WALTER DEW The Man Who Caught Crippen.

Paperback. To this day the name of Dr Crippen is universally recognised as one of the most infamous in the annals of crime. Crippen murdered his wife and dismembered her body, burying the remains in the cellar of his home and fleeing to Canada with his young mistress. His notoriety is second only to that of Jack the Ripper. It was the job of one man to catch both Crippen and Jack the Ripper - Walter Dew. Dew was a detective constable in the Whitechapel Criminal Investigation Department throughout the Ripper investigation and was the first officer at the scene of the horrific murder of Mary Kelly. His later translatlantic chase and eventual capture of the fugitive Dr Crippen and his mistress Ethel Le Neve, using the pioneering method of the wireless, enthralled the world and made Dew famous. Dew was also involved in investigations into fraudster and bigamist Conrad Harms and jewel thief 'Harry the Valet', and was asked to comment on the disappearance, in 1926, of crime writer Agatha Christie. Starting from original research and using much previously unpublished material, including Scotland Yard files, Dew's own reminiscences and contemporary newspaper accounts, the author has created a vivid and detailed story of policing in the Victorian and Ewardian eras. This book tells the full, extraordinary story of Dew's life, from his humble beginnings as a seed merchant's clerk to Chief Inspector at Scotland Yard in charge of the most celebrated murder investigation of the 20th century. An absorbing account of the life and work of one of the most intelligent and determined policemen in British criminal history. Profusely illus., Appendices, Notes, Bibliog. and Index. 271pp. p/back. Lightly browned pp. Vg. Recommended.