Mums Mysteries & Murder · Marti & Cheryl

The Salisbury Crags Murder

·52 min·3 clips

Police found life insurance receipts, and Ernest had already tried to claim the policy on the morning Helga died.

1. Mums Mysteries & Murder covers The Salisbury Crags Murder, an Edinburgh case set around Salisbury Crags and Arthur’s Seat. 2. Marty tells the story, Effie reacts to the details, and Erin the editor is named as the person who suggested the case. 3. The episode asks how Ernest Dumoulin and Helga Conragh went from a Lonely Hearts advert to a death at Salisbury Crags. 4. Ernest is described as a 23-year-old trainee bank assistant who had been called a “Dutch conman” and a failed financial advisor. 5. Helga Conragh is introduced as an 18-year-old German woman from a sheltered farm life. 6. Ernest wrote to Helga after placing a Lonely Hearts advert, and the two exchanged letters before he visited her family farm in July 1972. 7. Helga’s father refused an immediate marriage proposal and asked the pair to wait until Christmas. 8. Ernest returned in September with a red Fiat bought by cheque, and the cheque bounced because he did not have enough funds. 9. Helga left with Ernest after taking out her life savings of £65, and they travelled through France and London before arriving in Edinburgh. 10. The pair stayed at a guest house on Turfican Street run by Herbert Wood, who later became important to the investigation. 11. Ernest paid three weeks’ rent in advance, deposited £250 in the Bank of Nova Scotia on Prince’s Street, and obtained £10,000 credit that let him take out insurance policies in Helga’s name. 12. Ernest and Helga married at Edinburgh’s Registrar’s office on Friday the 13th of October, and Herbert Wood and his wife acted as witnesses. 13. After the wedding they went for dinner on Shandwick Place and then returned to their rooms, according to the account given by Herbert and his wife. 14. On the early morning of 14 October, a merchant seaman found Helga’s body at the foot of Salisbury Crags and contacted police. 15. Ernest told police that the couple had gone up for a walk to see the city, and that Helga stumbled and fell to her death. 16. Police noted that Ernest was covered in mud, had bandaged his own arm, and acted strangely enough to keep drawing attention. 17. The police later found life-insurance receipts in the guest-house room, and the insurer said Ernest had already tried to claim the policy on the morning Helga died. 18. At the 1973 Edinburgh High Court trial, forensic evidence suggested Helga had been pushed with considerable force, and Ernest was eventually found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment. 19. The tone is conversational and anecdotal, with Marty and Effie interrupting each other and explaining Edinburgh locations like Salisbury Crags, Arthur’s Seat, and the Royal Mile. 20. Listeners who like Scottish true crime with location detail will enjoy this; listeners wanting a tightly factual, fast-paced case may skip it.

As heard by us

A rushed courtship, a refused proposal, and a bounced-cheque red Fiat give this true-crime episode its uneasy shape.

The Salisbury Crags Murder finds its first charge of unease in Ernest and Helga's rushed courtship. In July 1972, after only three weeks together, Ernest turns up at Helga's family farm to ask her father for permission to marry her.

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Why you'd press play

Press play when a three-week proposal and a red Fiat already feel like trouble.

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