Walter Dew
Encyclopedia
Detective Chief Inspector Walter Dew (17 April 1863 – 16 December 1947) was a Metropolitan Police officer
who was involved in the hunt for both Jack the Ripper
and Dr Crippen
.
, in Hardingstone
, Northamptonshire
, one of seven children to Walter Dew Sr., a railway guard, and his wife Eliza. His family moved to London
when he was 10. As a boy Dew was not a natural scholar, and left school aged 13. As a youth Dew found work in a solicitor's office
off Chancery Lane
, but not liking the work he became a junior clerk at the offices of a seed-merchant in Holborn
. Later, he followed his father on to the railways, for on the 1881 census he is listed as a 17 year-old railway porter living in Hammersmith
in London
. However, in 1882 he joined the Metropolitan Police
, aged 19, and was given the warrant number 66711. He was posted to the Metropolitan Police's X Division (Paddington Green). On 15 November 1886 Dew married Kate Morris in Notting Hill
. They had six children, one of whom died in infancy.
police station in H Division (Whitechapel
), where he was a detective constable
in the Criminal Investigation Department
during the Jack the Ripper
murders of 1888.
In his memoirs, published fifty years later in 1938, Dew made a number of claims about being personally involved in the Ripper investigation. None of these claims have been confirmed by surviving police records, and some of them contradict known evidence in the case. Dew claimed to know Mary Jane Kelly
by sight. "Often I saw her parading along Commercial Street, between Flower and Dean Street
and Aldgate, or along Whitechapel Road", he wrote. "She was usually in the company of two or three of her kind, fairly neatly dressed and invariably wearing a clean white apron, but no hat." Dew also claimed to have been one of the first police officers on the murder scene, though none of the records mentioning those people who were present list his involvement. Dew wrote that he saw Kelly's mutilated body in her room in Miller's Court and that he regarded it as "the most gruesome memory of the whole of my Police career." Dew wrote that Kelly's open eyes were photographed in an attempt to capture an image of her killer, but police doctors involved in the case had already determined that such an effort would be futile. Dew stated that Emma Smith
was the first Ripper victim, a view that has often been contested by Ripperologists, and opined that "Someone, somewhere, shared Jack the Ripper's guilty secret."
, and was transferred to Scotland Yard
. He moved to T Division in Hammersmith
in 1900, and in 1903 was promoted to Inspector First Class and moved to E Division, based at Bow Street
. In 1906 he became a Chief Inspector
, and returned to Scotland Yard. By the time of his retirement from the police in 1910 Dew had received 130 recommendations and rewards from the Commissioner
of the Metropolitan Police, judges and magistrate
s.
In 1898 Dew was involved in bringing international jewel-thief William Johnson, known as 'Harry the Valet', to justice. Johnson stole jewelry then valued at £30,000 from Mary Caroline (nee
Michell), Dowager
Duchess of Sutherland
while she was travelling by train from Paris
to London with her husband, Sir Albert Rollit
MP
, and her brother, his wife and the Duchess' footman and maid. Dew investigated the case together with Inspectors Walter Dinnie and Frank Froest
. They tracked Johnson, who by now was spending large amounts of money, to lodgings in London's South Kensington
. Despite receiving a seven year prison sentence, Johnson refused to disclose the whereabouts of the Duchess' jewels, and only £4,000 worth were ever recovered.
Dew had a small role in the Druce-Portland case: he supervised the exhumation of the remains of T. C. Druce which effectively put an end to the Druce claims.
When Russia
n fraudster Friedlauski obtained a position as a clerk on the staff of New York
bank J.S. Bache & Co. using the name Conrad Harms in 1909, and transferred funds totaling £1,637 14s to his bank account in London, where he subsequently fled, it was Dew who tracked him down. Despite claiming that he was Harms' near identical cousin Henry Clifford, a pretence he maintained even when confronted by the wife he had previously abandoned, Friedlauski/Harms was sentenced to six years penal servitude
for fraud and bigamy
.
Doctor Hawley Harvey Crippen
was an American
, born in Michigan
in 1862. He qualified as a doctor in 1885 and worked for a patent medicine company. Coming to England in 1900, he lived at 39 Hilldrop Crescent, Holloway
, with his second wife Cora Turner, better known by her stage name
of 'Belle Elmore'. After a party at their home on 31 January 1910, Cora disappeared. Hawley Crippen claimed that she had returned to the US, and later added that she had died, and had been cremated
, in California
. Meanwhile, his lover, Ethel "Le Neve" Neave (1883–1967), moved into Hilldrop Crescent and began openly wearing Cora's clothes and jewellery
. The police were informed of Cora's disappearance by her friend, strongwoman Kate Williams, better known as Vulcana
. The house was searched, but nothing was found, and Crippen was interviewed by Dew. After the interview, and a quick search of the house, Dew was satisfied. However, Crippen and Le Neve did not know this and fled in panic to Brussels
, where they spent the night at a hotel. The following day, they went to Antwerp and boarded the Canadian Pacific liner for Canada.
Their disappearance led the police at Scotland Yard
to perform another three searches of the house. During the fourth and final search, they found the remains of a human body, buried under the brick floor of the basement. Sir Bernard Spilsbury
found traces of the calming drug scopolamine
. The corpse was identified by a piece of skin from its abdomen; the head, limbs, and skeleton were never recovered. Crippen and Le Neve fled across the Atlantic on the Montrose, with le Neve disguised as a boy. Captain Henry George Kendall
recognised the fugitives and, just before steaming out of range of the land-based transmitters, had telegraphist Lawrence Ernest Hughes send a wireless telegram to the British authorities: "Have strong suspicions that Crippen London cellar murderer and accomplice are among saloon passengers. Mustache taken off growing beard. Accomplice dressed as boy. Manner and build undoubtedly a girl." Had Crippen travelled 3rd class, he would have probably escaped Kendall's notice. Dew boarded a faster White Star
liner, the , arrived in Quebec
, Canada ahead of Crippen, and contacted the Canadian authorities.
As the Montrose entered the St. Lawrence River, Dew came aboard disguised as a pilot. Kendall invited Crippen to meet the pilots as they came aboard. Dew removed his pilot's cap and said, "Good morning, Dr Crippen. Do you know me? I'm Chief Inspector Dew from Scotland Yard." After a pause, Crippen replied, "Thank God it's over. The suspense has been too great. I couldn't stand it any longer." He then held out his wrists for the handcuffs
. Crippen and le Neve were arrested on board the Montrose on 31 July 1910.
In his 1938 memoirs, Dew recalled:
Dew returned to England with Crippen aboard the , paving the way for a sensational trial at the Old Bailey
. Newspapers at the time said he had "effected the most sensational criminal capture of the century".
After his retirement, Dew became an unofficial 'criminal expert' for the British press, who would print his comments and opinions on various cases then in the public eye, such as the mysterious disappearance in 1926 of crime-writer Agatha Christie
. He published his autobiography
'I Caught Crippen' in 1938. This contained factual errors as many of the events described were being recalled sometimes more than fifty years later; Dew himself admitted this in the book. However, compared to many of the memoirs written by Dew's contemporaries about the same events, it is "broadly accurate".
Dew retired to Worthing
, living at the Wee Hoose, 10 Beaumont Road, until his death in 1947. He was buried at Durrington Cemetery in Worthing.
In 2005 the bungalow he retired in was renamed 'Dew Cottage' in his honour.
's novel The False Inspector Dew
(1982), ISBN 0-333-32748-9, which won the Gold Dagger Award for crime fiction
.
Dew also appears in several of M. J. Trow
's humorous Inspector Lestrade
novels, which depict him as dedicated but somewhat bumbling. Lestrade and the Leviathan (1987) includes a fictionalized version of the Crippen case.
Metropolitan police
Metropolitan Police is a generic title for the municipal police force for a major metropolitan area, and it may be part of the official title of the force...
who was involved in the hunt for both Jack the Ripper
Jack the Ripper
"Jack the Ripper" is the best-known name given to an unidentified serial killer who was active in the largely impoverished areas in and around the Whitechapel district of London in 1888. The name originated in a letter, written by someone claiming to be the murderer, that was disseminated in the...
and Dr Crippen
Hawley Harvey Crippen
Hawley Harvey Crippen , usually known as Dr. Crippen, was an American homeopathic physician hanged in Pentonville Prison, London, on November 23, 1910, for the murder of his wife, Cora Henrietta Crippen...
.
Early life
Dew was born at Far CottonFar Cotton
Far Cotton, many years ago a village in its own right, is a district of the English county town of Northampton.Far Cotton is due south of the town centre, beyond Cotton End - hence the 'Far' - and south of the River Nene...
, in Hardingstone
Hardingstone
Hardingstone is a village in Northamptonshire, England. It is on the southern edge of Northampton, and now forms a suburb of the town within the Northampton Borough Council area. It is about from the town centre...
, Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census. It has boundaries with the ceremonial counties of Warwickshire to the west, Leicestershire and Rutland to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshire to the south-east,...
, one of seven children to Walter Dew Sr., a railway guard, and his wife Eliza. His family moved to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
when he was 10. As a boy Dew was not a natural scholar, and left school aged 13. As a youth Dew found work in a solicitor's office
Solicitor
Solicitors are lawyers who traditionally deal with any legal matter including conducting proceedings in courts. In the United Kingdom, a few Australian states and the Republic of Ireland, the legal profession is split between solicitors and barristers , and a lawyer will usually only hold one title...
off Chancery Lane
Chancery Lane
Chancery Lane is the street which has been the western boundary of the City of London since 1994 having previously been divided between Westminster and Camden...
, but not liking the work he became a junior clerk at the offices of a seed-merchant in Holborn
Holborn
Holborn is an area of Central London. Holborn is also the name of the area's principal east-west street, running as High Holborn from St Giles's High Street to Gray's Inn Road and then on to Holborn Viaduct...
. Later, he followed his father on to the railways, for on the 1881 census he is listed as a 17 year-old railway porter living in Hammersmith
Hammersmith
Hammersmith is an urban centre in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in west London, England, in the United Kingdom, approximately five miles west of Charing Cross on the north bank of the River Thames...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. However, in 1882 he joined the Metropolitan Police
Metropolitan police
Metropolitan Police is a generic title for the municipal police force for a major metropolitan area, and it may be part of the official title of the force...
, aged 19, and was given the warrant number 66711. He was posted to the Metropolitan Police's X Division (Paddington Green). On 15 November 1886 Dew married Kate Morris in Notting Hill
Notting Hill
Notting Hill is an area in London, England, close to the north-western corner of Kensington Gardens, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea...
. They had six children, one of whom died in infancy.
Jack the Ripper
Early in 1887 Dew was transferred to Commercial StreetCommercial Street (London)
Commercial Street is a road in Tower Hamlets, east London that runs north to south from Shoreditch High Street to Whitechapel High Street through the East End district of Spitalfields...
police station in H Division (Whitechapel
Whitechapel
Whitechapel is a built-up inner city district in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, London, England. It is located east of Charing Cross and roughly bounded by the Bishopsgate thoroughfare on the west, Fashion Street on the north, Brady Street and Cavell Street on the east and The Highway on the...
), where he was a detective constable
Constable
A constable is a person holding a particular office, most commonly in law enforcement. The office of constable can vary significantly in different jurisdictions.-Etymology:...
in the Criminal Investigation Department
Criminal Investigation Department
The Crime Investigation Department is the branch of all Territorial police forces within the British Police and many other Commonwealth police forces, to which plain clothes detectives belong. It is thus distinct from the Uniformed Branch and the Special Branch.The Metropolitan Police Service CID,...
during the Jack the Ripper
Jack the Ripper
"Jack the Ripper" is the best-known name given to an unidentified serial killer who was active in the largely impoverished areas in and around the Whitechapel district of London in 1888. The name originated in a letter, written by someone claiming to be the murderer, that was disseminated in the...
murders of 1888.
In his memoirs, published fifty years later in 1938, Dew made a number of claims about being personally involved in the Ripper investigation. None of these claims have been confirmed by surviving police records, and some of them contradict known evidence in the case. Dew claimed to know Mary Jane Kelly
Mary Jane Kelly
Mary Jane Kelly , also known as "Marie Jeanette" Kelly, "Fair Emma", "Ginger" and "Black Mary", is widely believed to be the fifth and final victim of the notorious unidentified serial killer Jack the Ripper, who killed and mutilated prostitutes in the Whitechapel area of London from late August to...
by sight. "Often I saw her parading along Commercial Street, between Flower and Dean Street
Flower and Dean Street
Flower and Dean Street was a road situated at the heart of the Spitalfields rookery in the East End of London. It was one of the most notorious slum areas of the Victorian era and was closely associated with the victims of Jack the Ripper...
and Aldgate, or along Whitechapel Road", he wrote. "She was usually in the company of two or three of her kind, fairly neatly dressed and invariably wearing a clean white apron, but no hat." Dew also claimed to have been one of the first police officers on the murder scene, though none of the records mentioning those people who were present list his involvement. Dew wrote that he saw Kelly's mutilated body in her room in Miller's Court and that he regarded it as "the most gruesome memory of the whole of my Police career." Dew wrote that Kelly's open eyes were photographed in an attempt to capture an image of her killer, but police doctors involved in the case had already determined that such an effort would be futile. Dew stated that Emma Smith
Emma Elizabeth Smith
Emma Elizabeth Smith was a prostitute and murder victim of mysterious origins in late-19th century London. Her killing was the first of the Whitechapel murders, and it is possible she was a victim of the notorious serial killer known as Jack the Ripper, though this is considered unlikely by most...
was the first Ripper victim, a view that has often been contested by Ripperologists, and opined that "Someone, somewhere, shared Jack the Ripper's guilty secret."
Police career
In 1898 Dew was promoted to InspectorInspector
Inspector is both a police rank and an administrative position, both used in a number of contexts. However, it is not an equivalent rank in each police force.- Australia :...
, and was transferred to Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard is a metonym for the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service of London, UK. It derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which had a rear entrance on a street called Great Scotland Yard. The Scotland Yard entrance became...
. He moved to T Division in Hammersmith
Hammersmith
Hammersmith is an urban centre in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in west London, England, in the United Kingdom, approximately five miles west of Charing Cross on the north bank of the River Thames...
in 1900, and in 1903 was promoted to Inspector First Class and moved to E Division, based at Bow Street
Bow Street
Bow Street is a thoroughfare in Covent Garden, Westminster, London. It features as one of the streets on the standard London Monopoly board....
. In 1906 he became a Chief Inspector
Chief inspector
Chief inspector is a rank used in police forces which follow the British model. In countries outside Britain, it is sometimes referred to as chief inspector of police .-Australia:...
, and returned to Scotland Yard. By the time of his retirement from the police in 1910 Dew had received 130 recommendations and rewards from the Commissioner
Police commissioner
Commissioner is a senior rank used in many police forces and may be rendered Police Commissioner or Commissioner of Police. In some organizations, the commissioner is a political appointee, and may or may not actually be a professional police officer. In these circumstances, there is often a...
of the Metropolitan Police, judges and magistrate
Magistrate
A magistrate is an officer of the state; in modern usage the term usually refers to a judge or prosecutor. This was not always the case; in ancient Rome, a magistratus was one of the highest government officers and possessed both judicial and executive powers. Today, in common law systems, a...
s.
In 1898 Dew was involved in bringing international jewel-thief William Johnson, known as 'Harry the Valet', to justice. Johnson stole jewelry then valued at £30,000 from Mary Caroline (nee
NEE
NEE is a political protest group whose goal was to provide an alternative for voters who are unhappy with all political parties at hand in Belgium, where voting is compulsory.The NEE party was founded in 2005 in Antwerp...
Michell), Dowager
Dowager
A dowager is a widow who holds a title or property, or dower, derived from her deceased husband. As an adjective, "Dowager" usually appears in association with monarchical and aristocratic titles....
Duchess of Sutherland
George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 3rd Duke of Sutherland
George Granville William Sutherland Leveson-Gower, 3rd Duke of Sutherland , styled Viscount Trentham until 1833, Earl Gower in 1833 and Marquess of Stafford between 1833 and 1861, was a British politician.-Background:Sutherland was the son of George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 2nd Duke of Sutherland...
while she was travelling by train from Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
to London with her husband, Sir Albert Rollit
Albert Rollit
Sir Albert Kaye Rollit was a British politician, lawyer, and businessman.Born in Hull, he became a solicitor and went on to become president of the Law Society. He later became a shipowner. In 1886 he was elected as a Conservative Member of Parliament for the South Islington constituency...
MP
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
, and her brother, his wife and the Duchess' footman and maid. Dew investigated the case together with Inspectors Walter Dinnie and Frank Froest
Frank Froest
Superintendent Frank Castle Froest was a British detective and crime writer.Froest was described by a journalist as being "...short, thick-set, full-faced, Mr.Froest in uniform looked more like a Prussian field-marshal than anything else...
. They tracked Johnson, who by now was spending large amounts of money, to lodgings in London's South Kensington
South Kensington
South Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London. It is a built-up area located 2.4 miles west south-west of Charing Cross....
. Despite receiving a seven year prison sentence, Johnson refused to disclose the whereabouts of the Duchess' jewels, and only £4,000 worth were ever recovered.
Dew had a small role in the Druce-Portland case: he supervised the exhumation of the remains of T. C. Druce which effectively put an end to the Druce claims.
When Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n fraudster Friedlauski obtained a position as a clerk on the staff of New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
bank J.S. Bache & Co. using the name Conrad Harms in 1909, and transferred funds totaling £1,637 14s to his bank account in London, where he subsequently fled, it was Dew who tracked him down. Despite claiming that he was Harms' near identical cousin Henry Clifford, a pretence he maintained even when confronted by the wife he had previously abandoned, Friedlauski/Harms was sentenced to six years penal servitude
Penal labour
Penal labour is a form of unfree labour in which prisoners perform work, typically manual labour. The work may be light or hard, depending on the context. Forms of sentence which involve penal labour include penal servitude and imprisonment with hard labour...
for fraud and bigamy
Bigamy
In cultures that practice marital monogamy, bigamy is the act of entering into a marriage with one person while still legally married to another. Bigamy is a crime in most western countries, and when it occurs in this context often neither the first nor second spouse is aware of the other...
.
Arrest of Crippen
Hawley Harvey Crippen
Hawley Harvey Crippen , usually known as Dr. Crippen, was an American homeopathic physician hanged in Pentonville Prison, London, on November 23, 1910, for the murder of his wife, Cora Henrietta Crippen...
was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, born in Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
in 1862. He qualified as a doctor in 1885 and worked for a patent medicine company. Coming to England in 1900, he lived at 39 Hilldrop Crescent, Holloway
Holloway, London
Holloway is an inner-city district in the London Borough of Islington located north of Charing Cross and follows for the most part, the line of the Holloway Road . At the centre of Holloway is the Nag's Head area...
, with his second wife Cora Turner, better known by her stage name
Stage name
A stage name, also called a showbiz name or screen name, is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers such as actors, wrestlers, comedians, and musicians.-Motivation to use a stage name:...
of 'Belle Elmore'. After a party at their home on 31 January 1910, Cora disappeared. Hawley Crippen claimed that she had returned to the US, and later added that she had died, and had been cremated
Cremation
Cremation is the process of reducing bodies to basic chemical compounds such as gasses and bone fragments. This is accomplished through high-temperature burning, vaporization and oxidation....
, in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. Meanwhile, his lover, Ethel "Le Neve" Neave (1883–1967), moved into Hilldrop Crescent and began openly wearing Cora's clothes and jewellery
Jewellery
Jewellery or jewelry is a form of personal adornment, such as brooches, rings, necklaces, earrings, and bracelets.With some exceptions, such as medical alert bracelets or military dog tags, jewellery normally differs from other items of personal adornment in that it has no other purpose than to...
. The police were informed of Cora's disappearance by her friend, strongwoman Kate Williams, better known as Vulcana
Vulcana
Kate Williams , sometimes called Kate Roberts, better known by her stage name Vulcana, was a Welsh strongwoman born of Irish parents in Abergavenny, Monmouthshire....
. The house was searched, but nothing was found, and Crippen was interviewed by Dew. After the interview, and a quick search of the house, Dew was satisfied. However, Crippen and Le Neve did not know this and fled in panic to Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
, where they spent the night at a hotel. The following day, they went to Antwerp and boarded the Canadian Pacific liner for Canada.
Their disappearance led the police at Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard is a metonym for the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service of London, UK. It derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which had a rear entrance on a street called Great Scotland Yard. The Scotland Yard entrance became...
to perform another three searches of the house. During the fourth and final search, they found the remains of a human body, buried under the brick floor of the basement. Sir Bernard Spilsbury
Bernard Spilsbury
Sir Bernard Henry Spilsbury was an English pathologist. His cases include Hawley Harvey Crippen, the Seddon case and Major Armstrong poisonings, the "brides in the bath" murders by George Joseph Smith, Louis Voisin, Jean-Pierre Vaquier, the Crumbles murders, Norman Thorne, Donald Merrett, the...
found traces of the calming drug scopolamine
Scopolamine
Scopolamine, also known as levo-duboisine, and hyoscine, is a tropane alkaloid drug with muscarinic antagonist effects. It is among the secondary metabolites of plants from Solanaceae family of plants, such as henbane, jimson weed and Angel's Trumpets , and corkwood...
. The corpse was identified by a piece of skin from its abdomen; the head, limbs, and skeleton were never recovered. Crippen and Le Neve fled across the Atlantic on the Montrose, with le Neve disguised as a boy. Captain Henry George Kendall
Henry George Kendall
Henry George Kendall was a British sea captain who survived several shipwrecks, including an attack by a German submarine during World War I, and was also noted for his role in the capture of murderer Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen.-Early career:Captain Henry Kendall began his career in sailing ships in...
recognised the fugitives and, just before steaming out of range of the land-based transmitters, had telegraphist Lawrence Ernest Hughes send a wireless telegram to the British authorities: "Have strong suspicions that Crippen London cellar murderer and accomplice are among saloon passengers. Mustache taken off growing beard. Accomplice dressed as boy. Manner and build undoubtedly a girl." Had Crippen travelled 3rd class, he would have probably escaped Kendall's notice. Dew boarded a faster White Star
White Star Line
The Oceanic Steam Navigation Company or White Star Line of Boston Packets, more commonly known as the White Star Line, was a prominent British shipping company, today most famous for its ill-fated vessel, the RMS Titanic, and the World War I loss of Titanics sister ship Britannic...
liner, the , arrived in Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
, Canada ahead of Crippen, and contacted the Canadian authorities.
As the Montrose entered the St. Lawrence River, Dew came aboard disguised as a pilot. Kendall invited Crippen to meet the pilots as they came aboard. Dew removed his pilot's cap and said, "Good morning, Dr Crippen. Do you know me? I'm Chief Inspector Dew from Scotland Yard." After a pause, Crippen replied, "Thank God it's over. The suspense has been too great. I couldn't stand it any longer." He then held out his wrists for the handcuffs
Handcuffs
Handcuffs are restraint devices designed to secure an individual's wrists close together. They comprise two parts, linked together by a chain, a hinge, or rigid bar. Each half has a rotating arm which engages with a ratchet that prevents it from being opened once closed around a person's wrist...
. Crippen and le Neve were arrested on board the Montrose on 31 July 1910.
In his 1938 memoirs, Dew recalled:
"I had landed on July 29 by the liner Laurentic, arriving two days before the Montrose, which was already well out in the Atlantic when we first suspected that Crippen was aboard, but which was a much slower vessel than the mail steamer Laurentic. Old Crippen took it quite well. He always was a bit of a philosopher, though he could not have helped being astounded to see me on board the boat. He was quite a likeable chap in his way. Much of my time in Canada was spent evading reporters and cameramen, who knew all about my arrival in spite of our efforts to keep it secret, and who frequently became personal when I did not give them a statement. As it happened, Crippen and his companion, Miss Ethel Le Neve, showed no desire to postpone our departure and waived their extradition rights, which enabled us to make the return journey after being only three weeks in Canada."
Dew returned to England with Crippen aboard the , paving the way for a sensational trial at the Old Bailey
Old Bailey
The Central Criminal Court in England and Wales, commonly known as the Old Bailey from the street in which it stands, is a court building in central London, one of a number of buildings housing the Crown Court...
. Newspapers at the time said he had "effected the most sensational criminal capture of the century".
Later years
By now internationally famous, Dew resigned from the police and set up as a "Confidential Agent". In 1911 he brought libel actions against nine newspapers for comments they had printed about him during the Crippen case. Most settled out of court, and Dew won his case against those who did not, resulting in his being awarded substantial sums as damages.After his retirement, Dew became an unofficial 'criminal expert' for the British press, who would print his comments and opinions on various cases then in the public eye, such as the mysterious disappearance in 1926 of crime-writer Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Christie DBE was a British crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections , and her successful West End plays.According to...
. He published his autobiography
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
'I Caught Crippen' in 1938. This contained factual errors as many of the events described were being recalled sometimes more than fifty years later; Dew himself admitted this in the book. However, compared to many of the memoirs written by Dew's contemporaries about the same events, it is "broadly accurate".
Dew retired to Worthing
Worthing
Worthing is a large seaside town with borough status in West Sussex, within the historic County of Sussex, forming part of the Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton conurbation. It is situated at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of the county town of Chichester...
, living at the Wee Hoose, 10 Beaumont Road, until his death in 1947. He was buried at Durrington Cemetery in Worthing.
In 2005 the bungalow he retired in was renamed 'Dew Cottage' in his honour.
Film portrayals
| Year | Title | Maker | Dew played by: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1942 | Dr. Crippen an Bord | Germany | René Deltgen |
| 1962 | Dr. Crippen | UK | John Arnatt John Arnatt - Biography :John Arnatt was born in Petrograd on 9 May 1917. His parents were Francis Arnatt and Ethel Marion Arnatt . He attended Epworth College. Arnatt trained for the stage at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art... .http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055927/ |
Television portrayals
| Year | Title | Maker | Dew played by: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1956 | The Case of Dr. Crippen | ATV Associated TeleVision Associated Television, often referred to as ATV, was a British television company, holder of various licences to broadcast on the ITV network from 24 September 1955 until 00:34 on 1 January 1982... |
Philip Lennard |
| 1968 | Investigating Murder | BBC BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff... |
Philip Webb |
| 1973 | Jack the Ripper | BBC BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff... |
Norman Shelley Norman Shelley Norman Shelley was an English actor, best known for his work in radio, in particular for the BBC's Children's Hour. He also had a recurring role as Colonel Danby in the long-running radio soap opera The Archers.... |
| 1981 | The Ladykillers: Miss Elmore | ITV ITV ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK... |
Alan Downer |
| 1999 | Tales from the Black Museum | Discovery Channel Discovery Channel Discovery Channel is an American satellite and cable specialty channel , founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It is a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav... |
Not credited |
| 2004 | The Last Secret of Dr Crippen | Channel 4 Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel... |
David Broughton-Davies |
| 2008 | 'Revealed' Was Crippen Innocent? | Five | Not credited |
In fiction
Dew is the inspiration for the central figure in Peter LoveseyPeter Lovesey
Peter Lovesey is a British writer of historical and contemporary crime novels and short stories. His best-known series characters are Sergeant Cribb, a Victorian-era police detective based in London, and Peter Diamond, a modern-day police detective in Bath...
's novel The False Inspector Dew
The False Inspector Dew
The False Inspector Dew is a humorous crime novel by Peter Lovesey. It won the Gold Dagger award by the Crime Writers' Association in 1982 and has featured on many "Best of" list since.-Plot introduction:...
(1982), ISBN 0-333-32748-9, which won the Gold Dagger Award for crime fiction
Crime fiction
Crime fiction is the literary genre that fictionalizes crimes, their detection, criminals and their motives. It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other genres such as science fiction or historical fiction, but boundaries can be, and indeed are, blurred...
.
Dew also appears in several of M. J. Trow
M. J. Trow
Meirion James Trow is a writer who writes under the name M. J. Trow.-Biography:Trow was born in Ferndale, Rhondda Cynon Taff, Wales. He went to Warwick School from 1961 to 1968. In 1968 he went to King's College, London, to read history. After graduation he spent a year at Jesus College, Cambridge...
's humorous Inspector Lestrade
Inspector Lestrade
Inspector G. Lestrade is a fictional character, a Scotland Yard detective appearing in several of the Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle. Doyle used the name of a friend from his days at the University of Edinburgh, a Saint Lucian medical student by the name of Joseph Alexandre Lestrade....
novels, which depict him as dedicated but somewhat bumbling. Lestrade and the Leviathan (1987) includes a fictionalized version of the Crippen case.