Dr Crippen’s ‘blank, and cold’ eye sees the light after 110 years
AN UNPUBLISHED courtroom sketch of Dr Crippen, the notorious killer, will go on display for the first time as part of an exhibition about illustration in the criminal justice system
Hawley Harvey Crippen, an apparently mild-mannered physician, was convicted and hanged in 1910 for killing his wife after poisoning her and dismembering her body.
He hid her torso under their London home and told everyone she had gone to America, but was caught making his escape across the Atlantic with his young mistress disguised as his son.
The ship’s captain recognised Dr Crippen from a newspaper picture, and famously used the newly invented wireless telegraph to alert Scotland Yard.
Now a sketch of the murderer on trial will feature in an exhibition on the crucial role that illustration has played in the criminal justice system over the past 200 years. It will be part of Forensic Art: Illustrating Justice at the House of Illustration in London.
Exhibits will also include courtroom sketches of Emmeline Pankhurst and other suffragettes, as well as facial composites and drawings from more recent trials.
William Hartley sketched Crippen during his trial at the Old Bailey. Katie McCurrach, the exhibition’s curator, said his portrait was particularly accurate: “The look in his eye is very blank and cold, which I think Hartley really captured.”
Illustrators today such as Julia Quenzler, whose depictions of murderer Harold Shipman are featured, are no longer allowed to sketch in court. “It’s interesting how they memorise proceedings… it’s a very specialist skill,” said Ms McCurrach.
The exhibition will run at the House of Illustration in King’s Cross, London, from May 22 to Sept 20.