The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-10-20
Declares that His Wife Abandoned Him and AL
 leges Reasons Therefor
 Acknowledges that for Three Years He Has Been Friendly with Ethel Le- neve, Whom He Took Into His Home After His Wife's Disappearance"
fsneeial from united Press.l )


 London Oct. 20-For the first time since his arrest on board the Mont rose. at Father Point, Que, Dr. H. H. Crippen, the American doctor, this afternoon gave to the world his yer sion of the disappearance of his vN$fe, Belle Fillmore. the music hall singer whom he is charged with murderfng.
 After sensational opening state naents by his counsel A. A. Tobin, in which Tobin told the jury of a plot to smuggle Crippen safely from the Montrose, 1Crippen himself took the stand.
 He made it clear irnmedia te1y that the defense will seek to prove that Mrs. Crippen is not dead. but that she fled to America, ostensibly to join man, whose name Crippen mentioned to Inspector Dew when the latter questioned him.
 MDapper and spruce as a. dudes attir- ed in the height of fashion, and show ing 20 signs of nervousness, Crippen had walked briskly to the witness stand.
 Crippen first gave the jurors brief outline of his early life and his med ical career. both in the United States and England. 'I knew that my wife Miller,'' he continued,l "and I often upbraided her for corresponding With him. III 19O4, cora duIiitleu v Aio that she was very fond of Bruce Miller. I ceased co-habitation with her at that time and our relations from then on wsre stTatnsd 7refe fo the aned to leave me. telling me. that she could go to America, to join Miller. [ last saw her on January 31, Of this year. and I believe that she fled to America
 .aTo avoid scandal I connected a story of how she had gone to Ameri- tel 11JTG ness of mine in California and that while on her way cross the American continent she had died and had been incinerated there. I simply could not that my wife had deserted me.
 ''On the Monday night before l Music HalI Guild, resigning her posi- ton as treasurer, MT and Mrs Paul Martinetti came to our house for dim ner. After they left my wife abused me for not paying her more atten- tion and said: This is the finish of it. I won't stand it any longer. l will never hear of me again went to business next morning and when I went home, between and 6 D. n1., I found she had gone.
 After my wife disappeared, Miss Leneve lived with me as my wife in the HiIldrop Crescent home. I have been intimate with her during the visited hotels with her. but was never away from home at night.
 t'My firm belief is that my wife went to Chicago to join Bruce Mill Ter. He often sent her presents and wrote her loving letters in some of which he signed himself, With Love and Kisses to Brown Eyes, Bruce"
 Crippen was questioned by Attor- ney Tobin regarding the purchases he made of hyoscin, the deadly poison, which he is charged with having used to murder his wife. He declared that he had never given his wife any poi son. The hyoscin he swore, he, had given in very small doses, to several of his patients who had been suffer ing from nervous disorders.
 Crippen a admitted that his wife had a scar somewhat similar to that des- scribed on the body said to be that of his wife. He said she had carried the scar for years. Crippen denied not only that he knew the identity of the body found in the cellar of his FIilIdrop Crescent home, but also that he knew of any body in the cellar for which he was brought back to England under arrest.
 The prisoners admission of the scar is considered important