on the night of January 31st 1910 an
American couple living in London named
Belle and Dr Harpy krippin 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 Wist which is a
card game when suddenly Belle put her
cards down and she stood up to tell a
story and Dr krippin 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 krippin 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 krippin 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 krippin
also Belle would basically spend all of
Dr crippin’s money on her very expensive
wardrobe and so Dr krippin is just so
annoyed he’s sitting on the couch and
he’s watching as ble 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 cl
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 ladyes
Guild and so Dr krippin 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 krippin is 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 krippin 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 crippin
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’d
go outside and get their guests a horse
and carriage to bring them back home and
so Dr krippin just kind of put his head
down and said okay and as he was walking
towards the front door to get the horse
in Carriage Belle yelled after him and
don’t get one of those cheap ones get an
expensive one a nice one Dr krippin 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
krippin 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 in 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 krippin
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 krippin
had turned back around Belle 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
krippin 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 krippin 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 mantle piece 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 prize fighter who again Dr
krippin 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 krippin 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
cuz she’s not getting a reaction from Dr
krippin 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 krippen just didn’t
react I mean this really was typical
behavior for his wife even this threat
of leaving him tomorrow you know she had
done this before but never followed
through on it it was just kind of like
Dr krippin was her punching bag
basically 24/7 and so for now all Dr
krippin really wanted was for 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
krippin 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 krippin 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 and so Dr krippin
said great I’ll go make it and he walked
over to the liquor cabinet and he poured
both of them a drink 2 Days Later the
members of the charity that Belle and
CLA the dinner guest were a part of the
musicall 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 and so one of the
women got up they opened up the door and
standing outside is Dr crippin’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 krippin 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 in 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 krippin and he was telling
the members of The 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 Bell 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 Bell to
come back about 3 weeks later Clara and
the rest of the ladies Guild members
hosted their annual ball and like always
they invited B b as well as her husband
Dr krippen even though they knew you
know this invitation was kind of a
formality because Bell was still in
America but Dr krippen would show up to
this ball and he would not show up alone
and it caused a bit of an outrage on Dr
crippin’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 krippen and
Ethel as they kind of swayed around the
room dancing I mean Clara just could not
understand what was going through Dr
crippin’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 krippin was
doing and so that night Clara and the
other members of the lady’s Guild they
got together and they decided that you
know know because of Dr crippin’s
obvious infidelity they could not invite
him to be a part of anything to do with
the lady guild at least not until they
talked to Belle again when she got back
but Belle didn’t come back and she never
wrote to any of the members of The Guild
or any of her friends she just
disappeared and on March 20th 1910 so
roughly 2 months after Belle supposedly
fled to America Dr krippin came out and
said he had just gotten some terrible
news it would turn out his wife Belle
had fallen ill while in America and she
had died when Clara and the rest of the
ladyes killed members heard about this
their disgust at Dr kin’s cheating
quickly turned into suspicion that maybe
he had something to do with Belle’s
early
demise as many of you may already know 2
years ago we launched the Mr Ballin
podcast and we actually launched it on
Valentine day 2022 which was not
intentional but we decided to just kind
of go with it and eventually we began
calling the release day Valentine’s Day
and last year to commemorate Valentine’s
Day I hosted a Live digital storytelling
event and it was totally awesome it was
very intimate and I got to meet a lot of
all you amazing fans of the strange dark
and mysterious and so for this year’s
Valentine’s Day we decided we would just
do that again we would host another Live
digital storytelling event the event is
totally free all you have to do is click
the link in the description to join the
official Mr Ballin Discord server and
then once you’re in there there’s all
these prompts that’ll get you all set up
and then on Valentine’s Day 2024 so
Wednesday February 14th at 700 p.m.
Eastern you will just click on the event
within Discord and boom I’ll pop up on
your screen and start telling you some
stories so again the ballentine’s day
Live digital storytelling event will
take place at 700 p.m. Eastern on
Wednesday February 14th only on the
official Mr Ballin Discord server oh and
one more thing before you go next week’s
YouTube video will have another big
announcement about ballentine’s day that
I’m pretty sure you’re all going to be
very happy to hear
[Music]
about so one of the members of this
Guild went to the police and reported
Bell missing however at first the police
were not inclined to pursue this case
because from their perspective there was
no evidence of a crime committed here
you know all they knew was this woman
Bell had died in America supposedly from
natural causes and so the only thing
that was contrary to that were Belle’s
friends who basically were saying well
you know maybe she was murdered by her
husband because her husband was cheating
on her and the police were like that
doesn’t line up just cuz he was cheating
on her does not mean he killed her but
Belle’s friends continued to keep the
pressure on police and finally after 3
months the police would assign a
detective his name was Walter du and
inspector du had been a detective for
more than 20 years and he had even
worked on the very famous serial killer
case Jack the Ripper and had been one of
the people who actually found the last
body although the Jack the Ripper case
had gone unsolved but coming out of that
investigation Walter du had really
developed a great reputation as a really
good detective and so to have him lead
this case was a big deal and so on the
afternoon of July 6th 1910 so roughly 5
months after Belle had gone missing
inspector du as one of his first things
he would do for this case went to Dr
kin’s House to ask him about his wife
now inspector du expected that Dr kin
would tell him the same story he had
told everybody else about Belle which is
you know she had to go to America to
take care of the sick relative and while
she was over there unfortunately Belle
passed away but but what Dr krippin
ultimately told inspector du was not
that now at first inspector du just
asked Dr krippin a lot of basic
questions about his wife but Dr krippin
seemed really awkward as he answered
these questions he actually almost
seemed really embarrassed and inspector
du clearly noticed this but just kept on
asking these routine questions and just
allowed Dr krippin to act however he was
going to act but at some point Dr
krippin just stopped answering the
questions all together and he paused for
a minute with his head in his hands and
then he took off his glasses he put them
on the table and then he looked up at
inspector du and he said you know I
should just tell you the truth Belle
isn’t dead Dr krippin told the inspector
that the day following that dinner party
they hosted with Paul and Clara that
that morning when Dr krippin woke up his
wife was gone and all her things were
gone too she had packed up in the middle
of the night and left without telling
him where she was going and so Dr
krippin realized his wife had finally
made good on the threat to leave him Dr
krippin said he lied about what happened
to Belle because he was trying to avoid
a scandal he said that you know while
Belle was horrible to him personally and
really mistreated him she was really
kind of amazing with everybody else and
everybody else loved her and so Dr
krippin really believed that lying about
this would ultimately save her
reputation and his own so it was a
win-win and once Dr krippin was
relatively Belle was not going to be
coming back that she really had left him
for good that was when he began openly
dating Ethel because he had actually
been in love with his assistant Ethel
for a long time and he felt like now
with his wife out of the picture he
could finally love her out in the open
even though he admitted you know nobody
would actually understand the dynamic
here because everybody else thinks Belle
is over in America and here I am
cheating on her but you know Dr krippin
insisted to the inspector that this was
the truth truth he was not cheating on
Bell he didn’t have anything to do with
her disappearance she left of her own
accord and here he was and so after Dr
krippen explained all this to the
inspector Dr krippin just put his face
in his hands and just looked so ashamed
and embarrassed to the point where
inspector du really believed Dr krippin
I mean this is a guy who has just poured
his soul out about some of the most
embarrassing things of his entire life
so he’s got to be telling the truth also
inspector du couldn’t help but think to
himself that Dr krippin was this little
kind of passive seeming guy who did not
really seem capable of killing somebody
else but at the same time inspector du
could definitely see a woman like Belle
leaving Dr krippin the way that she did
still just to be thorough inspector du
asked Dr krippen if he wouldn’t mind
allowing the inspector to search the
property because after all this is a
missing person case and so we got to
check everything Dr krippin said
absolutely search my house do whatever
ever you got to do and inspector du
would do just that he went all over the
house looked everywhere and he would
find nothing so the inspector told Dr
krippin that as of now he believed his
story and that basically the case was
closed but inspector du really needed to
talk to Bell in order to officially
close the case because right now
everybody thought she was dead no one
had heard from her and so that was the
one missing piece and so Dr krippin said
that was totally fine and he and the
inspector actually worked together to
draft up this little advertisement that
would go in newspapers in America that
basically would say hey Belle if you see
this you need to contact police in
London because we’re looking for you and
so after the two men had come up with
the language they wanted for this
advertisement inspector du thanked Dr
krippin said he’d be in touch and then
he left but 5 days later when inspector
du went to follow up with Dr krippin he
discovered that Dr krippin and his new
lover Ethel his assistant were both gone
and nobody knew where they were and this
changed everything about the Bell case
inspector du couldn’t help but think you
know Dr krippin and Ethel look like
they’re running from something so
probably they lied to me about their
involvement with Belle’s disappearance
and so inspector du sent physical
descriptions to all the newspapers and
police stations all across Europe and
also he made a note to check all the
ships that were Bound for America in
case Dr krippin and Ethel had decided to
flee Europe that way and while this big
Manhunt was just getting underway
inspector du and his team went back to
Dr crippin’s house to do a much more
thorough search so police descended on
Dr crippin’s beautiful three-story home
on a quiet street and they went inside
and they tore apart everything they
flipped over mattresses they opened up
drawers and closets they threw
everything out but they found nothing
suspicious but at some point inspector
du who was feeling really annoyed that
he’d been totally duped by by this
doctor you know he was walking down the
basement steps in Dr crippin’s house and
as he went down he saw there were other
investigators already in the basement
conducting yet another fruitless search
but as Inspector du kind of turned the
corner at the base of the basement
stairs he noticed the bricks that were
laying in front of the fireplace that
was in the basement just looked a little
bit off like they were maybe too new or
something and so just kind of acting on
a hunch he walked over to these bricks
that were laid out right in front of
this fireplace and he’s looking at them
and he grabs a poker one of the pokers
he used to move the logs around in a
fire and he just began tapping on each
of the individual bricks right in front
of them and with every tap he would hear
the solid thump sound that you’re
hitting something hard that is beneath
this brick but as he went along hitting
each of these bricks he eventually
reached the kind of center of these
bricks and when he brought that poker
down on one of those bricks it made a
hollow sound clearly there was something
underneath these bricks and so inspector
du is super excited he calls for his
team to come over and one by one they
begin pulling up all these bricks and
after they’re all gone they see there’s
this perfectly smooth layer of clay that
these bricks were sitting on top of and
so inspector du called for a shovel a
guy brought one over and do he took one
scoop with the shovel and immediately
this horrible smell began coming out of
the ground that was so gross that the
guys around and Spector du began
wretching and vomiting and before long
the entire group of investigators had
basically fled the basement to get away
from this horrible smell but after
composing themselves inspector du and
the rest of his team put handkerchiefs
over their nose and their mouths and
they went back into the house down into
the basement they grabbed that shovel
and they continued to dig and after just
a couple of Scoops they saw what was
causing this terrible smell in this Clay
Pit this hole in the basement underneath
the bricks were all these human body
parts in the ground but there were no
arms there were no legs there was no
head all you had were just the internal
organs of somebody and then also there
was like a blanket of skin that looked
like it had been extracted from
somebody’s body with near surgical
Precision now the police could not based
on these limited remains make an actual
positive identification of who exactly
this was
but they did find in this pit along with
the organs and the skin were several
strands of hair that matched Bells there
were several pieces of pajamas that
belonged to Dr krippin and then also on
that skin filet they found there was a
distinctive birth mark on it that
matched the one that Belle had also
investigators were able to determine
that inside of the intestines that were
found in this hole were traces of a
particular kind of tranquilizer that in
the weeks leading up to Bell’s
disappearance Dr krippin was making that
particular tranquilizer at his work he
mixed medicines for dentist offices that
was the tranquilizer he was working with
right before Bell disappeared shortly
after these shocking discoveries were
made Dr krippin and Ethel were found on
a boat trying to flee the country that
way and so they would be arrested and so
ultimately Dr krippin would be found
guilty of murdering his wife and he
would be sentenced to death as for Ethel
she would be acquitted of any
participation in the crime however this
was not the end of the story far from it
100 years later in 2010 a forensic
scientist from Michigan State University
fished out a piece of tissue from the
remains found in Dr kin’s basement that
had been preserved inside of a London
Museum now this murder case had been
officially closed since 1910 but the
bizarre details of this case had never
really fully made sense to a lot of
people people like they didn’t
understand how or why Dr krippin had
successfully disposed of his wife’s head
her arms her legs all her bones those
are all gone nobody ever found those but
he decided to keep her organs and her
skin buried in his basement under loose
bricks that doesn’t make any sense also
if Dr krippin killed his wife by
poisoning her which is what is suggested
from all that tranquilizer that was
found in her intestines that basically
he overd her then why did he dismember
her afterwards the reason Killers often
kill with poison is because it makes the
victim’s death look a bit more natural
whereas if you mutilate someone’s body
then obviously someone did it and you’re
calling suspicion on yourself and so did
Dr krippin poison his wife and then just
throw that out the window and mutilated
her body anyways it just didn’t make
sense so this forensic scientist from
Michigan State University decided he was
finally going to get some answers to
this case and so what he did is he
compared the DNA from the tissue he dug
out to the DNA of one of Bell’s Grand
nieces and when he compared the two he
saw they didn’t match which meant the
body that was found in Dr crippin’s
basement was not Bells but that wasn’t
even the weirdest part it was determined
following this test by this forensic
scientist that the body in Dr crippin’s
basement wasn’t even female it was a
male but to this day no one has ever
been able to identify who that body was
and Belle was never found all we know is
an innocent man Dr krippin was put to
death for something he didn’t
do in February of 2000 a police officer
in a small Missouri Town stepped into an
apartment where a man had just taken his
own life now this police officer felt
bad for the guy but at the same time
time when he walked inside the apartment
he fully expected this to be a pretty
straightforward and easy case man
commits suicide the end however after
walking over to the body the officer
spotted something odd laying on the
ground near the dead man’s head it was a
book and it was opened to a page with
writing on it so the officer knelt down
and read what was on the page and it
sent shivers down his spine clearly this
writing was meant to be found but before
the offic could flag this to anyone at
the scene another Discovery was made a
videotape was found in the dead man’s
trash can and when the police watched
that video they were not prepared for
what they
saw