The tale of Chief Inspector Walter Dew and the infamous Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen reads like a crime drama that accidentally invented the modern manhunt - complete with early tech, disguises and a transatlantic chase.

Dr. Crippen, a mild-mannered homeopath was married to Cora Crippen, a lively woman who inconveniently disappeared in 1910. Crippen claimed she’d popped off to America and, somewhat dramatically, died there. Unfortunately for him, her remains later turned up in the cellar.

Meanwhile, Crippen fled with his secretary and lover, Ethel Le Neve, who was disguised as a boy. 

They boarded the SS Montrose bound for Canada, thinking they were home free. But the ship’s captain grew suspicious - possibly because “father and teenage son who never separate” raised eyebrows even in 1910 - and sent a message using the revolutionary wireless system of the Marconi Company.

This was cutting-edge stuff: the world’s first criminal capture aided by wireless communication. Dew, receiving the alert, did what any determined detective would - he raced across the Atlantic on a faster ship.

When the Montrose docked, Dew was waiting. Crippen, realising the game was up, reportedly sighed, as if mildly inconvenienced rather than spectacularly caught.

The result? A landmark case blending old-fashioned detective work with new technology - and proof that even the cleverest escape plan can be undone by a suspicious captain and a well-timed message.

So far, so normal as the accepted story goes. But did Crippen really kill Cora and bury her in the cellar?

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