Doctor Crippen: The Infamous London Cellar Murder of 1910 by Nicholas Connell Page A

Only those who can remember the case and the intense excitement and bitterness it engendered, can have any conception of the widespread antipathy towards the little man who was now in my charge. 10
    A rumour emerged on 4 August that Crippen had confessed to the murder of his wife. Dew stoutly denied this, saying, ‘There is not an iota of truth in the rumour.’ Froest described the suggestion as ‘absolutely untrue’, and the Canadian Provincial Premier, Sir Lomer Gouin, described the stories as ‘tissues of lies’. They were lies, and they would later prove costly for the newspapers that had printed them.
    Another bogus report said that Dew had been sent a telegram from Scotland Yard saying that the remains had been positively identified as being female. An ‘absolute invention’ was the exasperated Froest’s verdict. Dew had not received such a communication from Scotland Yard and they had not had any more from Dew. 11
    Bizarre stories were published. Le Neve was offered £200 a week to star in a twenty-week tour, which included a music hall sketch called ‘Caught by Wireless’. Crippen was offered £1,000 a week for a twenty-week engagement if he was acquitted. 12 At this time one of the strangest stories concerning Dew’s investigations emerged. It was reported in The Times that Dew’s wife Kate had expressed an opinion that Belle Elmore was still alive and that the whole Crippen case had been arranged as an advertising stunt. 13 Stranger still, Dew was reported as saying that the remains had not even been identified as human, let alone female and if Cora Crippen were to reappear alive she would be a great attraction on the stage and could name her price. 14
    Detective Sergeant Mitchell had left Liverpool and was making his way to Quebec aboard the Lake Manitoba to deliver extradition papers. 15 He was accompanied by Sarah Stone and Julia Foster, two stern-faced wardresses from Holloway Prison (there were no police matrons), to accompany Ethel Le Neve back home. When Mitchell was reunited with Dew on 14 August he handed him a letter from Chief Constable Bigham. Dew replied to Bigham, saying that he had received the two cables that the letter referred to. One of them appears to have contained instructions from Winston Churchill, for Dew wrote,
    The wishes of H.M. Secretary of State were anticipated by me, and I would remark that I have always made it a practice to treat prisoners with courtesy & consideration no matter what their position in life.
    If I have erred in this case it has been on the side of consideration and humanity, and at great cost to my own personal convenience & comfort.
    Churchill had also expressed a desire that Crippen and Le Neve should be protected from the reporters and photographers. Dew was pleased to report that ‘so far as I am personally concerned I succeeded in preventing all annoyance from these people, and I also think succeeded in preventing their photographs being taken, but no one except myself can ever realise at what a cost this was done’.
    Dew went on to inform Bigham that he was ‘devising a scheme’ to get the prisoners back to England, as he was concerned about the strength of feeling the Canadians had against Crippen, which potentially jeopardised Dew’s chances of bringing him back home safely:
    This of course will depend to some extent on the Police here, to whom sooner or later I must divulge my plans, but bluntly speaking, I don’t trust them too much in respect to reporters, however I shall do my best to avoid publicity and annoyance to fugitives.
    The Canadian and American journalists hoped that Sergeant Mitchell might be more forthcoming than Dew, but Dew told them in no uncertain terms that, ‘Mr Mitchell is acting under my instruction, and I have instructed him not to discuss the case.’ 16 Mitchell remained silent.
    The adjourned coroner’s inquest went ahead in London as scheduled on 15 August without Dew, Crippen or Le Neve. Also absent was