In addition, ‘Robinson’ fitted two of the points of description of Dr Crippen. The bridge of his nose was flat, and there was a deep mark on his nose as if caused by the wearing of spectacles. Also, Kendall heard ‘Robinson’ speak in French to the French passengers. This ‘positively convinced’ Kendall that his suspicions were justified. Kendall told Crippen stories he hoped would make him laugh out loud, to see if Crippen would open his mouth wide enough for Kendall to ascertain if he had false teeth. Kendall tested Crippen two or three times by calling after him ‘Mr Robinson’, to which Crippen did not respond. It was only when Kendall repeated his call and Le Neve prompted him that Crippen responded, explaining that the cold weather had made him deaf.
Kendall now made a historic decision. He instructed his Marconi wireless operator to send the following message:
Montrose.130 miles West of Lizard.
Have strong suspicion that Crippen London Cellar
Murderer and accomplice are amongst saloon passengers. Moustache shaved off, growing beard. Accomplice dressed as boy, voice, manner and build undoubtedly a girl.
Kendall.
The wireless telegraph had come into existence in the late nineteenth century, and by the twentieth century it was possible to send messages over ever-increasing distances. Before this it had been necessary to send transatlantic messages via underwater cables that linked Britain and America. Ironically, Crippen would often sit on deck and look up at the wireless aerial, listening to the cracking electric spark messages being sent by the operator. He once commented, ‘What a wonderful invention it is!’
Kendall continued to keep the pair under observation. He noted that Le Neve
has the manner and appearance of a very refined, modest girl. She does not speak much, but always wears a pleasant smile. She seems thoroughly under his thumb, and he will not leave her for a moment. Her suit is anything but a good fit. Her trousers are very tight about the hips, and are split a bit down the back and secured with large safety pins.
He continually shaves his upper lip, and his beard is growing nicely. I often see him stroking it and he seems pleased, looking more like a farmer every day. The mark on his nose has not worn off since coming on board.
He sits about on the deck reading, or pretending to read, and both seem to be thoroughly enjoying all their meals. They have not been seasick, and I have discussed various parts of the world with him. He knows Toronto, Detroit, and California well, and says he is going to take his boy to California for his health (meaning Miss Le Neve). Has in conversation used several medical terms. Crippen says that when the ship arrives he will go to Detroit by boat, if possible, as he prefers it. The books he has been most interested in have been
‘Pickwick Papers.’
‘Nebo the Nailer’ (S.B. Gould)
‘Metropolis.’
‘A Name to Conjure With.’
And he is now busy reading ‘The Four Just Men,’ which is all about a murder in London and £1,000 reward.
The ‘Robinsons’ dined at the Captain’s table, where Le Neve’s table manners were
most lady like, handling knife and fork, and taking fruit off the dishes with two fingers. Crippen kept cracking nuts for her, and giving her half his salad, and was always paying her the most marked attention … and the more I saw of them the more I was convinced and I sent a further Marconi to Liverpool when in Mid Atlantic, saying that I was fully convinced as to the identity, passengers not suspicious am keeping everything quiet.
Dew, exhausted by the relentless and as yet unsuccessful hunt for Crippen, received the ‘electrifying’ news of Captain Kendall’s suspicions one evening in a telegram from the Liverpool police. As Dew read the contents ‘a wave of optimism swept over me. My fatigue instantly vanished.’ Dew rushed from his Scotland Yard office and jumped into a cab that took him to the residence of Assistant Commissioner Sir Melville Macnaghten. Dew handed Macnaghten the telegram, which he read with raised eyebrows. Macnaghten asked:
‘What do you think?’
‘I feel confident it’s them.’
‘So do I. What do you suggest?’
‘I want to go after them in a fast steamer. The White Star liner Laurentic sails from Liverpool to-morrow. I believe it is possible for her to overtake the Montrose and reach Canada first.’
‘Here’s your authority, Dew, and I wish you all the luck in the world.’
Despite endorsing Dew’s voyage, Macnaghten was only too aware of the risks it entailed. Dew knew every detail of the case and had spoken to Crippen. His absence could create problems, ‘[b]ut a decision had to be arrived at … the die was cast, the Rubicon was crossed. If the coup happened to come off, well and good, but, if otherwise, why, then, the case would have been hopelessly messed up, and I didn’t care to dwell on the eventualities of its future.’ The Assistant Commissioner’s spirits were somewhat dampened when he arrived at Scotland Yard the next morning and asked Superintendent Froest, ‘Well, what do you think of last night’s decision?’ Froest was unimpressed by Macnaghten’s ‘sanguine view’ of the chances of the Marconi message being correct, although Chief Constable Sir Edward Henry shared Macnaghten’s optimism.12
The Chief Constable of Liverpool had booked Walter Dew onto the steamer Laurentic under the name of ‘Mr Dewhurst’. The ship was going to sail from Liverpool at 6.30 p.m. on 23 July, a whole three and a half days after Crippen and Le Neve had departed for Canada. The Laurentic could travel at about 3.5 miles per hour faster than the Montrose, and sailed directly to Quebec. She was due to arrive there on 31 July, a good couple of days before the arrival of Montrose. Dew did not even tell his wife about his mission, named ‘Operation Handcuffs’. He just told her that he had to go abroad ‘on a matter of great urgency’. This was not unusual, for Dew never discussed any of his cases with his family. His daughter Kate would later recall that her father ‘was usually very reluctant to give any information or express any opinion on the work on which he was engaged’.13
Dew journeyed from Euston Station to Liverpool, where he was met by a Liverpudlian police officer wearing a red rose in his coat for identification. News of Dew’s imminent departure had leaked and a number of reporters and photographers assembled on Prince’s landing stage, but he managed to slip quietly on board and evade the gathered pressmen.14
While Dew was steadily gaining ground on the Montrose he made numerous attempts to contact Captain Kendall via the Marconi wireless, but his messages failed to get through. Somehow, the passengers on the Laurentic suspected that the broad-shouldered man with the merry eyes and large grey moustache was a Scotland Yard man. Dew ‘made every possible effort to hide his identity. It was soon discovered, however, but by tacit consent of everyone his incognito has been respected.’ Dew said nothing, and kept himself to himself, giving every appearance of being ‘an Englishman out for a little pleasure jaunt’.15 Nevertheless, Dew admitted, ‘I had a most pleasant voyage’.
Captain Kendall, meanwhile, continued his observations of Crippen and Le Neve. Crippen was very relaxed, and he and Le Neve spent one night in the saloon
enjoying songs and music, he was quite interested, and spoke to me next morning, saying how one song, ‘We All Walked Into the Shop,’ had been drumming in his head all night, and how his boy had enjoyed it, and laughed heartily when they retired to their room. In the course of one conversation he spoke about American drinks, and said that Selfridge’s was the only decent place in London to get them at.
Kendall sensed an almost sinister hold Crippen had over Le Neve:
At times both would sit and appear to be in deep thought. Though Le Neve does not show any signs of distress, and is, perhaps, ignorant of the crime committed, she appears to be a girl with a very weak will. She has to follow him everywhere. If he looks at her she gives him an endearing smile, as though she were under his hypnotic influence.
As the voyage progressed Crippen became more and more restless. He asked Kendall where the ship stopped to be met by the pilot boat
, how he came off, and how far it was from the pilot station to Quebec, and said he was anxious to get to Detroit. Crippen told Kendall that he was thinking about settling down in California on a fruit farm.
Newspapers had been full of the story of the Atlantic chase, and Captain Kendall had been sending back regular wireless messages to the Daily Mail that told of his progress and investigations, which were being eagerly read. John Edward Nash, who had originally reported Cora Crippen’s disappearance, was elated and declared that the ‘fact that Inspector Dew has gone is splendid. This means almost certainly that Crippen will be caught.’16
Back in London Superintendent Froest was keeping his feet firmly on the ground, at least publicly. In a statement Froest pointed out the realities of the situation, which were in stark contrast to the press excitement over the chase, which was seen as a prelude to the inevitable capture of the fugitives. Froest said:
He [Dew] will leave the details of the arrest to the Canadian police, who will of course, make their own arrangements. His position during the proceedings in Canada, which are identical with the proceedings which are taken for extradition orders in other countries, will be first to identify the people and then to wait until they are handed over into his custody by the Canadian police. He will act exactly as a foreign officer does who is in this country waiting for the extradition of a criminal for whom he has been seeking. These proceedings will naturally take some considerable time, and it is not possible for Inspector Dew to arrive back in this country in time for the adjourned inquest, which is fixed for August 15. That is, of course, if he can identify the people. Speaking for myself, I am keeping a perfectly clear mind on the subject. We have so many houses built with cards which fall down when the last of the pack is placed on top, and for this reason we are pursuing every clue which comes to us, just as if the Montrose incident had never occurred. Investigations are being made in London and elsewhere by detectives with a view to building up the story of the crime which is, owing to several aspects of the mystery, somewhat incomplete.17
It was not just the newspaper-reading public who were eagerly following Dew’s transatlantic chase. Late on 30 July Home Secretary Winston Churchill requested an update on the case, which was delivered to him at St James’s Palace.
Dew’s fears that the Montrose had beaten him to Canada were unfounded. As well as the assurances of the Laurentic’s captain, there was the sight of a pilot cutter coming out to meet the steamer at Father Point filled with press reporters and photographers. Dew surmised it never would have been there had the Montrose already arrived. To his
annoyance, they cried ‘Three cheers for Inspector Dew!’18
Dew’s relationship with the American and Canadian press would always be an uneasy one, principally because he steadfastly refused to tell them anything. Dew saw this as ‘upholding the prestige of British justice and British police methods’. Questions were met by blunt responses such as ‘Let me alone’, ‘I don’t know anything about it’, and ‘I do not want any pictures taken at all’.19 The newsmen could not understand Dew’s reticence. ‘They do things very differently in America’, Dew sighed.‘I prefer the British way.’
13
The Capture
… one of those episodes that no novelist would dare to make up, such as Crippen’s flight across the Atlantic with his mistress dressed as a boy.
George Orwell, ‘Decline of the English Murder’
Father Point was a desolate outpost on the St Lawrence River, consisting of some wooden shacks, a wireless station and a lighthouse. As Dew had no power of arrest in Canadian waters he was met by Inspectors McCarthy and Dennis of the Quebec City Police. He was put up in one of the shacks where he sleeplessly awaited the arrival of the Montrose amid the din of the lighthouse foghorn and the rowdy singing of the journalists congregated in the other huts.
On 31 July 1910, Dew borrowed the uniform of a pilot before being rowed up to the Montrose accompanied by the pilot and Inspectors McCarthy and Dennis. Crippen was still blissfully ignorant of what was about to happen, allegedly commenting to the ship’s doctor, ‘There seem to be a good many pilots in the boat doctor’, when he saw Dew’s boat approaching the Montrose.1 Captain Kendall had been forewarned by wireless about what was going to happen, and he was waiting for Dew on the bridge, where the pair shook hands.
While making his way towards the Captain’s cabin, Dew caught sight of and instantly recognised Dr Crippen, despite his now being clean-shaven and not wearing glasses. Crippen, like Dew in his Whitechapel days, was wearing a blue serge suit under his tweed coat:
Presently only a few feet separated us. A pair of bulgy eyes were raised to mine. I would have recognized them anywhere.
The little man was Crippen. I thrilled with the realization that this was no wild goose chase after all. My search was ended. Miss Le Neve, I felt certain, would not be far away.
During my long career as a detective, I have experienced many big moments, but at no other time have I felt such a sense of triumph and achievement.
Crippen was brought by McCarthy and Dennis into the captain’s cabin, where Dew confronted him with the words ‘Good morning, Dr. Crippen; I am Chief Inspector Dew.’ Crippen simply replied ‘Good morning, Mr. Dew.’ Dew continued, ‘You will be arrested for the murder and mutilation of your wife, Cora Crippen, in London, on or about the 2nd of February last.’
Dew recalled:
Even though I believed him to be a murderer, and a brutal murderer at that, it was impossible at that moment not to feel for him a pang of pity. He had been caught on the threshold of freedom. Only twelve hours more and he would have been safely at Quebec.
Macnaghten spoke of the confrontation between Dew and Crippen as being on a par with that of Henry Morton Stanley and Dr David Livingstone, some forty years previously in Africa.2 Livingstone had embarked on an African expedition in 1866 and was not heard of for years. The editor of the New York Herald dispatched journalist Stanley to find out what had happened to Livingstone. Stanley set out in 1871 and eventually tracked down Livingstone eight months later, greeting him with the immortal question, ‘Dr. Livingstone I presume?’
Dew was joined by Chief Inspector McCarthy, who cautioned the now speechless Crippen. Inspector Dennis then searched Crippen and found several items from Cora Crippen’s jewellery collection. There were also two printed cards bearing the name ‘E. Robinson & Co., Detroit, Mich. Presented by Mr John Robinson.’ On the back of one was written, ‘I cannot stand the horror I go through every night any longer and as I see nothing bright ahead and money has come to an end I have made up my mind to jump overboard tonight – I know I have spoil [sic] your life – but I – I hope some day you can learn to forgive me. With last words of love, your H.’ On the back of the other card was written, ‘Shall we wait until tonight about 10 or 11 o’clock? If not, what time?’
Dew thought the writing was that of Dr Crippen, and believed that they showed he would have committed suicide before the Montrose reached Quebec. Dew found Crippen’s explanation of the cards unsatisfactory:
He stated that two days before his arrival at Quebec, the Quartermaster of the ‘Montrose’, approached and showed him an unsigned letter, in which it said that the Police were going to arrest him on his arrival at Quebec, and he (the Quartermaster) offered to hide him amongst the cargo till all was quiet, and then at Montreal would facilitate his escape. Crippen alleged that it was arranged that Miss Le Neve should remain on board, as it was not supposed that Police wanted her, and that the cards found on him when arrested, in which he had written, that the horror was too much and that he intended jumping overboard etc, were written by him as part of the plot, and would have been produced by Miss Le Neve, when Police came on board.
He further said that the Quartermaster was going to make a splash in the water at night, and then tell the Captain that he (Crippen) had jumped overboard.
Dew left Crippen with McCarthy and entered cabin no. 5, where he saw Ethel Le Neve reclining o
n a settee. Her appearance had also altered since Dew had last seen her. Dew said to her with his ‘characteristic lisp’,3 ‘Miss Le Neve’, to which she replied, ‘Yes’. Dew identified himself and told her the charge she was facing. Le Neve did not reply, but became agitated and faint. Dew left Le Neve with a stewardess and then returned to the captain’s cabin to remove Crippen to another cabin. Crippen suddenly said, ‘I am not sorry; the anxiety has been too much.’ McCarthy handcuffed Crippen, explaining, ‘We must put these on, because on a card found on you you have written that you intend jumping over-board.’ Crippen replied, ‘I won’t. I am more than satisfied, because the anxiety has been too awful.’
Dew made a further search of Crippen and found even more jewellery concealed about his person. Crippen asked Dew how Le Neve was. ‘Agitated,’ Dew replied, ‘but I am doing all I can for her.’ Crippen replied, ‘It is only fair to say that she knows nothing about it; I never told her anything.’ Le Neve said as much herself. She had not seen any newspapers on the voyage thanks to the efforts of Captain Kendall and Chief Officer Sergent. ‘I assure you Mr Dew,’ she said, ‘I know nothing about it, I intended writing to my sister when I got to Quebec.’
As soon as he could Dew sent a telegram to Scotland Yard. ‘Crippen and Leneve [sic] arrested wire later Dew.’ The following day he sent another, ‘Confirming former cable arrest made, arrive Quebec midnight Sunday. Suggest matron and Mitchell, Crippen threatened suicide, writing soon. Dew.’
The arrest of Crippen was the first instance of a murderer being captured largely thanks to wireless telegraphy, but in 1845 John Tawell had become the first murderer to be caught by a normal telegraph. He was observed getting onto a train at Slough after murdering his mistress. A telegraph was sent to Paddington station, and the police were waiting for him when he arrived.
Walter Dew: The Man Who Caught Crippen Page 12
