Abberline, Integrity and The Cleveland Street Scandal

[bkohatl]

Recent revelations about Inspector Dew and the suspected planting of evidence against Dr. Crippen reminded me of how Inspector Abberline reacted when he found out that "bordello" operator Charles Hammond and customers, including Lord Arthur Somerset, were tipped off and fled prosecution concerning the Cleveland Street Scandal.
From what I understand Abberline was absolutely livid. The only ones left to prosecute were the boys involved who were prosecuted and over 6 months at hard labor. An argument can and should be made that they were the real victims and what they received certainly wasn't justice. Nor the people who got away.
I think Abberline was a modest man who took his job very seriously. I think he was the perfect man to conduct the Ripper Investigation and I would have loved to have known what he thought of Tumblety, Druitt and Aaron Kosminski.
I wonder if most London Police Officers were like Dew or Abberline? That is an interesting question. Even when you are sure of the guilt of someone, that is exactly the point when you need to bend over backwards to make sure all the i's are dotted and t's are crossed.
As to Dr. Crippen and Dr. Sam Shepard, I always make a point of using them as examples of miscarriages of Justice.

And to be fair to Dew, I think that investigation needs to be carried out as to exactly what happened. I wonder if we can create a thread about Dew?

The only question about Abberline that I've ever heard was that when he found out about Albert Victor's role in The Cleveland Street Scandal, he helped shield him. I don't know that he had a choice. And I don't know that I would have done any differently.

[Brenda]

Why do you think that Crippen's case was a miscarriage of justice?

[bkohatl]

A DNA Test was run on his "Wife's remains", which were used at Trial to prove murder.

The remains turned out to be from a male, not a female. And funny thing, Dr. Crippen's wife's sister was listed in the 1920 American Census as living with a female who went by Dr. Crippen's wife's stage name.
Right before the "murder", Mrs. Crippen had tried to empty out all of the family's bank accounts. This fact was discovered in the documents pulled up from the police investigation leading to trial. Now, that would be a great motive for Dr. Crippen to commit murder, but on its own, it indicate that her actions were the ones which were the first actions/behavior out of character for either of them.
I read a Detective Manual once, which said that the key to solving a mystery is tracking behavior back, always looking for things which don't fit people's normal pattern of behavior. Mrs. Crippen attempting to empty the family bank accounts fits that definition perfectly. What were her motives; what was she up to?
If true, then she was the one guilty of murder.

[Mitch Rowe]

It seems Crippen was the dumbest guy on earth then if he were innocent. Its my understanding that Dew was content with Crippens story. It doesnt make sense that an innocent man runs away with his mistress both using false identities and disguises. If he were innocent there would have been no conviction. Unless Crippen murdered someone else and was afraid that persons remains would be found. But of course he was supposed to have thought the remains were dissolved.
Concerning Sam Shepard. Im not convinced he is innocent. The crimescene was totally destroyed before investigators were able to do their job. And they didnt do much in those days either. I would say old Sammy boy is guilty as sin.

[Stephen Thomas]

Dr. Crippen's wife's sister was listed in the 1920 American Census as living with a female who went by Dr. Crippen's wife's stage name.

Hi bkohatl

Can you supply further details regarding that statement, please.

[bkohatl]

Well, neither commenting on Dr. Crippen's morals or manners, the remains raise far many more questions than answers. The remains were flesh, not bones. I am not the only one to consider that extraordinary. Rotting Flesh provides its own solution: it eventually returns to the soil, bones don't. If you are going to hide anything, it would be bones, not flesh. The prosecutor intimated that Dr. Crippen burned bones, but buried the flesh. That doesn't make sense. Can you imagine how macabre it would be to separate bone from flesh?
Actually two theories present themselves, both of which present their own problems.
One theory is that the remains were from an abortion. Dr. Crippen practiced homeopathic medicine and was a middling success at best. In tough times, it is thought that he may have performed abortions. That is plausible. But the pajamas are a conundrum; how did they get there? If Crippen was innocent, them someone must have planted them.
Raymond Chandler commented long ago that the whole case against Dr. Crippen smelled. A forensic scientist commented on PBS that there is something incredibly odd about the Crippen case. Every poisoner he ever dealt with, poisoned in expectation that the cause of death wouldn't be detected and passed off as death by natural causes. He had never heard of a single case where someone was poisoned and---------then the body was dismembered.
A second theory is that the remains and the pajama found were planted. Scotland Yard was under enormous pressure to solve this case. Like I said the DNA answers the most important question about the evidence: what it isn't. Next, is finding out what it is.

I don't know what happened, but there are questions which need to be asked. And Dew's behavior must come under scrutiny and analysis.
As to Dr. Crippen, Mrs. Crippen had hired someone to move her belongings before the "murder" and attempted to empty the couple's bank accounts.

Cayhoga County District Attorney John J. Mahon used smearing the defendant's character to frame Dr. Sam Shepard, he brought in the woman with whom he was having an affair and engage in a detailed examination of their Romance. Many believe to outrage the jury. It worked. Can you imagine how much more profound an effect that would have on a jury in 1910, as opposed to 1954?

The 1920 Census detail was cited in the PBS program about the Dr. Crippen case.

[Chris]

And funny thing, Dr. Crippen's wife's sister was listed in the 1920 American Census as living with a female who went by Dr. Crippen's wife's stage name.

This claim has been comprehensively demolished by the research of Debra Arif and Jonathan Menges.

The Bertha Mersinger with whom a Belle Rose (Belle being part of Cora's stage name) was living in 1920 wasn't Cora's sister. Cora's sister Bertha was married by 1920, and has been found elsewhere in the census with her husband:

http://forum.casebook.org/showpost.php?p=29754&postcount=150

And in any case, the Belle Rose of 1920 was nothing like the right age to be Cora, and was a "Designer" working in wholesale millinery, not a "Singer" as claimed. She was also born in a different state from Cora. Nothing fits.

[bkohatl]

I will email PBS and try to acquire more information.

Could you provide the credentials of Debra Arif and Jonathan Menges and the documentation that they cite to prove their case.

The DNA specifically excludes a female.
Cora was having an affair and Dr. Crippen was having an affair. The poison that was found in the grave was irrelevant in one sense, since the body in the grave was not hers. But the question is why is this poison, which can be traced with reasonable certainty to Dr. Crippen, alone, in that grave. Again how and why did this persons body end up in this grave. Since it wasn't Cora, how did the pajama top get in there? Why in the world would someone carve up a body and dispose of it after poisoning. Like I said, in agreement with forensic scientist, Poisoners want deaths to be attributed to natural causes. Why hack up the body?
Then how did Crippen's poison get there? Something doesn't make sense and there is a good chance that someone tampered with evidence. And while Fred Abberline was modest and unassuming, Dew reveled in the attention. He wrote a book and made a fortune. Abberline didn't.

I just remember the case of Conlon and Hill, which was portrayed in "The Name of the Father". A lot of evidence was faked, torture was used and this was by the police. An arrogant Judge regretted his inability to execute Conlon and Hill. Turns out torture doesn't work.

I grew up less than a mile from where they hung Leo Frank in Georgia. Convicted of a crime he didn't commit. The only one who believed him was Governor John Slaton, who investigated the case on his own and found the truth and the murderer(at least according to Alonzo Mann, the 15 year old office boy who came out almost 70 years later and confirmed that Leo Frank and Governor Slaton were right. Governor Slaton destroyed his career, commuting Leo rank's sentence. A mob tried to murder Slaton. Leo Frank was convicted, tortured and murdered because he was a Jew. In the Bible Belt that was the enough.

So with all due respect, even though I'm not from Missouri, I would like to see proof. And more than that, a reason for the poison being in the grave and male body parts being there, but no bones, which is creepy. No one separates bone from flesh, and then only disposes part of the remains.

[Chris]

Could you provide the credentials of Debra Arif and Jonathan Menges and the documentation that they cite to prove their case.

If you follow the link I gave and read the messages on that thread you'll see a full discussion of the evidence. As for "credentials", you're obviously already well aware that it's not necessary to provide any of those before posting on this site!

[Robert]

Debs is a great researcher and if she says something, I trust what she says.

[Chris]

Debs is a great researcher and if she says something, I trust what she says.

Me too. The point I was trying to make in my rather hamfisted way is that the evidence provided by Debra and Jonathan speaks for itself, and that asking for them to provide "credentials" is something of a red herring.

[Brenda]

Was it proven beyond a doubt that the remains were in fact male? It seems like I remember someone saying that had been disbunked also.

[Robert]

Hi Chris

It was just for bkohatl's benefit, that Debs and JM are trustworthy.

[bkohatl]

Socrates realized that questions are as important as answers.

Like Socrates, I think asking questions always leads to the truth. Others have offered these questions, which I am merely repeating. Because, to me, they need to be answered.
Obviously PBS vetted the show before releasing it. So there is much room for disagreement and an investigation.
I referenced Leo Frank earlier. I have always believed that he was innocent, probably since I was 10-years-old, but I have also always believed that those who thought that he was guilty had valid point of view.
Then I read some of Prosecuting Attorney Hugh Dorsey's questions at trial and, I, like Abberline became livid. The two office boys who worked for and spent the most time with Leo Frank, both testified that he was a good guy and a fair boss. Neither of them ever had any trouble with him and they both testified that they never saw him do anything wrong or improper.

The line of questioning which was:

Testimony of Philip Chambers
Philip Chambers, age 15, was an employee of the National Pencil Company who regularly worked Saturdays.


Examination by Reuben Arnold

Arnold: [Have you see Frank entertain female employees in his office?]



Chambers: "Mr. Frank never did have any women in there."


Arnold: [Did you ever see Frank drinking at the factory?]

Chambers: "I never saw any drinking there."


Arnold: [Did you ever see Dalton visit Frank at the factory?]
Chambers: "I have never seen Dalton come in there."


Arnold: [Did you ever see Conley or anyone else watching the door for Frank?]

Chambers: "I have never seen anybody watching the door on any Saturday that I was there."


Arnold: [Did you ever see Frank doing anything sexually inappropriate with any female workers?]

Chambers: "I have never seen Mr. Frank familiar with any of the women in the factory. "


Arnold: [Did you ever see Frank doing anything inappropriate with Mary Phagan?]

Chambers: "I have never seen him talk to Mary Phagan at all."


Cross-examination by Hugh Dorsey:


Dorsey: "You and Mr. Frank were pretty friendly, weren't you?"


Chambers: "Just like a boss should be."

Dorsey: "Did you ever complain to J.M. Gantt that Frank had made improper advances to you?"

Chambers: "No, sir."

Dorsey: "You didn't tell Gantt that Frank had threatened to discharge you if you did not comply with his wishes?"

Chambers: “No.”

[Arnold objected that this line of questioning had no support and was designed solely to damage the reputation of the defendant. Arnold complained: "It's the most unfair thing I've ever heard of in a court proceeding. It's the vilest slander that can be cast upon a man. If Courts were run this way it could be brought against any member of the community-you, me or the jury. No man can get a fair showing against such vile insinuations. If this comes up again, I will be tempted to move for a new trial." Judge Roan ordered the evidence concerning Frank's sexual interest in Chambers struck from the record.]

http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/FTRIALS/frank/testimonyphilips.html

Can you imagine what a horrendous accusation this was in Georgia(the heart of the Bible Belt) in 1913? There was no foundation for this accusation, nor was there any proof or testimony to justify it.
Already accused of having attempted rape of a 14-year-old girl and her subsequent murder, he was then accused of molesting boys. Defense Attorney Reuben Arnold is absolutely right, after such a nasty smear and insinuation for the express purpose of discrediting the testimony ofAlonzo Mann and Phillip Chambers and smearing the defendant, Leo Frank, again, the only course was a mistrial, which wasn't granted.
That is not justice. Leo Frank never got a fair trial and neither did Dr. Crippen. He may have been a philanderer, but there is a lot of evidence that the case against him was suspect.

[bkohatl]

The DNA was tested in a lab.

The technician said there was no doubt that the remains were from a male, not a female. PBS has the video on their website.