Cox Crippen Police Investigation

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Intro: Cora Crippen and Hawley Crippen were a 20th century couple who were both Canadian citizens who lived at 39 Hilldrop Crescent in central London. On the 31st of January 1910 Cora Crippen was last seen by her friends. It didn’t take long for suspicions to arise and the following year led to a long and strenuous police investigation which eventually led to the prosecution and execution of Hawley Crippen. In this essay I will be assessing “How effective the police investigation into the death of Cora Crippen was.” Paragraph 1: One key investigative method used by the police in the enquiry was the use of forensic science. In 1910 forensic science was just becoming a well-regarded police method. And the Crippen murder investigation definitely…show more content…
By this I mean things such as interviews etc. The first resort when suspicions arose about the death of Cora was to interview both Hawley and Le Neve. On the 8th of July 1910 Chief inspector Dew and Sergeant Mitchell took the statements from 39 Hilldrop Crescent. This was reasonably effective as it prompted Crippen into admitting lying about Cora’s death claiming that she’d left him for another man. However this may have spooked Crippen as they left for Canada which meant it may have made the investigation harder and therefore wasn’t actually an effective method. The next thing that police did in the investigation was using the press in order to get the public’s attention. The police offered a £250 (around £80000 today) reward for anyone who could identify Crippen. This meant that posters went up everywhere. This was an extremely effective method because it created public interest and without that I don’t think the captain of the SS Montrose would have been able to send the telegram which led to the arrest of Hawley Crippin on the 31st July…show more content…
The case was in a period of police transition and was a real test for them. In my opinion the investigation was a success due to a lot of successful methods. For example the use of forensics showcases the improvements made and just how far they had come. This was effective in many ways as it led to the identification to Cora’s body however there was still a bit of estimations which shows room for improvement in accuracy. I personally think all of the use of technology was effective because they had so many resources and made some real breakthroughs in investigative technology. The general investigation methods were generally good because through searching his house they found the body. However they may have been a bit too upfront with Hawley which gave him the chance to flee which show a lack of effectiveness. The main improvement for me though was in the organisation of the police, since the JTR cases they had earned a lot respect from the public due to the improvement in organisation making them look stronger which I think was vital in this case. So overall I think the investigation into the Crippen murders was very effective, because even though there were a few mistakes ultimately they made up for them and showed real progress to catch

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