Proof of Dr. Clippens Innocence - Case Study Example

Only a generation earlier, the people of London had been terrorized by the killings of “Jack the reaper”. This murder was as horrific as anything the reaper carried out. Still more alarming, the prime suspect seemed such a gentleman; A doctor living in London. Yet it seemed he was capable of poisoning his wife and then slicing her body into small pieces. The gentleman was none other than Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen. The incident has been an inspiration for many movie directors and authors.

His figure still chamber of horrors. No one has seriously questioned Crippen's guilt until now. Though the ordeal is the most famous poisoning case in history, it needs to be revisited. One key factor in this century-old case has always been hunting me. The thing that makes me come back to this case is the dismemberment of the body. It makes no sense for one to dismember a murder victim. This is the one incident that I know of, where the victim was dismembered. The contradictions in Crippen’s case are fascinating.

These stimulate a launch of a complete examination of all the known evidence. Harvey was an American. He came from Michigan. He arrived in London in 1897 selling homeopathic patient medicine. Homeopathy had just been introduced in England and it made him a wealthy man. The Crippens rented a flat in London’s west end. Outwardly, they did not seem like a couple that would feature in one of the most infamous domestic murders of all time (Castleden, 2011). But, there were warning signs. Cora Crippen, also an American, was nineteen when she married the doctor, twelve years her senior.

Now she was in her thirties, an aspiring actress. He was middle-aged and serious and they had nothing in common. Cora was very showy and flamboyant.