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The-Horror-Mystery-Scotland-Yard-got-DEA_ · Crime and Horror

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: In today's story, you very likely will let some point
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: go Okay, I know where this is going, but you
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: won't because the ending to this story is so random
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: that it actually took one hundred years to piece together
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: what actually happened. But before we get into that story,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: if you're a fan of the strange, dark, and mysterious
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: delivered in story format, then you've come to the right place,
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: because that's all we do, and we upload once a week.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: So if that's of interest to you, please bring the
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: like button out hiking with you on Kodiak Island and Alaska,
• 0:34
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• 0:43
  Speaker 2: Any of our weekly uploads.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's get into today's story. On the night of
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: January thirty first, nineteen ten, an American couple living in
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: London named Bell and doctor Harvey Crippen were hosting a
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: small dinner party for two of their friends. The group
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: had just finished their food and they were now in
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: the middle of a game called Whist, which is a
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: card game, when suddenly Bell put her cards down and
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: she stood up to tell a story, and doctor Crippen
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: saw his wife doing this and kind of knew what
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: was going to happen, and he kind of gestured for
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: her to not tell the story and please sit down
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: and play this game, but she just kind of waved
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: at him dismissively, like, please leave me alone. I'm gonna
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: do what I want to do. Doctor Crippen sighed and
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: just kind of sat back and let this happen.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: Anywhere they went.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: He knew his wife had to be the center of
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: attention and there was just nothing he could do. Doctor
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: Crippen was a pretty passive guy who kind of got
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: walked all over, especially by his wife.
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: He was kind of.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: Little, he had big bulging eyes and huge glasses he wore,
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: and his job was he basically sat inside of a
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: dentist's office and mixed medicines for the dentist, and so
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: he was just kind of like this anonymous, forgotten about
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: guy that worked in a back office hidden from the world. Meanwhile,
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: his wife, Belle is like this beautiful woman, huge personality.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: She's an aspiring actress and singer, and everywhere they went,
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: everybody loved her and basically didn't notice doctor Crippen. Also,
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: Belle would basically spend all of doctor Crippen's money on
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: her very expensive wardrobe. And so doctor Crippen is just
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: so annoyed. He's sitting on the couch and he's watching
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: as Belle has now stood up in her big, flowing
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: pink evening dress and she's regaling the guests with this
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: big story of hers and at some point she just
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: kind of transitions from telling the story to performing this
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: bizarre song and dance routine that was the story. It's
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: like she came up with a play in real time
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: and performed it for the guests. And the dinner guests
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: who were watching this performance their names were Paul and Clara.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: They were totally entranced by what Belle was doing. They
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: thought it was incredible. Paul and Clara, we're both theater
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: people like bell was. Paul was a former comedian, and
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: Clara worked with Belle at their charity, which was called
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: the Music Hall Ladies Guild. And so doctor Crippen just
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: kind of scowled as the two dinner guests applauded really
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: loudly for Belle's big performance. And Belle, you know, she
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: smiled and kind of giggled and then sat down and
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: said thank you so much. And then, you know, doctor Crippen,
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: he's thinking, Okay, now that she's done with this performance,
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: we can finally play the card game that I really
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: want to play. But doctor Crippen, after grabbing his cards,
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: looked around and could tell that they were not going
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: to play cards. The big performance by his wife had
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: eaten up all the rest of their time, and now
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: it was too late and the guests had to leave.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: Before doctor Crippen could even stand up to begin picking
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: up in the room to get ready for this visit
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: to end. Belle, his wife, was demanding he'd go outside
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: and get their guests a horse and carriage to bring
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: them back home. And so doctor Crippen just kind of
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: put his head down and said okay. And as he
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: was walking towards the front door to get the horse
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: and carriage, Belle yelled after him, and don't get one
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: of those cheap ones, get an expensive one, a nice one.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: Doctor Crippen just kind of rolled his eyes but said okay,
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: and then he walked outside. But despite looking all over
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: the place, there were no nice horse and carriages. It
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: was just the kind of loud rickety bad ones that
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: his wife did not want him to get. But after
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: looking all over the place for a full hour and
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: not finding a nice one, doctor Crippen finally just had
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: to hail one of the bad horse and carriages. He
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: called them over and then he went back inside and
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: he told the guests, okay, I got your horse and carriage.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: And so they came outside and sew did Belle, And
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: Belle's looking at this carriage after this long delay, and
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: it's this terrible carriage, and she just stares at doctor
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: Crippen furious.
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: The guests don't seem to mind.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: They just walk down the stairs, they get in their carriage,
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: they say goodbye, and they take off. But the second
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: doctor Crippen had turned back around, Bell was already back
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: inside their home. And so he knows, you know, as
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: soon as he goes in there, he's gonna get yelled at.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: And so he went inside the home and in the
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: living room was Bell, arms folded, just staring at him,
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: absolutely furious, and she began laying into him about not
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: only how ridiculous it was that it took him a
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: whole hour to find the carriage, and it was a
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: terrible carriage, something she said not to do, and she
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: told him that he was the reason their whole dinner
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: party had been a total disaster. Even though doctor Crippen
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: was like, I think it went pretty well, but in
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: Bell's mind, you know, her husband was the reason this
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: party had totally failed. He was boring, he didn't contribute anything,
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: and she told him that she caught that he did
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: not applaud nearly as loudly as Paul and Clara had
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: for her big performance, and that really hurt her feelings.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: When doctor Crippen just didn't say anything, he just kind
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: of knew to keep his head down and let his
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: wife talk.
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: When that happened, Bell got so frustrated she kind of
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: huffed and then turned around and walked over to the
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: mantelpiece and she took this framed photo that she shamelessly
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: left up in their house that was of her former lover,
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: who she openly had had an affair with, this beautifully handsome,
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: square jawed prize fighter, who again doctor Crippen knew his
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: wife had cheated on him with. And so Belle she
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: takes this photo and she holds it up and she
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: points right at him, and she looks at her husband
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: and says, you know, I can get any man I want.
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: Look right here, I can get him if I want to.
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: I don't need you.
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: But doctor Crippen was not affected by this. He was
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: completely used to being treated this way by Belle, and
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: so again he just stayed silent and took what she
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: was thrown at him. And so again Belle gets even
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: more frustrated because she's not getting a reaction from doctor Crippen.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: She finally just goes, you know what, I'm going to
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: leave you tomorrow.
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: I'm done with you. I can't be with you. It's over.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: And again doctor Crippen just didn't react. I mean, this
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: really was typical behavior for his wife, even this threat
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: of leaving him tomorrow.
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: You know, she had done this before but never followed
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: through on it.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: It was just kind of like doctor Crippen was her
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: punching bag basically twenty four to seven. And so for now,
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: all doctor Crippen really wanted was for his wife to
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: just stop ranting and raving so he could just go
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: to bed. He didn't really care what she was saying. Frankly,
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: he wouldn't even care if she did leave him. The
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: next day, he was totally unhappy in this marriage, as
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: obviously she was, but he was so scared of scandal
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: he couldn't bring himself to divorce his wife. But if
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: she actually followed through and left him, he'd be free.
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: The marriage would be over, and it would be her fault.
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: And so doctor Crippen just stood there waiting for his
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: wife to finish. But it was clear she had a
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: lot to say. Even after threatening to leave him, she
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: just kept on laying into him about all his faults.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: And then at some point doctor Crippen just totally caught
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: her off guard by interjecting and saying, Hey, Belle, do
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: you want some whiskey? And Belle just kind of stopped
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: and stared at her husband inquisitively, and then it was
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: like her whole mood.
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: Changed and she was like, actually, yeah, I'll take some whiskey.
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: And so doctor Crippen said, great, I'll go make it,
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: and he walked over to the liquor cabinet and he
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: poured both of them a drink. Two days later, the
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: members of the charity that Belle and Clara the dinner
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: Goet were a part of the music Hall Ladies killed.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: They were all sitting in their office in London, waiting
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: to start their meeting.
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: But there was a problem. Bell, who was.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: Their treasurer and therefore needed to be at this meeting,
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: was not at this meeting. She was late and nobody
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: knew where she was. And so after they sat in
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: this office for a while, just waiting, they finally heard
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: a knock on the door, and so one of the
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: women got up. They opened up the door, and standing
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: outside is doctor Crippen's assistant, this young woman named Ethel,
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  Speaker 1: and she looked kind of frazzled and maybe a little
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: bit out of breath, and she was carrying a letter
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: and a package in her hands. And so Ethel would
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: tell the woman who opened the door that she was
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: here on behalf of doctor Crippen and also Bell, And
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: so the woman who opened the door said, okay, come
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: on in, and so Ethel walked into the office and
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: she placed the letter and the package on the table,
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: and then she quickly turned around and left. After she
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: was gone, the guild members kind of looked at each
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: other confused, and then just reached out and they grabbed
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: the letter.
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: They opened it up and they read it.
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: Letter was written by doctor Crippen and he was telling
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: the members of the skilled that unfortunately, one of Belle's
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: family members back in America had fallen ill, and so
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: Belle had to go back to America and take care
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: of this person, and she'd be gone for at least
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: several months. And then when they opened up the package
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: that Ethel had dropped off that contained the guild's checkbook
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: and also their ledger, that way they'd be able to
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: go out and find a new.
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: Treasurer to replace Belle.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: And so when they had finished reading this letter and
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: seeing the contents of this package, the members of the
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: skuild just kind of looked at each other, not really
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: sure what to do. You know, it seemed odd that
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: Belle had not told them she was doing this, that
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: she had left without saying goodbye. But at the same time,
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: it seemed like whatever she was dealing with in America
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: was very serious, and so they decided the only thing
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: they could do was to just hire a temporary treasurer
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: and wait for Belle to come back. About three weeks later,
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: Clara and the rest of the Ladies Guild members hosted
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: their annual ball, and like always, they invited Belle as
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: well as her husband, doctor Crippen. Even though they knew,
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: you know, this invitation was kind of a formality because
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: Belle was still in America. But doctor Crippen would show
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: up to this ball, and he would not show up alone,
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: and it caused a bit of an outrage on doctor
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: Crippen's arm was very obviously his date, Ethel, his assistant,
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: the young woman who had dropped off that letter in
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: the package to the members of the Guild about.
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: Belle's sudden departure.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: Clara stared incredulously at doctor Crippen and Ethel as that
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: kind of swayed around.
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: The room dancing.
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: I mean, Clara just could not understand what was going
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: through doctor Crippen's head. How could he possibly think it
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: was appropriate to so openly cheat on his wife around
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: all of his wife's friends and in such a public place.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: It just seemed unfathomable that anybody would do what doctor
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: Crippen was doing. And so that night, Clara and the
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: other members of the Ladies Guild they got together and
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: they decided that, you know, because of doctor Crippen's obvious infidelity,
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: they could not invite him to be a part of
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: anything to do with the Ladies Guild, at least not
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: until they talked to Belle.
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: Again when she got back.
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: But Belle didn't come back, and she never wrote to
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: any of the members of the Guild or any of
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: her friends.
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: She just disappeared.
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: And on March twentieth, nineteen ten, so roughly two months
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: after Belle supposedly fled to America, doctor Crippen came out
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: and said he had just gotten some terrible news. It
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: would turn out his wife, Belle, had fallen ill wall
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: in America and she had died. When Clara and the
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: rest of the Ladies Skilled members heard about this, their
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: disgust at doctor Crippen's cheating quickly turned into suspicion that
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: maybe he had something to do with Belle's early demise.
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: As many of you may already know, two years ago,
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: we launched the Mister Ballen podcast and we actually launched
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: it on Valentine's Day twenty twenty, which was not intentional,
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: but we decided to just kind of go with it,
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: and eventually we began calling the release day Bollentine's Day,
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: and last year, to commemorate Bollentine's Day, I hosted a
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: live digital storytelling event and it was totally awesome.
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: It was very.
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: Intimate and I got to meet a lot of all
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: you amazing fans of the Strange, Dark and Mysterious. And
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: so for this year's Balentine's Day, we decided we would
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: just do that again. We would host another live digital
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: storytelling event. The event is totally free. All you have
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: to do is click the link in the description to
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: join the official Mister Ball and Discord Server. And then
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: once you're in there, there's all these prompts that'll get
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: you all set up. And then on Bollentine's Day twenty
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: twenty four so Wednesday, February fourteenth, at seven pm Eastern,
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: you will just click on the event within Discord and boom,
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: I'll pop up on your screen and.
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: Start telling you some stories.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: So again, the Bollentine's Day Live Digital Storytelling Event will
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: take place at seven pm Eastern on Wednesday, February fourteenth,
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: only on the official Mister Ball and Discord Server. Oh
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: and one more thing before you go. Next week's YouTube
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: video will have another big announcement about Ballentine's Day that
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure you're all going to be very happy
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: to hear about. So one of the members of this
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: guild went to the police and reported Bell missing. However,
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: at first, the police were not inclined to pursue this
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: case because, from their perspective, there was no evidence of
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: a crime committed here. You know, all they knew was
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: this woman Bell had died in America, supposedly from natural causes,
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: and so the only thing that was contrary to that
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: were Bell's friends, who basically were saying, well, you know,
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: maybe she was murdered by her husband because her husband
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: was cheating.
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: On her, and the police were like, that doesn't line up.
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: Just because he was cheating on her does not mean
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: he killed her.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: But Belle's friends continued to keep the pressure on police,
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: and finally, after three months, the police would assign a detective.
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: His name was Walter Doo, and Inspector Dou had been
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: a detective for more than twenty years, and he had
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: even worked on the very famous serial killer case, Jack
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: the Ripper, and had been one of the people who
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: actually found the last body. Although the Jack the Ripper
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: case had gone unsolved, but coming out of that investigation,
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: Walter Dou had really developed a great reputation as a
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: really good detective, and so to have him lead this
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: case was a big deal and so On the afternoon
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: of July sixth, nineteen ten, so roughly five months after
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: Bell had gone missing, Inspector Dou, as one of his
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: first things he would do for this case, went to
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: doctor Crippen's house to ask him about his wife. Now,
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: Inspector Do expected that doctor Crippen would tell him the
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: same story he had told everybody else about Bell, which is,
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: you know, she had to go to America to take
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: care of the sick relative, and while she was over there,
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: unfortunately Bell passed away. But what ultimately told Inspector Do
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: was not that.
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: Now.
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: At first, Inspector du just asked doctor Crippen a lot
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: of basic questions about his wife. But doctor Crippen seemed
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: really awkward as he answered these questions. He actually almost
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: seemed really embarrassed, and Inspector Du clearly noticed this, but
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: just kept on asking these routine questions and just allowed
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: doctor Crippen to act however he was going to act.
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: But at some point doctor Crippen just stopped answering the
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: questions altogether, and he paused for a minute with his
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: head in his hands, and then he took up his glasses.
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: He put him on the table and then he looked
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: up at Inspector Doo and.
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: He said, you know, I should just tell you the truth.
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: Belle isn't dead.
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: Doctor Crippen told the inspector that the day following that
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: dinner party they hosted with Paul and Clara, that that morning,
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: when doctor Crippen woke up, his wife was gone, and
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: all her things were gone too. She packed up in
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: the middle of the night and left without telling him
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: where she was going, and so doctor Crippen realized his
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: wife had finally.
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: Made good on the threat to leave him.
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: Doctor Crippen said he lied about what happened to Belle
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: because he was trying to avoid a scandal.
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: He said that, you know, while.
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: Bell was horrible to him personally and really mistreated him,
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: she was really kind of amazing with everybody else, and
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: everybody else loved her, and so doctor Crippen really believed
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: that lying about this would ultimately save her reputation and
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: his own. So it was a win win. And once
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: doctor Crippen was relatively sure Belle was not going to
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: be coming back, that she really had left him for good,
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: that was when he began openly dating Ethel Because he
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: had actually been in love with his assistant Ethel for
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: a long time, and he felt like now with his
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: wife out of the picture, he could finally love her out.
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: In the open.
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: Even though he admitted, you know, nobody would actually understand
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: the dynamic here, because everybody else thinks Belle is over
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: in America and here I am cheating on her. But
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: you know, doctor Crippen insisted to the inspector that this
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: was the truth. He was not cheating on Belle. He
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: didn't have anything to do with her disappearance. She left
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: of her own accord, and here he was. And so
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: after doctor Crippen explained all this to the inspector, doctor
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: Crippen just put his face in his hands and just
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: looked so ashamed and embarrassed, to the point where Inspector
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: du really believed doctor Crippen. I mean, this is a
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: guy who has just poured his soul out about some
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: of the most embarrassing things of his entire life, so
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: he's got to be telling the truth. Also, Inspector dou
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: couldn't help but think to himself that doctor Crippen was
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: this little, kind of passive seeming guy who did not
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: really seem capable of killing somebody else. But at the
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: same time, Inspector du could definitely see a woman like
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: Bell leaving doctor Crippen the way that she did. Still,
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: just to be thorough, Inspector Do asked doctor Crippen if
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: he wouldn't mind allowing the inspector to search the property, because,
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: after all, this is a missing person case and so
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: we got to check everything. Doctor Crippen said, absolutely, search
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: my house, do whatever you gotta do.
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: Inspector Dou would do just that.
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: He went all over the house, looked everywhere, and he
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: would find nothing. So the inspector told doctor Crippen that
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: as of now he believed his story and that basically
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: the case was closed, but Inspector Dou really needed to
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: talk to Bell in order to officially close the case
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: because right now everybody thought she was dead. No one
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: had heard from her, and so that was the one
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: missing piece. And so doctor Crippen said that was totally fine,
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: and he and the inspector actually worked together to draft
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: up this little advertisement that would go in newspapers.
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: In America that basically would say, hey.
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: Bell, if you see this, you need to contact police
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: in London because we're looking for you. And so after
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: the two men had come up with the language they
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: wanted for this advertisement. Inspector Do thanked Doctor Crippen, said
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: he'd be in touch, and then he left. But five
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: days later, when Inspector Dou went to follow up with
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: doctor Crippen, he discovered that doctor Crippen and his new lover, Ethel,
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: his assistant, were both gone and nobody knew where they were,
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: and this changed everything about the Bell case. Inspector Do
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: couldn't help but think, you know, doctor Crippen and Ethel
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: look like they're running from something, so probably they lied
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: to me about their involvement with Bell's disappearance. And so
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: Inspector Dou sent physical descriptions to all the newspapers and
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: police stations all across Europe, and also he made a
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: note to check all the ships that were bound for
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: America in case doctor Crippen and Ethel had decided to
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: flee Europe that way. And while this big man hunt
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: was just getting underway, Inspector Dou and his team went
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: back to doctor Crippen's house to do a much more
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: thorough search. So police descended on doctor Crippen's beautiful three
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: story home on a quiet street and they went inside
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: and they tore apart everything. They flipped over mattresses, they
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: opened up drawers and closets, they threw everything out, but
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: they found nothing suspicious. But at some point, Inspector dou
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: who was feeling really annoyed that he'd been totally duped
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: by this doctor, you know, he walking down the basement
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: steps in doctor Crippen's house, and as he went down,
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: he saw there were other investigators already in the basement
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: conducting yet another fruitless search. But as Inspector do kind
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: of turned the corner at the base of the basement stairs,
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: he noticed the bricks that were laying in front of
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: the fireplace that was in the basement just looked a
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: little bit off, like they were maybe too new or something.
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: And so just kind of acting on a hunch, he
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: walked over to these bricks that were laid out right
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: in front of this fireplace, and he's looking at them,
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: and he grabs a poker, one of the pokers he
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: used to move the logs around in a fire and
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: he just began tapping on each of the individual.
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: Bricks right in front of them, and with.
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: Every tap he would hear the solid thump sound that
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: you're hitting something hard that is beneath this brick. But
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: as he went along hitting each of these bricks, he
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: eventually reached the kind of center of these bricks, and
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: when he brought that poker down on one of those bricks,
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: it made.
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: A hollow sound.
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: Clearly there was something underneath these bricks, and so Inspector
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: Dou is super excited.
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: He calls for his team to.
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: Come over, and one by one they begin pulling up
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: all these bricks, and after they're all gone, they see
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: there's this perfectly smooth layer of clay that these bricks
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: were sitting on top of, and so Inspector Dou called
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: for a shovel. A guy brought one over, and Dou
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: he took one scoop with the shovel, and immediately this
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: horrible smell began coming out of the ground that was
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: so gross that the guys around Inspector Dou began ratching
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: and vomiting, and before long the entire group of investigators
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: had basically fled the basement to get away from this
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: horrible smell. But after composing themselves, Inspector Dou and the
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: rest of his team put handkerchiefs over their nose and
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: their mouths, and they went back into the house, down
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: into the basement, they grabbed that shovel and they continued
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: to dig, and after just a couple of scoops, they
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: saw what was causing this terrible smell. In this clay pit,
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: this hole in the basement. Onneath the bricks were all
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: these human body parts in the ground. But there were
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: no arms, there were no legs, there was no head.
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: All you had were just the internal organs of somebody.
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: And then also there was like a blanket of skin
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: that looked like it had been extracted from somebody's body
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: with near surgical precision. Now, the police could not, based
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: on these limited remains, make an actual positive identification of
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: who exactly this was, but they did find in this pit,
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: along with the organs and the skin were several strands
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: of hair that matched Bells. There were several pieces of
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: pajamas that belonged to doctor Crippen. And then also on
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: that skin filet, they found there was a distinctive birthmark
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: on it that matched the one that Bell had. Also,
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: investigators were able to determine that inside of the intestines
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: that were found in this hole were traces of a
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: particular kind of tranquilizer that in the weeks leading up
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: to Bell's disappearances, doctor Crippen was making that particular tranquilizer
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: at his work he mixed medicines for dentist's offices. That
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: was the tranquilizer he was working with right before Bell disappeared.
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: Shortly after these shocking discoveries were made, doctor Crippen and
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: Ethel were found on a boat trying to flee the
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: country that way, and so they would be arrested, and
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: so ultimately doctor Crippen would be found guilty of murdering
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: his wife and he would be sentenced to death. As
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: for Ethel, she would be acquitted of any participation.
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: In the crime.
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: However, this was not the end of the story, far
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: from it. One hundred years later, in twenty ten, a
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: forensic scientist from Michigan State University fished out a piece
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: of tissue from the remains found in doctor Crippen's basement
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: that had been preserved inside of a London museum. Now,
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: this murder case had been officially closed since nineteen ten,
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: but the bizarre details of this case had never really
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: fully made sense to a lot of people, Like they
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: didn't understand how or why doctor Crippen had successfully disposed
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: of his wife's head, her arms, her legs, all her bones.
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: Those are all gone. Nobody ever found those, but he
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: decided to.
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: Keep her organs and her skin buried in his basement
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: under loose bricks.
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: That doesn't make any sense.
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: Also, if doctor Crippen killed his wife by poisoning her,
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: which is what is suggested from all that tranquilizer that
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: was found in her intestines, that basically he overdosed her,
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: then why did he dismember her afterwards? The reason killers
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: often kill with poison is because it makes the victim's
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: death look a bit more natural, Whereas if you mutilate
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: someone's body, then obviously someone did it and you're calling
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: suspicion on yourself. And so did doctor Crippen poison his
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: wife and then just throw that out the window and
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: mutilated her body? Anyways, it just didn't make sense. So
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: this forensic scientist from Michigan State University decided he was
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: finally going to get some answers to this case. And
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: so what he did is he compared the DNA from
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: the tissue he dug out to the DNA of one
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: of Bell's grand nieces, and when he compared the two,
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: he saw they didn't match, which meant the body that
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: was found in doctor Crippen's basement was not Bell's. But
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: that wasn't even the weirdest part. It was determined following
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: this test by this forensic scientist that the body in
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: doctor Crippen's basement wasn't even female. It was a male.
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: But to this day, no one has ever been able
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: to identify who that body was, and Bell was never found.
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: All we know is an innocent man, Doctor Crippen was
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: put to death for something he didn't do. In February
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: of two thousand, a police officer in a small Missouri
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: town stepped into an apartment where a man had just
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: taken his own life. Now, this police officer felt bad
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: for the guy, but at the same time, when he
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: walked inside the apartment and he fully expected this to
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: be a pretty straightforward and easy case.
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: Man commits suicide the end.
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: However, after walking over to the body, the officer spotted
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: something odd laying on the ground near the dead man's head.
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: It was a book and it was opened to a
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: page with writing on it. So the officer knelt down
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: and read what was on the page and it sent
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: shivers down his spine. Clearly, this writing was meant to
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: be found, but before the officer could flag this to
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: anyone at the scene, another discovery was made. A videotape
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: was found in the dead man's trash can, and when
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: the police watched that video, they were not prepared for
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: what they saw.
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: So that's going to do it.
• 26:43
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• 26:46
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• 26:49
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• 26:54
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  Speaker 1: we have hundreds more stories, a lot like this one,
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