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Filson Young
Filson Young is the primary authority on Dr Crippen by virtue of his book:
The Trial of Hawley Harvey Crippen
Published in the Notable Trials Series in 1920
The reason that this book is outstanding is because of Filson Young's editing of Crippen's Trial Transcript and also because of his 21-page Introduction which is now reproduced on this Site.
Other unedited Trial Transcripts contain typographical errors. For example, Marion Louisa Curnow, a Prosecution Witness, appears in some other publications as 'Marin Louisa Kernow' which is how it must have sounded to the courtroom stenographer.
Filson Young clearly took his editing responsibilities seriously and, in his Prefatory Note, he acknowledged the assistance of several leading experts on the Crippen case, including the former Chief Inspector Dew.
Interestingly, Filson Young dedicated his book to Sir Basil Thomson (Wikipedia) who had become an Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police and Head of CID in 1913. Thomson had served as secretary to the Prison Commission from 1908 until 1913 and his name appears within the Crippen archives.
An unedited transcript appears in the Central Criminal Court's Session Papers, a hard copy of which is available in The National Archives under reference CRIM 10/100.
However, even Filson Young was not perfect (who is?) and this Author has raised some queries in our interpretation of his excellent work.
My main regret is that Filson Young's publisher failed to provide an Index, only a List of Witnesses with Page Numbers. This has been developed to provide a list of Prosecution Witnesses and is included on this Site.
Two interesting bonuses are:
- The Transcript of Ethel Le Neve's Trial which followed Crippen's. This is of interest because it authenticates the claim that Le Neve had suffered a miscarriage. Mrs Emily Jackson, Le Neve's landlady, had also testified that Le Neve had been searching for Belle Elmore's bank book which contained £200, clearly a reference to her Post Office Savings Account which Le Neve later emptied.
- Captain Kendall's Message, as published in the Daily Mail. This differs from Kendall's Witness Statement which was not produced at Crippen's Trial. [TNA reference: MEPO 3/198].