Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1910-07-14
MURDER SUSPECTED.
Efforts are Being Made to Discover the
whereabouts of Dr. Hawley Crippen.

who was formerly Belle Elmore, form
erly a noted singer, was found late last
night buried in the cellar Of her home,
in Islington, on the outskirts of London.
1t was officially announced this after
noon that Crippen has been formally
charged with murder and mutilation,
and that the police all over the world
have been asked to arrest him on sight.
Crippen is said TO have fled with
another woman with whom he was liv-
ing and who had assumed the name of
Mrs. Crippen. The identity Of this
woman has not been revealed.
Despite the calling in ofall the neigh
bors, the police have been unable posti-
Wiley to identify the decomposed body
found in the cellar as that of Mrs. Grip
pen, though they are firmly OF that
belief None OF the neghbors have
seen Mrs. Crippen since February, when
her husband gave it out that she had
gone to the continent for VISIT. a
short time aftDrward there appeared a
notice in tie papers that Mrs. Crippen
had died abroad. Then another woman,
also known as Mrs. Crippen, appeared
at the Hilldrop Crescent house, The
dentist and the second Mrs. Crippen
we're seen in the house as late as last
Saturday.
The crime is so unusual and sur
rounded by such peculiar features that
the best detectives of Scotland Yard
have been detailed to seek the missing
dentist.
The dead woman, if she is really
Mrs. Crippen, is famous all over Eng
land and the continent as a concert
singer. 1t is said she was born in
Philadelphia, the daughter Of Polish
family, OF noble birth. 1t is under
stood she met there a dentist named
Crippen. After lrer marriage, it is de-
clared, she began making a search
through papers left by her father and
discovered that she was entitled TO
title and estate. She and Crippen, the
London police say, then left Philadel-
phia with the announced intention OF
going to Poland to lay claim TO her es-
tate and title OF Baroness Makomaski.
They never returned to America. Last
night the body was found buried under
a cement floor in the basement. II was
so badly decomposed that Identification
has been impossible.
Mrs. Crippen was "a years old, and
her husband was several years her
senior.
1t is said that the woman now mis-
sing with Crippen is his stenographer,
and that her name is Ethel Clara
Leneye.
1t developed this afternoon that the
Music Hall Ladies Guild, Of which
Mrs. Crippen was the secretary, re-
ceived an obviously forged letter from
her in February, saying she was going
to America. The police charge that
DR.. Crippen slew his wife and then
told her neighbors she had gone abroad.
To substantiate this story, they charge
he forged the letter and then inserted
the advertised notice of her death.
1t seems certain that Miss Leneve
disappeared last Saturday night, after
a prolonged visit from the investigating
police. Crippen admitted that his
story about his wife's trip to America
was false.
My wife quarreled with me and left
the house in anger" he told the pc
lice, 'and | do not know where she
went / didn't want our neighbors to
know she had left, 50 | invented the
story about her trip to America. That
is where | thought she went" Crippen
coolly explained to the police. His
story was so plausible and told with
such ease that the suspicious OF the po-
lice were temporarily lulled and Grip
pen escaped.
London, July 1.-two collins were
taken today by the police undertakers
to the Crippen home at Hilldrop Cres-
cent, indicating that another corpse
had been found in the house Every |
one is barred from the premises and
the police are yelling their movements
in mystery.
The police undertaken took two cot
fins to the house to facilitate the hand |
ling of the frightfully mutilated and
decomposed body. Despite his denial,
there are persistent rumors in the
vicinity Of the house that further start
ling discoveries have been made, and |
that the police are concealing them in
the hope that they will be able to make
an arrest.
The government analyst, DIR. Pepper
who has made complete investigation |
Of the body found buried in the cellar
declared to a United Press representa-
tive this afternoon that positive identi-
fication would be impossible, but that
the police were certain the corpse was
that Of Mrs. Crippen from the general
shape Of the body. DR.. Pepper de-
clared that the head had been crushed
to Jelly with fiendish blows and would
have been unacceptable even before
decomposition set in. The entire corpse
was hacked and jabbed as il with
knife.
An official Of the Music Hall Ladies
Guild, OF which Mrs. Crippen was
secretary, said today that Guild mem
bers, astonished when she left with
word Of explanation, went to Dr.
Crippen's Office in the same building
as that OF the Guild and asked where
she was. Crippen told them she had
gone to visit her home, in Los Ang-
eles. I'VE all knew there had been
trouple in the family" said this wo-
man, SO we wrote to Mrs. Crippen's
stepson in California.
He replied that Mrs. Crippen had