In today’s story, you very likely will at some point go, “Okay, I know where this is going." But you won’t. Because the ending to this story is so random that it actually took 100 years to piece together what actually happened.Story name, preview & link to original YouTube video:#1 -- "Under the Bricks" -- It took 100 years to piece together what actually happened (Original YouTube link -- https://youtu.be/BlS2sI_8y5g?feature=shared)For 100s more stories like these, check out our main YouTube channel just called "MrBallen" -- https://www.youtube.com/c/MrBallenIf you want to reach out to me, contact me on Instagram, Twitter or any other major social media platform, my username on all of them is @mrballenSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Chapter 1: What story will surprise you with its unexpected ending?
Hey Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. In today's story, you very likely will at some point go, okay, I know where this is going. But you won't.
Because the ending to this story is so random that it actually took a hundred years to piece together what actually happened. But before we get into today's story, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday.
So if that's of interest to you, please bring the Amazon Music follow button out hiking with you on Kodiak Island in Alaska, but don't tell them you've secretly stapled a huge raw steak to the outside of their pack. Okay, let's get into today's story.
Redacted Declassified Mysteries is a new podcast hosted by me, Luke LaManna. Each week, I dive into the hidden truths behind the world's most powerful institutions, from covert government experiments to bizarre assassination attempts. Follow Redacted on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Chapter 2: Who are Belle and Dr. Crippen, and what happened at their dinner party?
On the night of January 31st, 1910, an American couple living in London named Belle and Dr. Harpy Crippen were hosting a small dinner party for two of their friends. The group had just finished their food and they were now in the middle of a game called Whist, which is a card game, when suddenly Belle put her cards down and she stood up to tell a story.
And Dr. Crippen saw his wife doing this and kind of knew what was going to happen. And he kind of gestured for her to not tell the story and please sit down and play this game. But she just kind of waved at him dismissively, like, please leave me alone. I'm going to do what I want to do. Dr. Crippen sighed and just kind of sat back and let this happen.
Anywhere they went, he knew his wife had to be the center of attention and there was just nothing he could do. Dr. Crippen was a pretty passive guy who kind of got walked all over, especially by his wife. He was kind of little, he had big bulging eyes and huge glasses he wore, and his job was he basically sat inside of a dentist's office and mixed medicines for the dentist.
And so he was just kind of like this anonymous forgotten about guy that worked in a back office hidden from the world. Meanwhile, his wife, Belle, is like this beautiful woman, huge personality. She's an aspiring actress and singer and everywhere they went, everybody loved her and basically didn't notice Dr. Crippen.
Also, Belle would basically spend all of Dr. Crippen's money on her very expensive wardrobe. And so Dr. Crippen is just so annoyed. He's sitting on the couch and he's watching as Belle has now stood up in her big flowing pink evening dress. And she's regaling the guests with this big story of hers.
And at some point, she just kind of transitions from telling the story to performing this bizarre song and dance routine that was the story. It's like she came up with a play in real time and performed it for the guests. And the dinner guests who were watching this performance, their names were Paul and Clara, they were totally entranced by what Belle was doing. They thought it was incredible.
Paul and Clara were both theater people like Belle was. Paul was a former comedian, and Clara worked with Belle at their charity, which was called the Music Hall Ladies Guild. And so Dr. Crippen just kind of scowled as the two dinner guests applauded really loudly for Belle's big performance. And Belle, you know, she smiled and kind of giggled and then sat down and said, thank you so much.
And then, you know, Dr. Crippen, he's thinking, okay, now that she's done with this performance, we can finally play the card game that I really want to play. But Dr. Crippen, after grabbing his cards, looked around and could tell that they were not going to play cards. The big performance by his wife had eaten up all the rest of their time. And now it was too late and the guests had to leave.
Before Dr. Crippen could even stand up to begin picking up in the room to get ready for this visit to end, Bell, his wife, was demanding he go outside and get their guests a horse and carriage to bring them back home. And so Dr. Crippen just kind of put his head down and said, okay.
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Chapter 3: What led to Belle's sudden disappearance?
And as he was walking towards the front door to get the horse and carriage, Bell yelled after him, and don't get one of those cheap ones, get an expensive one, a nice one. Dr. Crippen just kind of rolled his eyes, but said, okay. And then he walked outside. But despite looking all over the place, there were no nice horse and carriages.
It was just the kind of loud, rickety, bad ones that his wife did not want him to get. But after looking all over the place for a full hour and not finding a nice one, Dr. Crippen finally just had to hail one of the bad horse and carriages. He called them over and then he went back inside and he told the guests, okay, I got your horse and carriage. And so they came outside and so did Belle.
And Belle's looking at this carriage after this long delay and it's this terrible carriage. And she just stares at Dr. Crippen furious. The guests don't seem to mind. They just walk down the stairs. They get in their carriage. They say goodbye and they take off. But the second Dr. Crippen had turned back around, Bell was already back inside their home.
And so he knows, you know, as soon as he goes in there, he's going to get yelled at. And so he went inside the home, and in the living room was Belle, arms folded, just staring at him, absolutely furious.
And she began laying into him about not only how ridiculous it was that it took him a whole hour to find the carriage, and it was a terrible carriage, something she said not to do, and she told him that he was the reason their whole dinner party had been a total disaster. Even though Dr. Crippen was like, I think it went pretty well.
But in Belle's mind, you know, her husband was the reason this party had totally failed. He was boring. He didn't contribute anything. And she told him that she caught that he did not applaud nearly as loudly as Paul and Clara had for her big performance. And that really hurt her feelings. When Dr. Crippen just didn't say anything, he just kind of knew to keep his head down and let his wife talk.
You know, when that happened, Belle got so frustrated, she kind of huffed and then turned around and walked over to the mantelpiece. And she took this framed photo that she shamelessly left up in their house that was of her former lover who she openly had had an affair with. It was this beautifully handsome, square-jawed prizefighter who, again, Dr. Crippen knew his wife had cheated on him with.
And so Belle, she takes this photo and she holds it up and she points right at him and she looks at her husband and says, you know, I can get any man I want. Look right here. I can get him if I want to. I don't need you. But Dr. Crippen was not affected by this. He was completely used to being treated this way by Belle. And so again, he just stayed silent and took what she was throwing at him.
And so again, Belle gets even more frustrated because she's not getting a reaction from Dr. Crippen. She finally just goes, you know what? I'm going to leave you tomorrow. I'm done with you. I can't be with you. It's over. And again, Dr. Crippen just didn't react. I mean, this really was typical behavior for his wife, even this threat of leaving him tomorrow.
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Chapter 4: How did Dr. Crippen's behavior raise suspicions?
You know, she had done this before, but never followed through on it. It was just kind of like Dr. Crippen was her punching bag, basically 24-7. And so for now, all Dr. Crippen really wanted was for his wife to just stop ranting and raving so he could just go to bed. He didn't really care what she was saying. Frankly, he wouldn't even care if she did leave him the next day.
He was totally unhappy in this marriage, as obviously she was, but he was so scared of scandal, he couldn't bring himself to divorce his wife. But if she actually followed through and left him, he'd be free. The marriage would be over and it would be her fault. And so Dr. Crippen just stood there waiting for his wife to finish. But it was clear she had a lot to say.
Even after threatening to leave him, she just kept on laying into him about all his faults. And then at some point, Dr. Crippen just totally caught her off guard by interjecting and saying, hey, Belle, do you want some whiskey? And Belle just kind of stopped and stared at her husband inquisitively. And then it was like her whole mood changed.
And she was like, actually, yeah, I'll take some whiskey. So Dr. Crippen said, great, I'll go make it. And he walked over to the liquor cabinet and he poured both of them a drink. Two days later, the members of the charity that Belle and Clara, the dinner guests, were a part of, the Music Hall Ladies Guild, they were all sitting in their office in London waiting to start their meeting.
But there was a problem. Belle, who was their treasurer and therefore needed to be at this meeting, was not at this meeting. She was late and nobody knew where she was. And so after they sat in this office for a while, just waiting, they finally heard a knock on the door.
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Chapter 5: Did Belle really die in America?
And so one of the women got up, they opened up the door, and standing outside is Dr. Crippen's assistant, this young woman named Ethel. And she looked kind of frazzled and maybe a little bit out of breath, and she was carrying a letter and a package in her hands. And so Ethel would tell the woman who opened the door that she was here on behalf of Dr. Crippen and also Belle.
And so the woman who opened the door said, okay, come on in. And so Ethel walked into the office and she placed the letter and the package on the table. And then she quickly turned around and left. After she was gone, the guild members kind of looked at each other confused and then just reached out and they grabbed the letter. They opened it up and they read it.
And the letter was written by Dr. Crippen, and he was telling the members of this guild that unfortunately, one of Belle's family members back in America had fallen ill, and so Belle had to go back to America and take care of this person, and she'd be gone for at least several months.
And then when they opened up the package that Ethel had dropped off, that contained the guild's checkbook and also their ledger. That way, they'd be able to go out and find a new treasurer to replace Belle. And so when they had finished reading this letter and seeing the contents of this package, the members of this guild just kind of looked at each other, not really sure what to do.
You know, it seemed odd that Belle had not told them she was doing this, that she had left without saying goodbye. But at the same time, it seemed like whatever she was dealing with in America was very serious. And so they decided the only thing they could do was to just hire a temporary treasurer and wait for Belle to come back.
About three weeks later, Clara and the rest of the Ladies Guild members hosted their annual ball. And like always, they invited Belle as well as her husband, Dr. Crippen, even though they knew, you know, this invitation was kind of a formality because Belle was still in America. But Dr. Crippen would show up to this ball and he would not show up alone. And it caused a bit of an outrage.
On Dr. Crippen's arm was very obviously his date, Ethel, his assistant, the young woman who had dropped off that letter in the package to the members of the Guild about Belle's sudden departure. Clara stared incredulously at Dr. Crippen and Ethel as they kind of swayed around the room dancing. I mean, Clara just could not understand what was going through Dr. Crippen's head.
How could he possibly think it was appropriate to so openly cheat on his wife around all of his wife's friends and in such a public place? It just seemed unfathomable that anybody would do what Dr. Crippen was doing.
And so that night, Clara and the other members of the Ladies Guild, they got together and they decided that, you know, because of Dr. Crippen's obvious infidelity, they could not invite him to be a part of anything to do with the Ladies Guild, at least not until they talked to Belle again when she got back.
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