Dr Crippen - Katherine D. Watson

Dr Crippen's murder of his wife Cora has stuck in the public imagination for many reasons: the harmless demeanour of this cold-blooded poisoner; the flamboyant victim; and, the dismembered body in the cellar at the infamous 39 Hilldrop Crescent - and not forgetting a dramatic police chase which caught Crippen and his mistress Ethel le Neve halfway across the Atlantic. The story has all the best ingredients: sex and love, secrets and lies, but it is the detail from the documents that fascinates, such as Crippen's account of marital bickering that preceded his wife's disappearance, and the daily media accounts of the police net closing on the fleeing couple. This 'bloody history' combines a gripping narrative with facts from witness statements, police reports, and the chilling words of a killer claiming 'So far as I know she is still alive'.