BBC Radio 4 Audio of 5 minutes is embedded.

Hawley Crippen, the doctor hanged for the gruesome murder of his wife Cora, is one of the most infamous killers in British history. Exactly 100 years after his arrest, why is there a campaign to prove his innocence, asks Stephen Tomkins?

Having the surname Crippen does not endear you to UK Customs, according to a distant relative of the infamous doctor convicted of killing his wife.

James Patrick Crippen of Ohio, second cousin three times removed of Dr Hawley Crippen, hopes to officially exonerate the black sheep of the family and bring his remains to the family plot in Michigan for a decent burial.

"The evidence says the man should be pardoned," he says. "But everyone thinks of him as a murderer. Every time I have come through customs to England, someone has made a comment on my name, linking me to a murderer."