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Hi there. It's Kamal

0:35

Nagyani. I am starring in the new Hulu

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original series. Welcome to chip and deal.

0:39

This limited series is about immigrant

0:42

named Steve Bannerji chasing the American

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dream who unfortunately got in his

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own way and burned it all down to the ground.

0:48

There's also lots of dancing sex and murder.

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So you definitely don't wanna miss this. Welcome

0:52

to chip and dales. New episodes, Tuesdays,

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only on Hulu.

1:05

In

1:05

July of nineteen ten, Scotland

1:07

Yard asked the public for help

1:10

finding two people, a

1:11

man and a woman traveling together.

1:14

The man was described as, quote, An

1:17

American doctor, aged fifty,

1:19

height, five feet, three inches, long

1:22

sandy mustache, false teeth,

1:25

Thows his feet out when walking, shows

1:28

his teeth much when talking.

1:31

The woman was described

1:33

as good looking, medium

1:35

build, pleasant appearance, quiet

1:38

subdued manner, looks intently,

1:40

when in conversation.

1:42

People reported seeing

1:45

the wanted couple all over Europe.

1:48

Someone said they'd seen the man wearing a

1:51

straw hat in the south of France.

1:53

Men and women

1:55

were mistakenly arrested in Wales.

1:58

and in Chicago.

2:00

Five months earlier, a woman had

2:03

gone missing. She

2:05

was a singer performing under

2:06

the name Belle Elmore. And

2:09

was very active in a group called

2:11

The Music Hall Ladies Gil

2:13

in London.

2:15

She was the group's treasure.

2:18

Her friends in the ladies guild had received

2:20

a strange letter dated February

2:23

nineteen ten. It

2:25

read,

2:26

dear friends, please forgive

2:29

me a hasty letter and any inconvenience

2:31

I may cause you. But

2:34

I have just had news of the illness

2:36

of a near relative.

2:36

is and

2:38

it only a few hours

2:39

notice. I'm

2:41

obliged to go to America.

2:44

Except this is a formal letter.

2:46

resigning from the music hall ladies

2:48

killed. I

2:50

hope some months later to be with you again,

2:53

and

2:53

asked my good friends and pals to

2:55

accept my sincere and loving

2:58

wishes for their own personal

3:00

welfare. Believe

3:01

me, yours faithfully

3:03

Belle Elmore.

3:05

They find it really peculiar that

3:08

that she would just go off without telling them.

3:10

But, you know, they had no reason

3:13

to that at first to disbelieve the

3:16

the story. But then as the story

3:18

starts to shift, then they become

3:20

suspicious. One

3:21

of the women asked Bell's husband,

3:24

Holly

3:24

Harvey Crippen, for an address

3:27

where they could write to her in America. And

3:30

he told them that she was somewhere in

3:32

the hills of California. He

3:34

said they could give their letters to him, and

3:36

he would forward them along to her.

3:40

Several weeks later at the annual music

3:42

hall, ladies guild fundraising ball,

3:45

the women were started to see Bell's husband

3:47

show up.

3:48

with a date,

3:50

his secretary.

3:51

Her name was Etheline Eve.

3:54

And Ethel is wearing this beautiful

3:56

dress

3:56

and on the dress is a

3:58

broach. And

4:01

all bells friends are there. They're

4:03

at the same table,

4:05

with their foreman gripping, and they immediately

4:07

recognize that the broaches bells and

4:09

they're thinking, what's going on here?

4:12

What's he doing at the ball with the secretary?

4:15

and

4:15

what issued during wearing Bill's broach.

4:19

I'm Phoebe Judge. This is

4:21

criminal.

4:30

What does Crippin' Tell

4:32

Belle's friends

4:33

when they start getting concerned about

4:36

about what's happened to Bell. He

4:38

starts telling different stories. So

4:41

almost almost from

4:43

the off. He he initially says that

4:46

she's gone away because so a close

4:48

relative is very ill. and

4:50

then he starts telling people that

4:54

she's gone to help

4:56

sort out the estate of his

4:58

own

4:58

mother who's died, but his own

5:00

mother died quite a long time ago.

5:03

So that does really

5:04

explain the

5:06

urgency. We're

5:07

hearing this story from journalist and author,

5:09

David James Smith.

5:12

And then he starts telling people

5:14

that Belle has become ill.

5:16

He's heard from that that she's become ill

5:18

while she's

5:18

in the states. And

5:21

then he said she's got pneumonia.

5:23

and then he

5:26

tells people that, in fact, she's

5:28

died. When

5:30

Belle's friends

5:30

asked how she died, He

5:33

told

5:33

them that she'd gotten sick on her way to the United

5:35

States and died in Los Angeles. When

5:39

they asked where in the US to send a letter of

5:41

sympathy, Holly Crippen

5:43

said that wasn't necessary. Someone

5:46

asked about ordering a wreath for her

5:48

grave and

5:49

he said there would be

5:50

no grave that Bell had been cremated.

5:54

And

5:54

then her friends started asking more

5:56

questions. They

5:58

asked for the name of the ship

5:59

she traveled on to get to the

6:02

United States in the first place.

6:04

He gave them a name, and they

6:06

contacted the US embassy. They

6:09

studied the passenger list looking for

6:11

their friend's name, but

6:13

didn't find it. Then

6:16

they got help searching the passenger lists

6:18

for other ships, and she wasn't on

6:20

those either. you

6:21

know, it's like this kind of network of people

6:23

and they're all they're

6:25

all thinking the same thing that something

6:27

isn't right.

6:30

Belle Elmore and Holly Crippen had been

6:33

married for nearly twenty years. They

6:35

met New York, Now she came from

6:37

quite a humble background. She

6:39

her father was Polish. Her

6:41

real name was Kunigunde Makamoski.

6:46

and she was going by

6:48

the name then of corps returner.

6:50

But later, we come to know of her as

6:52

Belle Elmore, which was the state name

6:54

she took in London. So it

6:56

wasn't long after she

6:58

and Crippen started going about together

7:01

as people would say that then

7:03

that Gripen Marietta in

7:05

September eighteen ninety two.

7:08

He worked as a homeopathic doctor

7:11

as one journalist later described it.

7:14

He

7:14

worked in that, quote,

7:16

large industry that lies on the borderland

7:19

between genuine healing and

7:21

the commercial exploitation of

7:23

the modern human passion for swallowing

7:25

medicine. He

7:27

traveled all the time for work.

7:29

He was on the East Coast. He was

7:31

on the West Coast. He was Philadelphia.

7:34

He was in New York. He

7:37

was in Los Angeles. And

7:41

he

7:41

seems to have been applying

7:43

his trade in the whole different

7:46

set of organizations, but

7:48

he formed a particular association with

7:50

a company called Munyan's

7:53

homeopathic remedy company.

7:56

And it was that company that sent

7:58

him to London

7:59

to set up

8:02

a London office. He

8:03

and Belle moved from the United States

8:06

to London where Belle made a lot of

8:08

friends, especially in the music

8:10

hall scene.

8:11

She was said to be outgoing with

8:13

interest in clothes, Two of

8:15

the bedrooms in their home were reportedly

8:18

dedicated

8:18

dressing rooms where she stored

8:20

her dresses, furs, and halves.

8:23

She

8:23

seemed to have a very vivacious and

8:25

extravagant

8:25

personality.

8:28

A woman the writer who met her in

8:30

London, a woman called Adelene Harrison, described

8:32

her in this fantastic way. She said

8:34

she was a brilliant chattering bird

8:37

of gorgeous plumage. She

8:39

was AAAA big

8:41

personality. Holly

8:42

Crippen was said to be very supportive of

8:44

her career. He paid for her

8:47

singing lessons and

8:48

was listed as her manager on

8:50

her play bills.

8:51

We do know that people

8:54

who knew them, thought of them as

8:56

being very happy and content together.

8:58

And I think

9:00

probably if you if you saw them together,

9:03

this man's quite a

9:05

quiet sort of

9:07

small character. you might have thought

9:09

that he is with kind of a lucky

9:11

man, you know, to have found

9:13

himself such a fascinating

9:15

wife.

9:17

About eight years into their marriage,

9:20

he traveled to Philadelphia for work.

9:22

Bell stayed home. One

9:24

night, she was invited to

9:26

a dinner party. And

9:27

their table is

9:30

this chap who comes

9:32

from Chicago. and

9:34

his name is Bruce Miller. And he

9:36

also is a music hall performer. And

9:38

he's traveled over from Chicago to

9:41

London on his way the

9:43

nineteen hundred Paris Exposition

9:45

where he's going to perform. He is

9:47

a one man band performer. And

9:50

I don't know if listeners

9:52

will be familiar with what that might look like,

9:54

but it might be

9:56

that he had perhaps AAA

9:58

drum on his back. And

9:59

when he, you know, moved his arms,

10:02

the the drum will clatter, and he

10:04

would have perhaps a mouth organ.

10:06

And anyway, so it appears that

10:09

Bell and this

10:11

chap Bruce Miller started seeing

10:13

each other while creeping

10:15

overseas away. He

10:17

wrote her

10:18

letter signed love and kisses

10:20

to brown eyes. And

10:22

later said, they kept track of

10:24

meaningful dates by collecting champagne

10:27

corks. In

10:30

nineteen o one, they

10:32

exchanged photographs

10:32

of each other. Belle

10:35

reportedly kept her photo of Bruce on

10:37

the piano. Then

10:39

in nineteen o four, Bruce

10:41

Miller left London and returned to the

10:44

United States.

10:46

And it was around

10:47

that time that Holly

10:49

Crippen reportedly began having an

10:51

affair of his own with his

10:53

secretary, ethylene Eve.

10:56

they

10:56

used to go for

10:57

supper at this restaurant

10:59

in the the May London's main shopping

11:01

street, it's called Oxford Street. and tucked

11:03

away there is this restaurant, an Italian

11:04

restaurant called fresh sculptures at

11:07

the time. And apparently, they used to go

11:09

there for evening and listen to the live

11:11

music and obviously sitting in the

11:13

corner gazing at each other, and

11:15

they must have been falling

11:17

in love. I think that's quite clear. They

11:19

kept seeing each other. for

11:22

years.

11:22

In January of

11:25

nineteen ten, Ethel

11:27

has a party and tells her friends at

11:29

the party that she's become engaged Krippin and

11:31

Belle are

11:31

married, but she tells people that she's

11:34

become engaged to Krippin.

11:35

And and and more than one person gives

11:38

evidence to that effect. It's really

11:40

strange when she has a ring, she's wearing

11:42

it. That

11:43

was at Ethel's birthday party, her twenty

11:46

seventh. And about

11:47

two weeks later

11:48

on January thirty first, Holly

11:51

Crippen hosted a dinner with Bell

11:53

for some friends from the music hall ladies

11:55

guild. A couple named

11:57

Clara and Paul. Coconut

11:59

Bell by this

11:59

time has set up home in North

12:03

London at a place called hill drop

12:05

question number thirty nine. It's kind

12:07

of quite a big house. They're renting it,

12:09

but it's quite a grand place. It's

12:11

on four floors. and

12:14

Cribbons provided that they turn

12:16

up, they have a three course meal,

12:18

they have some soup, they have a roast beef, and

12:21

then some desserts.

12:23

They've had a few drinks and then

12:25

they play around or two of WIST

12:27

and then Paul, the

12:29

guests, he starts to feel

12:31

ill. So Crippin goes outside to

12:33

find a tax obviously couldn't call taxes

12:35

in those days. They're all horse drawn, and

12:37

it's now about half one in the morning,

12:40

and krip in

12:42

the hand. Belle stand on the doorstep

12:44

waving Paul and Clara Goodbye. And

12:46

that is the last time that anyone ever

12:49

sees Belle alive. We'll

12:55

be right back.

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15:09

When

15:12

Bell Almirs friends realized she

15:14

was missing, and weren't sure they believed the

15:16

explanations her husband was offering,

15:19

they went to

15:19

Scotland Yard. Initially,

15:22

the police didn't investigate.

15:25

According to David James Smith,

15:27

Bell's friends had to make a few visits to

15:29

Scotland Yard, and even hire a

15:31

private investigator before they

15:33

got the police to help. So

15:36

inspector Dew of Scotland

15:38

Yard

15:39

is assigned the case.

15:42

inspector do waited eight days

15:44

before visiting the Crippen's house.

15:47

When he did go to the house, at ten

15:49

AM on July eighth, Etheline

15:50

Eve came to the door. They

15:53

inspected you and his sergeant can

15:55

see that she's, you know, quite

15:57

discombobulated by their appearance.

16:01

And we've inspected

16:03

you, recognizes her. He's been told about

16:05

her by the ladies guild and about her

16:07

suspicions of her who knows who she

16:09

is, and she

16:12

explains the Caribbean fact is at work. So they

16:14

all get on the bus. I mean, this is, you

16:16

know, nineteen ten. So

16:18

the police aren't going around in cars with

16:20

lights flashing. They go

16:22

on the bus with Ethel down to

16:24

the center of London. and

16:27

they go to see crept in who

16:29

inspected you, finds very calm,

16:31

very reassuring, and

16:34

he says, you know, kind of looking at a man

16:36

to man. My wife has

16:38

left me. She's I think she's gone

16:40

off

16:40

with this one man band performer

16:42

from Chicago, Bruce Miller, who I think

16:45

she was having an affair with him. I was so

16:47

embarrassed that I didn't want to say

16:49

at that. So I gave this

16:51

cover story. And of course, to respect

16:53

to you, that sounds very plausible.

16:55

So is

16:56

taking equipment statement and it gets to lunchtime.

16:59

And so they will stop and go for

17:01

lunch and they go back to the office and

17:03

continue taking the statement. and

17:05

then Crippen, and it

17:07

all go up with the police back

17:09

up to thirty nine Hilltop Prison.

17:11

The police have a very cursory look

17:13

around, nothing suspicious, nothing

17:15

to see here and they go

17:17

away. inspector

17:18

Du decided to go back to the house

17:20

a few days later, to ask

17:22

some more questions. But by

17:24

then, ethylene

17:26

Eve and Holly Crippen were

17:28

gone. So

17:31

clearly, that was suspicious and that

17:33

then, you know, raised the alarm

17:35

and that's what made them start searching

17:38

the house. They

17:39

poke around a bit at some of the flooring,

17:41

but they

17:41

don't find anything. On the second day, they

17:43

go back and they get a poker,

17:46

and they're down in the there's a kind

17:48

of coal seller under these. So you have

17:50

its house with steps leading up to the front

17:52

door and underneath

17:54

the steps is part of the house

17:56

is this cold seller. So

17:59

they're poking around in the

18:02

call center with this

18:04

poker

18:04

and some of the tiles are

18:07

loose. so they they they they lift them up

18:09

and this terrible

18:12

smell comes flooding

18:13

out from underneath. As

18:17

inspector do put it,

18:19

after digging down to a depth of about

18:21

four spade falls, I came

18:23

across what appeared to be human

18:25

remains. And they're kind of mixed

18:27

in with some fragments of

18:30

clothing. In fact,

18:31

the pieces of the pajama top

18:34

I think maybe a white vest as

18:36

well and some tufts of

18:38

hair in Haines

18:40

hair curlers. Much of the

18:42

body

18:42

was missing, and the remains they

18:44

found were badly

18:45

decomposed. One of the assistant commissioners,

18:47

one of the senior officers at Scotland

18:49

yard comes up with and

18:51

cigars for the officers to smoke,

18:54

to disguise the terrible smell that

18:56

they're always suffering. And then somebody said it's

18:58

one of the constables out to

19:00

a local shop to buy some bleach. So he comes

19:02

back with this kind of bleach and

19:04

they slush it around, you know, any modern police

19:07

will throw up their arms in horror

19:09

at this conduct. But things were different

19:11

then. So so now they've got these

19:13

remains and they don't

19:15

know who they are, but obviously they

19:17

strongly suspect that their bell

19:19

And so now the question

19:21

is, where is Crippin and where

19:23

is Eve?

19:27

This is now a major,

19:30

major news

19:30

story. So the press

19:32

were absolutely in full flights at

19:35

this time. So

19:36

news They were very popular. They were very, very widely

19:38

read. They were making a lot of money. They

19:40

had lots of reporters.

19:42

And, you know, they cover this story

19:46

hugely, you know, it's a kind of

19:48

front page story. Many

19:51

newspapers

19:51

published in Spector Dew's descriptions

19:53

of ethylene Eve, and

19:55

Holly Crippen. And David James

19:58

Smith says, the more people read about

19:59

the details of the investigation. the

20:03

more

20:03

critical they became of Scotland

20:05

Yard. People start to realize that the police

20:07

have kind of messed up that they, you know,

20:09

they had the the suspects there

20:11

you know, went for lunch with them and

20:14

and and somehow let them go. And

20:16

I I think that even in parliament,

20:18

the MPs were complaining

20:20

about inspector dues conduct.

20:23

So do you really, you know, feels

20:25

the pressure now he to to compensate

20:27

to make up for what he's done?

20:29

In Spectre

20:30

two did everything he could

20:32

define them. Police

20:33

were searching every ship departing

20:35

from England and France. because

20:37

by now the, you know, the hallelu, the human cry has gone

20:39

up, you know, where it's cooking,

20:42

where it's at all the need and the

20:44

police are looking everywhere and they're letting all the boats know.

20:46

So they they they the officers

20:48

have gone on board and circulated

20:51

this kind of wanted poster that

20:53

they've made. And then

20:55

on July twenty second,

20:57

inspector Dew received a telegram from

20:59

the captain of a ship the

21:02

SS Montrose that was in the

21:04

middle of the ocean on its way to

21:06

Quebec. The

21:07

captain's name was Henry Kendall.

21:10

So he's aware of this couple. And he sees

21:12

on his boat, his apparent father and son

21:14

walking across the deck, and he's he

21:16

notices the sun squeeze

21:19

the hand at the farther. And he thinks,

21:21

well, that's a bit strange.

21:24

So he starts paying attention to

21:26

them. Captain

21:27

Kendall learned that the father and son were registered

21:30

under the names John Fylo

21:32

Robinson and John George

21:33

Robinson. He does all sorts

21:36

of things. He engages them in compensation. I think

21:38

he tries to, you know, catch them out

21:40

saying something clever. But

21:42

I think that maybe Chat

21:44

mentions that he works in medicine, which will obviously, you

21:47

know, confirms to

21:49

Kendall that, you know, he's probably on the

21:51

right track He looks at their picture

21:53

in the newspaper, and he sort of draws

21:55

a

21:55

moustache to see if

21:57

it's the same people and

21:59

I think they cut her

22:02

hair and they have to stuff some

22:04

tissue in the hat to make it fit her and

22:06

they have to, you know, pin up

22:08

the the trousers and

22:11

everything looks pretty pretty pretty, but he

22:13

he just becomes convinced that he is

22:15

them.

22:16

Captain Kendall's message to inspect or

22:18

do said, quote, have

22:21

strong suspicion that Crippen London's

22:23

seller murderer and accomplice

22:25

are amongst passenger

22:27

Moustache shaved off growing beard,

22:30

accomplice, dressed as a boy,

22:32

voice, manner, and build,

22:35

undoubtedly a

22:36

girl. At the

22:38

time, wireless telegrams

22:41

were sometimes called Marconirams.

22:43

named after the Italian inventor

22:45

Guillermo Marconi.

22:47

As the Marconi

22:49

wireless telegraph company described

22:52

it, Each ship has a

22:53

little cabin. We're in two young

22:55

men take turns waiting and

22:57

watching for any word that may come rushing

23:00

to them. from unseen sources

23:02

beyond the horizon.

23:04

It was still

23:06

a relatively new technology when

23:09

Captain Kendall send us telegram to

23:11

inspector Du.

23:12

Inspector Du is convinced

23:14

that that this is reliable

23:17

information. but they're halfway to – the ship's

23:19

heading for Quebec, so they're halfway to

23:21

Canada by now. So what's he going to

23:23

do? So he looks at the timetable

23:25

for for

23:27

other departures and he discovers that there's a

23:29

ship about to leave Liverpool

23:32

called the Loretic and that is

23:34

going to travel faster

23:36

and he will actually reach Quebec

23:38

just ahead of the Montrose.

23:41

So he gets on that

23:43

ship and sets off double

23:46

speed to overtake

23:48

and apprehend the

23:51

suspects. inspector

23:52

do boarded the Larenic on

23:54

July twenty third. The

23:57

earlier arrival time would allow him a

23:59

day

23:59

to prepare before Holly Crippen

24:02

and ethylene arrived disguised

24:04

as father and

24:06

son. He sent

24:07

a message to captain Kendall asking

24:10

the captain not to

24:11

tell anyone about the plan.

24:13

Captain Kendall replied, what the

24:16

devil do you think I've been doing? inspector

24:19

do try to keep his trip a secret,

24:21

booking his travel under a fake

24:24

name, but the press found out and

24:26

reporters book their own trips

24:28

to chase after him. You know,

24:29

so they're booking places on the

24:32

same boat as him and they're all,

24:34

you know, making their way

24:36

to Canada too.

24:39

Holly Crippen and

24:41

Eve along with the rest of the passengers

24:43

of the SS

24:44

Montrose, had no idea that

24:47

newspapers around the world

24:48

were writing about them. describing Inspector

24:50

Dew's investigation and his

24:52

plans to intercept the ship.

24:54

Inspector

24:56

Dew did make it to Canada And

24:58

as the SS Montrose approached the port, he got in

25:00

a small boat disguised as a

25:03

captain and boarded the

25:05

ship. He goes into captain

25:07

Kendall's cabin and then

25:09

Captain Kendall calls

25:12

Crippen to his cabin. And

25:16

Cripping comes into the room and is expected to use there,

25:18

and he says, good morning, doctor Cripping.

25:21

So obviously, Cripping immediately realized

25:23

that the game's up.

25:26

And so he says,

25:28

you know, something like, I'm

25:30

not sorry

25:32

about this as the anxiety has been too

25:34

much.

25:36

We'll

25:39

be right back.

25:45

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26:47

In

26:49

Spector Dew arrested Holly Crippen. Then

26:52

he went downstairs to arrest

26:54

ethylene Eve. He

26:56

opened the

26:56

cabin door to find her wearing her young

26:59

man's disguise and reading a

27:01

novel. He later said

27:02

that when he told her why he was there,

27:05

she fainted.

27:06

The police found jewelry

27:09

sewn

27:09

into Holly Crippen's clothes,

27:11

including two of Bell's

27:14

broaches. On August

27:16

first,

27:16

the Manchester evening news reported

27:18

the, quote, end

27:20

of the

27:20

great ocean chase.

27:23

Holly Crippen was charged with willful

27:26

murder, and ethylene Eve,

27:28

with being an accessory after the

27:30

fact.

27:31

While the couple stood side by side in

27:34

court at their first public hearing in

27:36

London, a photographer secretly

27:38

took a picture of them with a camera

27:40

hidden inside of his hat. Holly

27:43

Crippen's trial began a month later.

27:45

It's only

27:46

Crippen on trial at this stage, so

27:49

criben and ethanol. Initially,

27:51

do stand trial together, then

27:53

your authorities start to worry that that

27:55

there might be sympathy from the jury for ethical. If

27:57

they're simply for her, then they might transfer itself

27:59

to

27:59

crypto. They might not be able to get

28:02

a conviction. they're obviously not that confident

28:04

of their case, so they decide to

28:06

separate out the trials and that all

28:08

is tried later. and

28:10

Crippen's trial, it doesn't last very long by

28:12

modern standards. Modern trials can go on for weeks,

28:14

but this one lasts for six

28:17

days. The trial was quite an

28:20

extraordinary spectacle. I mean, again, because

28:22

of the public interest that it aroused. So

28:24

on the first day of the trial,

28:27

know, the old Bailey where it was held is,

28:29

you know, is probably the most famous court

28:31

in the world perhaps. But

28:33

then it quite new. It's only

28:35

opened, I think, in nineteen o seven. This is

28:37

nineteen ten. And

28:39

old fashioned, in fact, the street

28:41

outside the court, and the street is

28:44

absolutely there in photographs and they show that the

28:46

street is teeming with people. People

28:48

come to attend the first day of

28:50

this trial. In fact, so much so

28:52

great is the public interest that they

28:54

the authorities have issued tickets, so they've

28:56

issued red

28:57

tickets for the morning

29:00

session

29:00

and the blue tickets for the

29:02

afternoon

29:02

session. So it's a huge

29:04

event in the public consciousness of

29:07

the time with great in-depth

29:10

reporting. Holly

29:11

Crippen's defense attorney asked the jury

29:13

not to be influenced by what they

29:15

read in the newspapers. He

29:17

told the jury that Crippen's friends and

29:20

coworkers believed that he couldn't have

29:22

killed his wife. They

29:24

described him as kind hearted, amiable, and

29:26

could tempered. The defense

29:29

also suggested that whatever human remains

29:31

had been found in the cellar

29:34

could have been there before the Cribbons even moved in.

29:37

When holy Cribbon

29:39

testified, he said that when his wife

29:41

went missing, he thought that she just up

29:43

and left him. When

29:45

the prosecutor asked, where did

29:47

you think your wife had gone?

29:50

Crippen

29:50

said, She

29:52

was always talking about Bruce Miller,

29:54

and I

29:54

suppose she'd gone to America. Bruce

29:58

Miller, the one man band from

30:00

Chicago, was brought from the United

30:02

States to testify. You know, he's

30:04

kind

30:04

of must have been quite uncomfortable for him in court

30:06

because he's questioned about his relationship

30:09

with Dell but he denies that anything sexual ever

30:11

occurred between them and, obviously,

30:14

he's allowed to go home. But the important thing is

30:16

that his evidence testifies

30:18

to the fact that that bell isn't still alive and

30:20

and gone off to Chicago to speak with

30:22

him as Caribbean had claimed. Inspector

30:26

Dew also testified told

30:29

the jury that he'd been asked by Bell's friends

30:31

to investigate. He described

30:33

the process of finding the remains

30:35

and the seller. A series of

30:37

experts testified about examining those

30:40

remains. One expert

30:42

testified that he'd found traces of a

30:44

poison

30:44

called Hyacene. He described it

30:47

as

30:47

a powerful narcotic that could cause

30:49

death in less than twelve hours.

30:53

A local

30:53

chemist testified that Crippen had ordered

30:56

Hyosene a few weeks before his wife

30:58

disappeared.

30:58

He said that

30:59

Crippen often bought drugs

31:01

from him. including cocaine and

31:04

mercury. Crippen testified

31:06

that Hyacene was not uncommon

31:08

in homeopathic treatments in

31:10

the United States.

31:11

The prosecution

31:14

spent a lot of time trying to prove

31:16

that the remains in the cellar

31:18

were actually the remains of

31:21

Bellemour. Three experts, including

31:23

a pathologist named Bernard Spillsbury

31:26

testified that they had

31:27

identified a scar consistent

31:30

with an operation that ballot had years

31:33

ago. An expert for the defense

31:35

argued that what they were presenting

31:37

was not a scar at all. The

31:40

prosecution introduced another piece of

31:42

evidence, the fragments of

31:44

pajamas that have been found with the

31:46

remains. the pajamas

31:47

have a particular label,

31:49

and it's there from this department store

31:51

called Jones Brothers on the Holloway Road.

31:53

in North London, not far

31:56

from Crippen's home. And it's a shot

31:58

that both Crippen and Bell used

31:59

to shop at. And the

32:03

material that the pyjamas

32:05

are made from had only

32:07

become available in the shop in nineteen

32:10

o eight. and there is

32:12

the receipt evidence of belt

32:14

having bought pajamas there in

32:16

nineteen o nine. So that pretty much shows

32:18

up that bit of the evidence. It wasn't

32:20

it. The remains weren't there when they

32:22

moved into the home or anything like that. They

32:24

were clearly put there very recently.

32:27

And finally, of course, you had evidence of these high end

32:29

curves, which people testify, Belle

32:31

used to use, and the

32:33

hair shows signs of bleaching. We know that

32:35

Belle used to bleaching her hair.

32:37

So all in all,

32:38

the cases, you know, it there

32:40

there isn't a complete body, but

32:42

the evidence is kind of overwhelming that

32:44

the crippen is responsible.

32:47

The jury deliberated

32:49

for twenty seven minutes.

32:52

And on October twenty second,

32:54

Holy Crippen was found

32:56

guilty of willful murder.

32:58

He was sentenced to

33:00

death by

33:01

hanging. Ethelineef's

33:04

trial started a few days after Crippens

33:07

ended. In her defense,

33:09

Ethelineef's lawyer said,

33:10

the supreme misfortune to have

33:13

come across one of the most dangerous

33:15

and remarkable men who have

33:17

lived in the center A man to

33:19

whom

33:19

in the whole history of the psychology

33:21

of crime, a high place,

33:23

must be given as a compelling and

33:26

masterful personality. and

33:28

he defended her as if she was

33:30

some, you know, dickensian

33:32

heroin, you know, corrupting

33:34

and mistreated by a evil doctor.

33:37

In their case

33:38

against her, prosecutors introduced

33:41

Ethelineves former landlady. The

33:44

landlady wasn't sure about exact

33:46

dates. but she testified that

33:48

in late January or early

33:50

February of nineteen ten around

33:52

the same time of Bell Almirall's disappearance

33:54

Etheline Eve

33:56

had come home one night extremely

33:59

upset. The landlady

34:00

said, her whole body was

34:03

trembling. I saw that she was

34:05

in a terrible state and asked her to tell me what was

34:07

the matter. She did

34:10

not

34:10

speak. The landlady

34:12

testified

34:12

that in the morning, ethyl

34:14

Leneve was crying and talking

34:16

about Belmoore. She said,

34:18

he said I see go away

34:20

together, it makes me realize my position,

34:22

what she

34:23

is and what

34:26

I am. one paper

34:28

presented

34:28

it. The question before

34:30

the jury was, did Eve

34:32

know when she assisted Crippen's flight

34:34

that he had murdered his wife?

34:37

The jury deliberated

34:39

for eighteen minutes and

34:41

came

34:41

back with a not

34:44

guilty verdict. I found

34:45

that really fascinating because it was quite clear that

34:47

if they'd chosen to the the

34:49

crown

34:49

could have put forward

34:52

a case that would have

34:54

made her look very

34:56

guilty. Winston

34:57

Churchill, who was then

34:59

the home secretary, gave her permission to

35:01

visit Crippen in prison She had

35:03

a miniature locket made to hold a

35:05

photo with him. He appealed his conviction,

35:07

and on November

35:10

fifth, nineteen ten,

35:12

a panel of three judges rejected

35:15

his appeal. His lawyer

35:17

sought a royal pardon circulating a petition

35:19

for people to sign based on the

35:21

argument that there was no

35:22

way to know the identity of

35:24

the remains in the cellar. but

35:28

it didn't work. A

35:31

farewell message signed by Crippen was

35:33

published in a newspaper on November

35:35

twentieth, nineteen ten. It

35:38

read, I desire

35:40

to make a last appeal to the world,

35:42

not to think the worst of

35:44

me. I

35:45

beg them to remember that I have

35:47

been condemned on inconclusive evidence. I

35:49

still maintain that I

35:51

was wrongly convicted. and

35:55

my belief that facts will

35:56

yet be forthcoming to prove my innocence.

35:59

Three days later,

36:01

he was hanged.

36:11

Hello? Hello. This is

36:14

Phoebe calling. Phoebe

36:16

Judge. Phoebe Judge. How are you?

36:19

I'm

36:19

fine. This is

36:21

forensic and clinical toxicologist,

36:23

John Trustrail.

36:25

Do you remember when you first

36:27

heard the name Crippen.

36:29

Oh, boy. Crippen, I've

36:31

been studying this case

36:33

for forty years. so

36:35

a long time ago.

36:38

And the reason that

36:40

I was interested in it was

36:42

because this is the second most famous

36:44

murder case in England after Jack the Ripper. Around

36:47

two thousand

36:48

eight, John Trustrail learned

36:51

that some of the forensic evidence from Holly

36:53

Crippen's trial was saved on

36:56

slides in the Royal London

36:57

hospital archives. and

36:59

we contacted them and said would

37:02

you be willing to loan us

37:04

one of the slides

37:06

from the grave And

37:08

this slide would have been used as evidence

37:10

in Crippen's trial in

37:13

nineteen ten. And They

37:18

did. He wondered

37:19

if anyone had applied DNA

37:21

analysis to those slides

37:23

and started investigating whether it would be

37:26

possible to test them now and

37:28

compare them to genetic

37:30

material from a relative of

37:32

Bell Almor. What

37:33

if we could find a descent

37:35

in coming down that line that was

37:37

carrying the mitochondrial

37:40

DNA? then we could compare the exemplars

37:42

as it would be known

37:44

with the remains that

37:48

were discovered in the coal sour

37:50

at Hilderop Crescent in London from the crime.

37:52

He partnered with a genealogist

37:54

and a forensic scientist.

37:58

They identified

37:58

three

37:59

relatives. And it was

38:01

a shock to me that it

38:04

was not

38:06

a match. In their

38:07

two thousand ten report published in the Journal

38:09

of Forensic Sciences, John Trustrail

38:11

and his colleagues

38:14

wrote, quote, Based on

38:16

the geological and molecular

38:18

data presented here, the

38:20

remains obtained from the Gripen

38:22

Letter in nineteen ten were

38:25

not those of doctor Crippen's

38:28

wife.

38:28

So in other words, the

38:30

evidence used to convict Holly Crippen

38:33

in that trial which led to his execution

38:35

by Haines was

38:38

invalid. So what does

38:40

that mean? What it means is that the

38:42

cabin is no longer

38:44

proven guilty. Now

38:46

he may be killed. He may have

38:49

killed his wife and she's somewhere else, but the

38:52

evidence that remains found

38:54

in that grave were not

38:58

her They also did another DNA

38:59

test on the sample

39:01

to determine the sex of the

39:03

person it came from.

39:06

and

39:06

it turned out that

39:08

the tissue in that slide is male.

39:14

what

39:14

about people who say that

39:16

the samples, you know, have to be

39:20

contaminated? or,

39:22

you know, the police potentially brought

39:24

bleach to the seller. You know, why

39:27

would we think that a hundred

39:30

years later we'd be able

39:32

to actually get real

39:33

conclusive data from

39:36

from something

39:38

like this. Well, I

39:40

can tell you that they've extracted DNA

39:42

from mammoths and from Neanderthals,

39:44

so millions of years can

39:46

go by and the DNA still exists.

39:49

The forensic scientist who

39:51

he worked with told the

39:53

BBC, quote, if I

39:55

had any doubt whatsoever. I would never have come out

39:57

with it. And so far the

39:59

British refused to accept the

40:02

results. They say either

40:04

number one it's

40:06

invalid, which we've proved

40:08

it is not invalid. You

40:10

are they also say, well, this

40:12

is the case is a hundred years

40:15

old. Who cares. And I said, I'll tell you who

40:17

cares. Those people who carry to

40:19

name Crippen. They've been living with

40:21

this cloud over their head for

40:23

a hundred years. Justice

40:26

does not have a time limit

40:28

if you can no longer prove

40:30

that Holly Crippen murdered his wife

40:32

because those are her remains. You have to deal

40:36

with that.

40:38

One genealogist responding

40:39

to the

40:42

findings has said

40:43

that the genealogical work done to relatives of Bell Almor

40:45

and test their DNA

40:48

is problematic. Belle

40:51

didn't have a birth certificate. She went by

40:53

a lot of names. David James

40:56

Smith believes that

40:58

whatever male DNA was found on the slide most likely

41:01

belonged to the pathologist who

41:03

studied the sample and

41:05

testified about it in court in nineteen

41:08

ten. Because in those days,

41:09

people didn't bother wearing gloves or,

41:11

you know, taking any prep

41:13

care not to ten and eight samples.

41:15

So you disagree with

41:16

that finding? Yeah. I

41:18

disagree very

41:19

strongly with it because there's such

41:21

powerful evidence that that

41:23

that was built in the senate. Remember the evidence

41:26

of the trial? It's the, you know, the

41:28

highest scene that crypto himself had

41:30

bought was found in

41:32

the remains there was the Heinz

41:34

curler, the bleached hair that all, you know, associates

41:36

with bell and then, you know, most

41:40

powerfully the pajama fragments

41:42

that very particularly

41:44

connect to

41:46

the

41:46

purchase of the

41:49

pajamas James Brothers by

41:51

Belle herself and

41:52

give the timing of nineteen o nine.

41:54

So the idea that

41:58

that those remains really were anyone else, but Bell, I

41:59

just think, is, you

42:00

know, fanciful and it doesn't bear

42:03

any proper scrutiny to me.

42:06

What happened to

42:07

Ethel? After

42:09

couldn't

42:11

the have been

42:12

hanged, people

42:14

that

42:14

were she was the subject of,

42:16

you know, fascination. People wondered where she'd

42:19

gone. She kind of disappeared from

42:21

you. She went to Canada, and she hadn't been there long.

42:23

She came back. She took

42:26

Crippin's name

42:28

Harvey that his middle name, Horley she

42:30

called herself Ethel Harvey, and

42:32

she she rented a

42:36

a flat in South London in an area called

42:38

Balam. And then

42:41

around nineteen fifteen,

42:46

she met married a man called Smith. They

42:48

had two children, and

42:52

Ethel gave her husband

42:54

a a

42:56

fob to wear and he always wore it, and what he

42:58

didn't know was that it was Kristen's Fox

43:00

Watch. Her husband

43:02

never knew that she was

43:04

ethel Manib as far as he knew.

43:06

She was ethel Harvey, a synonymous

43:08

person. He didn't realize that she'd been

43:10

involved in the, you know, sensational

43:12

crime of a century

43:14

and neither did her two children.

43:16

She never told them. She

43:18

died in nineteen sixty seven. and

43:22

only one or two members

43:24

of her own extended family

43:26

ever knew who she was.

43:30

In

43:30

nineteen twenty, the Crippen case was featured as part of

43:33

a series of books called

43:36

notable trials. Each book

43:37

summarizes famous English

43:39

cases, including the trial of

43:41

Mary Queen of Scots.

43:45

the begin It begins Most

43:46

of the interests and part of the terror of great crime are

43:49

due not to what is abnormal,

43:51

but to what is

43:53

normal in it. What we have in common with

43:55

the criminal is what makes us view with so

43:58

lively an interest, a

44:00

fellow being. who

44:02

was wandered into tragic and fatal fields. The

44:05

author described Holly

44:07

Crippen as an

44:10

unremarkable little

44:12

man. curtious,

44:12

hospitable. Bell

44:15

Almor is described

44:16

in dramatically harsh terms.

44:20

untalented.

44:20

i'm alan Quote, robust

44:23

and animal, loud, aggressive,

44:25

seems to exhaust

44:27

the atmosphere. and is undoubtedly exhausting to

44:29

live with. You know, her character

44:32

and

44:32

personality were completely destroyed,

44:34

not just by creeping in court

44:37

and is evidence. but by the way that she was caricature

44:39

it. So you have this mild

44:42

mannered little man and

44:44

downtrodden husband

44:46

it's overbearing, over demanding wife food,

44:48

you know, and that

44:50

almost it's

44:52

as if that's somebody's trying to justify

44:54

why he killed her. And

44:56

I

44:57

think that's a caricature of

44:59

their marriage.

45:00

And it does seem like it was

45:02

a successful marriage. And

45:04

it must have gone sour in some way.

45:06

They

45:06

both seem to sort

45:08

out, you know, comfort elsewhere but

45:11

she had a pretty fulfilled life, you

45:13

know. She had a role with these

45:15

friends. She was much loved and admired

45:17

by her group of friends, and they

45:19

missed her.

45:28

there

45:28

was a

45:29

funeral held for Belmore in the fall of

45:31

nineteen ten. There were said to

45:33

be many flowers. It had all been

45:35

arranged

45:35

by her friends,

45:37

music hall ladies

45:40

killed.

45:48

Criminal is

45:48

created by Lauren Spohr and me.

45:51

Lady Wilson is our senior producer.

45:53

Katie Bishop is our supervising

45:56

producer. Our producers are Susanne Roberson, Jackie Sedgico,

45:58

Libby Foster, and Meghan

45:59

Canine. Our technical directors

46:02

are all buyers. Veronica

46:06

Simonetti may this episode, Engineering by Russ

46:08

Henry. Julie Alexander

46:09

makes original illustrations for each episode

46:12

of Criminal you can see them

46:14

at this is criminal dot

46:16

com. David James Smith's

46:18

book is supper with the Cribbons. The

46:20

true story of one of the most notorious murderers.

46:23

of all time. We're on

46:26

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46:26

and Twitter at criminal show, and

46:28

Instagram at criminal underscore podcast.

46:32

And we're

46:32

also on YouTube where you can go back and

46:34

take a

46:34

listen to some of our favorite past episodes. That's

46:37

at youtube dot com

46:39

slash criminal podcast. Criminal is

46:41

recorded in the studios of North Carolina public

46:44

radio, WNC, were

46:46

part of the vox media podcast network.

46:49

discover more great shows at podcast

46:51

dot voxmedia dot com.

46:53

I'm

46:53

Phoebe Judge. This

46:56

is criminal.