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Story of a Murder: The Wives, the Mistress and Dr Crippen
An epic examination of the historical true-crime story of infamous wife-murderer Dr Crippen in Edwardian England, brought to justice by an extraordinary group of strong women
No murderer should ever be the keeper of their victim's story …
On 1 February, 1910, vivacious musichall performer, Belle Elmore, suddenly vanished from her north London home, causing alarm among her circle of female friends, the entertainers of the Music Hall Ladies’ Guild who demanded an immediate investigation.
They could not have known what they would the unearthing of a gruesome secret, followed by a fevered manhunt for the prime Belle’s husband, medical fraudster, Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen.
Hiding in the shadows of this evergreen tale is Crippen’s typist and lover, Ethel Le Neve – was she really just ‘an innocent young girl’ in thrall to a powerful older man as so many people have since reported?
In this epic examination of one of the most infamous murders of the twentieth century, prizewinning social historian Hallie Rubenhold gives voice to those who have never properly been heard – the women.
Featuring a carnival cast of eccentric entertainers, glamorous lawyers, zealous detectives, medics and liars, STORY OF A MURDER is meticulously researched and multi-layered, offering the listener an electrifying snapshot of Britain and America at the dawn of the modern era.
No murderer should ever be the keeper of their victim's story …
On 1 February, 1910, vivacious musichall performer, Belle Elmore, suddenly vanished from her north London home, causing alarm among her circle of female friends, the entertainers of the Music Hall Ladies’ Guild who demanded an immediate investigation.
They could not have known what they would the unearthing of a gruesome secret, followed by a fevered manhunt for the prime Belle’s husband, medical fraudster, Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen.
Hiding in the shadows of this evergreen tale is Crippen’s typist and lover, Ethel Le Neve – was she really just ‘an innocent young girl’ in thrall to a powerful older man as so many people have since reported?
In this epic examination of one of the most infamous murders of the twentieth century, prizewinning social historian Hallie Rubenhold gives voice to those who have never properly been heard – the women.
Featuring a carnival cast of eccentric entertainers, glamorous lawyers, zealous detectives, medics and liars, STORY OF A MURDER is meticulously researched and multi-layered, offering the listener an electrifying snapshot of Britain and America at the dawn of the modern era.
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First published March 27, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 269 reviews
April 6, 2025
I don't think we, as a book loving society, give enough credit to historical true crime authors. Investigating crime is hard enough when it just happened. Trying to untangle names, aliases, and relationships and then presenting it to the reader in an understandable way is a tall task. When I saw that Hallie Rubenhold (who wrote The Five, one of the best historical true crime books of all time and yes, I said what I said) had a new book coming out, I was instantly excited. I was right to be!
Story of a Murder is about Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen, his wife Belle Elmore, and the "other" woman Ethel Le Neve. A good amount of the names I just mentioned are not their born names, but it just goes to show the links Rubenhold has to go to make this entire story readable. Crippen was constantly moving around, changing titles, names, and, well, wives. His record in marriages would make even Henry VIII blush.
If you are looking for Rubenhold to turn the genre on its head once again like she did in The Five, then you will be disappointed. However, you shouldn't be. Rubenhold instead takes a notorious case and tells it completely. Each person is given the respect of a full backstory even if they don't deserve it. The first half of the book feels almost like a dual or even triple biography and then of course Belle disappears. What happened? Well, exactly what you expect. This isn't about whodunit. It is about understanding who these people are and how it happened. This narrative is thorough and readable. I highly recommend it.
(This book was provided as an advance copy by Netgalley and Dutton Books.)
Story of a Murder is about Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen, his wife Belle Elmore, and the "other" woman Ethel Le Neve. A good amount of the names I just mentioned are not their born names, but it just goes to show the links Rubenhold has to go to make this entire story readable. Crippen was constantly moving around, changing titles, names, and, well, wives. His record in marriages would make even Henry VIII blush.
If you are looking for Rubenhold to turn the genre on its head once again like she did in The Five, then you will be disappointed. However, you shouldn't be. Rubenhold instead takes a notorious case and tells it completely. Each person is given the respect of a full backstory even if they don't deserve it. The first half of the book feels almost like a dual or even triple biography and then of course Belle disappears. What happened? Well, exactly what you expect. This isn't about whodunit. It is about understanding who these people are and how it happened. This narrative is thorough and readable. I highly recommend it.
(This book was provided as an advance copy by Netgalley and Dutton Books.)
September 29, 2025
reading vlog: https://youtu.be/b6HtdgvyU0U
hallie rubenhold has done it again! in this book she finally gives a voice to Belle Elmore and tells her story. The way she writes makes you feel like you're literally in the room with these people from history! I am amazed at all the information she manages to find out, and how she expertly weaves it into a narrative for the reader! incredible!
hallie rubenhold has done it again! in this book she finally gives a voice to Belle Elmore and tells her story. The way she writes makes you feel like you're literally in the room with these people from history! I am amazed at all the information she manages to find out, and how she expertly weaves it into a narrative for the reader! incredible!
April 2, 2025
3.5 stars, rounded up. This is a true crime book and I wanted to read it as I really enjoyed the author’s “The Five” which was excellent and focused on the victims of Jack the Ripper. This one was similar in that it also concentrated on the women too, but the perp in question, Dr. Crippen, was a lot less compelling and notorious, which made it a harder read for me. It captivated back in the day, but now a days, killing a partner is sadly just so commonplace in the hellscape we live in. An incredible amount of research and work went into this one and the author really does an amazing job with that, and truly deserves accolades. I should probably do a bit more research myself before I delve into other true crime books LOL
August 9, 2025
This is Hallie Rubenhold’s follow up to The Five where she examined the lives of the five victims of Jack the Ripper, looking at them rather than at the focuses of the “Ripperologists” She has done the same here for the press sensation of the murder of Belle Elmore by her husband Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen. This is the one where there were messages to a ship crossing the Atlantic via telegraph. Rubenhold takes a lot at all the myths and spin about the case and reconstructs what we do know, with the focus being on what we do know and the women involved: Belle Elmore and Ethel de Neve.
This is historical true crime at its very best. The research is detailed and meticulous. The backstory for each character gives clarity to what occurred and the role of the popular press is examined. As with her previous book Rubenhold challenges the perspective that have been current with a focus on the women who were the “victims” and secondary characters. There were obstacles and difficulties as Rubenhold points out:
“What of their stories were concocted, omitted or hidden to save face, and how much was embellished by journalists who serialized their interviews, is uncertain. At different times, each family member offers a different set of narratives at variance with what others have said. The Neaves frequently contradict each other and their daughters, while Nina contradicts Ethel and Ethel regularly contradicts herself.”
Rubenhold also looks at all the evidence about the murder and updates the modern findings in relation to DNA etc, with some interesting conclusions.
Belle Elmore, Crippen’s wife is the centre of the book and it is interesting to see how her reputation was besmirched over the years, so that by the 1930s many were saying that she almost deserved to be murdered, with a good deal of sympathy going to Crippen. Dorothy L Sayers described Belle Elmore thus:
“noisy, over-vitalised, animal, seductive and intolerable”
Others wrote in a similar way, it very much felt as though they are arguing that she deserved it! This is a very detailed account with some loose ends left at the end, but as with Rubenhold’s book on Jack the Ripper, it puts the women involved firmly at the centre.
This is historical true crime at its very best. The research is detailed and meticulous. The backstory for each character gives clarity to what occurred and the role of the popular press is examined. As with her previous book Rubenhold challenges the perspective that have been current with a focus on the women who were the “victims” and secondary characters. There were obstacles and difficulties as Rubenhold points out:
“What of their stories were concocted, omitted or hidden to save face, and how much was embellished by journalists who serialized their interviews, is uncertain. At different times, each family member offers a different set of narratives at variance with what others have said. The Neaves frequently contradict each other and their daughters, while Nina contradicts Ethel and Ethel regularly contradicts herself.”
Rubenhold also looks at all the evidence about the murder and updates the modern findings in relation to DNA etc, with some interesting conclusions.
Belle Elmore, Crippen’s wife is the centre of the book and it is interesting to see how her reputation was besmirched over the years, so that by the 1930s many were saying that she almost deserved to be murdered, with a good deal of sympathy going to Crippen. Dorothy L Sayers described Belle Elmore thus:
“noisy, over-vitalised, animal, seductive and intolerable”
Others wrote in a similar way, it very much felt as though they are arguing that she deserved it! This is a very detailed account with some loose ends left at the end, but as with Rubenhold’s book on Jack the Ripper, it puts the women involved firmly at the centre.
January 14, 2025
Dark, detailed and wonderfully written, Story of a Murder provides a brilliant micro history of the Crippens. Jam-packed with information, Rubenhold sheds light on the darker parts of the Edwardian world, through the actions of one man.
Rubenhold provides an uncensored account of the key characters in this murder. Using ample amounts of primary evidence, she shows the duality of them all. In particular, she works hard to highlight the complexities of Ethel, who, for many years, was easily dismissed as a naive young girl overcome with romantic notions. Instead, Rubenhold allows the evidence to speak for itself; that we may never truly know the truth, we can infer and build a better understanding of Ethel.
Similarly for Belle, Rubenhold puts right the years of lies and slander. In these pages, Belle becomes a living person who has dreams and ambitions. She isn’t perfect but feels incredibly human and deserving of being treated fairly. The impact that her disappearance on her friends reminds us that murder is an incredibly disruptive force, but also that she was loved by the people around her.
But more than just revealing the grim details of Belle Elmore’s murder, this book shows the start of deeper societal change in the Western World. Despite the patriarchal society that all they lived in, which prevented them from voting, doing jury service, or having a bank account, this book reveals how female agency was strong in Edwardian Britain. It was women of the MHLG that searched for the truth, who provided evidence at trial, and fought to preserve Belle’s memory. Their actions were proof that women were actors of their own stories.
Similarly underscoring this was the misogynist medical views of the last nineteen century. The sexist views on women’s bodies were not just confined to medical examinations, but were closely intertwined with everyday beliefs. It fuels Crippen’s low opinion of the women in his life, and gave him power over their bodies. It influenced the public’s opinion on Belle, and it disguised the role that Ethel played in the murder. Like a double-edged sword, it allowed for justice to never fully be served in this case.
Thank you to the publisher for this arc. All thoughts are my own.
Publishes: 25th March 2025
Rubenhold provides an uncensored account of the key characters in this murder. Using ample amounts of primary evidence, she shows the duality of them all. In particular, she works hard to highlight the complexities of Ethel, who, for many years, was easily dismissed as a naive young girl overcome with romantic notions. Instead, Rubenhold allows the evidence to speak for itself; that we may never truly know the truth, we can infer and build a better understanding of Ethel.
Similarly for Belle, Rubenhold puts right the years of lies and slander. In these pages, Belle becomes a living person who has dreams and ambitions. She isn’t perfect but feels incredibly human and deserving of being treated fairly. The impact that her disappearance on her friends reminds us that murder is an incredibly disruptive force, but also that she was loved by the people around her.
But more than just revealing the grim details of Belle Elmore’s murder, this book shows the start of deeper societal change in the Western World. Despite the patriarchal society that all they lived in, which prevented them from voting, doing jury service, or having a bank account, this book reveals how female agency was strong in Edwardian Britain. It was women of the MHLG that searched for the truth, who provided evidence at trial, and fought to preserve Belle’s memory. Their actions were proof that women were actors of their own stories.
Similarly underscoring this was the misogynist medical views of the last nineteen century. The sexist views on women’s bodies were not just confined to medical examinations, but were closely intertwined with everyday beliefs. It fuels Crippen’s low opinion of the women in his life, and gave him power over their bodies. It influenced the public’s opinion on Belle, and it disguised the role that Ethel played in the murder. Like a double-edged sword, it allowed for justice to never fully be served in this case.
Thank you to the publisher for this arc. All thoughts are my own.
Publishes: 25th March 2025
April 23, 2025
3.5 stars
I have been in awe of Ms. Rubenhold's research skills since reading her wonderful book The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper. I was slower to engage with this book simply because I was less familiar with the crimes or the criminal in question. However, as the facts piled up, I felt my interest quickening. It's an extremely effective method of eliminating any romantic notions about the people involved. Additionally, Rubenhold treats the women involved as worthy of our attention and care. They are not just props to tell the male criminal's story.
We get to examine all the sordid details of Crippen's underhanded and swindling ways of business. I knew generally about patent medicines—their inefficacy, their possible harmful side effects, and the dashed hopes of those who paid money that they couldn't afford to use them. Being privy to all the wheeling, dealing, and scheming to defraud gave me a new appreciation of the sliminess of the process.
We also meet a Doctor Crippen who likes the company of women but intensely dislikes dependents (like children). He is responsible for abortions, one wife's ovaries being removed, moving suddenly to avoid consequences, and the elimination of women that he no longer wished to deal with. He has few compunctions about his treatment of other people and he is a compulsive liar. But like so many of this kind of person, his superficial charm and glib tongue seem to have smoothed his way through society, since most of us expect decency and empathy in those we deal with.
Crippen's big mistake, it seems, was not noticing that normal people have friends and family who care about them. He thought that his second wife's friends would just carry on with their lives after her disappearance, because that was exactly what he planned to do. He failed to recognize the determination of those friends to find out what happened to Belle.
I was left pondering his mistress, Ethel. I can't imagine being willing to put up with being a (not so) secret mistress or a henchman in illegal and immoral business dealings, but she must have had her reasons. I have to also wonder why she was willing to don boy's clothing and go on the run with Crippen. I can see why Crippen wanted her along—she literally knew where the body was buried, as she had worked hard cleaning up the murder scene. She also knew far too much about his shady business. It must have been jarring for her when Crippen proposed splitting up when they arrived in Quebec. Nevertheless, she stayed true to him until the end of her life.
It is the last chapter which chronicles the changing narrative of Belle Elmore from murder victim to awful, repulsive woman who deserved to be killed. Belle was self confident, hard working, caring, and well connected. Crippen had arranged for her ovaries to be removed early in their marriage, so she pursued careers in opera and music hall, ending up very involved in charitable pursuits. Instead of divorcing this wife, Crippen likely tried to poison her and the situation went wrong, leaving her body with unmistakable signs of foul play. Notably, it was in the early days of the 20th century that an independent woman would be interpreted as cruel and uncaring to her husband, when women were seeking wider roles for themselves and men were resentful. Male writers switched up the story until Belle was the wicked witch and Ethel the innocent young thing. Ms. Rubenhold sets the record straight.
I have been in awe of Ms. Rubenhold's research skills since reading her wonderful book The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper. I was slower to engage with this book simply because I was less familiar with the crimes or the criminal in question. However, as the facts piled up, I felt my interest quickening. It's an extremely effective method of eliminating any romantic notions about the people involved. Additionally, Rubenhold treats the women involved as worthy of our attention and care. They are not just props to tell the male criminal's story.
We get to examine all the sordid details of Crippen's underhanded and swindling ways of business. I knew generally about patent medicines—their inefficacy, their possible harmful side effects, and the dashed hopes of those who paid money that they couldn't afford to use them. Being privy to all the wheeling, dealing, and scheming to defraud gave me a new appreciation of the sliminess of the process.
We also meet a Doctor Crippen who likes the company of women but intensely dislikes dependents (like children). He is responsible for abortions, one wife's ovaries being removed, moving suddenly to avoid consequences, and the elimination of women that he no longer wished to deal with. He has few compunctions about his treatment of other people and he is a compulsive liar. But like so many of this kind of person, his superficial charm and glib tongue seem to have smoothed his way through society, since most of us expect decency and empathy in those we deal with.
Crippen's big mistake, it seems, was not noticing that normal people have friends and family who care about them. He thought that his second wife's friends would just carry on with their lives after her disappearance, because that was exactly what he planned to do. He failed to recognize the determination of those friends to find out what happened to Belle.
I was left pondering his mistress, Ethel. I can't imagine being willing to put up with being a (not so) secret mistress or a henchman in illegal and immoral business dealings, but she must have had her reasons. I have to also wonder why she was willing to don boy's clothing and go on the run with Crippen. I can see why Crippen wanted her along—she literally knew where the body was buried, as she had worked hard cleaning up the murder scene. She also knew far too much about his shady business. It must have been jarring for her when Crippen proposed splitting up when they arrived in Quebec. Nevertheless, she stayed true to him until the end of her life.
It is the last chapter which chronicles the changing narrative of Belle Elmore from murder victim to awful, repulsive woman who deserved to be killed. Belle was self confident, hard working, caring, and well connected. Crippen had arranged for her ovaries to be removed early in their marriage, so she pursued careers in opera and music hall, ending up very involved in charitable pursuits. Instead of divorcing this wife, Crippen likely tried to poison her and the situation went wrong, leaving her body with unmistakable signs of foul play. Notably, it was in the early days of the 20th century that an independent woman would be interpreted as cruel and uncaring to her husband, when women were seeking wider roles for themselves and men were resentful. Male writers switched up the story until Belle was the wicked witch and Ethel the innocent young thing. Ms. Rubenhold sets the record straight.
February 4, 2025
I always go into non-fiction ready to be bored and am always happy when I'm not. This is another example of not being bored! I absolutely loved Hallie Rubenhold's "the Five", I really appreciated the life she was able to give back to the Jack the Ripper cases (something that is so rarely done). Seeing this book, and knowing it was going to be more victim-centered than perpetrator-centered I was ready to dive in. I love historical true crime, mostly cause it adds that extra layer of mystery and "will it ever really be solved", but having it told in a way that positively displays the victim is also so enlightening. Another thing I truly appreciated was in the epilogue, Rubenhold spent most of the time showing how Bell was usually labeled as a fiend, a harlot, a menace to society with her New Woman ways when in reality she was a progressive woman, a beloved sister and daughter who was robbed of her youth and life.
In terms of this book, there are only a few minor things I have fault with (please bear in mind that I was kindly provided with an uncorrected pre-proof so nothing is official yet). Firstly I. WANT. PICTURES. I had to go on the deep dark web (read: Wikipedia) so find photos of the cast of characters but I would have preferred seeing them as I was reading. I also found that Ethel was introduced a little too soon into the narrative and I was a little lost at who she and her sister Nina were and how they fit into the story. There were also a few spelling/grammar issues but I'm not too worried about that (unless they get published)
In terms of the story and my thoughts, Crippen totally did it. And if Ethel wasn't completely complicit she absolutely had some involvement. No woman is moving in with her lover after his wife ~mysteriously vanishes~ at an all too convenient time and doesn't think twice about it. Also, even if she didn't, after a while the very strange smell coming from the Unfinished Cellar™ sure as heck would give something away. Not convinced still? Let's flee the country, but you need to dress as a boy!! For heaven's sake my girl, she knew something if not everything.
Thank you Netgalley for this super interesting read!!!
In terms of this book, there are only a few minor things I have fault with (please bear in mind that I was kindly provided with an uncorrected pre-proof so nothing is official yet). Firstly I. WANT. PICTURES. I had to go on the deep dark web (read: Wikipedia) so find photos of the cast of characters but I would have preferred seeing them as I was reading. I also found that Ethel was introduced a little too soon into the narrative and I was a little lost at who she and her sister Nina were and how they fit into the story. There were also a few spelling/grammar issues but I'm not too worried about that (unless they get published)
In terms of the story and my thoughts, Crippen totally did it. And if Ethel wasn't completely complicit she absolutely had some involvement. No woman is moving in with her lover after his wife ~mysteriously vanishes~ at an all too convenient time and doesn't think twice about it. Also, even if she didn't, after a while the very strange smell coming from the Unfinished Cellar™ sure as heck would give something away. Not convinced still? Let's flee the country, but you need to dress as a boy!! For heaven's sake my girl, she knew something if not everything.
Thank you Netgalley for this super interesting read!!!
September 15, 2025
Wow. I really loved Rubenhold's other historical novel following the women who were victims of Jack the Ripper. This one felt very separate and I didn't feel like I got any particular insight into his second wife Cora at all. I wish that we hadn't spent so much time devoted to Crippen's mistress. It seemed very obvious to me she knew what Crippen did. I wish we had followed up with her family a bit more. I do have to say that this is the first that I had read that Crippen was married before Cora so that piece of information was very interesting and I do thank her for delving into that.
"Story of a Murder" follows Hawley Harvey Crippen. Many people may be familiar with the man who tried to poison his wife, lied about her whereabouts and tried to escape with his mistress overseas.
I do think as I said above that Hallie Rubenhold did a great job of setting up the initial backstory to Crippen and his first wife Charlotte. She has a way of painting a scene that made you think you were in Hell's Kitchen in the late 1800s ready to pass out from the smell, noise, etc. I also had zero idea that man had any offspring until this book. Rubenhold also did a great job of pointing out what homeopathy really was back in Crippen's heydey and how women's "hysterics" were being treated. I do think that if you already didn't totally despise Crippen, this book is definitely going to help with that. But it wasn't just his attitude towards women, it was most of society's thoughts about them.
Pros for me was reading about how nursing came to be, what doctors and nurses did to get their degrees, and even what was allowable and deemed not allowable back then.
I think up until the story moves with Crippen and his second wife Cora to England, the book was engrossing. I just don't think that part of the story added anything more from what I read.
And the last bit focusing on Crippen's mistress, Ethel Le Neve was just a bit scattered. I do think that Rubenhold wanted to show her obvious assistance to Crippen in the murder of Cora. But it's very apparent that something was seriously wrong with her after this whole thing based on stories that were told about her from her family. It didn't seem to me that she escaped permanent justice afterwards, she was definitely an unhappy and very nervous woman who seemed to have zero friends (outside of her sister) and barely tolerated her husband and children.
I just think I wanted to be blown away while reading this like I was her other novel, but I found myself getting really bored after a while.
"Story of a Murder" follows Hawley Harvey Crippen. Many people may be familiar with the man who tried to poison his wife, lied about her whereabouts and tried to escape with his mistress overseas.
I do think as I said above that Hallie Rubenhold did a great job of setting up the initial backstory to Crippen and his first wife Charlotte. She has a way of painting a scene that made you think you were in Hell's Kitchen in the late 1800s ready to pass out from the smell, noise, etc. I also had zero idea that man had any offspring until this book. Rubenhold also did a great job of pointing out what homeopathy really was back in Crippen's heydey and how women's "hysterics" were being treated. I do think that if you already didn't totally despise Crippen, this book is definitely going to help with that. But it wasn't just his attitude towards women, it was most of society's thoughts about them.
Pros for me was reading about how nursing came to be, what doctors and nurses did to get their degrees, and even what was allowable and deemed not allowable back then.
I think up until the story moves with Crippen and his second wife Cora to England, the book was engrossing. I just don't think that part of the story added anything more from what I read.
And the last bit focusing on Crippen's mistress, Ethel Le Neve was just a bit scattered. I do think that Rubenhold wanted to show her obvious assistance to Crippen in the murder of Cora. But it's very apparent that something was seriously wrong with her after this whole thing based on stories that were told about her from her family. It didn't seem to me that she escaped permanent justice afterwards, she was definitely an unhappy and very nervous woman who seemed to have zero friends (outside of her sister) and barely tolerated her husband and children.
I just think I wanted to be blown away while reading this like I was her other novel, but I found myself getting really bored after a while.
January 6, 2025
A worthy successor to the Five - and maybe that very rare thing with the follow up being better. It’s best not to know the story and just let it unfold. HB has done an amazing job researching and writing a story that is truly fascinating. My takeaway is that a group of women who were devoted to their friend and took no notice of the male authority figures uncovered a murder.
June 17, 2025
Hallie Rubenhold has done it again. This was my second book of hers, the first being her bestselling The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper. Many others who have read The Five will undoubtedly wonder, as I did, if this latest assessment of murder in the Edwardian era is as compelling and well-written as the aforementioned book, set in the Victorian times.
I didn’t have to read too far into Story of a Murder: The Wives, The Mistress, and Dr. Crippen to conclude that the high expectations I’d had for this story were well warranted. So to answer the question posed in the aforementioned paragraph: yes, it is just as compelling and incredibly well-written.
Writing a riveting account of a murder (and suspected murder) in the late 1800s/early 1900s without sensationalizing the material seems to be quite the formidable task. Yet, Rubenhold pulls this off with ease. I found myself losing track of time, as I often read much later in the night than I’d intended.
It’s similar to The Five in the sense that it humanizes the women, especially the victims, giving them back their voices which were so viciously stripped from them by pathetic, weak men such as Jack the Ripper and Dr. Crippen. They have personalities, hopes and dreams, people who love and care about them. They may be imperfect at times, but what human being isn’t?
Story of a Murder differs from The Five in that it covers just a few individuals, all whose lives overlap - one male murderer, one definite female victim, one likely female victim, and one extremely likely female accomplice. It is told by way of a linear narrative, while The Five is a look into the lives of five different women, and is more a collection of lengthy essays rather than a single story.
Even in contemporary accounts, Rubenhold points out in Story of a Murder how Dr. Crippen is often portrayed as a brilliant doctor who simply wanted true love, which his naive mistress was willing to give until the end. Meanwhile, his dead wife is portrayed as a diva, someone incredibly vain, caring only for riches and the lifestyle he could provide her (never mind that she was an incredibly talented artist in her own right and could earn money on her own, had it been a different era). The insinuation being, of course, that Crippen didn’t do it, but even if he had, could anyone really blame him?
It’s disgusting that attitudes like these were prevalent not just then, but even in contemporary accounts of murdered women, where the woman is portrayed very much as a one-dimensional figure who is either “deserving” or “undeserving” of her fate. The fact that an all-male journey found him guilty beyond all reasonable doubt is a testament to both how strong the evidence was against him, and to how relentlessly Belle Elmore’s (Crippen’s murdered wife) friends pursued the case after being ignored by the police, collected evidence, even conducting their own interviews with Crippen and noting all the inconsistencies with each new lie he told.
The book also offers a much more in-depth look at Ethel Neave, who so longed to not merely replace Belle, whom she saw as her romantic rival - but seemingly, to become her. It was incredibly creepy to learn how Ethel talked so callously of the former Mrs. Crippen, turning her petty jealous assumptions into factual reality about the woman to anyone that would listen.
She even had the nerve to drape herself in Belle’s furs, jewelry, and other attire (while complaining, of course, about how she’d have to visit a seamstress to have the dresses taken in - unlike Belle, Ethel didn’t believe herself to be so greedy as to have so much of everything- including weight, apparently). Her biggest slip up came when she wore one of Belle’s most recognizable jewelry pieces - her “Rising Sun” diamond necklace - to the gala the missing Belle usually attended with her closest friends and husband.
I’m really still uncertain whether Ethel and Crippen truly felt Belle’s closest friends would not only welcome Ethel with open arms, but amid such distressing circumstances - that not only was their friend missing, but here her husband was, showing off his secretary-turned-lover, as though nothing had changed. It wouldn’t surprise me, as both came off as such incredible narcissists. Perhaps this is why they made such a good match.
It’s unfathomable to me that Ethel wouldn’t be tried for any role in the murder, despite so much evidence pointing to the fact that, at the very least, she knew everything about the crime and didn’t report it (not when she had so much to gain from it) and at worst, she was either an active accomplice in the planning, destruction of evidence, and disposal of body, or even an active participant in the killing. There was simply too much evidence and testimony by neighbors placing Ethel at the Crippen home at the time of her death and immediately thereafter.
In the end, despite the public’s fascination with her and the case, Ethel never told the entire truth. She’d change her story over the years, but one thing that never seemed to change was the fact that she really did love this despicable man. Or rather, she loved the idea of being his only true love, the woman he’d do anything for… even commit murder. Of course, back then, she was simply seen as too feminine and fragile to have ever committed any crime. In the public’s eyes, her only sin was unconditionally loving and trusting a very sick man.
Even though the book finally shows the sides of Ethel scarcely presented in the narrative until now, it manages to do so in a very matter-of-fact way, letting readers draw their own conclusions and not appearing outright biased.
I can imagine it must be incredibly frustrating to write in this genre, in attempting to portray fair and accurate accounts of crimes committed so far in the past - no main characters are still alive to give interviews and corroborate information, and often the secondary sources are one-sided versions which must be meticulously examined for bias and inconsistencies. I respect Rubenhold for the incredible amount of effort she puts into her work. This, of course, concurrent with her ability to put the focus back where it belongs: on the very human, very personable female victims - moving the spotlight off the depraved male murderers, who only obtained infamy from stealing the light and lives of the women around them.
Another five stars for Hallie Rubenfold - I highly recommend this book, along with The Five, for those who haven’t read one or both. I will certainly read any books she puts out in the future. Phenomenal writer, in general and of this historical crime genre.
PS - again, I apologize for any grammatical errors that may appear in my reviews - I’m writing a lot, and I’m writing it quickly. I hope to be able to correct any errors with time, but in case I don’t, I’ll keep this disclaimer here!
I didn’t have to read too far into Story of a Murder: The Wives, The Mistress, and Dr. Crippen to conclude that the high expectations I’d had for this story were well warranted. So to answer the question posed in the aforementioned paragraph: yes, it is just as compelling and incredibly well-written.
Writing a riveting account of a murder (and suspected murder) in the late 1800s/early 1900s without sensationalizing the material seems to be quite the formidable task. Yet, Rubenhold pulls this off with ease. I found myself losing track of time, as I often read much later in the night than I’d intended.
It’s similar to The Five in the sense that it humanizes the women, especially the victims, giving them back their voices which were so viciously stripped from them by pathetic, weak men such as Jack the Ripper and Dr. Crippen. They have personalities, hopes and dreams, people who love and care about them. They may be imperfect at times, but what human being isn’t?
Story of a Murder differs from The Five in that it covers just a few individuals, all whose lives overlap - one male murderer, one definite female victim, one likely female victim, and one extremely likely female accomplice. It is told by way of a linear narrative, while The Five is a look into the lives of five different women, and is more a collection of lengthy essays rather than a single story.
Even in contemporary accounts, Rubenhold points out in Story of a Murder how Dr. Crippen is often portrayed as a brilliant doctor who simply wanted true love, which his naive mistress was willing to give until the end. Meanwhile, his dead wife is portrayed as a diva, someone incredibly vain, caring only for riches and the lifestyle he could provide her (never mind that she was an incredibly talented artist in her own right and could earn money on her own, had it been a different era). The insinuation being, of course, that Crippen didn’t do it, but even if he had, could anyone really blame him?
It’s disgusting that attitudes like these were prevalent not just then, but even in contemporary accounts of murdered women, where the woman is portrayed very much as a one-dimensional figure who is either “deserving” or “undeserving” of her fate. The fact that an all-male journey found him guilty beyond all reasonable doubt is a testament to both how strong the evidence was against him, and to how relentlessly Belle Elmore’s (Crippen’s murdered wife) friends pursued the case after being ignored by the police, collected evidence, even conducting their own interviews with Crippen and noting all the inconsistencies with each new lie he told.
The book also offers a much more in-depth look at Ethel Neave, who so longed to not merely replace Belle, whom she saw as her romantic rival - but seemingly, to become her. It was incredibly creepy to learn how Ethel talked so callously of the former Mrs. Crippen, turning her petty jealous assumptions into factual reality about the woman to anyone that would listen.
She even had the nerve to drape herself in Belle’s furs, jewelry, and other attire (while complaining, of course, about how she’d have to visit a seamstress to have the dresses taken in - unlike Belle, Ethel didn’t believe herself to be so greedy as to have so much of everything- including weight, apparently). Her biggest slip up came when she wore one of Belle’s most recognizable jewelry pieces - her “Rising Sun” diamond necklace - to the gala the missing Belle usually attended with her closest friends and husband.
I’m really still uncertain whether Ethel and Crippen truly felt Belle’s closest friends would not only welcome Ethel with open arms, but amid such distressing circumstances - that not only was their friend missing, but here her husband was, showing off his secretary-turned-lover, as though nothing had changed. It wouldn’t surprise me, as both came off as such incredible narcissists. Perhaps this is why they made such a good match.
It’s unfathomable to me that Ethel wouldn’t be tried for any role in the murder, despite so much evidence pointing to the fact that, at the very least, she knew everything about the crime and didn’t report it (not when she had so much to gain from it) and at worst, she was either an active accomplice in the planning, destruction of evidence, and disposal of body, or even an active participant in the killing. There was simply too much evidence and testimony by neighbors placing Ethel at the Crippen home at the time of her death and immediately thereafter.
In the end, despite the public’s fascination with her and the case, Ethel never told the entire truth. She’d change her story over the years, but one thing that never seemed to change was the fact that she really did love this despicable man. Or rather, she loved the idea of being his only true love, the woman he’d do anything for… even commit murder. Of course, back then, she was simply seen as too feminine and fragile to have ever committed any crime. In the public’s eyes, her only sin was unconditionally loving and trusting a very sick man.
Even though the book finally shows the sides of Ethel scarcely presented in the narrative until now, it manages to do so in a very matter-of-fact way, letting readers draw their own conclusions and not appearing outright biased.
I can imagine it must be incredibly frustrating to write in this genre, in attempting to portray fair and accurate accounts of crimes committed so far in the past - no main characters are still alive to give interviews and corroborate information, and often the secondary sources are one-sided versions which must be meticulously examined for bias and inconsistencies. I respect Rubenhold for the incredible amount of effort she puts into her work. This, of course, concurrent with her ability to put the focus back where it belongs: on the very human, very personable female victims - moving the spotlight off the depraved male murderers, who only obtained infamy from stealing the light and lives of the women around them.
Another five stars for Hallie Rubenfold - I highly recommend this book, along with The Five, for those who haven’t read one or both. I will certainly read any books she puts out in the future. Phenomenal writer, in general and of this historical crime genre.
PS - again, I apologize for any grammatical errors that may appear in my reviews - I’m writing a lot, and I’m writing it quickly. I hope to be able to correct any errors with time, but in case I don’t, I’ll keep this disclaimer here!
March 18, 2025
Hallie Rubenhold’s commitment to rewriting a history of women who have been unfairly treated by the chronicles of men is *chef’s kiss*
I adore her non-fiction books. The level of research and time and commitment to telling these stories is nothing short of astounding.
I hadn’t heard of this infamous true crime case before but I was gripped by her retelling, especially when it came to the court proceedings and the subsequent accounts of the events immortalised by various journalists, writers and thinkers since. I love the context Hallie Rubenhold gives to these various depictions of the characters in this case.
I’m going to read anything this women writes
I adore her non-fiction books. The level of research and time and commitment to telling these stories is nothing short of astounding.
I hadn’t heard of this infamous true crime case before but I was gripped by her retelling, especially when it came to the court proceedings and the subsequent accounts of the events immortalised by various journalists, writers and thinkers since. I love the context Hallie Rubenhold gives to these various depictions of the characters in this case.
I’m going to read anything this women writes
Read
May 19, 2025I don't rate nonfiction.
Hallie Rubenhold really has become that social historian I can rely on to spin me a good yarn and get me excited about an event I already know the outcome too. Although, I'll admit I knew very little about Dr Crippen and his apparent infamous crimes before reading this and picked it up purely because I've enjoyed Rubenhold's previous book about the victims of Jack the Ripper.
She just has a certain way with words, like her passage regarding a barrister in the case called F. E. Smith where she states that he was known for his 'quickfire mind and devastating wit. Although a lover of louche living and addicted to alcohol, he performed like an Olympian in the courtroom'. She puts on a show, through meticulous research, to really bring these people back to life and tell an honest recounting of Dr Crippen, but more importantly, the women behind the crime. His wives Charlotte and Belle, and his lover Ethel. She lays out their portrayal in the press and the prejudices of the time that lead to the false perceptions and subsequent recounting of their character through history, much like in The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper. These women were more than just victims, more than just simple women overpowered and overshadowed a manipulative man.
I was especially intrigued by Ethel and her relationship with Dr Crippen. In an era of modesty and strict social rules, where women were still expected to be meek and manageable, yet on the precipice of the concept of the 'New Woman' she's an interesting subject of her time. Independent, earning her own wages, she becomes loyal to a man who utterly ruins her reputation and promises very little in return. This was an era of suffragettes, women fighting for their rights and freedom, and in many ways Ethel evokes this attitude. She's willing to stand up for herself and challenge authority yet she is often portrayed as a weak minded woman who knew nothing of what Dr Crippen was up to due to the common prejudices against women during this time. It's certainly an opinion she used to her advantage, which in itself demonstrates how cunning she was.
Another fascinating read from Hallie Rubenhold.
Hallie Rubenhold really has become that social historian I can rely on to spin me a good yarn and get me excited about an event I already know the outcome too. Although, I'll admit I knew very little about Dr Crippen and his apparent infamous crimes before reading this and picked it up purely because I've enjoyed Rubenhold's previous book about the victims of Jack the Ripper.
She just has a certain way with words, like her passage regarding a barrister in the case called F. E. Smith where she states that he was known for his 'quickfire mind and devastating wit. Although a lover of louche living and addicted to alcohol, he performed like an Olympian in the courtroom'. She puts on a show, through meticulous research, to really bring these people back to life and tell an honest recounting of Dr Crippen, but more importantly, the women behind the crime. His wives Charlotte and Belle, and his lover Ethel. She lays out their portrayal in the press and the prejudices of the time that lead to the false perceptions and subsequent recounting of their character through history, much like in The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper. These women were more than just victims, more than just simple women overpowered and overshadowed a manipulative man.
I was especially intrigued by Ethel and her relationship with Dr Crippen. In an era of modesty and strict social rules, where women were still expected to be meek and manageable, yet on the precipice of the concept of the 'New Woman' she's an interesting subject of her time. Independent, earning her own wages, she becomes loyal to a man who utterly ruins her reputation and promises very little in return. This was an era of suffragettes, women fighting for their rights and freedom, and in many ways Ethel evokes this attitude. She's willing to stand up for herself and challenge authority yet she is often portrayed as a weak minded woman who knew nothing of what Dr Crippen was up to due to the common prejudices against women during this time. It's certainly an opinion she used to her advantage, which in itself demonstrates how cunning she was.
Another fascinating read from Hallie Rubenhold.
March 5, 2025
4.5 ⭐️
A fascinating deep dive into a murder case that’s over a century old, but still raises questions.
In Story of a Murder, Hallie Rubenhold revisits the 1910 murder of Belle Elmore and the trial of Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen. It’s a case that had everything - a missing wife, a secret mistress, and a dramatic transatlantic manhunt.
I really liked how Rubenhold goes beyond the usual true crime retelling. She digs into the personal lives of Crippen, Ethel, and Belle, showing how their choices were shaped by the strict social norms of the time. She also highlights the flaws in the investigation and trial, raising some thought-provoking questions about what really happened.
I did wish there were more visuals, photos or maps would’ve brought the story to life, but the depth of research and fresh perspective more than make up for it.
I loved The Five and this is definitely a worthy successor.
A fascinating deep dive into a murder case that’s over a century old, but still raises questions.
In Story of a Murder, Hallie Rubenhold revisits the 1910 murder of Belle Elmore and the trial of Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen. It’s a case that had everything - a missing wife, a secret mistress, and a dramatic transatlantic manhunt.
I really liked how Rubenhold goes beyond the usual true crime retelling. She digs into the personal lives of Crippen, Ethel, and Belle, showing how their choices were shaped by the strict social norms of the time. She also highlights the flaws in the investigation and trial, raising some thought-provoking questions about what really happened.
I did wish there were more visuals, photos or maps would’ve brought the story to life, but the depth of research and fresh perspective more than make up for it.
I loved The Five and this is definitely a worthy successor.
March 11, 2025
Compelling, emotional, and profoundly illuminating, ‘Story of a Murder’ challenges the existing story of Dr Crippen by focusing instead on Charlotte, Belle and Ethel; the women whose stories have previously appeared as footnotes to the man who manipulated them.
Rubenhold has excavated these women from the confines of a deeply misogynistic history and offers a novel insight into their lives with all the mess and complexities of real people. This is a masterful work of narrative nonfiction and one I have found myself thinking about long after I had finished it.
Thank you to Penguin for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.
Rubenhold has excavated these women from the confines of a deeply misogynistic history and offers a novel insight into their lives with all the mess and complexities of real people. This is a masterful work of narrative nonfiction and one I have found myself thinking about long after I had finished it.
Thank you to Penguin for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.
February 17, 2025
People think they know the Dr Crippen case, but a lot of what is out there is legend, shaped by the social norms, prejudices and expectations of the time. This impacts how we perceive the victims, the crime and the perpetrator. It becomes entertainment and we can readily point blame at those who challenge norms. Hallie Rubenold turns this case on its head. As in The Five the victim, or more likely - victims, are front and centre. Their stories are powerfully reclaimed whilst the perpetrator is shown for the manipulative fraud he was.
This is a thoroughly researched, dramatic and compelling book that powerfully reorientates understands of the Crippen case and mercilessly critiques the society which allowed it to happen.
This is a thoroughly researched, dramatic and compelling book that powerfully reorientates understands of the Crippen case and mercilessly critiques the society which allowed it to happen.
July 21, 2025
Why do we remember famous cases by their perpetrators and not their victims? This is the second time that Hallie Rubenhold has asked that question, and while the Crippen case isn't quite as ingrained in our society as Jack the Ripper, it still bears examination. Rubenhold takes a three-pronged approach to this one: examination of the victim, the villain, and the accessory. It's the first and third who are truly important here, because, although she never says it in so many words, Dr. Crippen is nothing special - just another murderer who thinks that he has the right to destroy women's lives for his own benefit.
Most of the book is taken up by Ethel Le Neve, the purported secondary victim. History, steeped in the misogyny and sexism of the Edwardian era, has painted her as weak and completely innocent, under Dr. Crippen's thrall. But that doesn't line up with her own words, and Rubenhold takes pains to show us that Le Neve and victim Belle Elmore are being artificially forced into the old Madonna/Whore dichotomy. Oddly, in Rubenhold's analysis, that dichotomy remains, just with the roles reversed: Le Neve becomes the "whore" while Elmore becomes the "madonna." That does detract from the book a bit, because it still makes them more archetypes than people, although Rubenhold tries very hard not to allow such a reading.
Ultimately, this is a very good book. Everything I'd casually read about the Crippen case prior to this had always felt off somehow, and Rubenhold does an excellent job of elucidating that impression. Dr. Crippen doesn't deserve to live on in public memory. Belle Elmore does. As with The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper, it is those whose lives were cut short and destroyed who we should remember and mourn. Killers only deserve to be forgotten.
Most of the book is taken up by Ethel Le Neve, the purported secondary victim. History, steeped in the misogyny and sexism of the Edwardian era, has painted her as weak and completely innocent, under Dr. Crippen's thrall. But that doesn't line up with her own words, and Rubenhold takes pains to show us that Le Neve and victim Belle Elmore are being artificially forced into the old Madonna/Whore dichotomy. Oddly, in Rubenhold's analysis, that dichotomy remains, just with the roles reversed: Le Neve becomes the "whore" while Elmore becomes the "madonna." That does detract from the book a bit, because it still makes them more archetypes than people, although Rubenhold tries very hard not to allow such a reading.
Ultimately, this is a very good book. Everything I'd casually read about the Crippen case prior to this had always felt off somehow, and Rubenhold does an excellent job of elucidating that impression. Dr. Crippen doesn't deserve to live on in public memory. Belle Elmore does. As with The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper, it is those whose lives were cut short and destroyed who we should remember and mourn. Killers only deserve to be forgotten.
September 4, 2025
"Between these multiple versions, a broader understanding of this episode in history will emerge, even though it is bereft of the most important first-hand account of all – that of Belle Elmore. One of the most unfortunate aspects of any story of a murder is that the victim can never speak for themselves."
4,5/5!
Story of a Murder is an examination of a murder that was, in 1910, called the crime of the century. Music hall performer Belle Elmore vanished one day in late January. Her husband, homeopath and fraudster, Hawley Harvey Crippen, claimed she had suddenly left for America – and that, later, she had died there. But the more Belle's friends poked and prodded at his unbelievable story, the more suspicious they became. When the police got involved, Crippen – and his typist mistress, Ethel Le Nieve – ran, sparking a legendary manhunt across the Atlantic. In this book, Rubenhold attempts to make sense of this peculiar crime, give the much maligned and monstered Belle Elmore back her humanity and strip this case of its layers of legend and gossip.
Story of a Murder was a wonderful book and exactly the kind of historical true crime book I want to read. Rubenhold takes the center stage away from Crippen, who has become a near mythical figure since his heinous crimes in 1910, and instead focuses on Belle Elmore herself. She doesn't repeat old, tired, often deeply misogynistic narratives of this crime and its victim, but presents a very different, more nuanced narrative – one, that is based on what is clearly a shitload of research. Just like she did in her fabulous book The Five, Rubenhold approaches her central story through a feminist lense, focusing on what is often forgotten – the perspective of women who were at the heart of this case.
Rubenhold did a wonderful job introducing the reader to her "cast of characters". The three central figures – Belle Elmore, Hawley Harvey Crippen and Ethel Le Nieve – are all given time and space, and you get to read many people's opinions and views of them, as well as their own words. Rubenhold is very open about how contradictory many of the statements, quotes and confessions of these three people, and everyone else in the book, are, and she does her best to present the facts and make sure the reader knows whenever she shares something that might just be someone's invention. Ethel and Crippen are, for example, notorious liars, constantly telling tall-tales and duping people, so it is quite hard to get a read on them, their emotions and their motives, because all they seem to do is lie. Crippen is a professional fraud (after beginning his career as a legitimate doctor) and does shit like sell disabled people cures for deafness, and Ethel, his assistant, was an integral part of his business and happily helped him fraud people. We get quite a bit of their own words in this book, but pretty much all has to be taken with a grain of salt.
I felt like I got to know Belle Elmore as I read this book. Obviously we will never know her private thoughts and feelings, because we don't have many of her own words left, but Rubenhold does manage to paint a nuanced picture of her. Instead of the monster she was made into by Crippen and his supporters after him, Rubenhold introduces us to a vivacious, lively woman who loved dancing and singing (she was a performer from childhood) and who threw herself into her passions, was devoted to her friends and their cause at the Music Hall Ladies' Guild, lived through a lot of pain but seemed to always find a reason to smile and fought for the career she wanted. When she couldn't make it in opera, she chose music hall, and boy did she give it all she had. She procured the clothes she needed, had photos taken of herself, established connections, met with producers, gave herself the stage name of Belle Elmore and chased every opportunity. Even if she never became a huge star, she was never the pisspoor failure people depicted her as, nor did Crippen seem to disapprove her career like he later pretended to (he acted as her manager and enjoyed the fame, money and friends his wife's life gave them). She worked in music hall for seven years – she couldn't have lasted half that long if she was utterly talentless. It was brutal to read about how her reputation, personality and appearance were torn to shreds first by Crippen and his lawyers and then the media, true crime writers and the like. Not a single person in court supported Crippen's claims about her horrid persona, but still the version he put forth stuck. Filson Young's Trial of Hawley Harvey Crippen is much to blame. He, and the people who read him, depicted Belle as someone who essentially deserved to be killed because she was so materialistic, immoral, cruel, crude, ugly, fat, emasculating and shrill – she was the villain to the tragic, doomed lovers, Crippen and Ethel. Some straight up said no one mourned her when she died because she was so horrible. I got genuinely so angry while reading the epilogue and became all the more grateful to Hallie for writing this book and giving Belle back her humanity.
I grew to despise Crippen while reading the book. Even if he hadn't killed his wife, he would've been a criminal, a fraud and an asshole. He apparently had a habit of groping young women (even Belle's sister when Belle wasn't present) and he seduced his young typist who worked for him. Even though Ethel was never the hapless, innocent, frail girl she was portrayed as in court, he did groom her and take advantage of her subordinate position. He told Ethel stories of being a hen-pecked husband tyrannised by his horrible wife, and she bought his promises to leave his wife and marry her. Classic stuff. But then, on top of all this horribleness, he brutally murdered Belle and dismembered her. I knew the killing had been cruel, but I had no idea just how inhumane the way he hid the remains was. Reading those chapters, though Hallie in no way revels in the gore, made me quite ill. I also had no idea that it is likely that he had wanted to poison Belle and pretend her death was natural, but that something went wrong and Belle didn't react to the poison by passing out. She might've fought back, forcing him to kill her in a way that couldn't be passed off as natural. If there is one teeny tiny silver lining to be found in this moment, it is that by surprising him, Belle forced him into a panic and made it so he couldn't pass her death off as a heart attack. The way he behaved in court and the way he never seemed to showcase any genuine remorse and didn't even speak his wife's name when he stood trial, gave me shivers, as did his horrifyingly potent manipulation skills. On the way back from Quebec, he managed to "seduce" Inspector Dew to the point that he remembered Crippen as a "remarkable man" (luckily he didn't fuck with the trial in any way, but still). It was infuriating to read how so many people, both men and women, have written about him after his death, made excuses for him because surely a seemingly good man couldn't do something so barbaric and expanded on the story of Belle that he created, making him the victim of a monstrous, cruel wife – the wife he killed.
Ethel Le Nieve was an unsettling woman to read about. I cannot pinpoint her at all, because she kept changing her story, contradicting herself (often making herself seem more guilty than before) and lying. Sometimes she said she was convinced Crippen was innocent, and sometimes she said she knew he was guilty. The one thing that didn't seem to change was that she loved Crippen, even after she got married and had kids. She wanted to be Mrs Crippen, wanted the glamour and the jewels and the fancy life she saw Belle living, and she waited years for it. I liked how Rubenhold did acknowledge the power imbalance in her relationship with Crippen (she was barely an adult when they met and he was a married, much older man), while also never denying Ethel her agency. Ethel willingly took part in Crippen's frauds, she had influence over him (she knew all the skeletons in his closet) and it is, to me at least, quite obvious she knew what Crippen did to Belle. No, I don't think she had a role in the actual killing, but surely she knew. The way she slid into Belle's life, took over her stuff and became the unofficial third Mrs Crippen seems too confident for someone who thought Belle merely left for America. She displayed her engagement ring even before Belle vanished. When they were caught, Ethel never once declared herself innocent, she didn't react when told of what had been done to Belle's body and she never wavered in her support for Crippen. She never expressed any empathy for the deceased. At the committal before the actual trial, she was seen laughing a few times. Of course we will never know for sure how much she did or did not know, but I am quite convinced she knew. She was not a killer, but she was an accomplice. Her trial, which was a quite lacklustre affair and resulted, as they all knew it would, in her walking free, was interesting because the lawyer's depiction of her as someone utterly not in control of her own actions and seduced by a monster was a depiction that got her her freedom but was something she always chafed against: in her biographies and testimonies, she always fought against this image of her. Rubenhold writes: "The "real" Ethel was the embodiment of the era's New Woman, someone who had worn trousers, flouted the established feminine norms and posed a threat to the patriarchal order. Smith understood that if the jury had seen the real Ethel, they would not have regarded her kindly." Her trial was a brilliant showcase of a lawyer using the era's gender norms to their advantage.
The true heroes of this book are Belle's friends, especially the women of the Music Hall Ladies Guild, who were former performers, wives or family members of performers or other participants in the culture. They did many great things such as helped financially struggling female community members with rent, food, medical and legal bills, coal and clothes, organised charity events, helped people find work, collected donations of used clothes, visited sick children and gave them toys, donated stage costumes to performers without any and so much more. Belle was their treasurer, and a beloved member of the community. They met every week, had parties and visited each other's houses. When Belle vanished, her friends immediately suspected something was off and they didn't let Crippen get away with it. Their conviction was ever hightened when Ethel and Crippen pulled of something truly baffling: not long after Belle "travelled to America", they went to a charity gala held by the Guild together. On its own that would've been audacious, but Ethel wore Belle's jewellery! No wonder her friends were sure something was wrong. They kept asking around, investigating and sleuthing. They hired a private investigator. They approached the police but were not believed until one of the women brought her husband with him (of course). Isabel Ginnett, one of the Guild members, helped the police scout the people disembarking from ships in the USA, hoping she'd recognise Crippen or Ethel. They testified at court, even though this tragedy caused them severe mental and physical distress. This book is a testament to these incredible women and their love for Belle. They fought for her, even changed the law for her. They challenged Crippen's right to inherit the woman he murdered and leave her stuff to Ethel, and they succeeded: this was a transformative landmark case in English inheritance laws.
Crime stories can tell us so much about not just the homicide itself but about the world in which it happens. Through this case, Rubenhold is able to discuss stuff like class, xenophobia and gender. It was interesting to read about how Belle and Crippen tried their best to emulate this kind of upper middle class life even though they never quite had the money to pull it off, and how horrifying it was for people to realize that seemingly normal, well-to-do respectable people could be capable of such violent crimes. Surely only poor people and other "degenerates" do stuff like hacking a woman's body to pieces. Xenophobia reared its ugly head especially during the trial, when Crippen's attorney time and time again brought up Belle's Polish roots to discredit her. At the time of the trial, huge numbers of Polish immigrants arrived in the UK and they were seen as dangerous. Belle's sister, Teresa's American accent was also ridiculed and seen as a sign of some kind of lower level of intelligence. Gender norms and clash between the era's New Woman and the ideal Edwardian woman is also at the heart of this case and how it was seen. Belle is made into the ultimate bad modern woman. It is no surprise that this monstering happens when women begin to really break free from their traditional space by getting the right to vote, serving in formerly male-only positions, beginning to wear trousers and make up, cutting their hair short and so on. This inspired panic in men, but also women, and Belle provided them a scapegoat, someone to pin all their anxieties on. Ethel on the other hand is transformed too into someone she was not: utterly helpless, profoundly feminine (despite her stint as a boy), frail, lovestruck and an innocent young woman who fell for a monster or an innocent man, depending on the interpretation. Ethel's innocence was also seen as obvious because women criminals never looked like her – she was too dainty, pretty and "normal" to be an accomplice to murder. A "lovely" eugenics moment.
Lastly, I wanna mention how weird it was to realize just how easily people, at this time, shed identities, changed names and started over. Belle had many names throughout her life, Ethel went from Neave to Le Nieve, Crippen's mom said she was married but she wasn't (he was born out of wedlock), when they were on the run Ethel and Crippen easily booked hotels under new names and so on. There was such potential for fluid existence at this time. You could easily just move town and begin again without anyone knowing who you were. Information wasn't as easy to come by and people didn't always have identification.
I'd recommend this book to fans of historical true crime but also for fans of social and gender history. Rubenhold is doing incredible, important work and I am definitely gonna read whatever she publishes next, and all the stuff she has published so far. I am so thankful for this book. I gave this book 4,5 instead of 5 cause as much as I respected it, it is not an all-time new fave.
Here are some intriguing facts I learned:
- In 1880s governesses didn't require training but female teachers did.
- The Marconi Wireless was instrumental in capturing Crippen and Ethel: Captain Kendall of the Montrose, the ship they were on, recognised them and after pulling some serious Miss Marple level of sleuthing, he delivered, through the wireless, his information to the Scotland Yard. This was in many ways a "modern" crime.
- Charlotte Crippen died at 33 of a stroke, quite randomly. It is possible Crippen killed her too and would've wanted to kill Belle the same way. Charlotte was quickly pronounced dead and buried within 72 hours of death. He then moved on and dumped their son.
- Later, when his crimes became known, Charlotte's brother declared he always suspected the way his sister had apparently died. Her family also claimed Crippen forced her to have abortions, which could easily be possible because he never wanted kids and even had Belle's ovaries removed, causing her endless physical and emotional turmoil.
- Germany was the birth country of homeopathy.
- By 1872 abortion was a felony in New York. The performer of the operation could face up to 20 years in prison. But people still did and had them: Belle, for example, met Crippen when she had an abortion after the master of the house she worked at got her pregnant.
- New Jersey was the Gretna Green of USA.
- Becoming a typist was a respectable way for women to become independent and earn money. In 1891-1901 the number of female clerks went from 18 947 to 57 736.
- Music Hall was not just singing and dancing: there were animal troupes, acrobatics, mimes, magicians, early motion pictures, ventriloquists, comedians and so on. It was a wild, diverse, unconventional world (also in terms of relationships: lots of affairs, open marriages, bastard children and so on).
- Crippen's medical credentials weren't recognised in England so he shouldn't have referred to himself as a doctor. But, well, he was a master fraud so no surprise that he did.
- Belle had cats, dogs, birds and an aquarium. It seems she tried to dull the pain of childlessness, which haunted her throughout her life, with fur babies and other pets she could shower with love.
- Women becoming pregnant (even if they were married) was grounds to fire them from their job.
- Ethel gave four separate testimonies, two in 1910, one in 1920 and one in 1928. Every time, key as well as minor details changed, which is just suspicious as fuck.
- Crippen seemed to not be a super clever criminal: he had his assistant (!!) buy Ethel's getaway boy's suit and he ordered a suspicious amount of poison (an amount no doctor would need for un-nefarious reasons). Why not buy small amounts over a longer period of time?
- When the manhunt for Crippen took over the media, people everywhere reported seeing him. One lawyer informed the cops he lived in his professional rival's home, seemingly just to fuck with his enemy.
- Arthur Newton, Crippen and Ethel's lawyer, had helped Lord Arthur Somerset escape England in 1889 after he found out he'd be arrested for the Cleveland Street gay brother scandal. He also tried to sell a fake confession from Crippen to the papers but was found out and ended up suspended form practicing for six months.
- Trials were open to the public and hundreds tried to get inside to see the titillating drama unfold. This reminded me of the millions who watched the Depp vs Heard trial livestream. People have always been drawn to scandal and crimes. One of the spectators at Crippen's trial was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
- Some said that Havelock Ellis's Studies in the Psychology of Sex series provided a way to understand the motives of this case. This fact is only really interesting to me because I am doing my PhD on Ellis.
- In 1985 that Ethel's kids found out her story when a true crime author contacted them. Stanley, her husband, seemed to have known. Their marriage hadn't been loving or affectionate, more of a friendly cohabitation. Nor was she a soft mom.
4,5/5!
Story of a Murder is an examination of a murder that was, in 1910, called the crime of the century. Music hall performer Belle Elmore vanished one day in late January. Her husband, homeopath and fraudster, Hawley Harvey Crippen, claimed she had suddenly left for America – and that, later, she had died there. But the more Belle's friends poked and prodded at his unbelievable story, the more suspicious they became. When the police got involved, Crippen – and his typist mistress, Ethel Le Nieve – ran, sparking a legendary manhunt across the Atlantic. In this book, Rubenhold attempts to make sense of this peculiar crime, give the much maligned and monstered Belle Elmore back her humanity and strip this case of its layers of legend and gossip.
Story of a Murder was a wonderful book and exactly the kind of historical true crime book I want to read. Rubenhold takes the center stage away from Crippen, who has become a near mythical figure since his heinous crimes in 1910, and instead focuses on Belle Elmore herself. She doesn't repeat old, tired, often deeply misogynistic narratives of this crime and its victim, but presents a very different, more nuanced narrative – one, that is based on what is clearly a shitload of research. Just like she did in her fabulous book The Five, Rubenhold approaches her central story through a feminist lense, focusing on what is often forgotten – the perspective of women who were at the heart of this case.
Rubenhold did a wonderful job introducing the reader to her "cast of characters". The three central figures – Belle Elmore, Hawley Harvey Crippen and Ethel Le Nieve – are all given time and space, and you get to read many people's opinions and views of them, as well as their own words. Rubenhold is very open about how contradictory many of the statements, quotes and confessions of these three people, and everyone else in the book, are, and she does her best to present the facts and make sure the reader knows whenever she shares something that might just be someone's invention. Ethel and Crippen are, for example, notorious liars, constantly telling tall-tales and duping people, so it is quite hard to get a read on them, their emotions and their motives, because all they seem to do is lie. Crippen is a professional fraud (after beginning his career as a legitimate doctor) and does shit like sell disabled people cures for deafness, and Ethel, his assistant, was an integral part of his business and happily helped him fraud people. We get quite a bit of their own words in this book, but pretty much all has to be taken with a grain of salt.
I felt like I got to know Belle Elmore as I read this book. Obviously we will never know her private thoughts and feelings, because we don't have many of her own words left, but Rubenhold does manage to paint a nuanced picture of her. Instead of the monster she was made into by Crippen and his supporters after him, Rubenhold introduces us to a vivacious, lively woman who loved dancing and singing (she was a performer from childhood) and who threw herself into her passions, was devoted to her friends and their cause at the Music Hall Ladies' Guild, lived through a lot of pain but seemed to always find a reason to smile and fought for the career she wanted. When she couldn't make it in opera, she chose music hall, and boy did she give it all she had. She procured the clothes she needed, had photos taken of herself, established connections, met with producers, gave herself the stage name of Belle Elmore and chased every opportunity. Even if she never became a huge star, she was never the pisspoor failure people depicted her as, nor did Crippen seem to disapprove her career like he later pretended to (he acted as her manager and enjoyed the fame, money and friends his wife's life gave them). She worked in music hall for seven years – she couldn't have lasted half that long if she was utterly talentless. It was brutal to read about how her reputation, personality and appearance were torn to shreds first by Crippen and his lawyers and then the media, true crime writers and the like. Not a single person in court supported Crippen's claims about her horrid persona, but still the version he put forth stuck. Filson Young's Trial of Hawley Harvey Crippen is much to blame. He, and the people who read him, depicted Belle as someone who essentially deserved to be killed because she was so materialistic, immoral, cruel, crude, ugly, fat, emasculating and shrill – she was the villain to the tragic, doomed lovers, Crippen and Ethel. Some straight up said no one mourned her when she died because she was so horrible. I got genuinely so angry while reading the epilogue and became all the more grateful to Hallie for writing this book and giving Belle back her humanity.
I grew to despise Crippen while reading the book. Even if he hadn't killed his wife, he would've been a criminal, a fraud and an asshole. He apparently had a habit of groping young women (even Belle's sister when Belle wasn't present) and he seduced his young typist who worked for him. Even though Ethel was never the hapless, innocent, frail girl she was portrayed as in court, he did groom her and take advantage of her subordinate position. He told Ethel stories of being a hen-pecked husband tyrannised by his horrible wife, and she bought his promises to leave his wife and marry her. Classic stuff. But then, on top of all this horribleness, he brutally murdered Belle and dismembered her. I knew the killing had been cruel, but I had no idea just how inhumane the way he hid the remains was. Reading those chapters, though Hallie in no way revels in the gore, made me quite ill. I also had no idea that it is likely that he had wanted to poison Belle and pretend her death was natural, but that something went wrong and Belle didn't react to the poison by passing out. She might've fought back, forcing him to kill her in a way that couldn't be passed off as natural. If there is one teeny tiny silver lining to be found in this moment, it is that by surprising him, Belle forced him into a panic and made it so he couldn't pass her death off as a heart attack. The way he behaved in court and the way he never seemed to showcase any genuine remorse and didn't even speak his wife's name when he stood trial, gave me shivers, as did his horrifyingly potent manipulation skills. On the way back from Quebec, he managed to "seduce" Inspector Dew to the point that he remembered Crippen as a "remarkable man" (luckily he didn't fuck with the trial in any way, but still). It was infuriating to read how so many people, both men and women, have written about him after his death, made excuses for him because surely a seemingly good man couldn't do something so barbaric and expanded on the story of Belle that he created, making him the victim of a monstrous, cruel wife – the wife he killed.
Ethel Le Nieve was an unsettling woman to read about. I cannot pinpoint her at all, because she kept changing her story, contradicting herself (often making herself seem more guilty than before) and lying. Sometimes she said she was convinced Crippen was innocent, and sometimes she said she knew he was guilty. The one thing that didn't seem to change was that she loved Crippen, even after she got married and had kids. She wanted to be Mrs Crippen, wanted the glamour and the jewels and the fancy life she saw Belle living, and she waited years for it. I liked how Rubenhold did acknowledge the power imbalance in her relationship with Crippen (she was barely an adult when they met and he was a married, much older man), while also never denying Ethel her agency. Ethel willingly took part in Crippen's frauds, she had influence over him (she knew all the skeletons in his closet) and it is, to me at least, quite obvious she knew what Crippen did to Belle. No, I don't think she had a role in the actual killing, but surely she knew. The way she slid into Belle's life, took over her stuff and became the unofficial third Mrs Crippen seems too confident for someone who thought Belle merely left for America. She displayed her engagement ring even before Belle vanished. When they were caught, Ethel never once declared herself innocent, she didn't react when told of what had been done to Belle's body and she never wavered in her support for Crippen. She never expressed any empathy for the deceased. At the committal before the actual trial, she was seen laughing a few times. Of course we will never know for sure how much she did or did not know, but I am quite convinced she knew. She was not a killer, but she was an accomplice. Her trial, which was a quite lacklustre affair and resulted, as they all knew it would, in her walking free, was interesting because the lawyer's depiction of her as someone utterly not in control of her own actions and seduced by a monster was a depiction that got her her freedom but was something she always chafed against: in her biographies and testimonies, she always fought against this image of her. Rubenhold writes: "The "real" Ethel was the embodiment of the era's New Woman, someone who had worn trousers, flouted the established feminine norms and posed a threat to the patriarchal order. Smith understood that if the jury had seen the real Ethel, they would not have regarded her kindly." Her trial was a brilliant showcase of a lawyer using the era's gender norms to their advantage.
The true heroes of this book are Belle's friends, especially the women of the Music Hall Ladies Guild, who were former performers, wives or family members of performers or other participants in the culture. They did many great things such as helped financially struggling female community members with rent, food, medical and legal bills, coal and clothes, organised charity events, helped people find work, collected donations of used clothes, visited sick children and gave them toys, donated stage costumes to performers without any and so much more. Belle was their treasurer, and a beloved member of the community. They met every week, had parties and visited each other's houses. When Belle vanished, her friends immediately suspected something was off and they didn't let Crippen get away with it. Their conviction was ever hightened when Ethel and Crippen pulled of something truly baffling: not long after Belle "travelled to America", they went to a charity gala held by the Guild together. On its own that would've been audacious, but Ethel wore Belle's jewellery! No wonder her friends were sure something was wrong. They kept asking around, investigating and sleuthing. They hired a private investigator. They approached the police but were not believed until one of the women brought her husband with him (of course). Isabel Ginnett, one of the Guild members, helped the police scout the people disembarking from ships in the USA, hoping she'd recognise Crippen or Ethel. They testified at court, even though this tragedy caused them severe mental and physical distress. This book is a testament to these incredible women and their love for Belle. They fought for her, even changed the law for her. They challenged Crippen's right to inherit the woman he murdered and leave her stuff to Ethel, and they succeeded: this was a transformative landmark case in English inheritance laws.
Crime stories can tell us so much about not just the homicide itself but about the world in which it happens. Through this case, Rubenhold is able to discuss stuff like class, xenophobia and gender. It was interesting to read about how Belle and Crippen tried their best to emulate this kind of upper middle class life even though they never quite had the money to pull it off, and how horrifying it was for people to realize that seemingly normal, well-to-do respectable people could be capable of such violent crimes. Surely only poor people and other "degenerates" do stuff like hacking a woman's body to pieces. Xenophobia reared its ugly head especially during the trial, when Crippen's attorney time and time again brought up Belle's Polish roots to discredit her. At the time of the trial, huge numbers of Polish immigrants arrived in the UK and they were seen as dangerous. Belle's sister, Teresa's American accent was also ridiculed and seen as a sign of some kind of lower level of intelligence. Gender norms and clash between the era's New Woman and the ideal Edwardian woman is also at the heart of this case and how it was seen. Belle is made into the ultimate bad modern woman. It is no surprise that this monstering happens when women begin to really break free from their traditional space by getting the right to vote, serving in formerly male-only positions, beginning to wear trousers and make up, cutting their hair short and so on. This inspired panic in men, but also women, and Belle provided them a scapegoat, someone to pin all their anxieties on. Ethel on the other hand is transformed too into someone she was not: utterly helpless, profoundly feminine (despite her stint as a boy), frail, lovestruck and an innocent young woman who fell for a monster or an innocent man, depending on the interpretation. Ethel's innocence was also seen as obvious because women criminals never looked like her – she was too dainty, pretty and "normal" to be an accomplice to murder. A "lovely" eugenics moment.
Lastly, I wanna mention how weird it was to realize just how easily people, at this time, shed identities, changed names and started over. Belle had many names throughout her life, Ethel went from Neave to Le Nieve, Crippen's mom said she was married but she wasn't (he was born out of wedlock), when they were on the run Ethel and Crippen easily booked hotels under new names and so on. There was such potential for fluid existence at this time. You could easily just move town and begin again without anyone knowing who you were. Information wasn't as easy to come by and people didn't always have identification.
I'd recommend this book to fans of historical true crime but also for fans of social and gender history. Rubenhold is doing incredible, important work and I am definitely gonna read whatever she publishes next, and all the stuff she has published so far. I am so thankful for this book. I gave this book 4,5 instead of 5 cause as much as I respected it, it is not an all-time new fave.
Here are some intriguing facts I learned:
- In 1880s governesses didn't require training but female teachers did.
- The Marconi Wireless was instrumental in capturing Crippen and Ethel: Captain Kendall of the Montrose, the ship they were on, recognised them and after pulling some serious Miss Marple level of sleuthing, he delivered, through the wireless, his information to the Scotland Yard. This was in many ways a "modern" crime.
- Charlotte Crippen died at 33 of a stroke, quite randomly. It is possible Crippen killed her too and would've wanted to kill Belle the same way. Charlotte was quickly pronounced dead and buried within 72 hours of death. He then moved on and dumped their son.
- Later, when his crimes became known, Charlotte's brother declared he always suspected the way his sister had apparently died. Her family also claimed Crippen forced her to have abortions, which could easily be possible because he never wanted kids and even had Belle's ovaries removed, causing her endless physical and emotional turmoil.
- Germany was the birth country of homeopathy.
- By 1872 abortion was a felony in New York. The performer of the operation could face up to 20 years in prison. But people still did and had them: Belle, for example, met Crippen when she had an abortion after the master of the house she worked at got her pregnant.
- New Jersey was the Gretna Green of USA.
- Becoming a typist was a respectable way for women to become independent and earn money. In 1891-1901 the number of female clerks went from 18 947 to 57 736.
- Music Hall was not just singing and dancing: there were animal troupes, acrobatics, mimes, magicians, early motion pictures, ventriloquists, comedians and so on. It was a wild, diverse, unconventional world (also in terms of relationships: lots of affairs, open marriages, bastard children and so on).
- Crippen's medical credentials weren't recognised in England so he shouldn't have referred to himself as a doctor. But, well, he was a master fraud so no surprise that he did.
- Belle had cats, dogs, birds and an aquarium. It seems she tried to dull the pain of childlessness, which haunted her throughout her life, with fur babies and other pets she could shower with love.
- Women becoming pregnant (even if they were married) was grounds to fire them from their job.
- Ethel gave four separate testimonies, two in 1910, one in 1920 and one in 1928. Every time, key as well as minor details changed, which is just suspicious as fuck.
- Crippen seemed to not be a super clever criminal: he had his assistant (!!) buy Ethel's getaway boy's suit and he ordered a suspicious amount of poison (an amount no doctor would need for un-nefarious reasons). Why not buy small amounts over a longer period of time?
- When the manhunt for Crippen took over the media, people everywhere reported seeing him. One lawyer informed the cops he lived in his professional rival's home, seemingly just to fuck with his enemy.
- Arthur Newton, Crippen and Ethel's lawyer, had helped Lord Arthur Somerset escape England in 1889 after he found out he'd be arrested for the Cleveland Street gay brother scandal. He also tried to sell a fake confession from Crippen to the papers but was found out and ended up suspended form practicing for six months.
- Trials were open to the public and hundreds tried to get inside to see the titillating drama unfold. This reminded me of the millions who watched the Depp vs Heard trial livestream. People have always been drawn to scandal and crimes. One of the spectators at Crippen's trial was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
- Some said that Havelock Ellis's Studies in the Psychology of Sex series provided a way to understand the motives of this case. This fact is only really interesting to me because I am doing my PhD on Ellis.
- In 1985 that Ethel's kids found out her story when a true crime author contacted them. Stanley, her husband, seemed to have known. Their marriage hadn't been loving or affectionate, more of a friendly cohabitation. Nor was she a soft mom.
February 28, 2025
Utterly phenomenal, as always Rubenhold's research is meticulous, especially in her unravelling of the inconsistencies surrounding the murders, identifying the biases of witnesses as well as the ever changing narratives created by Crippen and Ethel.
She captures the bleakness of humanity and an eerie sense of astonishment around Ethel in which her culpability seems undeniable and yet you seem to still know very little, a fascinating read. She brings life and beauty to the wives of Crippen and develops them as women with full lives, people they loved and affected, stories to tell, not merely bodies to be exhumed for titillation.
She captures the bleakness of humanity and an eerie sense of astonishment around Ethel in which her culpability seems undeniable and yet you seem to still know very little, a fascinating read. She brings life and beauty to the wives of Crippen and develops them as women with full lives, people they loved and affected, stories to tell, not merely bodies to be exhumed for titillation.
May 8, 2025
Hallie Rubenhold has done it again. In ‘The Five’ she broke the historical true crime genre wide open by concentrating on the female victims of Jack the Ripper, instead of the murderer. In ‘Story of a Murder’ she continues in similar vein, giving us the story of Belle Elmore, wife and victim of Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen.
Exceedingly well researched, we’re presented with a living, breathing cast of characters who lead us to Belle’s disappearance, followed by the capture and trial of her husband and his lover. It breaks down the misogynistic histories of earlier generations to paint a more balanced picture of Crippen’s wives, family, friends and acquaintances. The details of everyday history set the scene, and it’s as compelling as a work of fiction.
I listened to the audiobook, so a shout-out to Juliet Stevenson too, for her portrayal of so many varied characters.
Exceedingly well researched, we’re presented with a living, breathing cast of characters who lead us to Belle’s disappearance, followed by the capture and trial of her husband and his lover. It breaks down the misogynistic histories of earlier generations to paint a more balanced picture of Crippen’s wives, family, friends and acquaintances. The details of everyday history set the scene, and it’s as compelling as a work of fiction.
I listened to the audiobook, so a shout-out to Juliet Stevenson too, for her portrayal of so many varied characters.
April 27, 2025
“ No murderer should ever be the guardian of their victim’s story, and yet this is the role that Hawley Harvey Crippen has always held”
I’ve very much admired Hallie Rubenhold since her work on the equally phenomenal “The Five” and was highly anticipating this release too. The writing is just a high a standard, incredibly well researched and thoroughly engaging in the way it’s all laid out. The book’s format in its cast and characters and acts like a theatre production itself pays a lovely homage to Belle’s love of all things theatrical.
There is a deep humanity intricately woven throughout the fabric of the book, reminding the reader that whilst we may love to consume true crime and view it from a distance, these were real things that happened to real human beings, that ended and destroyed lives, and should never be reduced to sensationalism for entertainment.
Whilst we will never know truly and entirely what happened to Belle Elmore in her final hours, Rubenhold has given her back her voice and rounded her out once again as a full human being who had hopes and dreams, loved and was loved, lived boldly and beautifully, and in no way shape or form deserved the ending she met. Even now if you google Belle Elmore the first result that appears is that of her murderer. Her misfortune was never her character or how she conducted herself as it was portrayed for so many years after her death, but only that of encountering Crippen.
Too often in history and even today, women have been written out of their own stories, or made the villain where they are very much the victim to negate the actions of the men committing atrocious crimes, books like this one whilst being an incredible read are also sadly completely necessary and important.
I’ve very much admired Hallie Rubenhold since her work on the equally phenomenal “The Five” and was highly anticipating this release too. The writing is just a high a standard, incredibly well researched and thoroughly engaging in the way it’s all laid out. The book’s format in its cast and characters and acts like a theatre production itself pays a lovely homage to Belle’s love of all things theatrical.
There is a deep humanity intricately woven throughout the fabric of the book, reminding the reader that whilst we may love to consume true crime and view it from a distance, these were real things that happened to real human beings, that ended and destroyed lives, and should never be reduced to sensationalism for entertainment.
Whilst we will never know truly and entirely what happened to Belle Elmore in her final hours, Rubenhold has given her back her voice and rounded her out once again as a full human being who had hopes and dreams, loved and was loved, lived boldly and beautifully, and in no way shape or form deserved the ending she met. Even now if you google Belle Elmore the first result that appears is that of her murderer. Her misfortune was never her character or how she conducted herself as it was portrayed for so many years after her death, but only that of encountering Crippen.
Too often in history and even today, women have been written out of their own stories, or made the villain where they are very much the victim to negate the actions of the men committing atrocious crimes, books like this one whilst being an incredible read are also sadly completely necessary and important.
August 28, 2025
After reading and loving Hallie Rubenhold’s Ballie Gifford Prize winning book ‘The Five’ – I was excited to read this and wasn’t disappointed.
The Crippen North London murder is a story predominantly about women but through History has been told almost exclusively by men and Hallie Rubenhold breaks this down with what must be a huge amount of well researched information. The book fleshes out not only Belle and Ethel but also the ladies of the Ladies' Guild, the amazing female journalists of the time, and information about Crippen's first wife, Charlotte, whose death in 1892 also appears to be very strange.
I think Rubenhold wants her readers to have no sympathy with Crippen. This will be mainly for the atrocity he committed against his second wife (and likely committed against his first), but also because he represents men killing women, and the violence of the patriarchy. Belle “does not deserve to be depicted or remembered in the manner that she has been,” she writes. “Her murderer should not have the final word.” The end of the book was amazing – knowing nothing as I did about the Crippen case I was quite shocked by the ending (no spoilers here).
I also loved hearing about North London during the early 20th century and all the other characters involved in this case (Chief Inspector Walter Dew of Scotland Yard, Captain Kendall of the Monstrose to name just a couple).
The Crippen North London murder is a story predominantly about women but through History has been told almost exclusively by men and Hallie Rubenhold breaks this down with what must be a huge amount of well researched information. The book fleshes out not only Belle and Ethel but also the ladies of the Ladies' Guild, the amazing female journalists of the time, and information about Crippen's first wife, Charlotte, whose death in 1892 also appears to be very strange.
I think Rubenhold wants her readers to have no sympathy with Crippen. This will be mainly for the atrocity he committed against his second wife (and likely committed against his first), but also because he represents men killing women, and the violence of the patriarchy. Belle “does not deserve to be depicted or remembered in the manner that she has been,” she writes. “Her murderer should not have the final word.” The end of the book was amazing – knowing nothing as I did about the Crippen case I was quite shocked by the ending (no spoilers here).
I also loved hearing about North London during the early 20th century and all the other characters involved in this case (Chief Inspector Walter Dew of Scotland Yard, Captain Kendall of the Monstrose to name just a couple).
September 20, 2025
You will need a lot of patience to read this book about a legendary murder that took place in London in the year 1910. The cast of characters stretches for almost 8 pages. In the prologue the author explains that a murder affects many people in profound ways. Detailed accounts are given of the principal characters, their parents, their siblings, their station in the all important Edwardian class structure of England. At first it was enlightening. But it grew to be exhausting.
The murder was indeed sensational. A doctor murdered his wife in a grisly manner then escaped to a brief freedom accompanied by his employee, a young woman dressed as a boy. The tale was like red meat thrown to an early twentieth century population. The press clamored for details. The public swooned with each revelation.
The author papers over this lengthy slog with a cursory analysis of the plight of women at that particular moment of history.
The murder was indeed sensational. A doctor murdered his wife in a grisly manner then escaped to a brief freedom accompanied by his employee, a young woman dressed as a boy. The tale was like red meat thrown to an early twentieth century population. The press clamored for details. The public swooned with each revelation.
The author papers over this lengthy slog with a cursory analysis of the plight of women at that particular moment of history.
June 4, 2025
So so so good. I don’t think I can read a book by Hallie Rubenhold and not enjoy it! I’m so grateful we have historians like her pulling apart the myths of famous murders and (finally) highlighting the women at their hearts. This is incredibly well-researched, intelligent historical true crime that lets the reader form her own opinion about the main “characters” in the history. Reframing the widely-held historical narrative is extremely important work, and Hallie Rubenhold is one of the best historians out there doing it!
April 4, 2025
This is a very interesting look at the 1910 murder of Belle Elmore. It's detailed and meticulously researched, yet reads like a suspenseful thriller. This author is known for writing true crime books that center more on the victim rather than the murderer. Not only were the details of Belle, her husband Dr. Crippen and his mistress Ethel fascinating but the coverage of the era's society, medical practices and the idea of the "New Women" made for an engrossing read.
Recommended.
This was a Goodreads giveaway win. Thank you to Goodreads and the publisher.
Recommended.
This was a Goodreads giveaway win. Thank you to Goodreads and the publisher.
August 25, 2025
5*s - another incredibly researched book by Hallie Rubenhold which centres the women who history has either forgotten or been unkind to. Luv her!
June 8, 2025
Very well done reevaluation of the notorious crimes. Encourages me to read deeper about news stories and question motives.
August 21, 2025
Real rating 3.5
This book was well written and I also think an important story that was intelligently told, but my god it just kept going and going.
This book was well written and I also think an important story that was intelligently told, but my god it just kept going and going.
July 20, 2025
This story was not particularly compelling. Dr Crippen was a grifter, liar, conman, and a thief, all before he murdered his wife. This story was incredibly well researched; unfortunately that resulted in an annoyingly tedious story. His “mistress,” Ethel Le Neve, clearly got away with murder, while Crippen was convicted and executed. The upside is that her life after the trial was not particularly happy, which was some small consolation.
July 12, 2025
This was excellent and a startling contrast to the same crime being depicted in Thunderstruck. The Larson book depicted Cora Crippen as a monster and Dr Crippen as a henpecked husband escaping repression. In Hallie Rubenhold’s examination of the crime, the focus is mostly on Cora and Ethel.
Cora may have had an outsized personality and she may have had an affair, but I have to agree with Rubenhold. She did not deserve to be murdered, slaughtered and slandered. She was a human being, not an impediment to a star crossed pair of lovers.
Cora’s operation that left her identifying scar was revealed to have been surgery to remove her ovaries and that Crippen either convinced Cora she needed this procedure or forced her to undergo it. By this, he stole her ability to have the children she wanted.
Crippen is revealed here to have had a really checkered background and a bizarre habit of constantly jumping from one job to the next. What drove him so much? He even missed out on being a founder of a homeopathic medical school for unexplained reasons. Rubenhold discusses his dishonesty, the fact that he was basically a con artist and that he knew his remedies were bunk. Crippen also abandoned his son with relatives, never taking him back into his home even when he remarried. He has to truly have hated children.
Crippen may also have been forcing his first wife to have abortions and may have been doing them. His wife died at 33 of a “stroke”. Once in a while, people with heart conditions die that young…..but that’s exceedingly unusual. This book makes a plausible argument with circumstantial evidence that Crippen murdered this wife too!
Edith is also revealed to be far different than the press depicted her. She was far more conniving and less honest than the press and Thunderstruck depicted her. I’m convinced she likely knew Cora was to be poisoned before the fact. If not, she knew afterwards and may have assisted in destroying evidence.
People have tried to argue Crippen was innocent of the killing and Edith was just an easily led dupe. That’s doubtful. The argument of this book is that Crippen wanted Cora’s murder to look like a simple heart attack. Evidence points to the poisoning going wrong and Cora dying in a violent way that made destroying and hiding her body necessary.
Women in this era and today are more likely to be murdered by their husbands. Cora “vanished” and her husband tried to convince her music hall ladies guild friends that she’d just run off without her clothes….and her jewelry.
If nothing else, I’m convinced Cora would have taken her jewelry with her. It was easily portable and salable wealth. It doesn’t track she’d leave it….and it’s even less likely Edith started wearing that jewelry and clothing made from Belle/Cora’s clothes and fabrics.
Crippen had motive to kill his wife. He wanted to make way for Edith and keep Cora’s property. This is to me, a very strong motivation for him to be the killer.
Edith benefited hugely by the murder—furs, jewelry and rich clothes suddenly came into her possession. I believe she should have been convicted of being an accessory or accessory after the fact of murder. She wasn’t being led like an innocent lamb when they fled.
Edith is often called a young woman or girl. I find that odd. She was 27 at the time of the murder so I think calling her a woman is more appropriate. Calling her a girl feeds into the idea she was too young and innocent to know what was up. No, she was a grown woman and she knew exactly what was happening.
This book really points to who was the real victim in this story. Rubenhold states that the theme of “henpecked little husband killing his monstrous wife” is Dr Crippen’s take of what he did, and his side of things prevailed, even after he was hung (rightfully) for the murder.
It’s time his first two wives were allowed to be human again….and about time that Edith received her share of the sentence of guilt.
Cora may have had an outsized personality and she may have had an affair, but I have to agree with Rubenhold. She did not deserve to be murdered, slaughtered and slandered. She was a human being, not an impediment to a star crossed pair of lovers.
Cora’s operation that left her identifying scar was revealed to have been surgery to remove her ovaries and that Crippen either convinced Cora she needed this procedure or forced her to undergo it. By this, he stole her ability to have the children she wanted.
Crippen is revealed here to have had a really checkered background and a bizarre habit of constantly jumping from one job to the next. What drove him so much? He even missed out on being a founder of a homeopathic medical school for unexplained reasons. Rubenhold discusses his dishonesty, the fact that he was basically a con artist and that he knew his remedies were bunk. Crippen also abandoned his son with relatives, never taking him back into his home even when he remarried. He has to truly have hated children.
Crippen may also have been forcing his first wife to have abortions and may have been doing them. His wife died at 33 of a “stroke”. Once in a while, people with heart conditions die that young…..but that’s exceedingly unusual. This book makes a plausible argument with circumstantial evidence that Crippen murdered this wife too!
Edith is also revealed to be far different than the press depicted her. She was far more conniving and less honest than the press and Thunderstruck depicted her. I’m convinced she likely knew Cora was to be poisoned before the fact. If not, she knew afterwards and may have assisted in destroying evidence.
People have tried to argue Crippen was innocent of the killing and Edith was just an easily led dupe. That’s doubtful. The argument of this book is that Crippen wanted Cora’s murder to look like a simple heart attack. Evidence points to the poisoning going wrong and Cora dying in a violent way that made destroying and hiding her body necessary.
Women in this era and today are more likely to be murdered by their husbands. Cora “vanished” and her husband tried to convince her music hall ladies guild friends that she’d just run off without her clothes….and her jewelry.
If nothing else, I’m convinced Cora would have taken her jewelry with her. It was easily portable and salable wealth. It doesn’t track she’d leave it….and it’s even less likely Edith started wearing that jewelry and clothing made from Belle/Cora’s clothes and fabrics.
Crippen had motive to kill his wife. He wanted to make way for Edith and keep Cora’s property. This is to me, a very strong motivation for him to be the killer.
Edith benefited hugely by the murder—furs, jewelry and rich clothes suddenly came into her possession. I believe she should have been convicted of being an accessory or accessory after the fact of murder. She wasn’t being led like an innocent lamb when they fled.
Edith is often called a young woman or girl. I find that odd. She was 27 at the time of the murder so I think calling her a woman is more appropriate. Calling her a girl feeds into the idea she was too young and innocent to know what was up. No, she was a grown woman and she knew exactly what was happening.
This book really points to who was the real victim in this story. Rubenhold states that the theme of “henpecked little husband killing his monstrous wife” is Dr Crippen’s take of what he did, and his side of things prevailed, even after he was hung (rightfully) for the murder.
It’s time his first two wives were allowed to be human again….and about time that Edith received her share of the sentence of guilt.
September 3, 2025
I read her other book (The Five) and absolutely loved it so I was definitely anticipating this one coming out! And apparently a lot of other people also in line in my online library waiting to borrow this book!
1) what is it about? => it tells the detailed story of all the characters involved in the infamous murder of Cora Crippen in the early 20th century! There were Charlotte, Crippen’s 1st wife, Cora, Crippen’s 2nd wife, and Ethel, his mistress. At first glance, it seems to be a not very interesting case cuz it’s so obvious but there’s definitely more to it that was extensively discussed in the book
2) do i think it’s better than her last book? => i actually think so cuz it’s kinda different from the last book. I feel like the author did venture outside her previous research. The last one is about White Chapel, the poor neighborhood in London. It focuses on how life can be pretty fcked up for girls in the lower class in London.
This one shifts to the US and Canada! Dr. Crippen is an American who moved to London to sell quackery medication. It dives into the affluent Americans lifestyle, and the theatre musical world of 20th century.
3) what do i like abt this book?
=> it’s not what it seems y’all! Cora (or Belle Elmore) is merely a victim. I have a feeling like she has a pretty good grip on Crippen. Crippen is your typical sleazy snake oil salesman. He’s very manipulative and cunning but at the same time, he did love Ethel very deeply. And Ethel, she’s definitely not just a pretty innocent typist girl. She’s smart bruh! (From just the way that she never struggled to find a job even after her scandal!) She definitely helped Crippen plotting a lot of his schemes.
=> the court proceeding process is also pretty interesting.
=> i think most importantly, the book showed you that a lot of seemingly contradictory facts can coexist! Like Crippen and Ethel passionate relationship was absolutely fascinating. Like it’s obvious that sometimes it’s just performative and they both had their own self-interest, but a lot of their actions showed that they cared deeply for each other.
4) any last thoughts/questions? => i really don’t understand why Crippen and Ethel didn’t just run away for good! Also Crippen is smart and rich, I’m sure he can find a way to get a divorce. Also I don’t understand why people claimed that Crippen was after Cora’s money and jewelry? It was actually all his money? Cuz Cora didn’t have a job? So it’s him who bought her all that stuff? Unless I’m missing something, how can Cora live so lavishly if her husband is not rich?
1) what is it about? => it tells the detailed story of all the characters involved in the infamous murder of Cora Crippen in the early 20th century! There were Charlotte, Crippen’s 1st wife, Cora, Crippen’s 2nd wife, and Ethel, his mistress. At first glance, it seems to be a not very interesting case cuz it’s so obvious but there’s definitely more to it that was extensively discussed in the book
2) do i think it’s better than her last book? => i actually think so cuz it’s kinda different from the last book. I feel like the author did venture outside her previous research. The last one is about White Chapel, the poor neighborhood in London. It focuses on how life can be pretty fcked up for girls in the lower class in London.
This one shifts to the US and Canada! Dr. Crippen is an American who moved to London to sell quackery medication. It dives into the affluent Americans lifestyle, and the theatre musical world of 20th century.
3) what do i like abt this book?
=> it’s not what it seems y’all! Cora (or Belle Elmore) is merely a victim. I have a feeling like she has a pretty good grip on Crippen. Crippen is your typical sleazy snake oil salesman. He’s very manipulative and cunning but at the same time, he did love Ethel very deeply. And Ethel, she’s definitely not just a pretty innocent typist girl. She’s smart bruh! (From just the way that she never struggled to find a job even after her scandal!) She definitely helped Crippen plotting a lot of his schemes.
=> the court proceeding process is also pretty interesting.
=> i think most importantly, the book showed you that a lot of seemingly contradictory facts can coexist! Like Crippen and Ethel passionate relationship was absolutely fascinating. Like it’s obvious that sometimes it’s just performative and they both had their own self-interest, but a lot of their actions showed that they cared deeply for each other.
4) any last thoughts/questions? => i really don’t understand why Crippen and Ethel didn’t just run away for good! Also Crippen is smart and rich, I’m sure he can find a way to get a divorce. Also I don’t understand why people claimed that Crippen was after Cora’s money and jewelry? It was actually all his money? Cuz Cora didn’t have a job? So it’s him who bought her all that stuff? Unless I’m missing something, how can Cora live so lavishly if her husband is not rich?
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