waited for his ship to come in so he could be arrested.
The historian added: “You have this army of women who were seeing him come to justice. It’s never told from the female perspectives.
“The story we always look at is the inspector catching the villain – the whodunnit story tends to be about the male inspector catching the male villain – the man making the world right. All the other men – the lawyers, the whole trial. It’s a totally masculine story but there’s a whole cast of female characters.”
Ms Rubenhold said she would also investigate the mysterious death of Dr Crippen’s first wife.