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Crippen Cache Mystery Cache

Hidden : 9/2/2011
Difficulty:
2 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size:   micro (micro)

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Geocache Description:




The cache is not at the listed coordinates.

The notorious Dr Crippen was hanged on 23rd November 1910
at Pentonville Prison in London for the murder of his wife.

Hawley Harvey Crippen


An American, Hawley Harvey Crippen graduated as a homeopathic doctor and practiced his profession at a pharmaceutical company in the United States. His first wife died in 1892 of a stroke, leaving a two year old son behind, who was left in the care of Crippen's parents.

Crippen married again, to Cora Turner, a music hall singer of eastern European descent and an overbearing woman of dubious morals. In 1900 the couple emigrated to England, but times there were hard because Crippen could not practice as a doctor as his medical qualifications were not recognised in that country.

Crippen sought solace for his various problems in the arms of another woman and started an affair with his secretary Ethel Neave. Eventually Cora became aware of her husband's infidelity and threatened to leave him and take everything.

This may have been the breaking point for Crippen, because, shortly after, Cora disappeared and was never seen again. Crippen claimed that she had returned to America and later stated that she had died and been cremated there. In the meantime, Ethel moved in with Crippen.

After friends of Cora reported her disappearance to the police, Crippen was interviewed and the house searched. Nothing incriminating was found at the house and the police were satisfied nothing was amiss. Unfortunately for Crippen, he wasn't aware of this and fled with his lover Ethel to Belgium and later, in disguise, boarded the liner SS Montrose bound for Canada.

Suspicious about Crippen's disappearance, the police searched his house again and this time found human remains under the basement floor. A warrant was issued for Crippen's arrest.

Back onboard the SS Montrose the sharp eyed captain was suspicious about the behaviour of two of his passengers and compared their features to pictures of Crippen and Neave he had seen in a newspaper. Convinced he had the fugitives on board, he used the ship's new wireless telegraphy equipment to send a message to the shipping company's London office about his suspicions and Scotland Yard were promptly informed. A police inspector was dispatched on the faster liner SS Laurentic and overtook Crippen mid-Atlantic to arrive in Québec before Crippen.

The police inspector boarded the SS Montrose at Québec City disguised as a pilot and once on board was introduced to Crippen, whereupon he revealed his true identity and arrested the fugitives.

Crippen was returned to England, tried for the murder of Cora Crippen by poisoning, found guilty and hanged.

This may have been the end of the story, but in that superstitious era some people believed that Crippen's evil continued after his death, when he exacted revenge for his arrest from beyond the grave in a most dramatic manner.

To find the location of this cache you need to determine the date on which Crippen purportedly enacted this revenge. The cache coordinates can be derived from this date by substituting the letters A-H in:

N45 AC.[A+D][E+G]G W075 H[F-G].ACF

with the numbers in the date using the key AB.CD.EFGH, the date is in the DD.MM.YYYY format.

Verify your solution at

Geochecker.com
.

The cache has been temporarily moved 5m east to keep it out of sight of the 'kids in the den', subtract 0.004 from the west minutes.

Tip: Approach the cache from the south.


Additional Hints (Decrypt)

[The cache has been temporarily moved, are you looking 5m to the east of the final coordinates?]

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)