SENSATIONAL CASE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 270, 9 July 1932, Page 2

SENSATIONAL CASE

CRIPPEN REVIVAL ASSOCIATE OF FAMOUS MURDERER LIVING IN SYDNEY. INFATUATED BY CRIPPEN. SYDNEY, July 1. It has just been revealed that Ethel Le Neve, the woman in the celebfated Crippen murder case in London in 1910, is to-day living in Perth, in Western Australia, in squalid circumstances, under another name. She has never before heen interviewed by.. a newspaper, but this weelc she gave details of her association with Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen, who murdered his wife, Belle Elmore (her stage name), then cut up and hnried her body under the hearth of their home at Hilltop Crescent. "I only hope there will be someone kindly enough to regard me as other than the sinning woman I have been painted," she said. Now abont 41 years of age, Miss Le Neve retains much of her earlier charm. After the execution of Crippen she went abroad, first visiting India. Later she came to Australia, and she has heen bere ever since. She said she was an irresponsible girl of 16 when she ran away from her home and took a job as typist with Dr. ; Crippen. He beeame infatuated with her, took her to entertainments and dinn'ers, and finally got her to his home, took possession of her, and beat her. Yet she loved this remarkable man, who said that his wife was deceitful and jealous of his pretty typist. He said that as soon as his wife returned from the s'easide he would divorce her. "Little did I know, in my distress, that under that very floor lay the body of his wife," said Miss Le Neve. As the days passed Dr. Crippen beeame very agitatsd. Now loving, now threatening, Crippen begged her to have her hair close cropped, disguise herself as a boy, and accompany him to America. They left in a great hurry, and at the time the distress showed by Crippen puzzled her. Miss Le Neve detailed their fears of detection aboard the liner, and Crippen's constant premonition that he would die for her. Crippen had nst finished discoursing on the marvels of wireless, which had just been fitted on the liner, the Montrose, when he was taken into custody. The description of the pair had heen flashed across the ocean, and it was the first time that wireless had been nsed in association with crime detection. Miss Le Neve was ordered to undress, and her disguise was revealed. They were trans-shipped in mid-Atlan-tic and taken to Old aBiley. "By Almighty Cod I did not know what we had been charged with until I arrived back in England," she said. "Th'en I was horrified." She was allowed to interview Crippen daily, and was with him a few hours before he was executed. Crippen eventually told her tliat h'is wife nagged him about his pretty typist, became desperately jealous, and threatened to go to the surgery and shoot her. Crippen had outbursts of ungovernable temper, and in one of his rages he poisoned a glass of ehampagne and gave it to his wife.