Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén - A Body in the Cellar: Hawley Harvey Crippen
Episode Date: May 19, 2025When a boneless torso possibly belonging to a woman named Cora Turner is found in the cellar of a London home, the culprit seems almost obvious. Her husband, Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen, seems to have d...isappeared with his mistress. But the true answer isn’t that easy. Nearly a hundred years later, some people are still wondering whether the police caught the right person. Keep up with us on Instagram @serialkillerspodcast! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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In 2025, a manhunt for a killer likely involves CCTV and facial recognition,
GPS and digital intelligence, and advanced DNA testing.
With so much surveillance and evidence, it's not easy to get away with a crime.
But in 1910, the hunt for a fugitive was much harder and slower.
The police depended on unreliable.
eyewitness memory, fingerprint science was in its infancy, and the world's first crime laboratory
just opened that year. So how did you catch a criminal in 1910? For Scotland Yard, it took a brand
new invention, wireless telegraphy. It was revolutionary. Criminal investigations could now
take place between two countries or on a transatlantic ship. But science still had a long way to go.
And over a century later, people have wondered,
did forensic shortcoming send an innocent man to death?
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discomfort, which includes gas, bloating, rumbling, and abdominal discomfort. Dr. Holly Harvey Crippin
had ample opportunity to avoid infamy. If it were not for his horrific crime,
he'd largely be forgotten.
Even then, records of his life before his 30s are sparse,
like most men born in 1862.
We do know Crippin's father was a wealthy merchant,
which allowed Holly to enroll in the University of Michigan's College of homeopathy.
Homeopathy is a form of alternative medicine
partially based on the idea that like cures like.
If a natural substance causes a symptom in a healthy person,
a small amount of the same substance may help relieve symptoms,
of the illness. For example, cutting onions usually makes chefs tear up, but homeopaths believe
a diluted onion extract called Alyam Sipa can treat watery eyes caused by allergies. But there's
risk involved. Some of the substances used in homeopathic practice can be deadly if administered
incorrectly. Many experts are skeptical about their effectiveness. As of early 2025,
the FDA has not approved any homeopathic products. But when Crippin and
enrolls in medical school in 1882, homeopathy is growing increasingly popular in Europe and the
United States. His studies take him to a mental hospital in London, where he treats violent patients
with natural remedies. Crippin graduates in 1884 and spends the next few years working in
homeopathic practices across the states. He meets a nurse, Charlotte, whom he marries in 1887.
Charlotte gives birth to a son, Otto, but dies two years later of a stroke.
Dr. Crippen isn't willing to step up to single fatherhood.
He leaves Otto with his parents and moves to New York alone.
When he arrives, Dr. Crippin finds a burgeoning world of possibilities.
In the city, streetcars have replaced the horse-drawn carriage.
Life literally moves at a faster pace.
Innovation is everywhere, and Crippin is eager to be a part of it.
He finds work in a medical practice and lives in the head doctor's home.
and in the fall of 1892, he marries a patient named Cora Turner.
Cora aspires to be an opera singer, and Crippin is happy to help finance her dreams.
But the following May, the country experiences a financial crisis known as the panic of 1893.
Demand for homeopathy wanes, and Dr. Crippin is forced to stop paying for Cora's singing lessons.
Worse, Cora has been ill, so she undergoes an operative.
to remove her ovaries. She won't be able to bear children. According to Eric Larson, author of Thundersruck,
it contributes to a strain on the marriage. But by 1897, things are starting to look up for the couple.
The homeopathic clinic Dr. Crippen has been working for promotes him to manager of a new office in London.
The job comes with a significant pay raise. It's also promising for Cora. She hasn't found success
in the New York opera scene, so perhaps England will be a nice change of pace.
For the next few years, things appear to be going well for the Crippins.
The doctor is making more money than he's ever made before, and Cora is booking roles.
But Cora is not the star she wants to be.
Newspaper reviews pan her performances, and one of her shows is shut down within a week of its debut.
She decides to set aside her dream career and focus on her social life.
life. What Cora lacks in musical talents, she more than makes up for in charm, and she quickly
finds successful friends. They include music hall performer Lil Hawthorne, her husband and manager
John Nash, and the circus performing strongwoman Kate Williams, better known as Volcana.
All are big names at the time. However, Cora doesn't yield much success from her connections,
and it's putting Dr. Crippen in a financial bind. He's been funding her career.
from singing lessons to her own production,
and it isn't just her stage act he's paying for.
Cora insists on keeping up with the latest fashions no matter the cost.
Crippin also loses his well-paying job at the clinic.
He takes a series of new jobs at facilities that are essentially scams.
One is at Dr. Crippin spends mere minutes with patients
before prescribing a supposed cure.
It's a significant pay cut,
and Crippin can't keep up the lifestyle.
A couple is forced to move to a smaller, more affordable apartment.
But Cora keeps buying lavish jewelry and expensive clothing,
and she spends most of her time at clubs and social events with her friends.
Dr. Crippin's resentment festers,
because he soon learns Cora isn't just out networking all night.
She's having a very public affair.
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By 1901, Dr. Holly Crippin's second marriage resembles the medical cure.
as he peddles, little more than a sham. His wife Kora is smitten with a variety show performer,
so Krippin goes looking for a lover of his own. The same year, Dr. Ruei Institute for the Deaf
hires Ethel Lenev to help Dr. Krippen around the office, and he takes a fast liking to her.
To Krippen, Ethel is everything Kora isn't, kind, quiet, and unassuming. She's a diligent employee
eager to please. Before long, the doctor finds himself making excuses to stay late at work.
Over the next several years, Dr. Crippen grows even further from his wife, and even closer
to Ethel. He makes more room for his lover in his life. He invests in a large home in London.
The property allows Crippin and Cora to sleep in separate bedrooms and easily continue
their separate affairs. Still, as a public formality,
Dr. Crippin stays with his wife.
By all appearances, the two are a happy couple,
which makes what happens next all the more surprising.
On the evening of January 31st, 1910,
the Crippin's host two of Cora's show business friends,
Paul and Clara Martineti.
They have dinner and drinks, then play a few games of cards.
The Martinettys leave around 1 a.m.
No one knows exactly what occurs next,
but in the following days and weeks, one thing becomes clear.
Cora Crippen has disappeared.
In February 1910, Cora's friends and social clubs receive letters purportedly written by Cora.
At first, the letters claim Cora has gone back to the States to visit a sick relative.
Eventually, Dr. Crippen amends this story, saying his wife had fallen ill and died while in the U.S.
The odd claim grows even less believable in the spring of 1910.
At some point, Ethel and Nev moves in with Dr. Crippen.
Shortly thereafter, she begins wearing Cora's clothing and jewelry.
For all intents and purposes, she is the new Mrs. Crippen.
Ethel and Crippin continue this charade well into the summer.
Seeking answers, Cora's circus performer friend Kate Williams reports Cora's disappearance to the police.
An investigation begins, but the case takes on new urgency when Cora's other friends, entertainer
Will Hawthorne and her husband John Nash, escalate the case to Scotland Yard.
On July 8, 1910, they dispatched Chief Inspector Walter Dew to interview Dr. Crippin and search
his house.
He doesn't notice anything odd until he begins talking to Dr. Crippin, who changes his explanation
of his wife's disappearance, yet again.
He claims that Cora had run away to America with her lover.
Under questioning, Crippin admits his earlier lies.
He'd said Cora died to save himself embarrassment.
Inspector Dube buys the story, but tells Crippin he'll have to confirm with Cora herself.
The next day, Crippin shaves off his distinctive mustache, and Ethel disguises herself as a boy.
Posing as father and son, the pair flee to very.
various cities across Europe. In Antwerp, they buy passage to Canada on the SS Montrose, leaving on
July 20th, 1910. Back in London, Chief Inspector Doe returns to the Crippen House to a surprising
discovery. It's been abandoned. Dr. Crippen and Ethel's sudden departure was a bright red flag.
After all, innocent people seldom flee their homes. Inspector Doe orders three more searches of the
Krippin residents, scouring it from top to bottom. On the final inspection, detectives
discover loose bricks in the cellar. Beneath them, they find ripped, bloodied pajama bottoms
wrapped around a headless, limbless, boneless torso. Though Inspector Duk can't immediately identify
the victim, he has a hunch that it's Kora. And the killer, her husband, Dr. Krippen. Now it's up to
Scotland Yard to track him down.
The remains in the pajamas are sent in for analysis and autopsy.
In the process, one of Scotland Yard's senior scientific analysts find something else unusual
in the remains, traces of the drug hyocene hydrobromide.
In modern medicine, hyacine is sometimes used to treat motion sickness.
In the 19th century, it was occasionally used as a sedative, but the drug was only rarely
prescribed as it was a strong poison that could be deadly in large amounts.
With this terrifying find, Scotland Yard issues a warrant for Dr. Crippin's arrest.
Combined that with the fact that Dr. Crippin's wife had been missing for months,
and now Dr. Crippin himself is missing, the story quickly becomes headline news.
It strikes a chord with Londoners, who are still shocked from Jack the Ripper's
killing spree just 20 years prior.
And like Jack the Ripper's crimes, this horror soon finds an international.
national audience.
With growing attention, Scotland Yard faces great pressure to crack the case.
Even Britain's home secretary, a young Winston Churchill, offers a 250-pound reward for the
capture of the fugitives.
Crippen and Ethel are on equal footing with the most wanted criminals in London, and they
have no idea.
Floating across the ocean aboard the SS Montrose, they think they've successfully escaped
detection.
They don't know that just before the ship's departure, two Scotland Yard officers told Captain
Henry George Kendall to be on the lookout for the suspects.
Even more, their faces are plastered on the cover of the Daily Mail.
Assuming they're safe, Dr. Crippen and Ethel do little to keep up with their disguises
aboard the steamship.
While they remain dressed as father and son, they are oddly affectionate with one another and
frequently hold hands, and on top of that, Ethel's boy clothes clearly don't fit her body.
Captain Kendall notices. He instructs his wireless operator to telegraph the British authorities
immediately. The message states, quote, strong suspicions that Crippin London cellar murderer
and accomplice are among saloon passengers, mustache taken off growing beard, accomplice dressed as boy.
Notably, this is the first time wireless telegraphy,
or radio telegraphy, is used to track a criminal,
bringing even more notoriety to the chase.
After receiving the telegram, Inspector Doe
boards a white star liner, the SS Laurentic.
It's faster than the SS Montrose,
which means Dew will arrive in Canada
before Dr. Crippen does.
Once there, Canadian authorities bring him to the criminal ship.
On July 31, 1910, as the SS Montrose enters
the St. Lawrence River in Quebec,
Inspector Doe and his fellow officers come aboard disguised as harbor pilots,
the officials who guide ships into port.
Meanwhile, Captain Kendall asks Dr. Crippen if he'd like to greet the pilots.
Delighted, Dr. Crippen agrees, but he's in for a harsh discovery.
When the so-called pilots enter the room, one steps forward and removes his cap,
he introduces himself as Chief Inspector Dew of Scotland Yard.
After a pause, Dr. Crippen apparently replies,
Thank God the suspense is over.
Inspector do arrest Crippin and his accomplice, Ethel.
Within days, Crippin is back in England, awaiting trial for the murder of his wife.
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Dr. Crippin's trial begins in October 1910, three months after his arrest on the Montrose.
Filled with salacious details and a thrilling search,
newspapers describe the tragic tale of an unfaithful wife,
slain by her bitter husband.
Though the body in the cellar still hasn't been proven to be Cora's,
everyone in London has their mind made up.
When Dr. Crippin's first day in court finally comes on October 18, 1910,
4,000 people line up to hear the case play out.
Dr. Crippin's defense holds to the doctor's claims
that Cora had left him for another man.
It was Crippin, the jilted husband, who was the victim.
The defense argues that the boneless torso,
had been buried by some unknown person, possibly before the Crippins had moved into their house.
But a significant piece of evidence from the prosecution seems to disprove this.
The pajamas that the human remains were wrapped in matched pajamas that Cora gifted to Dr. Crippin
the previous year.
To further corroborate this, the clothes manufacturer testifies that the specific pattern found
on the fragment was not sold prior to 1908.
This means that the remains couldn't.
have been placed in the house before Dr. Crippen and Cora first moved in in 1905.
Additional witnesses for the prosecution include several pathologists who shed light on hyacine
found in the corpse. Prior to the murder, Dr. Crippin had purchased significant quantities of the
drug from a local chemist. This certainly made it appear as though Crippin hadn't just killed
his wife, but had premeditated it. A major sticking point is that the body can't be confirmed as
Koras until one of the prosecution's pathologists gives the remains another look.
He finds a mark on the body's abdomen, a scar. It's consistent with scars left over after
surgery to remove ovaries. Cora had undergone that very procedure in 1893. It's not a
smoking gun, but it's pretty compelling. Ultimately, science can't prove beyond reasonable doubt
that the body is Korah's, however, the mounting circumstantial
evidence is overwhelming, and during the four days of trial, Dr. Crippen has little to add to his
defense. On October 22, 1910, after only 27 minutes of deliberation, the jury delivers a verdict.
They find Dr. Crippin guilty of murdering his wife, Cora. He's sentenced to death.
Ethel is tried shortly after Dr. Crippin's conviction, but the jury determined she had
nothing to do with the murder and sets her free. Dr. Crippin's last request is for a photograph of
Ethel and some of her letters to be buried with him in his unmarked grave. The request is granted.
On November 23rd in 1910, Holly Harvey Crippin is hanged at the Pentonville prison. After the trial,
Londoners put forth many theories as to why and how Dr. Crippin might have killed his wife.
With the doctor dead, we'll never know the exact story.
Barrister Edward Marshall Hall proposes one theory. He suggests Dr. Crippen gave his wife Hyacine
to put her to sleep while he enjoyed a night out with Ethel, but it backfired when Cora died of an
overdose. Panicking, he must have tried to break down the corpse and hit her remains in their cellar.
Over half a century later, in 1981, several newspapers in Britain published reports that a man
named Sir Hugh Reese Rankin met Ethel Lenev in 1930. She supposedly told him that,
that Dr. Crippen murdered Cora because she had syphilis.
But stranger than any of these speculations
is the idea that Dr. Crippin never committed the crime at all.
John Trestrail, a modern-day forensic toxicologist,
is unsettled by the circumstantial evidence in Dr. Crippin's case.
He's never heard of a poisoning case
where the murderer also dismembered his victim.
If Dr. Crippin had both poisoned and dismembered Cora,
it doesn't make sense that he would have disposed
of so much of the body
only to leave incriminating evidence in his home.
Intrigued, Trestrail analyzes Dr. Crippin's court records.
After finding more inconsistencies in the case,
Trust Trail brings in a forensics expert.
They conduct a comprehensive genetic search
to find descendants of Cora Crippen
and, thanks to the internet,
are able to identify three of Cora's living relatives.
Then they try to obtain Cora's DNA.
Scotland Yard had kept three strands of hair
and charges 17,500 pounds to run a test on two of them.
Unwilling to pay that steep fee,
Trestrail turns to the Royal London Hospital Archives,
which had preserved nine pieces of tissue from the case.
At Trestrails request,
the historic medical facility hands over
a nearly century-old tissue sample
of the torso found in Dr. Crippin's cellar.
Trestrail compares its DNA with that of Kora's relatives,
and the DNA of the body does not match
any of Cora's three living relatives.
Even weirder, their research shows that the torso found might not even be female.
With this new scientific evidence, Trestra begins to re-examine police and court archives.
He uncovers a series of documents that had reportedly been suppressed during the court case.
Among them was a letter from Cora herself to Dr. Crippen, after the alleged murder,
in which she claims to be living in America with no plan to stop his execution.
During the 1910 trial, Scotland Yard suspected the letter was a hoax, so it was kept from the jury.
This makes Trest Trail wonder if, under media pressure, the police had tampered with the evidence to close the case.
However, this claim remains in dispute.
With DNA that old, some have argued that accurate results aren't guaranteed.
The tissue had likely become contaminated.
Some note that conclusions drawn from two scientists who'd tested a single,
century-old sample is not good cause to reopen the case.
The UK's criminal cases review commission seemingly agree.
In 2009, after reviewing TrustRail's findings,
they declare that the court of appeals will not hear the case to pardon Dr. Crippen posthumously.
While it seems an innocent man wouldn't run from his crimes,
the modern DNA investigation certainly raises interesting questions.
Then again, if the corpse did belong to someone,
someone other than Cora, it's possible Dr. Crippen was involved in that murder.
Despite these theories, we can look to Occam's razor to deduce what most likely happened.
The simpler explanation between two theories is generally preferred.
But that doesn't mean it's not worth a second look, even if the crime is more than a century
old.
Because as Tress Trail says, justice doesn't have a time limit.
Hey, serial killers listeners, producer Chelsea here.
I wanted to tell you about some new information I discovered since working on this episode.
Just a few days after we recorded, author Hallie Rubenhold released a book about the case titled Story of a Murder,
The Wives, The Mistress, and Dr. Crippen.
As its title suggests, the book focuses on the women in Holly Harvey Crippin's life.
Information about his first wife, Charlotte, was sparse when I researched this episode.
In Story of a Murder, Rubenhold fills in.
in those gaps. Charlotte immigrated from Ireland in the mid-1880s and settled in New York City.
She trained to be a nurse, then got a job at a homeopathic hospital. That's where she met,
Holly Harvey Crippin. The couple married in 1887 and Charlotte quit her nursing career to join
her husband as he jumped from job to job, city to city. Rubenhold discovered evidence suggesting
Crippin may have been abusing his wife. Neighbors witnessed Crippin throwing a book at Charlotte.
They claimed she lived in fear of her husband.
The couple welcomed a boy in 1889, but never had another child.
Charlotte sent letters to her brother, alleging Crippin had been performing unwanted abortions on her.
In one letter, Charlotte wrote,
If I die, it will be his fault.
Charlotte's death in 1892 was officially ruled apoplexy, a stroke,
but hindsight certainly raises some questions.
Charlotte was only 33 and reportedly healthy.
Crippin had access to various poisons through his homeopathic practice.
That would be the method he would later use to kill his second wife, Cora.
Could he have also murdered his first wife the same way?
Ultimately, the real answer is likely lost to time,
but at least now we have a fuller picture of Charlotte's story.
Another important woman in Dr. Crippin's life was his second spouse, Cora Turner,
which was just one of the stage name she used in her career.
Crippen painted Cora out to be a talentless dilettante who bled him dry with her pension for high fashion.
But in her book, Rubenhold found several positive reviews of Cora's performances,
and Dr. Crippin's problems with money date back to long before he even met Cora.
Finally, there's Crippin's mistress, Ethel Lenev.
While she was briefly jailed after her in Crippin's transatlantic escape,
she was not found to have taken part in the murder, or even known anything about it.
After her release, Ethel lived the next decade or so in relative obscurity.
She got married and had two children, but never told her family about her past.
Rubenhold's research uncovered some interviews Ethel granted throughout the 1920s.
Being acquitted of the murderer didn't stop the press and locals from believing she knew something about it.
She wanted to put a stop to the rumors once and for all.
But Rubenhold says the interviews only fan the flames.
Like her one-time lover, Ethel's story changed often.
Sometimes she would insist Cora was still alive,
other times she claimed Cora's death was little more than an accident.
She also never publicly expressed remorse or sympathy for Cora's death,
only in insistence that Ethel herself was the victim,
robbed of a happily ever after with Dr. Crippen.
Story of a murder does help enrich our understanding of the Crippin.
case, but it doesn't answer every question. If the doctor did kill his wife, what was the
motive? Was it premeditated? A crime of passion, a total accident? And those questions only exist if
the body in the cellar was really Kora's. Forensic toxicologist John Trestrail's examination
found no genetic connection to Kora's relatives. He discovered the body might not even be
female. Tury King is a renowned geneticist who led the verification of Richard the 3rd's body in 2012.
She acknowledges Trestrails findings may be correct, but she also contends there's several
issues with the way the evidence was tested. The DNA tests were done on a single sample in a
single lab. King says current standards of practice require testing at least two samples in two
different labs. That helps validate the results and also buffer against possible
contamination of the DNA.
Technology has come such a long way in the last 15 years that King suggests the DNA be
re-examined in depth to put to bed the question, whose body was in the cellar.
It's that question, the many unknowns, the cinematic chase, and the historical use of a
telegraph that make this story so intriguing, even 115 years later.
It's why, just a few days after we recorded this episode, Crippin's
leatherbound prayer book sold at a British auction for 240 pounds or approximately 318 U.S.
dollars.
It's why I will continue to follow the case.
And if there are any updates, you can be sure to hear about them here on serial killers.
Thank you for listening to Serial Killers.
We're here with a new episode every Monday.
Be sure to check us out on Instagram at Serial Killers podcast.
And if you're listening on Spotify, swipe up and give us your thoughts.
or email us at Serial Killer Stories at Spotify.com.
For more information on Dr. Holly Harvey Crippen, amongst the many sources we used,
we found Thundersruck by Eric Larson and Molecules of Murder by John Emsley,
extremely helpful to our research.
Stay safe out there.
This episode was written by Amy Paulette Hartman, edited by Chelsea Wood,
researched by Chelsea Wood, fact-checked by Bennett Logan,
and video edited and sound designed by Alex Button.
I'm your host, Janice Morgan.
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