Hallie Rubenhold

Infamous Edwardian wife-murderer Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen was brought to justice by an unlikely group of people: music hall women. Historian Hallie Rubenhold gives voice to this group, who were never properly heard at the time.

On 1 February 1910, the vivacious music hall performer Belle Elmore suddenly vanished from her London home, causing alarm among her circle of female friends, the entertainers of the Music Hall Ladies’ Guild, who demanded an immediate investigation. What came to light was a gruesome secret, and the eventual conviction and hanging of Dr Crippen, a homoeopath and ear and eye specialist, for the murder.

Rubenhold is author of The Five: The Women Killed by Jack the Ripper, winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction. The Covent Garden Ladies was the inspiration behind the BBC show Harlots, and her biographical work Lady Worsley’s Whim was dramatised by the BBC as The Scandalous Lady W.