Crowds outside the Old Bailey

wait to hear the jury's verdict on Dr Crippen.

Dr Crippen hanged

by John Ellis, Pentonville prison at 9.00 am on November 23rd, 1910.

Dr Forbes Winslow, the ‘great mental specialist’.

Scotland Yard received the following letter from Dr Forbes Winslow, the ‘great mental specialist’: That there is an epidemic for murdering children at the present time there is no possible doubt. The chief and important point appears to be how to arrest the murderer, or murderers, and stop what is shocking society. In my opinion, the perpetrator of such crimes is a dangerous homicidal lunatic now at large. I believe that he could be easily run to earth were the proper steps taken. I might remind you that when ‘Jack the Ripper’ was carrying on his murderous career I traced the man from London to his lodging and asked for some assistance from Scotland Yard to further aid me in arresting the man. This was declined, though I was told by the authorities that what I suggested was well worthy of consideration, and had permission as a private individual to carry into operation my plan of action. This I declined and stated that unless I received the assistance asked for I should publish my clue in the morning newspapers.
This I subsequently did, with the result that from that time to the present murders of the ripper type ceased to be committed. I have investigated this late affair (I allude to the Islington tragedy), have interviewed the fellow children and heard their contradictory accounts of some imaginary person who was stated to have been seen hanging about the school yard. I am of opinion that the real murderer was not the person who deposited the parcel. I also believe that by a little common sense out of the usual ‘red-tapism’, and regarding the murder of a different type, and therefore requiring different plans of investigation from ordinary crimes, that there would not be the least difficulty in capturing, without further delay, the actual murderer. On this, I have no intention or saying further in the matter. In trying to capture a murderous lunatic different plans must be adopted to those, which would be adopted in capturing an ordinary criminal.

Dr Crippen and Belle Elmore

together at a social function.

Dr Crippen's House

39 Hilldrop Crescent.

Bertram Shaw's mother.

Emily shared her home with a man named Bertram Shaw and passed as his wife. Shortly after eleven o’clock on the morning of 12th September an elderly lady called at the house in St Paul’s Road. This was Mrs Shaw. She had travelled from the Midlands to visit her son who, she understood, had recently married. Mrs Stocks, the landlady, told her that her son’s wife was still in bed. They talked together in the hallway for about fifteen minutes until Bertram Shaw returned from work. He was employed as a dining-car attendant on the Midland Railway whose main lines ran to Leicester, Nottingham and Sheffield. His hours of work enabled him to catch the seven-twenty a.m. train from Sheffield to St Pancras and to reach his home shortly before eleven-thirty.
After exchanging a few words with his mother and the landlady Shaw went to call Emily. Receiving no answer when he knocked at the door he tried to open it and found that it was locked. He went to the kitchen and borrowed a duplicate key from Mrs Stocks who followed him into the parlour. Evidence of an intruder was all over the room. Drawers had been ransacked and their contents strewn over the floor. The folding doors leading to the bedroom were also locked and the key was missing. Again Shaw knocked and, receiving no answer, broke into the room. The blankets were in a heap on the floor. The sheets covered something on the bed from which a pool of blood had trickled down on to the floor. The room was dimly lighted through half-opened shutters.
Shaw, thoroughly alarmed, rushed to the bed and dragged aside the sheets. To his horror he discovered the nude body of Emily Dimmock lying face downwards. Her throat had been cut from ear to ear. The Mammoth Book of Unsolved Crimes. Roger Wilkes.
 This is the first reference to Mrs Shaw. Bert's mother wasn't there. I suggest the reason the author used  Bert's mother was to add drama and to confirm that Emily Dimmock was a slapper, who didn't regularly perform domestic duties. She was hastily slaving over a hot copper only because she about to encounter her future mother-in-law.

And where did the name Robert Roberts come from? It's Thomas Percival Roberts. Names and stories are repeated from one article to another as if chiselled on granite.

Oi, wanna buy a tincture of Crippen's Compound?

Cures a person of every ill. Never again feel pain ... Ever.

Who killed Phyllis Dimmock?

Who killed Phyllis Dimmock? Given the circumstances of her life and subsequent death it seems most likely that Phyllis Dimmock was killed by one of many male acquaintances in a fit of jealous rage. The one person we can certainly exclude from consideration is her husband Bertram Shaw, since, as the police established back in 1907, he was in a railway dining car thundering through the countryside some distance from London at the time of his wife's death. The fact that the rooms at St Paul's Road had been ransacked, and that the victim's postcard collection was disarranged, leading to the obvious conclusion that the murderer was searching for something, and that something being most likely the postcard from Bruges that led the police to Robert Wood in the first place. This would limit the range of suspects to either Robert Wood himself (seeking to remove an incriminating piece of evidence) or, alternatively, someone else who knew of its existence and was seeking to divert the police's attention by laying a false trail, such as Robert Percival Roberts, his apparently secure alibi notwithstanding. Most commentators have this concluded that the most likely culprit was indeed Robert Wood, even if there appears to have been insufficient evidence to actually convict him of the crime.

 Robert Wood was bit of a cad and a liar, but that doesn't make him a murderer. Someone wanted  something from those albums, but there was another suspect who was away from town, and could well of sent, the postcard collecting, Emily Dimmock, a message that could accuse him of the crime if discovered.

Bernard Spilsbury

was a greatly respected pathologist, but does his reputation stand up to scrutiny?

Secondary syphilis

Primary syphilis occurs 10-90 days after contact with an infected individual. Lesions (chancres) begin as solitary, raised, firm, red papules, similar to a blister. Secondary syphilis usually occurs within 2-10 weeks after the primary chancre and is most florid 3-4 months after infection. A rash will appear on the feet, hands, neck and face.

Head exhibiting syphilis c.1900: Collection Family Coolen, Antwerp/Museum Dr Guislain, Ghent, Belgium. Museum proprietors argued that the more horrific exhibits included in their displays would help to limit the spread of infectious disease. The most graphic models were usually intended to communicate the dangers of sexually transmitted disease, showing faces and genitals that were ravaged by syphilis as warnings against promiscuous behaviour.

Just what we need

to send from our holiday destination - a Dr Crippen postcard.