Members of the Society cannot be unaware that Dr Crippen has been much in the news recently, both on Channel 5 on television and in a rebuttal by David Aaranovitch in The Times. 

But did he kill his wife in Hilldrop Crescent? Was she killed at all? The story is as much a mystery now as it was 97 years ago. DNA evidence has proved inconclusive, and the idea that Crippen was in fact a backstreet abortionist who hid a case gone wrong seems plausible. I have heard oral evidence at Professorial level that Mrs Crippen turned up during the trial, and that the judge dismissed her written evidence as inadmissable. I'm afraid this was given in conversation and so I cannot present this as fact.

However unpleasant the person involved I always become exercised by possible miscarriages of justice. One such case is under re-trial at the moment and I can't say much more than that, simply to point out that any evidence to convict is absent.

Best to you all, and hopefully something happier in my blog next time.  Do write in with more about the Crippen case if you can give us more for the record.

As ever,
Andrew

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