Story of a Murder is social historian Hallie Rubenhold’s latest book. It is about the crimes of Dr Crippen and the women around him, with a real focus on the killing of Belle Elmore, an Edwardian music hall performer. At this event, Rubenhold was interviewed by Madeleine Pelling, another social historian, and their conversation focused on what actually happened to Belle Elmore and why it is important to tell the story of her murder again over a century later.
One of Pelling’s first questions asked Rubenhold to explain the case in simple terms so that everyone was on the same page. Rubenhold gave what she called a “Wikipedia” explanation of the story, with all the myths and straight-up lies left in. This was effective because it gave her a strong point of reference for the rest of the talk and enabled her to show us what had gone wrong with the case originally.
For me, the most important myth that Rubenhold dispelled was the idea that Belle Elmore somehow deserved to die. Apparently, after her death, the press turned her into a bit of a comic character which allowed Dr Crippin’s actions to appear justified and turned the general public against the victim. One of the ways the press turned Belle into a comic character was by claiming that she had been a bad performer on the music hall stage. This claim was made in spite of the fact that she had only ever received glowing reviews when she was alive, so it is clear that this was a clear changing of the story. Elmore linked this manipulation of the truth and promotion of a legend with some modern true crime podcasts which seem to exist only to further share myths about people’s deaths. Rubenhold said that she sees this practice as unethical and that in her work she sees it as important to try to always understand where the truth lies. She explained that, to do this, her research involves trying to track down sources for all of the statements she finds in order to avoid retelling the things that there’s no source for.
Throughout the talk, I thought that Rubenhold and Pelling both contributed effectively to the conversation. Pelling was able to build on some of Rubenhold’s points and bring them into a wider historical context, and she also worded her questions so that they could be easily understood by the audience. Rubenhold’s answers were self-assured, confident and understated which meant the audience were really drawn into the conversation that was happening on stage.
Overall, I found Rubenhold and Pelling’s conversation about Story of a Murder very interesting. It made me aware not only of what happened to Belle Elmore but also of some of the key ethical questions that are so important to consider when it comes to retelling a story, especially the story of someone’s death. Finally, the most pertinent part of the event was perhaps Rubenhold’s reminder that we have to learn to sit with the uncomfortable truth that no human being is a monster despite the fact that humans can do monstrous things. This highlighted the importance of telling history accurately and not spinning a story based on myths, legends and lies.
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
