On this episode of "Expedition Files"...
in 1849, spine-tingling author Edgar Allan Poe vanishes from
the streets of Baltimore,
only to reappear days later, delirious
and on the verge of death.
What killed one of America's greatest writers?
For nearly two centuries, his demise has remained one of
literature's most haunting mysteries.
But a startling new theory may
shed light on what really happened.
Then, in 1513, Spanish explorer Ponce de León is said to risk
everything in search of the mythical Fountain of Youth,
a spring that can grant immortality.
Now, stunning new insights may completely rewrite the story of
this legendary quest.
And in 1910, a horrifically mutilated body
is found beneath the London home of Dr. Hawley Crippen.
He's convicted and executed for murder.
But 100 years later, will DNA evidence provide a bombshell
that overturns the case?
In the corridors of time
are mysteries that defy explanation.
Now, I'm traveling through history itself
on a search for the truth.
New evidence.
Shocking answers.
I'm Josh Gates.
And these...
are my "Expedition Files."
When I was a kid, I was obsessed with magic.
The idea that someone could pull a rabbit out of
a seemingly empty hat, or take an ordinary playing
card and make it disappear, and then reappear.
OK, so, David Blaine, I am not, but trickery is
our theme tonight.
And many of history's greatest mysteries involve their fair
share of smoke and mirrors.
So watch closely and expect the unexpected as we seek out
the truth in three mischievous mysteries designed to deceive.
We begin here in Baltimore on October 3rd, 1849.
It's Election Day, and the tavern behind me,
Gunner's Hall, is both polling place and drinking spot,
popular with all kinds of patrons.
One of them is this man.
To say that he's seen better days would
be an understatement.
He's considered one of
the greatest writers of all time.
Meet the master of the macabre, Mr. Edgar Allan Poe.
After five days missing, he's just reappeared,
disheveled and incoherent.
He's not even wearing his own clothes.
Days from now, he'll die from unknown causes.
So what kills this literary giant?
What happened to him in those last lost days?
175 years on, new evidence will emerge suggesting Poe's ending
may be his most tragic tale yet.
The life of Edgar Allan Poe, famed writer of Gothic tales
like "The Raven" and "The Tell-Tale Heart,"
begins 40 years earlier when Poe is born just as Edgar,
no Allan yet, in the city of Boston.
Poe's upbringing is as grim as his later work.
What I do outside of this house
is none of your business!
When he's just a baby, his alcoholic father,
an out-of-work actor, abandons the family,
leaving them broke.
Then, in 1811, his mother dies from tuberculosis,
leaving him an orphan.
Where Poe's morbid worldview came from is no mystery.
Much like the incessant pulse beating beneath the floorboards
in his story, "The Tell-Tale Heart,"
alcoholism, sickness, and financial woes
will follow Poe throughout his life,
all the way to the grave.
After his mother's death,
Edgar Poe becomes Edgar Allan Poe,
when he's taken in by his late mother's wealthy
friends, John and Frances Allan.
The Allans invest in his education and refinement,
even sending him to England for five formative years.
Back in the U.S., Poe enrolls at the University of Virginia.
His foster parents provide only limited funds for expenses,
leaving Poe short on cash.
To make up the difference, he turns to gambling
and quickly falls into debt.
After just one year, he's forced to
leave the university.
A few years later, he moves to Baltimore
to try to make it as a writer.
At the age of 27, Poe marries his 13-year-old
first cousin, Virginia Clemm, which raises some
serious eyebrows.
For the next decade, with Virginia by his side,
Poe hits his stride, revolutionizing
American literature.
He births the modern detective story
with "The Murders in the Rue Morgue"
and perfects psychological horror through
stories like "The Fall of the House of Usher."
Then comes his masterpiece.
In 1845, his poem "The Raven" finds instant success,
turning Poe into a household name.
Fame brings Poe recognition, but no security.
He remains trapped in a cycle of financial desperation.
Even "The Raven," the poem that makes him famous, earns him
just $9, roughly 400 bucks today.
Scrambling to survive, Poe takes on whatever work
he can find.
But then, in 1847, comes the blow that truly
shatters his world.
On January 30th, his beloved wife,
Virginia, will die at the young age of 24 from the same disease
that took his mother, tuberculosis.
Friends describe Poe as utterly broken.
He turns to the bottle for solace, despite his family
history of alcoholism, which makes him violently ill
after drinking even a small amount.
[retching]
The next year proves no better for Poe, as he begins suffering
from extreme hallucinations.
Again!
What?
Louder!
[Josh] Some say it's due to his descent into alcoholism,
an accusation he denies.
He blames it on contracting cholera, which killed thousands
that summer and left Poe ill for weeks.
By September, however, it appears he may be
recovering, giving several well-received lectures in
Richmond, during which he appears to be
completely sober.
But is he really better?
On September 27th, he boards a ship in Richmond,
departing for Baltimore.
From Baltimore, he planned to take a train to New York to see
a relative, with a stop along the way in Philadelphia to edit
a collection of poetry.
But he never makes his appointments.
Somewhere before Philadelphia, Poe disappears.
It isn't until five days later on Congressional Election Day
in Baltimore that Poe is seen again outside Gunner's Hall.
And like a plot lifted from one of his twisted stories, Poe is
a disturbingly changed man.
Witnesses describe his appearance as repulsive
and that he's completely incoherent, not wearing his own
tailored clothes but a stranger's cheap rags.
What happened during those five days will become one of
the literary world's greatest mysteries.
[man] Wake up, sir.
[Josh] Believing Poe to be drunk, bystanders and a local friend
get him to Washington College Hospital, where they
leave him to dry out.
According to the attending physician, Poe drifts in
and out of consciousness for days, muttering incoherently
and repeatedly calling out the name Reynolds...
[as Poe] Reynolds.
...a name that doesn't mean anything to anyone.
[as Poe sobbing] Reynolds.
Reynolds.
[Josh] Then, four days after he's admitted to the hospital,
Poe takes his last breaths and reportedly utters
his final words.
Lord, help my poor soul.
[breaths out]
[Josh] Immediately, Poe's death is linked to alcohol,
given his well-known struggles.
The Baltimore Patriot cites "congestion of the brain,"
a common euphemism for alcohol poisoning.
The doctor that attended to Poe attributes his death to
"alcohol-related brain fever."
But many find these explanations unsatisfying.
Why was Poe wearing someone else's clothes?
Why couldn't he account for those missing five days?
Who was this Reynolds he was rambling about?
And if alcohol was to blame, why had he been stone-cold
sober at his lectures in Richmond just days before?
Over the decades, other causes of death are proposed.
Some suggest Poe's strange behavior could have been caused
by rabies.
He apparently had difficulty drinking water in his final
days, which can be a tell-tale sign of the disease.
Then, in 1999, tests of Poe's hair revealed elevated levels
of mercury.
Peculiar, yes, but the levels were not high
enough to confirm mercury poisoning.
And in 2007, an author published a book
arguing Poe died from a brain tumor.
This theory stems from a witness report from 1875,
when Edgar's body was exhumed for a memorial.
Supposedly, a solid mass was heard rattling in his skull.
Could this have been the remnants of a large tumor?
All of these claims are intriguing, but none of them
can definitively account for the five missing days right
before Poe's death.
All of this is complicated by the fact that none of Poe's
medical records or even his death certificate survives.
But now, a historian believes he knows what happened during
the author's final days, and it's a twist worthy of
Poe himself.
[Josh] In 1849, Edgar Allan Poe dies in mysterious circumstances
after disappearing for five days, before reappearing
incoherent and incurably ill.
Then, in 2023, a stunning new biography is published,
offering the fullest explanation yet for both
his death and his disappearance.
It's all tied to Baltimore and, of all things, voting.
Chris Semtner, curator of the Edgar Allan Poe Museum in
Richmond, explains.
I have spent years of examining Poe's death for books
and exhibits at the Poe Museum.
And I believe it's important to know what happened to Poe
because he is really the guy who put American literature
on the map.
One of our literary founding fathers.
In 1849, Baltimore was known as "Mob Town."
It was a rough place, the Wild West.
There were political gangs trying to coerce people
to vote.
Well, the most insidious way that these political gangs
figured out to convince people to vote for them
was just grab them,
drug them, and force them to vote.
It was called "cooping."
Basically, the gang would find somebody from out of town
and then beat them up, drug them, and coop them up in
a basement or a yard until it was time to vote.
Then the coopers just take their victims up to vote.
Then they dragged them back, switched their clothes,
had them vote again.
From all the research I've conducted, it leads me to
believe that Poe most likely died after being cooped.
This type of violent election fraud was so rampant in
the 19th century that Congress actually held hearings on
cooping in the 1850s and '60s to protect future
election integrity.
Victims testified they were held with dozens of other men,
threatened with guns, beaten, liquored up,
and then left for dead after being forced to vote for
a favored politician. So was Poe cooped?
Well, when you think about the condition in which he was
found and that he was found outside a voting hall,
it actually makes perfect sense.
Imagine this.
It's the fall of 1849.
Poe steps off the steamship in Baltimore, stepped into
a tavern, dressed in his finest silk vest.
An easy mark.
And a gang member offers Poe a drugged drink.
Have we met somewhere?
Uh, I've given many lectures in many places.
Cheers to you.
[Semtner] And then drags Poe to a cellar
where they keep him plied with alcohol.
[as cooper] More drinks for our new friend.
Ah, he's almost out of it.
[Semtner] Changing him out of his expensive clothes,
replacing them with cheap rags who won't be recognized.
And there he stays for days.
Finally, on election day, they drag him back up out of
the cellar along with whoever else he's been imprisoned with
and take him to the nearest polling place at Gunner's Hall,
where they all drop their ballots in the box.
And then after voting once, the gang just drags him back,
switches all their clothes, and had him vote again for
the House of Representatives, and then vote again, plying Poe
with alcohol each time.
By the end, they were probably dragging him.
He's probably barely able to stand.
And they just had to drop him at a table in the tavern.
[Josh] It's a compelling theory.
But what about the mysterious name Reynolds, which Poe
repeatedly uttered in the hospital
just before he died?
Semtner believes that too may be connected.
[Semtner] Reynolds was the election judge at that polling place
where Poe was found.
Maybe Poe was trying to give us a clue, saying Reynolds is
a dirty judge.
But there's no way to prove this now.
There's strong circumstantial evidence that Poe was
the victim of a cooping scheme.
But it turns out that even if he was intoxicated and beaten,
his actual death might have been hastened by something else
entirely, a disease that Poe sadly knew all too well.
I think it's most likely that he died of
tuberculous meningitis.
With tubercular meningitis,
it starts to affect the central nervous system.
And that could cause the delirium, the head pain,
the confusion that we associate with Poe's last four days
in the hospital, and Poe would have been exposed
to tuberculosis.
His mother, his foster mother, his brother, and then most
recently, his wife had all died of tuberculosis.
Most people who'd contracted the tuberculosis bacteria were
asymptomatic, but after being cooped, after being left for
dead, his system could have been so weakened that
the tuberculous meningitis from which he was already
suffering was able to ravage his body,
and it's accelerated his death.
I think it's most likely that these two factors, the cooping
and the tuberculosis meningitis, came together,
and that's what solves the mystery of Poe's death.
It is ironic that the author who explored the darkest
corners of the human psyche, who gave us mysterious tales of
murder and madness, should die a death that seems straight out
of one of his macabre tales.
And though his days were marked by hardship and tragedy,
today Poe has found immortality,
celebrated as one of the greatest authors in
American history, his work living on for
future generations.
As Poe himself once wrote, "The boundaries which divide
"life from death are at best shadowy and vague.
"Who shall say where the one ends and where
the other begins?"
Better than Botox, more powerful than a facelift,
for over 1,000 years, the legendary
Fountain of Youth, has been said to restore beauty and even
grant immortality to anyone who drinks from it.
The year is 1513, and Spanish conquistador
Juan Ponce de León is on a quest to find it, searching in,
of all places, Florida.
Or at least that's how this story will be told for the next
500 years.
But is Ponce here really searching for
the Fountain of Youth?
Or is he actually seeking something of a very
different value?
Well, half a millennia from now,
records will be discovered that
finally help tell the true story of the man said to risk
it all in the search for everlasting life.
Do I look younger?
The origin of the legend and everything else about
the Fountain of Youth is murky.
The tale first appears in the 5th century BC
writings of Greek historian Herodotus,
who describes a mythical spring in Africa said to bring
long life.
Centuries later, the fountain becomes a popular
theme in medieval stories and European art.
But in the 16th century, the legend takes on a new life
when stories emerge,
linking it to the explorer Juan Ponce de León.
Born around 1474 in the Kingdom of Castile in Spain,
Ponce de León comes from a noble lineage, but one with little
power behind it.
Seeking opportunity, as a young man, he joins an expedition to
explore the uncharted reaches of the world.
The year is 1493.
Juan Ponce de León has set sail on a ship bound for mysterious
lands known as the Indies.
De León hasn't made his name yet, but this guy certainly
has, Christopher Columbus.
A year earlier, he crossed the Atlantic hoping
to reach Asia,
instead, landing in the islands of the Caribbean before
returning to Spain a hero.
Now, Columbus is at it again, leading 17 ships and 1,000 men,
including Ponce here, because this second expedition
isn't just a voyage of discovery.
It's a mission of conquest.
Their destination?
An island he's christened Isla Española, what is now
the nations of Haiti and Dominican Republic.
In the years that follow, Spain conquers
the island, killing, enslaving,
and forcibly converting the indigenous population
to Christianity.
Ponce de León rises quickly through the colonial ranks,
ruling with force.
In 1508, he leads his first expedition west and claims
an island he names San Juan Bautista,
today known as Puerto Rico.
A year later, he is named interim governor of the island,
building his wealth and solidifying his power
as a conquistador.
But Ponce's success is short-lived.
When Christopher Columbus's son
Diego arrives with something to prove...
[as Diego] He insists.
[Josh] ...he tries to take control of the Caribbean colonies,
an act that would strip Ponce of his authority.
A bitter power struggle erupts between Ponce
and Diego Columbus.
But it's hard to beat a man whose father discovered
the New World.
Diego wins out and seizes full control.
Determined to regain his status, Ponce petitions
the Spanish king for permission
to explore new lands to the west.
In 1512, he receives a royal contract granting him the right
to claim and govern any territories he discovers.
His destination is Bimini,
an island in the Bahamas rumored to hold miraculous
waters said to restore youth.
The indigenous Taíno people
spoke of a legendary spring there,
"La Fuente De La Juventud,"
or the Fountain of Youth.
April 2nd, 1513,
Ponce de León and his crew spot land on the horizon.
They believe it's another island, but it isn't.
This is a continent, the eastern edge of a vast
territory not yet claimed by any European nation,
a place we know today as the United States of America.
Ponce de León comes ashore, the first known European to set
foot on what would become the continental U.S.
He gives this land its name,
a name that continues to this day.
La Florida, the Land of Flowers.
But we don't know anything about his hunt for the Fountain
of Youth here, or if that's really what he was
searching for.
The following year, Ponce de León returns to Spain.
He's granted a lifetime title, Governor of the Islands of
Bimini and La Florida, because at the time, Florida is
still believed to be an island.
In 1521, he's dispatched back to the New World to make
La Florida his own.
Eight years after their first landing in Florida,
200 Spaniards have returned to build a permanent colony.
Ponce de León is struck by a poisoned arrow, likely in
a surprise attack by the indigenous Calusa tribe
defending their homeland.
If anyone was ever in need of a fountain of youth,
it's right about now.
But with no healing waters to cure him, Ponce de León
dies at 47 years old. -[as Ponce groaning]
[Josh] In all of the official records
from his lifetime, his contracts, petitions,
and correspondence with the Crown, the Fountain of
Youth is never mentioned. Not once.
So you're probably asking yourself, "Well, how the hell
"did Ponce de León become forever linked to the search
for the Fountain?"
Well, one historian who scoured the Spanish archives has
a shocking explanation, and it all traces back to one
man, Christopher Columbus.
[Josh] For centuries, the world has believed Juan Ponce de León
searched for the Fountain of Youth, but there is no written
record he ever did.
Deep in the Spanish Empire's vast archive of the Indies,
professor of history Dr. J. Michael Francis
has discovered writings that reveal the truth
behind the story.
The first documented connection we have that ties
Juan Ponce de León with the Fountain of Youth story
comes more than a decade after Juan Ponce's death.
It happens in 1535 in a chronicle written by
the royal chronicler
Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés,
in which he relates this quest
to locate this so-called Fountain of Youth
based on stories that he had heard that there was this
magical spring that
if you bathed or drank the water, it can restore one's
health and one's youth.
[Josh] OK, so we have found where the Fountain of Youth story
started, but is there any truth to the idea that Ponce de León
actually searched for it?
Well, Dr. Francis found clues in the way the conquistador is
depicted that may explain everything.
Oviedo's rendering of Ponce de León as a rather
comical character who was guided by vanity and not by logic.
And had he thought logically about this story of
the Fountain of Youth, he wouldn't have believed it.
He wouldn't have then spent a fortune on a campaign in
search of this Fountain of Youth.
It seems that Oviedo was more closely aligned with Columbus
and with Diego Columbus.
And for that reason, he might have rendered
Ponce de León in a more negative light.
After Oviedo, Ponce de León and the Fountain of Youth are
inextricably intertwined. The story then,
in a sense, takes on a life of its own.
It continues to be repeated and repeated.
Different details are added. Other details omitted.
And over time, what we find is, if you repeat a story often
enough, a myth
transforms into history.
Dr. Francis thinks that the Fountain of Youth story is
essentially one of history's first and most successful
smear campaigns.
The Columbus family worked to turn Ponce into a punchline,
stripping him of his ambition and complexity and recasting
him as a vain fool chasing magical waters.
And the story worked.
To this day, the connection between Ponce,
Florida, and the Fountain of Youth remains as strong
as ever.
When I was in St. Augustine, Florida, I even joined
the tourists at the so-called Fountain of Youth Park to have
a sip myself.
-Here we go -- cheers. -Cheers.
Like all conquistadors, Juan Ponce de León sought land,
riches, and power.
But we now know that he didn't seek the Fountain of Youth.
Nevertheless, eternal life still found him, not through
magical waters, but through an ever-enduring legend.
It's July 13th, 1910.
Detectives are searching the cellar of a North London
townhouse, home to Dr. Hawley Crippen and his wife, Belle.
Both have gone missing, but the police are about to
make a gruesome discovery.
[man] Oh, dear Lord. The smell is unbelievable.
[Josh] Human flesh.
No head or even bones, just muscle, skin,
and fat wrapped in some kind of cloth.
This is the beginning of one of the most disturbing murder
cases in British history, one that will make the name
Dr. Crippen infamous.
But a century from now, cutting edge DNA testing will
allow these remains to be reexamined, leading to
a terrifying twist.
Who is Dr. Hawley Crippen,
the man at the bloody heart of this story?
Well, he isn't what you'd call a traditional doctor.
Born in Michigan in 1862, he trains in homeopathic
medicine, going on to sell over-the-counter remedies that
are alleged to cure everything
from headaches to malaria to baldness.
Some patients swear by them, but critics call them
snake oil.
Either way, they become big business.
After setting up shop in New York City, Dr. Crippen has
a brief marriage that ends tragically when his wife dies
of a stroke in 1892.
Crippen becomes a widower at just 30 years old.
But he seems to bounce back.
Nine months later, in September 1892, Crippen marries
a 19-year-old dance hall singer named Cora Turner, known by
her stage name, Belle Elmore.
The brash party girl singer and the mild-mannered doctor,
nearly 12 years her senior, appear an odd pair.
But the Crippens make it work, for a while at least.
In 1897, Dr. Crippen gets a job
managing Munyon's Homeopathic Home Remedies in London,
and the couple ships off to England.
Belle sets her sights on making her name in the bustling
vaudeville scene, becoming a member
of the Music Hall Ladies Guild.
The future seems bright for the Crippens, but things don't
go exactly as planned.
Two years after arriving in England, Dr. Crippen parts ways
with his company.
Barred from practicing as a doctor in the UK due to
his lack of qualifications, he bounces between odd jobs.
Belle's theater career never takes off either,
but that doesn't seem to faze her.
She lives lavishly, partying with a wide circle of
friends across London.
In reality, times are tight, but you would never know it.
On January 31st, 1910,
Belle and the doctor entertain a few of
their closest friends.
The party runs late, with laughter and drinks
flowing until 1:30 in the morning.
This is the last time Belle's friends will see her alive.
Two days later, Belle misses a meeting
of the Music Hall Ladies Guild.
In her place, Crippen's secretary,
Ethel Le Neve, delivers a letter signed by Belle stating
she must resign her position
and go to America to tend to a sick relative.
Weeks go by with no word from Belle.
Soon, Crippen is seen publicly with his secretary, Ethel,
who has since moved into his home and has been seen
wearing Belle's fur and jewelry.
Crippen is pressed for details by Belle's friends,
and his story keeps changing.
I'm very sorry.
This has all been a terrible shock.
[Josh] First, he says she's fallen ill,
then that she's died while away in America.
By March 1910, Belle's friends alert Scotland Yard,
bringing in Inspector Walter Dew,
a seasoned detective
well-known for his work on the Jack the Ripper case.
Dew meets Crippen on July 8th.
To his surprise, Crippen calmly admits he lied to Belle's
friends, claiming she's alive in America with another man,
and that he invented her death to avoid embarrassment.
Dew then searches Crippen's home, but finds nothing.
The following Monday, the 11th of July, Dew returns
for a follow-up visit.
But Crippen and Ethel are nowhere to be found.
At this point, our Scotland Yard inspector is
certain the couple is on the run.
But the most disturbing discovery
isn't their disappearance.
It's what he's about to find hidden inside their house.
London Police Inspector Walter Dew believes that
Dr. Crippen and his secretary-turned-girlfriend
Ethel Le Neve are evading police after the mysterious
disappearance of his wife, Belle.
Dew suspects the couple is hiding something,
and he's about to find it.
After two days of searching Dr. Crippen's home,
police decide to dig up the coal cellar floor when
they notice loose bricks,
eventually leading to a horrifying discovery.
-[as detective] Oh, my word. -[Josh] Human remains.
But the head, skeleton, and vital organs are gone,
making identification nearly impossible.
A piece of cloth buried with what remains of the body
matches a pair of Crippen's pajama bottoms
found under his bed.
And a medical examiner identifies a scar on
the abdomen, which is consistent with a previous
surgery that Belle Elmore had undergone.
Tragically, it appears they found Dr. Crippen's wife.
Now, they just need to find him.
But the doctor and his mistress Ethel have
a five-day head start.
Scotland Yard shares the shocking story with
the press, splashing photos of Dr. Crippen and Ethel across
front pages and posting their faces at ports
throughout Europe.
It's July 22nd, 1910.
I'm aboard the SS Montrose, two days into its 10-day
crossing from Belgium to Canada.
Among the passengers are
a Mr. John P. Robinson and son.
But to the ship's captain, they look suspiciously like
the fugitives he'd seen in the paper the day
they set sail.
Fortunately, the Montrose happens to be one of only 60
ships in the world fitted with a brand-new marvel,
the Marconi wireless telegraph.
The captain seizes his chance, tapping out a message across
the Atlantic in what will be the first time radio waves are
used in a fugitive hunt.
The very next morning, Inspector Dew races to the port
at Liverpool and boards the much faster SS Laurentic.
His ship will reach Canada a full day before the Montrose,
allowing him to intercept
Crippen when they dock in Quebec.
On the morning of July 31st, the inspector and two Canadian
policemen are ferried to the arriving Montrose.
They wear crew-member uniforms to avoid suspicion.
As the disguised Dr. Crippen watches the Canadian horizon
come into view, the long arm of the law taps him squarely
on the shoulder.
Crippen is stunned to see the familiar face of
Inspector Dew.
Dr. Crippen is placed under arrest for the murder of
his wife, Belle Elmore.
Crippen's mistress, Ethel Le Neve, is booked as
an accessory to murder.
Back in London, the trial is a sensation.
Dr. Crippen maintains his innocence,
but the evidence is overwhelming.
Perhaps most damning, the human tissue found in
the cellar tests positive for the toxic sedative hyoscine,
a drug the doctor purchased
just days before Belle went missing.
On October 22nd, 1910, after four days of testimony,
the jury takes just 27 minutes to find Crippen
guilty of murder.
Ethel's defense convinces the jury that she was
an unwitting victim of the doctor's deceit.
She is acquitted of charges but lives the rest of her life
under public suspicion of how much she really knew.
One month later, November 23rd, Dr. Hawley Crippen
is hanged at Pentonville Prison.
Crippen goes to the gallows maintaining his innocence,
swearing he didn't kill his wife, Belle.
Now, a century after his death, new evidence raises
a troubling question.
What if Crippen was actually telling the truth?
[Josh] After a manhunt spanning the Atlantic Ocean,
Dr. Hawley Crippen is convicted and executed for the murder of
his wife, Belle Elmore.
For the next hundred years, Dr. Crippen's case is
remembered as a real-life "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde."
But then researchers at the Royal London Hospital
locate a microscope slide of organic material marked
"Crippen case."
This sample could change everything.
Journalist Harry Howard covered the story.
The Crippen case was reignited in 2007 when experts did DNA
testing on a slide of skin that had been taken from the corpse
that was found in Crippen's basement.
Mitochondrial DNA is passed down the female line,
and they extracted that from the sample,
and then they compared it to three distant living relatives
of Belle Elmore, and the results seemed quite
conclusive, that the body in the basement was not that of
Belle Elmore, and what's more, they seemed to show that
the body was actually a male rather than a female.
A male, not a female.
The scientists declared that whoever was buried in that
basement, it isn't Belle.
The findings rock the true crime world.
Was Crippen somehow a victim of lethal injustice?
[Harry] Suddenly that means that everything is out in the open
again, and headlines are proclaiming that Crippen might
be innocent.
Some people are saying that he should be
pardoned posthumously.
So there's all these questions flying around, which really
kind of drive a dagger through the conviction.
In 2009, the British government refuses
to reopen the case in the Court of Appeals, citing that since
Crippen was American,
there are no British citizens who could benefit.
And while the court of public opinion seems to have shifted
in his favor, not everyone is convinced he's an innocent man.
Then, in 2025, there's an incredible new
twist, as famed British DNA expert Dr. Turi King
enters the fray.
Dr. Turi King is a highly respected geneticist who was
a key member of the team that identified the remains of
Richard III, after that skeleton shocked the world when
it was found in a car park in Leicester.
So she brings a lot of heft to anything that she does.
King reviews the work of the 2007 team and says
she uncovers disturbing problems with how
they conducted their analysis.
So Dr. King highlighted what she argued were several flaws
in the testing process.
The first one, ordinarily you'd have two samples tested in two
separate labs.
They only had one sample tested in one lab.
There was no independent replication of this test.
And also she was concerned that there weren't proper protocols
in place to prevent contamination of
the scientist's DNA getting into the sample.
None of the analysts contributed their own DNA to
rule themselves out of the kind of prospect
of cross-contamination.
And if that obviously did happen, that would explain why
it was found to be male.
So the implication really of this is that she doesn't feel
that the 2007 DNA results are strong enough to cast really
any doubt on Crippen's guilt.
The scientists behind the 2007 study defend their methodology,
saying there was no contamination.
They have no plans to retest the sample.
But whether the body is male or female, Harry says it
doesn't change the most crucial issue, the guilt of
Dr. Crippen himself.
My feelings on the Crippen case is that he is guilty.
And even if we say that the body in the basement was
not hers, there's so many other elements, her uncharacteristic
disappearance, the flight to Canada, the hyoscine found in
the corpse, that he was known to have bought.
It is really kind of like
a wall of evidence that has been mounted.
And so my feeling is that he did kill her and that
the conviction of 1910 is a safe one.
It's hard to disagree with those facts.
And there is a key question Crippen's supporters have yet
to answer.
If those mutilated remains didn't belong to his wife,
whose were they?
Because if the body in the basement isn't
Belle Elmore, then this is far from case-closed.
Because that means this real-life Dr. Jekyll has
another unknown victim.
110 years on, there may yet be more to the horrifying case of
Hawley Crippen.
I'm Josh Gates, and I'll see you on the next expedition.