TEXT 28: Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen, 1882—1910
Crippen is famous as a murderer mainly because he was the first one to be caught by the use of wireless telegraphy. He was an American-born doctor who settled in London in 1900 with his wife Cora who had theatrical ambitions and used the stage name Belle Elmore. In 1910 Crippen's wife vanished in suspicious circumstances and when the house was searched her dismembered body was discovered buried in a cellar. She had been poisoned. Meanwhile Crippen had fled with his girlfriend Ethel Le Neve, who was disguised as a boy. They thought that they were safe once they boarded the liner Montrose for America, but the authorities used the newly invented wireless to pass on a warning to the ship's captain. Shortly afterwards 'Mr. Robinson' and his 'son' were recognised and Crippen and Le Neve were arrested in New York and returned to Britain. Largely due to Crippen's insistence that she knew nothing of the crime, Ethel Le Neve was freed, but the mild, inoffensive looking little man was hanged at Pentonville prison on 23rd November 1910.
TEXT 29: Bonnie and Clyde (Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow), d. 1934
In the days of the Depression in America after 1929, these two young people made a great name for themselves robbing stores and committing murders quite casually and often for the sheer fun of it. Bonnie Parker was a waitress when she met Clyde Barrow, and she ended up a legendary figure known for her love of red dresses, cigars and firearms. Working in the southern states of the USA they left behind a trail of destruction. On several occasions they were trapped by the police, but seemed to bear a charmed life and escaped even through a hail of bullets. On one occasion they held up a prison farm killing a guard and helping a friend to escape. Huge rewards were by then offered for their capture. Following a tip-off, the police finally ambushed Bonnie and Clyde at a crossroads and killed them in the gunfight that followed. In 1967 a film was made of their exploits, which resulted in the two becoming almost cult figures, and a pop song was written about them, which became a best-selling record.
TEXT 30: 'Ma' Barker, d. 1935
'Ma' Barker's gang was mostly composed of her own four sons, and she led them to criminal fame. She was never arrested, but her sons often were. Ma would appear in court and protest their innocence or raise bail. By the time the gang was cleared up by the FBI it had been responsible for the deaths of four policemen, a civilian and one of their own number who talked too much. The Barkers hit the big time when they started kidnapping rich men for ransom, but this increased the pressure by police and the FBI on the gang and its members had to split up. When Arthur Barker was captured, Ma's hideout in Florida was revealed. The FBI's G-men surrounded the house and called on Ma Barker and her son Fred to surrender. "To hell with all of you", she replied and opened fire. The FBI used tear gas, but the gunfight continued until both Ma Barker and her son were dead.
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TEXT 31: Bruno Hauptmann, d. 1936
Kidnapping, which means the taking of a person — sometimes a child — by force and asking the family, friends or even employers of the person for ransom in return for his or her release, has always been regarded as a serious crime. One of the best known kidnappings of modern times took place in America in March 1932, when the nineteen-months old son of American aviator Colonel Charles Lindbergh was taken from his New Jersey home while he was asleep in the nursery. Charles Lindbergh was the first man to fly the Atlantic non-stop single-handed in 1927 and a great American hero. A large sum of money — $50,000 — was demanded by the kidnapper and this was eventually paid over by Lindbergh in April. However, the boy had already been murdered and his body buried under leaves and twigs in a wood only four miles from the Lindbergh home. As a result of the Lindbergh case the crime of kidnapping was made a Federal instead of just a State offence with the passing of the "Lindbergh Act" (Federal Kidnapping Act) in 1933. This allowed the FBI to become involved in the search for kidnappers and their victims, making an arrest so much more likely. The kidnapper of Lindbergh's child, Bruno Hauptmann, a carpenter from New York, was finally arrested in September 1934 after a massive search, and executed in 1936. The publicity which followed the kidnapping was so great that the Lindberghs eventually left America to live in England and continued to do so until 1939.
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