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I just stuff a bandana in my mouth and it makes a good gag...er...I mean cushion.
Actually, when we brought a dog in the house, and I realized I was freaking her out whenever I argued back at the evening news, I realized it was time to shut-up.
"What our ancestors would really be thinking, if they were alive today, is: "Why is it so dark in here?"" From Pyramids by Sir Terry Pratchett, a British National Treasure.
A legal attempt to win a posthumous pardon for convicted murderer Dr Hawley Crippen has failed.
...
The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) has refused to send the case back to the Court of Appeal.
A distant American relative applied for a review of the case following claims DNA tests showed the victim was not Crippen's wife Cora.
It is understood the CCRC has decided the relative was not a "properly interested person" and that there was no real possibility that the Court of Appeal would hear the case.
I'm disappointed that the court merely ruled that Crippen's relation wasn't a close enough relation for them to even consider his motion to exhume.
They merely sidestepped the whole issue of the erroneous DNA findings. (Was there any reassertion of guilt?)
I believe that Crippen is guilty, but I'm not sure I understand why the court's ruling was based on the degree of relation to his living family member- after 101 years, how close a relation can they expect to find?
I genuinely believe that Crippen didn't do it. I used to think he took the blame for Ethel.
Hi, Belinda.
Do you mean that you used to think Ethel murdered someone & Crippen took the rap for her, but now you believe something different?
I'd be interested in hearing a theory relating to a belief in Crippen's innocence, if you care to make one.
By the way, I like your "Patroness of Lost Causes" title.
How about adding an endorsement from the big guys and calling yourself "St. Jude & St. Rita's Little Helper" ?
Do you mean that you used to think Ethel murdered someone & Crippen took the rap for her, but now you believe something different?
I'd be interested in hearing a theory relating to a belief in Crippen's innocence, if you care to make one.
By the way, I like your "Patroness of Lost Causes" title.
How about adding an endorsement from the big guys and calling yourself "St. Jude & St. Rita's Little Helper" ?
Lost Causes do seem to proliferate, don't they?
Best regards, Archaic
I thought Ethel killed Cora. Not necessarily premeditated. Crippen finds out what she's done and he decideds to take the blame.
I think Cora went off with a richer man.I don't think she was murdered.
Yes Lost Causes a plenty but I like a challenge well a bit of a challenge now and then
From what I understand, De Stefano's attempts to get Crippen a pardon coincided with Michigan State University's original test results. ie that the remains in the cellar were not those of Cora Crippen (based on the preliminary DNA results excluding the supposed great half-nieces of being maternally related to Cora). When the MSU team revealed that further testing proved male DNA in the tissue sample, De Stefano was either approached by, or he himself contacted, the great nephew of Dr. Crippen, and it is this nephew, with De Stefano, who is pushing to have the remains returned to Michigan for burial. Reburial of the remains was never to my knowledge a part of the initial attempts to give Crippen a postmortem pardon.
This whole thing started off as Trestrail's crusade, not De Stefano's. It was Trestrail who always believed Crippen was innocent and it was he who hired his friend Beth Wills to do the genealogy and convinved MSU to do the testing based on her discovery of who she claims are living blood descendants. And when you read De Stefano's letter to the Home Dept., he says "Dr. Trestrail has asked us specifically to provide you with the University of Michigan website" etc. Which may indicate Trestrail recruited De Stefano as well.
JM
Please clarify: MSU DID find that the "Cora" DNA isn't from a woman? But then they started to backpedal from this test? Or did "someone" say they were affiliated with MSU, but aren't, and said MSU did this testing? Where did the sample come from? Some part of Cora in a jar? Or has she been dug up? Why can't the test be replicated like grown up scientists do, so we can be sure what's what? Thank you.
Hi Triplesod!
I have lived abroad for more years than I care to remember (namely in Sweden) and I still get surprised at the wider world's idea of what an English person is like. We are, apparently, unable and unwilling to show what we really feel, unwilling to communicate with others, prepare the most unedible food, have a terrible taste in home decorating and are sexually repressed. Just for starters!
Oh yes, and we are very overcrowded populationwise - this last always said as if it was my own fault!
Carol
Just put it on record, will you please, that the Brits are among my VERY most favorite people!
I saw a programme on this a while back.
They had a group of lodgers in the house,and she was friendly with all of them,but took up with one in particular...and they used to make love while Crippen listened to them,while doing the chores his Mrs had told him to do,while she was busy.
I felt quite sorry for him whereas before the programme started I had him down as the baddie...he was henpecked and humiliated...If he did murder her,she deserved it...IMHO.
Okay, I know I'm asking for trouble here, but I have always suspected that Crippen was railroaded by persons unknown. One question I've always had is why didn't he simply get a divorce? He was the breadwinner - he could have re-established himself again with Ethel. He was humiliated and used by Cora unceasingly. What do the old fashioned words mean "she won't give me a divorce"? I thought Henry VIII fixed all that.
Forgive me if you've already discussed this previously but did you happen to see Channel THIRTEEN'S episode on the Crippen evidence controversy? It's called Execution in Error or something similar. You can watch it on the computer. Certainly seems that this case has many truths to yet unravel. Thanks
Note that Giovanni Di Stefano is the same attorney that the Michigan State University team wanted nothing to do with back in 2007, and in fact insisted that Stefano remove all reference to the DNA research from his initial court filings. They said that they wanted no part in the efforts to pardon Crippen or exhume Crippen's remains.
But then came the cameras.
JM
Please explain the politics here. Michigan State DID replicate the tests and they did find the slide tissue was male and that it does not match the mitochondrial DNA from Cora's female relatives. So why did they want to distance themselves from James Patrick Crippen's lawsuit etc. Where does this deStephano come in? Please straighten me out on this. It seems to me that Britain doesn't want to risk disrupting the whole Crippen aura and possibly lose some tourist attendance at the Chamber of Horrors etc. Thank you.
Forgive me if you've already discussed this previously but did you happen to see Channel THIRTEEN'S episode on the Crippen evidence controversy? It's called Execution in Error or something similar. You can watch it on the computer. Certainly seems that this case has many truths to yet unravel. Thanks
I saw a programme called The Last Secret Of Doctor Crippen.I'm not sure if that's the same one. I think I was one of the first people here to go Pro Crippen
Unfortuneately we get very few of these documentaries as there is always some more pressing programme about the newly discovered colour of Hitlers underpants taking priority
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