Thunderstruck

Many false reports about Crippen and Le Neve reach New Scotland Yard. In Bourges, a woman fitting Le Neve’s description commits suicide in a hotel room, and police believe they have found the much sought-after typist from London.

On the Montrose, Captain Kendall continues his investigation. Finally convinced, he sends a wireless to his superiors after leaving the English Channel. He does not know if it is received.

Dew gets Kendall’s message the same day and, after confirming with superiors, books passage aboard a fast steamer planning to overtake the Montrose and arrive in Quebec before Dr. Crippen to intercept him. Onboard, Dew sends wireless messages to the Montrose, but the technology is fickle, and he gets no response.

Meanwhile, the hunt for Crippen continues around the Western world, with false arrests, the investigation of leads, and dozens of sightings. New Scotland Yard begins to doubt the Robinsons on the Montrose are their suspects after all.

Captain Kendall ensures that Crippen and Le Neve expect nothing of the investigation against them, and the fugitives enjoy their voyage. The Montrose intercepts a message for another ship and understands that New Scotland Yard not only received their message but also are in pursuit.

On the steamer, Dew is known as Dewhurst, his motive unknown to all but the captain. With news of the sea chase in the public domain, New Scotland Yard at last confirms that they are pursuing Crippen by ship. Captain Kendall’s message was intercepted by other ships, which leaked his message to the papers.

The public sees the real victor in the manhunt as the wireless technology that makes the sea a stage for the eventual showdown to come. Once in range, Dew informs Kendall he will board the Montrose.

Back in London, the remains are probed for the cause of death, with poison suspected because of Crippen’s background. Police canvas the neighborhood and learn that one woman heard two gunshots in late January while another heard a scream, and a third confirms the scream with the exact time. In the following days, the neighbors smelled burning debris from the Crippens’ yard. Police discover the trash collector hauled off burnt clothing and other items the days after the scream. None of this was reported to police at the time and investigators doubt the relevance, given the media sensationalism of the case.

Onboard the Montrose, Captain Kendall enjoys his sudden burst into the spotlight while also keeping the wireless content from the “Robinsons.” His account, sent by wireless, is printed across the Western world. Through the wireless, the world watches the manhunt, even as the fugitives themselves are oblivious. Many begin to see wireless as a new tool for justice.

Crippen tells Le Neve that in Canada, he may have to leave her for a bit and that she might rely on her typist skills. He promises to buy her dresses, and she looks forward to resuming her identity as a woman.

An exam meant to rule out poison requires a cat, and one is fetched, and an extract from the organs dropped into the eyes. This procedure reveals the presence of poison, which is narrowed down to one of three options based on the dilation of the cat’s eye. They name the cat Crippen.

Dew plans to board the Montrose at Father Point and sends word, which reporters around the world learn through intercepted wireless. Dew’s actions are under the public eye, a real-time manhunt where the police have no cover.

Crippen suspects nothing of the trap being set for him, even as he marvels at Marconi’s device aboard the Montrose.

On Father Point, Dew is met by waves of reporters and refuses interviews in order to meet with Canadian police. Dew learns that some reporters are attempting to board the Montrose to scoop the others and he meets with them, promising information in exchange for patience. Meanwhile, the hunt continues in London. Crippen and Le Neve’s lives are investigated even as Churchill himself asks for updates on the case.

On arrival at Father Point, Captain Kendall blows the horn in heavy fog, alerting Dew to his arrival. Crippen emerges and chats with a fellow passenger, watching a loaded boat approach the Montrose, growing increasingly nervous. Meanwhile, Captain Kendall arms himself.

Dew is unsure how to manage the bustling press, all clamoring to board the Montrose, without alerting Crippen to the trap. He dons a disguise and boards the ship, where Captain Kendall calls for Robinson. Dew takes off his hat and greets Crippen by his real name, which Crippen responds to using Dew’s name. Dew then arrests Crippen for the murder of his wife, Cora Crippen. Dew goes to the room where Le Neve is resting, and upon seeing him, she faints.

Detectives uncover Crippen’s purchase of lethal poisons after his sensational arrest in Canada. The body uncovered in the cellar reveals evidence of the poison. They also find what they believe to be Belle’s surgery scar among scraps of skin and the matching pajamas belonging to Crippen.

Crippen and Le Neve are extradited to Britain, where Crippen stands trial beginning in October 1910. He is found guilty. In her trial, Le Neve is found innocent of the murder. Crippen is hung on November 23, 1910. After his death, speculation continues as to whether Crippen was indeed guilty and had acted alone.

The Ladies’ Guild takes Belle’s remains and buries them, though some artifacts remain with New Scotland Yard. In WWII, a bomb destroys Crippen’s former home on Hilldrop Crescent.

Captain Kendall becomes a minor celebrity. He goes on to survive a sinking ship, to fight in the Navy, and to eventually end his long career at a desk.

Crippen’s paradoxical nature inspires literary, stage, and screen adaptations. Among those in the arts, Raymond Chandler becomes especially critical of Crippen’s guilt.

The manhunt for Crippen sends an electric wave through the wireless world, and skeptics of the Marconi dream are at last convinced of its practical value. A year later, when the Titanic strikes an iceberg, a Marconi machine broadcasts the incident, and help is dispatched. Both Marconi and his wife Bea O’Brien were meant to be on the fateful Titanic voyage, but both cancel for different reasons ahead of the ship’s departure.

The long-feared war with Germany breaks out, and news is relayed across the seas to all British assets on the Marconi device. The Germans focus their torpedoes on wireless rooms aboard ships to thwart rescue, and 348 Marconi operators die during the war.

Marconi and O’Brien’s marriage falls apart, and Marconi has an affair, which leads to divorce. Later, with O’Brien’s help, their marriage is annulled, and Marconi is free to wed Maria Cristina Bezzi Scali in the Catholic Church.

Marconi realizes that his giant stations, which nearly sank the company, were a failure for ignoring the use of short waves, which are easier to manage. In 1923, he becomes friends with the Italian dictator Mussolini and joins the Fascist Party. When Marconi dies on July 19, 1937, it is Mussolini who comes to his bedside. All telegraphy is halted for two minutes during his funeral, “For possibly the last time in human history, the ‘great hush’ again prevailed” (441).

Preece negotiates a truce between Lodge and Marconi’s company, which Lodge claimed used his patenting material without rights. Lodge’s son Raymond dies in WWI, and Lodge claims to have spoken to him after that, accounts of which he published in a book titled after his son in 1916.

After Marconi failed to renew Fleming’s contract in 1931, Fleming backed Lodge as the original inventor of the wireless and claimed that history would reveal Marconi to be a selfish man who hoarded credit that wasn’t his to claim.

In November 1910, Ethel Le Neve uses a false name to travel to Canada, where she works for a time as a typist before returning to London. She marries a man named Stanley Smith, never revealing her true name or history. She bears and raises two children. Her identity is only uncovered as she nears death when she gives an interview to a writer named Ursula Bloom, during which she reveals sparks of defiance regarding Crippen.