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Crippen's Last Letters from Pentonville Prison (Extracts)
After receiving the Death Sentence on 22 October 1910 through to the day before his Execution on 23 November 1910
These extracts have been based on 'The Mild Murderer' by Tom Cullen (1977); Cullen had sourced his work on 'Black Fame' by J.C. Ellis (1926).
The contents of the letters are presented below. Use the list to skip quickly to the letter of interest.
Friday, October 28, 1910
(Crippen had lodged his Appeal and is anxiously awaiting the outcome.)
You can imagine what my feelings are to have before me your dear handwriting again. I have longed so passionately for a letter from you to sustain me through the long and weary separation, and, although I have been able to subdue my nerves and preserve my outward control, my heart has been bursting and throbbing with the pain of longing for you and even for a few written words from my ever-loving darling. I knew my darling's heart and love for me would never waver in the slightest, and hope sustained me, and that our union has not only been for life but for all eternity.
But, dear wifie, do not yet despair. There is yet the appeal, and friends are coming forward to help. One here in England1 tells my solicitor he does not consider I had a fair trial, and offers to pay all expenses and, just think, Munyon2 has awakened to his old friendship for me and cabled he will spend £12,000 for me if necessary. I had also a letter from Lady Henry Somerset3 telling me you were to come to live with her to-day, but for fear that was not certain I am sending this care of Horace4 to be forwarded to you.
I do not of course know if you are keeping your own name where you are staying, but I strongly advise you not to do so, and, wifie dear, it would please me so much if you would take my first name or my second Christian name, which you prefer-probably you prefer Hawley-and add 'Mrs' to it, as you will wear my (or our) ring as before. So tell me in your next how and where to address you, which will save delay5.
My good things all came at once to-day. Your visit was a surprise. I have just returned from it, and sat down to my letter again.
I nearly broke down, but struggled to be composed and not upset you. My own dear heart, how I longed even to touch your hand. To hold you in my arms would have been paradise, but we must look forward to that.
To return to what was taken from my pockets at Quebec, be sure you get the prescription for 'Sans Peine'. I have written to my solicitor to see that it is returned; but this will be your authority to demand it from him, and I want you to keep it safely until I tell you, darling, what to do with it. It may be of great value to us.
Write me fully, wifie dear, and tell me everything, but don't arrange anything finally until my appeal is over, because I shall want you with me at once to comfort me and help me to regain my nerve, which is beginning to break down. If all goes well, as please God, I hope you will come to me at once, won't you, darling? After this I shall try and write often, and hope to have good letters from you. Dear wifie, greatest love of my heart and soul, God protect you and keep you safe.
Sunday, October 30, 1910
(Crippen was anxiously awaiting the outcome of his Appeal.)
I had a letter from my solicitor saying the appeal might be heard on Thursday, and let us hope God will be good to us and bring me safely through in spite of all.
My solicitor writes me he gave you £5, and says he will make great efforts with regard to what I want from him to you. I have replied to remind him of his promise and insisted as plainly as possible in his allowing you 30s. a week as an advance until the Charing Cross Bank7 affairs are settled. I told him he ought to do it, as such a small weekly sum would not amount to much against the dividend that the bank is sure to pay out of £600, after some months. I write all this so you will know how to talk to him.
I have also told him I decidedly object to anything on the stage for you, darling8.
My dinner is just waiting, and I must eat it while it is hot. Have just had a nice dinner - roast mutton, vegetables, soup, and fruit - and now back to my wifie again.
I have also told him that perhaps the friend who has come forward to pay the expenses of my appeal would be willing to advance the 30s, per week I want for you (if my solicitor will not do it).
Do not forget though, my own wifie, your promise to me to keep your money for yourself. If God helps us through safely, I myself, with you at my side to help me, will then help Horace to clear off all their debts as a little return for their great kindness.'9 Please always when I write give my greatest love to them as I shall now only write to you for the present.
I am glad you arranged the newspaper matter as you did. Remember, you owe my solicitor nothing, as I myself arranged to pay all the expenses of the trial for you from the first. I am coming to the end of my letter, darling, and have not said half I want with regard to business, but must say this, there was £100 advanced by Mr Harvey10 (Mr. Hamilton, he says), £114 odd realised from the sale of our furniture, and £500 for my memoirs.
Monday, October 31, 1910
(Crippen is still concerned about his finances.)
My solicitor distinctly told me a friend had come forward and guaranteed payment of the expenses of the appeal with the understanding I would, in return, do certain things that were not to be unreasonable, among which I might be asked to open business in America. Of course that would suit both of us, would it not, darling wifie? So you see, as the matter stands now, so far as I know and my solicitor has not written me otherwise-the expenses of the appeal are provided for, and, besides, he has Munyon's offer.
I saw the two letters you enclosed about 'Lady S' [Lady Somerset]. I did not intend to write her again, but to-day I had a letter from her asking about you and saying she thought of publishing something which she thought would help my appeal, so I had to get permission to write and forbid her to do any such thing.
Oh! darling, there is so much I want to tell you and so little time and space. I told my solicitor to notify Scotland Yard that all property outside your own was to be sent to his office, and that no one has a claim on it but myself. This is to keep off those 'harpies' you mention. Legally, no matter what happens, all comes to me, and then I have instructed my solicitor you must be allowed to select what you want, and the balance is to be sold for you.
As to Char. X Bank, they must pay some dividend, and if only 1/4, that would mean a good sum11. My greatest grief has been the disappointment in not being able to put all in your hands at once without all this trouble and make you independent of all.
One thing more on business, dearest. While at Brixton I wrote an account (12 foolscap pages finely written) of my experiences of seven weeks, and my solicitor has this, yet unpublished. I am going to ask him to give it to you to be rewritten, as, with your experiences, you can enlarge on it, and then sell it as a help to my own dear wifie.
Do not forget to insist on having at once the trunk of silver, and sell it to best advantage for present needs, and get the Brixton MSS. I have written, but get a good sum for it.
Tuesday, November 1, 1910
(Crippen learns that he is unlikely to recover anything from the Charing Cross Bank following its failure.)
Your visit last evening was precious indeed to me, but I am afraid I did all the talking, darling, and you had no time to explain much. Probably you did not have time to write to me last night, as I have had no letter yet. Perhaps it may come later when the Governor comes in to see me.
In the meantime, wifie, I must content myself with those you have sent me up to now - four of them - and all treasured more than diamonds. I read them over and over again, and get great comfort from your loving words and the thought that, though we are separated, your love is all mine for always, as my love is yours to eternity. It is so precious a thought to me to tell you are always and ever my wifie, and that not even death can come between us. My heart rejoices in the promise that you will always bear the name you have taken, no matter what comes.12
I suppose I am down hearted to-day, because I have a letter from my solicitor saying the chance of anything from the Char. X Bank is most remote. I had looked forward to being able to provide wife dearest the means of my own to keep you in comfort for a long time, and the bitterness of this terrible disappointment would be worse to me than death itself.
Pray God to help us in the appeal, that I may be spared to protect you again and keep you, darling, as I have always hoped. My only thoughts now are that you shall be kept from all harm in life, as I would keep you. We have been so long one in heart, soul, thought, and deed that, wifie darling, nothing can separate our inward consciousness and spirit.
I had notice also this morning that the appeal will be heard Thursday. Well, the sooner the better, if only my counsel and solicitor are prepared to fight.
Wednesday, November 2, 1910
(Crippen shows his concern for Le Neve's future.)
You will find at Whitefriars Street safely to-day, I hope, the letter I wrote you yesterday. As I write I jot down the facts that come into my mind which I want you to know.
Do not forget the prescription for 'Sans Peine'6. You see, hub's darling, I am trying my best to see that you may be independent and not be led into any false step through obligation to anyone. I want my wifie's life to be a happy and comfortable one. That is the greatest desire of my heart. I had indeed hoped there would be enough left to let you establish yourself in some business, when you could order your life as you wished it, without being put into a position where another's will might force you to submit to anything opposed to your wishes.
I quite understand what people say, and even at the trial the prosecution deliberately misrepresented our relations to each other for their own ends. But I know there are many who can understand what we are to each other, truly husband and wife, sacredly so; no more sacred relations to each other such as ours could ever exist.
May God bless us again and restore us to each other, darling, and may God protect you and always keep you safe from harm. Every time I write you I find there is more to be said before I finish, and oh! how I long for our hopes to be realised that letters soon may no longer be necessary.
Friday, November 4, 1910
(From the sale of her life story, Le Neve has already made sufficient to carry her over for two years.)
I hope you will find no trouble with my MS. As soon as you have it look it over, and during one of your visits tell me anything you do not understand. I expect they will want to make a copy of the plans of the buildings I have drawn, as they serve to illustrate. I hope you can obtain a good, price for it, to add to what your clever little business has secured for your own work.
Yes, it is a comfort to me to know you have secured for yourself sufficient to carry you over 2 years, and if you do well with my MSS and in the sale of the furs, etc., I shall feel satisfied you will be well cared for.
I have had so many disappointments, I dare not even hope tomorrow will bring release, but oh! how I pray to be spared to take care of my own wifie and make her happy again.
Saturday, November 5, 1910
(Crippen learns that his Appeal has been dismissed.)
The Appeal has decided against us. Hope has completely gone, and your hub's heart is broken. No more can he hold his wifie in his arms, and the life he planned to devote to making your life comfortable is rapidly drawing to its end.
Death has no terror for me. I fear not at all the passing from this life, but, oh! wifie, my love, my own, the bitterness of the thought that I must leave you alone, without me in the world, to those who can never, I am sure, love you, cherish you, and protect you as I would have done hereafter as in the past.
These years past that we have been all in all to each other I was always looking forward to our happy life, to years together in a paradise of our own, like that we have always enjoyed since we have been everything to each other. I did not intend to write so mournfully, but my heart overflows in spite of all my efforts and opens itself to wifie, all I have in the world and all I ever wanted.
Your letter came after I had gone this morning, but I had it to-night, also another one, and one from Nina. Please tell Nina and Horace, although I cannot repay their great kindness to me, I shall pray God to help them through their troubles and make their life smoother and easier than in the past, and give them all my kindest love.
Your letters are such a comfort to me, my own wifie. I just feel your love surrounding me, and those dear, sweet words of your love shall lie on my heart at the last.
I hope you will have no trouble, now the appeal is finished, in getting everything from Scotland Yard through my solicitor. A new date [for his execution] will be fixed in place of Nov. 8th, so I hope I shall be here long enough to know that you have everything all right. You see, I want you to have all my personal. property, my watch, chain, plain-band ring, clothes, etc., as my gift to you now.
About the diamonds, I want you to have them to wear as long as you can afford to keep them and to sell to help you anytime you need money. I shall on Monday write my solicitor to hand all those things over to you.
Today, the Governor has written to the Home Office for permission for me to make a new will, explaining that I wish to cancel the one signed at Brixton, and also asking permission for the prison authorities to be witnesses.13
I shall feel bereft of everything indeed if I cannot give you at least one good-bye kiss, but oh! wifie dear, I am fearful it may not be permitted. Still, when I know what day our last farewell must be, I shall beg the Home Office to grant us that favour.
It is comfort to my anguished heart to know you will always keep my image in your heart, and believe, my darling, we shall meet again in another life. We have been always so entirely one in heart and soul, thought and deed, even in flesh and spirit, I cannot believe otherwise but that we shall be together in that other life I am going to soon.
I am not so selfish, darling, as wish you not to marry again, but inasmuch as you have been the one woman who has had all my heart, so do I believe you will ever keep me in your heart.
If only I could have left you well provided for I would have wished our little one had lived14 that you might have had what would have been part of both of us. But, like other things, it was not to be.
If you can I should like to know your plans for the future before I am gone; it would be a comfort to me indeed to know how wifie, my own darling, is to be provided for.
I have not been able to keep the tears back to-night, the bitter news of the disappointment has been so terrible, and my longings for my wifie have been so intense. But I shall soon be brave again and keep up to the end.
Were it possible I would wish to be cremated15, and wish wifie then to dispose of my ashes as she desires. Please, darling, when you think of something to suggest or ask me, put it down on a memo. to write me about or to ask me when you see me. The time is short, and we must try and think of everything for wifie's benefit and get all settled for you that I can accomplish.
To-day at the appeal I realised more and more that the medical evidence for my defence was so mismanaged that it told against me rather than for me. This I saw at the Old Bailey in the judge's summing up and again to-day in the summing up of the Appeal. I am powerless now, and can do nothing more, but bow to the inevitable.
Sunday, November 6, 1910
(Utter despair.)
All day I sit here by a table with my eyes on a book, and I suppose the guards believe me to be reading, but over and over again the words are only a blank before my eyes, and the book with pictures of ourselves together.
I see ourselves in those days of courtship, having our dinner together after our day of work together was done, or sitting sometimes in our favourite corner in Frascati's by the stairway, all the evening listening to the music. The dinner too with Nina with us, in anticipation of her marriage; and ah! how even in those early days we began to realise how near and dear we were to become to each other.
One Sunday, how early I came for you - six years ago last summer16 it was - and we had a whole day together, which meant so much to us then. A rainy day indeed, but how happy we were together, with all sunshine in our hearts. It is good to think, darling wifie, that even in those early days before our wedding came that we were always in perfect harmony with each other. Even without being wedded.
Then came those days when hub felt, and wifie too so earnestly felt, it was impossible to live on and not be all in all to each other, and from our wedding day all has been a perfect honeymoon of four years to Dec. 6 next.
Undated but around November 13, 1910
(Crippen appreciates the support that Le Neve has publicly expressed.)
What a nice long letter from you this morning, and what comfort do I indeed derive from wifie's loving words. I was anxious to read what you had written in my defence.17 and you have my wifie dear, most ably set forth important facts that must tell with great weight in the minds of the unprejudiced. Well, we must wait patiently the end, whatever God wills it to be.
Should it be that I must die, I have no fear of that, sure of my wifie's comfort to the end. and of being with her in spirit after, until we are united where there is no more separation. Should I be spared, we must look forward to time to prove my conviction unjust, with your help, to drag out the evidence that some day must be found.
I have never intended to wound you, wifie dear, with suggesting I might become a burden to you, but I know my wifie understands I could not bear to think my love might be so selfish as to ask of you an unreasonable sacrifice. Darling, my own wifie dear, you can see, I am sure, that my love for you has become so great, so absorbing that I was afraid I should ask of you, in my longings to be all in all to you, what would be unreasonable. But no, dearest, I shall only think now that as I would have been ready any time and at all times to lay down my life and soul to make you happy, so you too are mine for ever.
Thursday, November 19, 1910
(This was Crippen's 'Farewell Letter to the World' published in Lloyd's Weekly News on 20 November 1910.)
This is my farewell letter to the world. After many days of anxious expectation that my innocence might be proved, after enduring the agony of a long trial and the suspense of an appeal, and after the final endeavour of my friends to obtain a reprieve, I see that at last my doom is sealed and that in this life I have no more hope.
With all the courage I have I face another world and another Judge from Whom I am sure of justice greater than that of this world and of mercy greater than that of men.
I have no dread of death, no fear of the hereafter, only the dread and agony that one whom I love best may suffer when I have gone.
About my unhappy relations with Belle Elmore I will say nothing. We drifted apart in sympathy; she had her own friends and pleasures, and I was a rather lonely man and rather miserable. Then I obtained the affection and sympathy of Miss Ethel Le Neve.
I confess that according to the moral laws of Church and State we were guilty, and I do not defend our position in that respect. But what I do say is that this love was not of a debased and degraded character.
It was, if I may say so to people who will not, perhaps, understand or believe, a good love. She comforted me in my melancholy condition. Her mind was beautiful to me. Her loyalty and courage and self sacrifice were of a high character. Whatever sin there was - and we broke the law - it was my sin, not hers.
In this farewell letter to the world, written as I face eternity, I say that Ethel Le Neve has loved me as few women love men, and that her innocence of any crime, save that of yielding to the dictates of the heart, is absolute.
To her I pay this last tribute. It is of her that my last thoughts have been. My last prayer will be that God may protect her and keep her safe from harm and allow her to join me in eternity.
I make this defence and this acknowledgment-that the love of Ethel Le Neve has been the best thing in my life-my only happiness-and that in return for that great gift I have been inspired with a greater kindness towards my fellow-beings, and with a greater desire to do good.
We were as man and wife together, with an absolute communion of spirit. Perhaps God will pardon us because we were like two children in the great unkind world, who clung to one another and gave each other courage ...
I myself have endeavoured to be equally courageous, yet there have been times during her visits to me when an agony of intense longing has taken possession of me, when my very soul has cried out to clasp her hand and. speak those things which are sacred between a man and woman who have loved.
Alas! We have been divided by the iron discipline of prison rules, and warders have been the witnesses of our grief.
Why do I tell these things to the world? Not to gain anything for myself - not even compassion. But because I desire the world to have pity on a woman who, however weak she may have seemed in their eyes, has been loyal in the midst of misery, and to the very end of tragedy, and whose love has been self sacrificing and strong.
These are my last words.
I belong no more to the world.
In the silence of my cell I pray that God may pity all weak hearts, all the poor children of life, and His poor servant.
Monday, November 21, 1910
(Also intended to be his last letter but wasn't.)
How can I find the strength and heart to struggle through this last letter? God, indeed., must hear our cry to Him for Divine help in this last farewell.
How to control myself to write I hardly know, but pray God help us to be brave to face the end now so near.
The thoughts rush to my mind quicker than I can put them down. Time is so short now, and there is so much that I would say.
There are less than two days left to us, only one more letter after this can I write you, and only two more visits, one tonight before you read this letter and one tomorrow.
When I wrote to you on Saturday, I had not heard any news of the petition [for Clemency], and though I never at any time dared hope, yet deep down in my heart was just a glimmer of trust that God might give us yet a chance, to put me right before the world and let me have the passionate longing of my soul.
Your letter written early Saturday came to me late Saturday evening, and soon after the Governor brought me the dreadful news [that Churchill had turned down his Appeal for Clemency], about ten o'clock.
He was so kind and considerate in telling me, in breaking the shock as gently as he could. He was most kind and left me at last with, 'God bless you; good-night', that I know you will remember him most kindly.
When he had gone I first kissed your face in the photo, my faithful devoted companion in all this sorrow.
Oh! how glad I was I had the photo. It was some consolation, although, in spite of all my greatest efforts, it was impossible to keep down a great sob and my heart's agonised cry.
How am I to endure to take my last look at your dear face; what agony must I go through at the last when you disappear for ever from my eyes! God help us to be brave then.
Tuesday, November 22, 1910
(All hope has gone.)
His Last Letter
When I received your letter on Sunday eve I saw that you did not then know the bad news, and I prayed God to help you in the morning when you did learn it.
I know what your agony will be, for I know your heart, like mine, will be broken. God help us indeed to be brave.
That is my constant prayer, now that the last refuge to which we had looked with some hope has fled.
I am comforted at least in thinking that throughout all the years of our friendship never have I passed one unkind word or given one reproachful look to her whom I have loved best in life, to whom I have given myself heart and soul, wholly and entirely, for ever.
Crippen was executed on 23 November 1910.
Footnotes
- Tom Cullen reports that Crippen's benefactor was Horatio Bottomley, a colourful fraudster and the publisher of John Bull. He was jailed in 1922 for fraud. [back to the letter]
- 'Dr' James Munyon (1848-1918) had a varied business career in the United States, which included the sale of quack medicines. He had recruited Crippen into his business. A master of publicity, it seems unlikely that he would have ever sponsored Crippen after the parting of their ways. [back to the letter]
- Lady Henry Somerset (1851-1921) was a leading Temperance campaigner. [back to the letter]
- Horace Brock had married Le Neve's younger sister, known as Nina. The sisters were very close. [back to the letter]
- On Le Neve's return to England, she called herself Ethel Clare Harvey (Crippen's middle name), thus continuing to respect the wishes of her dead lover. [back to the letter]
- 'Sans Peine' was a formulation that Crippen had concocted that was supposed to relieve pain. He'd had high hopes of marketing in the United States before Chief Inspector Dew collared him. [back to the letter]
- The Charing Cross Bank, where Crippen and Cora had placed £600 on deposit, had suspended payments in October 1910. None of the depositors got any money back but, of course, neither of the Crippens would live long enough to discover the fate of their savings. [back to the letter]
- Shortly after her arrest. Le Neve had been offered £200 per week to appear on the American Vaudeville Circuit in a sketch entitled 'Caught by Wireless'. [back to the letter]
- Tom Cullen reported that Le Neve's sister, Nina, and her husband - Horace Brock - were having 'money troubles' and, because they had stood by Le Neve, Crippen wanted to reciprocate their kindness. [back to the letter]
- According to Tom Cullen, (a) 'Mr Harvey' was Eddie Marr who was a man with many aliases, including Hamilton. Marr had backed Crippen in his Aural Remedies venture. (b) The £114 realised from the sale of his household effects went to Arthur Newton, Crippen's lawyer who taken a lien on them. (c) The offer for Crippen's Memoirs came from the New York American - a Hearst publication. [back to the letter]
- But they failed to pay any dividend. [back to the letter]
- Later, despite Crippen's good intentions, Cora's siblings successfully contested Crippen's Will, with the result that Le Neve failed to benefit, as Crippen had intended. [back to the letter]
- Crippen was allowed to write a new Will. [back to the letter]
- A reference to Le Neve's miscarriage the previous year. [back to the letter]
- Cremations were unusual at the time and had not been embraced by the Catholic Church. In the event, Crippen's remains would be buried in the Prison Grounds - the usual practice. [back to the letter]
- This suggests that Crippen and Le Neve had been 'seeing each other' since the Summer of 1903 - much longer than previously supposed. [back to the letter]
- Crippen was probably referring to the first instalment of Ethel's short autobiographical sketch which appeared in Lloyd's Weekly News on November 6th. [back to the letter]