During
the summer of 1910, Captain Kendall was in command of Canadian
Pacific's Montrose, outbound from Antwerp, Belgium to
Quebec. At the time, rumors placed Doctor Hawley Harvey Crippin
in Belgium. Crippin, along with his lover, Ethel le Neve, were
wanted by London police for the murder of Crippin's wife Cora.
Cora Crippin's dismembered body had been found under the cellar
floor of their London home. Cora was an ambitious socialite
who, after Crippin failed to live up to her expectations, set
upon a life filled with the pursuit of men, alcohol and wealth,
obtained at the expense of her husband's dignity. One day, he
snapped. It seemed that after a botched attempt at dissolving
her body in acid, Crippin had tried to conceal it and when it
seemed the authorities were closing in on him, he fled. Crippin
and his lover had fled and been on the run ever since.
With Scotland Yard on their trail, Crippin and his lover, both
in disguise, boarded Montrose, hoping to vanish in the
multi-faceted society on the other side of the Atlantic. But
Crippin, traveling as "Mr. Robinson", had aroused
Kendall's suspicions. Robinson was traveling with his son, whose
voice, mannerisms and build suggested a woman disguised as a
man. Robinson had recently shaved a mustache, made apparent
by a pale area under his nose, and deep imprints on his nose
told of glasses he no longer wore. The two were uneasy and restless
and Kendall spotted a what looked like a revolver in Robinson's
(Crippin's) pocket. Kendall deliberated for some time over the
possible identity of the mysterious man. Altering a newspaper
photo of Crippin, he was finally sure that he had a the "London
Cellar Murdere" on his ship. He wired the Liverpool office
of Canadian Pacific and informed them that he had strong suspicions
as to the true identity of these two passengers. New Scotland
Yard was notified immediately and an inspector departed on White
Star's Laurentic. Much faster than Montrose, White
Star's ship met the Canadian steamer at Pointe au Pere where
authorities boarded the vessel. Ironically, Kendall, once he
was sure of Crippin's identity, seems to have made close contact
with the fugitive, having him seated at the Captain's table
for dinner and even inviting him to borrow books from the captain's
own personal library. All of this was obviously a shrewd maneuver
to earn Crippin's trust and therefor make it easier to coordinate
his arrest once docked.
When confronted by the inspector from New Scotland Yard and
local authorities, Crippin surrendered without much ado. He
was, by some reports, angry at Kendall for his deception. Ironic,
don't you think? In any case, as was reported in the papers
of the day, when Crippin was about to be taken off the ship,
he dropped to the deck and cursed Kendall in a seething tone
that conveyed his genuine hatred of the man who had foiled his
plans for a new life. "You will suffer for this treachery,
sir" is what he is alleged to have said. Crippin was
taken to Quebec and quickly extradited back to England where
he was tried and convicted for the murder of his wife. He was
hanged on November 23rd, 1910. His lover, Ethel Le Neve, was
acquitted and fled the country.
As for the Crippin Curse? Well, it was only 4 years later and
not far from where the curse was uttered that Empress of
Ireland foundered, so who knows....
NEXT:
The Last Voyage
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