Doctor Crippen: The Infamous London Cellar Murder of 1910 by Connell Nicholas

Author:Connell, Nicholas [Connell, Nicholas]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Amberley Publishing
Published: 2013-05-06T00:00:00+00:00

13

REX V. LE NEVE

When Dr Crippen asked me to disguise myself and run away with him, instinct ought to have told me there was something terribly wrong.

Ethel Le Neve, Thomson’s Weekly News

My innocence I felt sure must be established. I told myself that I was guiltless of any crime, and that no jury could dare to convict me.

Ethel Le Neve, Thomson’s Weekly News

The curious thing about Ethel Le Neve’s trial is that it was not meant to have happened. Richard Muir thought that the judge would ask him what evidence he had to establish Le Neve as an accessory after the fact in the murder of Cora Crippen. Muir ‘would be bound to say that he had no sufficient evidence in support of that charge’. An official from the Director of Public Prosecutions’ office noted, ‘I was strongly disposed to agree with his view, on the ground that the great point was to secure a conviction of Crippen, and that the result of the proceedings against Le Neve was of very little importance, especially as it appeared to be improbable that two trials would in fact be held’.

Cecil Mercer agreed with Muir. ‘Our case against her was, of course, very thin. We had next to nothing at all. I mean, we could not prove that, either before or after, she was aware of the crime. Naturally enough we didn’t press the case. Crippen was what we wanted, and he was in the bag.’1

For whatever reason, Le Neve’s trial did go ahead and Muir had to do the best he could. While Muir knew he had not got the evidence to prove that Le Neve was guilty, he may have suspected she was. When Dr Crippen had been sentenced to death, Muir made the enigmatic statement, ‘Full justice has not yet been done.’2

With Dr Crippen awaiting his appointment with the hangman, Ethel Le Neve stood trial at the Old Bailey on Tuesday 25 October 1910. She would have been found guilty if the jury could be satisfied that she had helped Crippen escape, knowing that he was a murderer.

Once again Richard Muir, Travers Humphreys and Samuel Oddie were the counsel for the Crown, but Le Neve had a different team defending her from that which Crippen had. Appearing for her defence was Winston Churchill’s best friend, Frederick Edwin Smith. Popularly known as ‘F. E.’, he was

strikingly handsome, six feet one inch in height, of a distinguished figure, slightly marred by sloping shoulders. His clothes, although not in any one particular out of the ordinary, gave the impression that he was over-dressed. The hat worn on the back of his head, the red flower in his button-hole, the very long cigar always carried in his mouth, made him a ready subject for the caricaturist.’3

Oddie had a high opinion of his opponent, describing him as ‘a human phenomenon. His vitality was only equalled by his extraordinary brain-power.’4

Arthur Newton had wished to brief Smith for Crippen’s defence, but F. E., who would later have

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