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Ethel Le Neve's Life Story

Ethel Le Neve's Life Story was serialised over four weeks in Lloyd's Weekly News from the 6th to the 27th November 1910. The issue dated 20th November was rather special because it also contained Crippen's Farewell Letter to the World (which Crippen had routed through Le Neve for publication) and a large photo of Le Neve dressed as a young man to simulate the disguise she had adopted during her flight with Crippen.

Later, her Life Story was published in its entirety as a 64-page Octavo booklet – see image.

Although uncredited, Le Neve's story had been written by Philip Gibbs (1877-1962) who had reported on the Crippen Trial for The Daily Chronicle. Gibbs would become a prolific author with over 80 titles to his name and he was one of the five War Correspondents knighted in 1920.

In Adventures in Journalism (1923), Gibbs recalled how The Daily Chronicle (a stable mate of Lloyd's Weekly News) had 'captured' Le Neve after she had been found 'Not Guilty' at her trial and how - because they had been desperate for a scoop - she had been installed in a furnished flat under an assumed name. It had been Gibb's job to take her to a little restaurant in Soho for lunch each day while rival journalists were scouring the country for her. Gibbs was aided by a fellow journalist, John Percy Eddy (1881-1975), who later became a barrister and then a judge.

A pretty and attractive little creature

Gibbs described Le Neve as 'quite a pretty and attractive little creature' and 'just a little Cockney girl, from a family of humble class and means'. When she went on the run with Crippen, she knew that he was wanted by the law for 'some old thing or other', which she didn't bother to find out and she had regarded the whole episode as a great lark until Chief Inspector Dew came aboard the Montrose and arrested them both on a charge of murder.

Gibbs also reported that 'many times she was so gay that it was impossible to believe that she had escaped the hangman's rope by no great distance, and that her lover was a little blear-eyed man lying under sentence of death. Yet that gayety of hers was not affected or forced. It bubbled out of her because of a quick and childish sense of humour, which had not been killed by the frightful thing that overshadowed her. When that shadow fell upon her spirit again, she used to weep, but never for long. Her last request to me was that I should have Doctor Crippen's photograph made into a miniature which she could wear concealed upon her breast. On the morning of his execution she put on black for him, and wished that she might have died with him on the scaffold.'

Importantly, Le Neve had admitted to Gibbs that, after putting two and two together, she now had no doubt about Crippen's guilt. 'He was mad when he did it', she told Gibbs, 'and he was mad for me.'

Of course, Le Neve's admission failed to appear in Her Life Story in which she stretched credibility by claiming that it had seemed perfectly natural that Crippen's wife would have left her jewels and furs behind when she had supposedly left her husband. Any questions about Cora Crippen disappearing without saying a word to any of her friends or leaving her bank deposits behind were never mentioned either in her story or in Gibb's reminiscences. Similarly, there was no mention of Le Neve's miscarriage, her engagement or her so-called 'marriage' to Crippen.

Passionate Love

The thing that had struck Gibbs was the deep, sincere, and passionate love between the little weak-eyed, middle-aged quack doctor and this common, pretty little Cockney girl.

Gibbs was certain in his own mind that Le Neve had been guiltless of all knowledge of Mrs. Crippen's murder but, nevertheless, he had been glad to see the last of her, having been sickened by the story of love and murder.

Importantly for Le Neve, her collaboration with The Daily Chronicle had given her much needed funds from which she could help her sister, Nina, who was then in financial difficulties. Doubtless, they also provided the means which then enabled her to flee the country.

 

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