The notorious Dr Crippen and Radio’s first arrest
Posted in Communications, Famous crimes, Famous news stories, Historical articles, Law, Ships on Thursday, 27 October 2011
This edited article about crime originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 850 published on 29 April 1978.
The date was July, 1910. The place was the Atlantic Ocean, aboard the liner Montrose, on its journey from Antwerp to Quebec.
On deck, the ship’s captain listened intently to the faint clicking of a morse key coming from the wireless cabin below deck. There, bent over his transmitter, the radio operator was sending an urgent message to Scotland Yard. It read:
130 miles west Lizard stop have strong suspicion that Crippen London murderer and accomplice among passengers stop . . .
This was to prove an historic message. It was the first time that the invention of radio had been used in the hunt for a killer.
The captain had just given the order for it to be transmitted and, as the message flashed out from the aerial, he kept his eye on two of his passengers, the suspected criminal, Hawley Harvey Crippen and his companion, Ethel le Neve. Crippen was wanted for questioning by the police in connection with the murder of his wife.
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