Belle Elmore

Belle Elmore was the professional name used by Kunigunde Mackamotski, usually known after marriage as Cora Crippen. She pursued a music-hall career and was active in theatrical social circles in London. In 1910 her husband claimed that she had returned to the United States and later said that she had died there.

Cora’s friends pressed police to investigate. Human remains were subsequently found beneath the Crippens’ house, and Hawley Harvey Crippen was convicted of her murder. John Boyne’s Crippen reconstructs her ambitions, marriage and disappearance while acknowledging that much of the couple’s private life cannot be documented.