“There is naked Nature”: Ibid., 182.
A photograph: “Marconi Site.” Wellfleet Historical Society.
“To lose him to anyone”: Marconi, My Father, 80.
“I wish I had got this letter”: Ibid., 82.
He formed: Aitken, Syntony, 143; Hong, Wireless, 46.
And Marconi endured: Aitken, Syntony, 246–47, fn 67 on 293.
On May 21, 1901: Daily Graphic, May 28, 1901, in UCL, Fleming Collection, 122/66; Faulkner, Watchers, 11; Hancock, Wireless, 29–30.
Only years later: Faulkner, Watchers, 11.
“If you opened the door”: Cape Codder, June 18, 1970, in Cape Cod National Seashore, File 4.7-2.
“In August”: Vyvyan, Marconi and Wireless, 28.
“We used to call it”: Crowley to Fleming, January 11, 1938. UCL, Fleming Collection, 122/3.
“We had an electric phenomenon”: Kemp Diary, August 9, 1901.
“The weather is still boisterous”: Ibid., August 14, 1901.
“Caution. Very Dangerous.”: See photograph, Kemp Diary, opposite p. 154.
“the thunder factory”: Weightman, Signor Marconi, 170.
The most important clause: Aitken, Syntony, 235–36; Bartram, I, 51.
CLAUSTROPHOBIA
On September 21: Trial, 9.
Trees lined the crescent: The following description of Hilldrop Crescent and its surrounding neighborhood is derived primarily from the online archives of the Bolles and Booth collections, with additional detail from Baedeker, and a statement by Chief Inspector Walter Dew, in Brief for the Prosecution, 77, NA-DPP 1/13, in which he describes the layout of No. 39. I gleaned other details from two police photographs of the house and its garden, in NA-MEPO 3/198.
In 1902 the prison: Execution had been a neighborhood theme for more than a century. In the 1700s an inn stood in Camden Town by the name of Mother Red Cap, a common stop for omnibuses but also the end of the line for many condemned prisoners, who were hung in public across the street. The Morning Post of 1776 reported that “Orders have been given from the Secretary of State’s Office that the criminals, capitally convicted at the Old Bailey, shall in future be executed at the cross road near the Mother Red Cap—the half-way house to Hampstead….” One of the last things the condemned saw was the sign at the Mother Red Cap representing a woman thought to be Mother Damnable, identified in a bit of 1819 verse as a woman “so curst, a dog would not dwell with her.” Bolles: Henry B. Whealey, London Past and Present, John Murray, 1891.
The law required: Minutes. Executions at Pentonville. NA-HO 45/10629/200212.
One immediate neighbor: Cole to Churchill, November 11, 1910. Executions at Pentonville. NA-HO 45/10629/200212.
“I do not think”: Davies to Prison Commission, November 22, 1910. Execuions at Pentonville. NA-HO 45/10629/200212.
“Gee. You have got a hoo-doo”: Trial, xvii.
“Mrs. Crippen was strictly economical”: Ibid., xviii.
“Mrs. Crippen disliked”: Ibid., xix.
“I followed her”: Ibid., xix.
“They always appeared”: Jane Harrison Statement. Witness, 103. NA-DPP 1/13.
“Mr. and Mrs. Crippen”: Rhoda Ray Statement. Witness, 139. NA-DPP 1/13.
“somewhat hasty”: Trial, 12.
At one point: Trial, xviii.
He told his story: Karl Reinisch Account, “Dr. Crippen on Board.” Black Museum. NA-MEPO 2/10996. This document was off-limits to researchers until 2001.
Another tenant, however: Trial, xix.
“He had to rise”: Trial, xviii–xix.
In June 1906: Cora Crippen to Reinisch, June 23, 1906. Black Museum. NA-MEPO 2/10996.
“He was a man”: Trial, xviii.
Soon after the move: Ibid., xviii.
On January 5, 1909: Ibid., 108.
“His eccentric taste”: Ibid., xviii.
“I have always hated”: Paul Martinetti Statement. Supplemental Information, 27. (The bulk of the master document, Supplemental Information, is housed in NA-DPP 1/13, but portions, including the Martinetti Statement, appear in NA-CRIM 1/117.)
“The rooms which Frankel”: William Burch Statement. Witness, 160–61. NA-DPP 1/13.
DISASTER
“At 1 p.m.”: Kemp Diary, September 17, 1901. Also, see Bussey, Marconi’s Atlantic Leap, 34–35; Baker, History, 65; Fleming, “History,” 39–40.
“please hold yourself in readiness”: Kemp Diary, November 4, 1901.
The balloons and kites: Hancock, Wireless, 32.
It fell, he wrote: Vyvyan, Marconi and Wireless, 28.
“masts down”: Flood Page to Marconi, November 29, 1901. Cape Cod National Seashore.
THE POISONS BOOK
In September 1908: Emily Jackson Statement, 44. Coroner’s Depositions. NA-CRIM 1/117. Also, Emily Jackson Statement, 31. Brief for the Prosecution, NA-DPP 1/13.
“I never saw the baby”: Emily Jackson Statement, 9. Supplemental Information. NA-DPP 1/13. Also, Emily Jackson Statement, 39. Witness, NA DPP 1/13.
“I thought him quite”: Emily Jackson Statement, 47. Coroner’s Depositions. NA- CRIM 1/117.
“He was the financier”: Gilbert Rylance Statement, 81. Coroner’s Depositions. NA- CRIM 1/117.
Crippen continued to concoct: William Long Statement, 84. Coroner’s Depositions. NA-CRIM 1/117. William Long Statement, 17. Supplemental Information, NA-DPP 1/13.
On December 15: Trial, 32.
“I didn’t think”: Louie Davis Statement, 101. Witness, NA-DPP 1/13; Melinda May Statement, 11. Coroner’s Depositions, NA-CRIM 1/117.
Belle “did not seem to know”: Maud Burroughs Statement, 97. Witness, NA-DPP 1/13.
Over the previous year: List of Dr. Crippen’s Orders. Exhibit 49, p. 44. Exhibits, NA-DPP 1/13.
But Hetherington could not: Charles Hetherington Statement. NA-DPP 1/13; Trial, 75–76.
Hetherington relayed: Alexander Hill Statement. NA-DPP 1/13.
