Perhaps Cora disagreed with the decision to kill him, but she would have been implicated as an accomplice. At any rate, she left the scene soon after the murder to protect herself (trying to withdraw the money, making plans to remove trunks or boxes). Naturally, she does not inform her circle of friends–simply high-tails it back home to safety. Crippen, then, told her friends a version of the truth when he said she went to the States. It never crosses his mind that he could be suspected of murdering *her*, so he doesn’t bother too much with elaborate explanations. (After all, his primary problem is a body to dispose of!)

Ethel remains with Crippen because of their relationship, and to help him dispose of the body. Crippen does not mourn the loss of his wife because he assumes she is with her family in the States. Ethel feels free to assume a more apparent role as lover in Cora’s absence.

When the body is found, Crippen and Ethel decide their best chance is to disappear just like Cora did. Confronted with the accusation that he killed Cora, Crippen can only protest that he never killed his wife. He cannot explain any further without incriminating both Cora and Ethel–and that would not get him off the hook for murder. He does not grieve or show regret during the trial: he has not killed anyone he cares for, and is primarily concerned with sheilding Ethel. Ethel remains silent, knowing that her speaking out will not help anyone. Cora’s tongue is tied, as well–speaking up would only incriminate herself and would not exhonerate Crippen.

Chf Inspector Dew was a very senior cop – he was asked to investigate by the deputy head of the Metropolitan Police. Because of Cora’s celebrity connections this was always much more than a routine missing person inquiry. Otherwise they’d have just sent a constable, or ignored it altogether. In that sense the case was ‘high profile’, as far as the cops were concerned, right from the start.

Scenario 1 – the cops dig in the cellar, find some body parts, [which could have been there for several years] but believe that Crippen must be a wife killer, just as they suspected. Still, they don’t have a cast iron case, so they plant the pyjamas. This is what the programme categorised as possible ‘noble cause corruption’.

Scenario 2 – the cops don’t find anything, but they have their initial suspicions, and they also know now that Crippen has fled the scene, so they decide to plant some body parts that they had lying around the morgue, in order to nail him and enhance their own careers. The body parts were male, but in those days there was no way of telling so they thought they’d be safe. This is an unlikely scenario, and not one that the programme strongly suggested.

It was only after the hunt for Crippen was publicised round the world that the case became high profile in a public sense, and when there would clearly have been a very strong motive on the part of the authorities to have him convicted, as there is in high profile cases to this day.

Did I miss something in the show?

This is a reprint of an article I read in “The People’s Almanac” by David Wallechinsky and Irving Wallace. In brief, it appears that Miss Le Neve took the name Ethel Harvey (in memory of Crippen) and fled to Toronto, where she lived for decades in anonymity.