Ethel Le Neve alias Mrs Crippen, and Neave
A shorthand writer and typist, age 27, height 5ft 5, complexion pale, hair light brown (may dye same), large grey or blue eyes, good teeth, nice looking, rather long straight nose (good shape), medium build, pleasant, lady-like appearance. Quiet, subdued manner, talks quietly, looks intently when in conversation.
Police Poster: ‘Wanted for Murder and Mutilation’ July 1910
Ethel Le Neve was born Ethel Clara Neave on 22 January 1883.
The event took place at Victoria Road, Diss, Norfolk and, on her Birth Certificate, her parents were shown as Walter William Neave and Charlotte Anna Neave, formerly Jones. Walter was described as a Railway Clerk and Ethel was their first child.
Earlier in the 1881 Census, Ethel’s parents were both shown as age 22 and they were at the same address where Ethel would be born. They were living with Charlotte’s parents, William Jones – a 56-year-old Horse Breaker – and Clara Jones age 47. Ethel’s grandparents also had two sons and four other daughters living with them aged between 5 and 24.
There is no sign of the Neaves on the 1891 Census but they reappear in 1901 under the name of Le Neave. Walter was then described as Dairy Manager – Milk. The family was then living at 61 Croydon Road, Hampstead, London and five children were listed:
- Clara Ethel, 18 – Type Writer
- Adine True, 19 (actually 17) – Type Writer and Shorthand
- Claud W.W., 15 – Clerk Provision Shop
- Bernard F., 11
- Sidney E., 4
It is not known when Ethel rebadged herself as Le Neve.
Adine True (b 1884), Ethel’s sister, married Horace George Brock in 1903 and, at some stage prior to 1910, she had become known as Nina. Nina was very supportive of her sister and would feature in many reports when Crippen and Ethel were making the headlines in 1910.
Evidently, Nina was more enterprising than her sister and, as can be seen from the 1901 Census, she had been the first to master shorthand and, of course, she had married shortly after having turned 19.
Reportedly, Ethel had first met Crippen when she went to work at Drouet’s around 1903. Their association continued over the years but they didn’t become lovers until around 1906.
(Extracts from Crippen’s last letters to Ethel while he was incarcerated in Pentonville were published in Black Fame by J. C. Ellis in 1926. These provide pointers to their developing relationship.)
Evidently, Ethel had had a miscarriage in 1909. (Miscarriages are not officially recorded but Ethel had confided in her landlady, Mrs Jackson, and Mrs Jackson testified to this effect at Ethel’s own trial.)
1910 was a busy year for Ethel, particularly after Cora’s disappearance on 1st February, Ethel then set to work tidying up Hilldrop Crescent before moving in with Crippen on 12th March. She also gave up her job at around the same time.
On the 16th March 1910, Crippen gave the requisite 3 months notice of his intention to leave Hilldrop Crescent by the 24th June.
Crippen and Ethel then took an Easter Break in Dieppe and, although the precise dates are not known, they probably left London on the 24th March, when Crippen had announced that Cora had died.
This was confirmed by the notice of Cora’s death in The Era, a stage magazine, in its issue dated 26th March.
On 15th April, Ethel made the first of eight withdrawals from Belle Elmore’s Post Office Savings Account. Clearly, as Belle had been declared dead, she may have thought, ‘Why not? Nevertheless, it was fraudulent deception and she could have faced prosecution. Of course, Ethel may not have realised this and, as she was evidently besotted by Crippen, she was prepared to obey his every word.
Come Whitsuntide (Whit Sunday fell on 6th May), Crippen and Ethel took a short break in Boulogne. Crippen had taken the opportunity to hire Valentine Lecoq, a 17-year-old French girl who had a dual role: acting as a maid and teaching Ethel her native language. It soon became apparent that Valentine had come from a poor family because Ethel had to provide her with some decent clothes.
On 17th June, Ethel made her eighth and final withdrawal from Belle Elmore’s Post Office Savings Account, having obtained £196 overall.
At around the same time (17th to 20th June) Crippen arranged with his landlord to extend his stay at Hilldrop Crescent until the 29th September.
On 8th July, Chief Inspector Dew visited Hilldrop Crescent. Crippen was out and, after Valentine had difficulty in understanding him, Ethel appeared and saw him. Dew hired a cab and together they went to Albion House, where both Crippen and Ethel gave statements. [Exhibits 39 and 40]
The following day, Crippen and Ethel made their getaway and, once again, Ethel had gone along with an absurd idea, by disguising herself as Crippen’s 16-year-old son. Clearly, Ethel was no actress and, when their plan fell apart, they made the headlines.
Ethel later re-surfaced in England as Ethel Clare Harvey (Crippen’s middle name) and she married Stanley William Smith at the Wandsworth Registry Office on 2nd January, 1915. Her husband was a 24-year-old Clerk with a firm of Household Furnishers. She was 31 and her sister, Nina Brock, was one of the witnesses.
Later, Ethel had two children before being immortalised by Ursula Bloom in a series of articles in the Sunday Dispatch and later in her novel ‘The Girl Who Loved Crippen’ (1955). As a result, Ursula Bloom was put in touch with Ethel and, after exchanging correspondence, the two women met up and became friends.
According to Bloom, Ethel at 71 was petite and ‘still pretty, with grey hair gathered in a knot, and intelligent grey eyes.’ Although Ethel refused to say more than a few words about her past, Bloom became convinced of her continuing love for Crippen. When Bloom asked her if she would marry Crippen if he were miraculously to reappear, Ethel replied without hesitation, ‘Yes, I would’.
Ursula Bloom and the woman who had become infamous as ‘Ethel Le Neve’ remained friends until Ethel’s death in 1967, at the age 84.
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