Walter Dew

by Nicholas Connell

To this day the name of Dr. Crippen is universally recognised as one of the most infamous in the annals of crime and his notoriety is second only to that of Jack the Ripper. It was the job of one man to catch both Crippen and Jack the Ripper. His name was Walter Dew. Dew was a detective constable in the Whitechapel Criminal Investigation Department throughout the Ripper investigation and famously the first officer at the scene of the horrific murder of Mary Kelly. His transatlantic chase and eventual capture of the fugitive Dr. Crippen and his mistress Ethel Le Neve made him the most celebrated detective in the world. Even today his name is widely known and he has featured in several films and works of fiction. Based on original research and using much hitherto unpublished material, "Walter The Man Who Caught Crippen" tells the full, extraordinary story of Dew's life, from his humble beginnings as a seed merchant's clerk to chief inspector at Scotland Yard in charge of the most celebrated murder investigation of the twentieth century.

Genres: Biography

224 pages, Paperback

First published March 17, 2005

Reviews

[Ralph Burton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jack the Ripper hovers over this book like some malevolent God, all Victorian fog and butchery, playing with its characters’ lives like chess pawns. Dew is driven, perhaps, by his failure to catch that monster into another life-or-death cat-and-mouse game with another cold, calculated man.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perhaps most known for his transatlantic chase to apprehend the suspected murderer Dr. Crippen and his alleged accomplice Ethel Le Neve, Walter Dew: The Man Who Caught Crippen tells the story of the detective's humble beginnings to his retirement from the police force after almost thirty years of service. Containing original research and excerpts from Dew's own biography, Nicholas Connell gives a fascinating insight into one of the twentieth century's most notorious criminal cases.

As someone who has an interest in nineteenth and early twentieth century crime, this book begged to be bought when I saw it at a local bookshop. I had also wanted to read more about Walter Dew after reading the fictional The False Inspector Dew by Peter Lovesey. I have read many books of this genre and find that, sometimes, there can be too much emphasis placed on quoting trial transcripts ad verbatim. This was not the case here and I found this book a very easy yet informative read.

Although much of the book is taken up, understandably, by the Crippen case, I was pleased to see that there was also a large section devoted to Dew's involvement in the Jack the Ripper investigation. Dew's recollections of being one of the first policemen on the scene of the Mary Jane Kelly murder were absorbing and gives readers an awareness of how horrific it must have been to witness what he did.

I was also pleased to see a little cameo role for the pathologist Bernard Spilsbury - a personal favourite of mine!

Highly recommended to anyone with an interest in true crime.

[Jamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very interesting and informative book