Ethel Le Neve

Ethel Le Neve worked as a typist and secretary for Hawley Harvey Crippen and became his lover. After the disappearance of Crippen’s wife, Ethel wore some of Cora’s jewellery and later left Britain with Crippen aboard the SS Montrose, travelling in male clothing as his supposed son.

The pair were arrested in Canada after a wireless message alerted Scotland Yard. Le Neve was tried separately as an accessory after the fact and acquitted. In John Boyne’s Crippen, her relationship with Crippen and the transatlantic voyage provide a second emotional centre to the murder narrative.