Hallie Rubenhold
๐ค SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
And there was plenty of evidence of some pretty extreme cleaning going on in the wake of this murder.
You know, the dustmen were all interviewed and said they were taking away piles and piles of ashes, which both Crippen and Ethel were burning in the garden at Hill Drop Crescent.
Wowee.
Yeah.
Actually, interestingly, this was the part of writing my book that I thought I was going to find quite dull.
And in fact, I found quite fascinating because Ethel tries to reinvent herself.
And it's kind of hard to reinvent yourself when you were once the most scarlet woman in the world.
She was in every newspaper around the world as this woman who ran off with Crippen.
And she changed her name to Ethel Harvey.
And she had to go back to being a lady typist again.
But I think there was something about this murder, this period of her life, which was the most awful and also the most exciting thing ever to have happened to her.
And also, you know, she's carrying the burden of what she knew with her in secret.
And she goes and tries to move to Canada.
And she has a nervous breakdown when she's in Toronto.
literally has an episode of what is called disassociative amnesia, which is when you can't even remember who you are.
Apparently, this is quite common with people who have committed murder.
And she was carrying a lot of stuff with her and then has to return to England, lives with her sister for a while, and just is in a state of complete nervous collapse, has a total nervous breakdown, can't even leave her room.
And eventually she gets better.
She has several episodes of paranoia where she believes people are trailing her, where she believes the police are going to come and arrest her at any moment.
Bearing in mind she also stole money from Belle's bank account, she posed as Belle Elmore and took about nearly ยฃ200 out of a bank account, drained a bank account.