Recent Book: “Doctor Crippen, I Presume”: The Mild Murderer
| Date | 01 January 1980 |
| Published date | 01 January 1980 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X8005300116 |
| Author | Daniel P. King |
| Subject Matter | Recent Book |
Overall, I regard this as a valuable
book of reference for any individual or
organisation involved in advising the
public of where they may seek help. Its
price at £2.50 would appear to be good
value for money. K.E.G.C.
"DOCTOR
CRIPPEN,
I
PRESUME"
TOM
CULLEN:
The Mild Murderer.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin. $8.95
The fascinating story of Hawley evidence nauseatingly unmistakable."
Harvey Crippin who murdered his wife What the detective recovered were parts
and buried her beneath the basement of a human torso covered with lime.
floor of their London home and then fled What followed was a fiction-like
to Canada with his paramour disguised oceanic chase by Inspector Dew on a fast
as his son has been told many times. steamship to Canada where he greeted
While a fascinating and unusual murder Crippen and Ethel who soon arrived on a
committed withi a heretofore unknown slower ship with "Good morning, Dr.
drug, hyoscine, the case is notable as Crippen." A radio message had earlier
being the first in which the criminal was been sent to the captain of the
55
arrested through the use of the wireless. Montrose advising that Crippen was on
After administering the fatal dose of board and wanted for murder.
hyoscine (Crippen was a doctor), he cut The trial turned into a forensic duel
up his wife's body and buried it under the with medical experts testifying to the
cellar floor of their house at No. 39, identity of the lime-eovered remains. Sir
Hilldrop Crescent. He fled in panic with Bernard Spilsbury, then a thirty-three
his secretary-mistress Ethel Le Neve year old pathologist, made his debut
following persistent inquiries by Chief testifying that an obscure scar in a piece
Inspector Walter Dew who later of tissue was identical to one known to
described the case as "the biggest murder have been present on Mrs. Crippen's
mystery of the century." Dew, who had abdomen. Ethel, was acquitted as an
from the first suspected Crippen, had accomplice and the letters to her from
been over the house numerous times Crippen awaiting execution provide
without finding a clue. The cool cellar interesting insights into this "mild
evoked a peculiar fascination for him. murderer." Crippen was hanged on
"Even in bed, what little I got of it during November 23, 1910, at Pentonville
those hectic days, I couldn't keep my Prison.
mind from wandering back to the cellar Cullen writes in a reportorial fashion,
..
." Dew had been over the nine by six careful of details, and provides a fast-
foot cellar many times and was ready to paced reconstruction
oft
hecrime and the
abandon the whole search, when on July chase. More importantly, he writes with
13,1910, he decided to have another
goat
feeling and insight into the complex
it. With a poker he probed the brick character of this tragic doctor caught up
floor. Soon, he wrote later in his in the tangled skein of domestic discord
autobiography, "a thrill of excitement and ultimately violence. A first class
went through me." A brick showed signs literary investigation.
of lifting, then another
...
Soon "came DANIEL P. KING
SOMETHING
POLICEMEN DO NOT UNDERSTAND?
A.
KEITH
BOTTOMLEY:
Criminology in Focus.
Martin Robertson. £8.95 (hardback) £3.50 (paperback)
Criminology in Focus is Dr. embraces the social and political context
Bottomley's personalassessment of some of crime. The most invigorating chapter
of the major themes of criminology since is
the
fourth
-
"Towards
the
the beginning of the last century and his Rehabilitation of Punishment". For
view of future' prospects. Although the those who long for less law, not more,
book has only four chapters and an there is a discussion of Black's view (The
epilogue it is a major British contribution Behaviour of Law). Using Brody's
to
the
current
re-appraisal
of research Dr. Bottomley decisively
criminology which is taking place demolishes the myth that rehabilitation
internationally. reduces recidivism amongst prisoners.
This
re-appraisal
has
become
Dr. Bottomley cogently argues that
necessary because of criminology's both in the United States and the United
apparent failure to contribute positively Kingdom the scene is now set for a
to a reduction in the incidence of crime
radical
appraisal
of
the
basic
which has increased by frightening assumptions underlying our penal policy
proportions in recent years. for the 1980'sfollowing the loss offaith in
The problem of defining crime is the rehabilitative ideas. L.P.
discussed in the first chapter and this
January 1980 Police Journal 89
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