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Brides in the Bath · 10 Minute Murder | Bingeable True Crime Stories

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  Discretion is advised. This is ten minuted murder. The concept of nature versus
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  nurture is one that has been debated for years. Are people taught to be
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  evil or are they born that way? George Joseph Smith was born on January
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  eleventh, eighteen seventy two, in London. At nine years old, he
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  was sent to a reformatory for his behavior. After his release from the reformatory,
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  he was in and out of prison during his adolescent years for theft and
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  larceny. In eighteen ninety eight, Smith married Catherine Thornhill, and his marriage
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  to Catherine was his only legal marriage, despite the fact that he would go
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  on to marry many many more women. Smith taught Katherine into working as a
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  maid for wealthy families and stealing just enough so that her employers wouldn't notice anything
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  was missing. They managed to make their scheme work for a few months before
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  she was caught. She served twelve months for her crimes, but didn't take
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  the fall alone. She turned in her husband as her accomplice and the mastermind.
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  He spent two years in prison and was released in nineteen oh one.
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  After Catherine was released, she moved to Canada. However, there was a
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  stint of time between when Catherine was arrested and Smith was imprisoned, and during
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  that time Smith met a new woman. In eighteen ninety nine, he used
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  a fake name and married a woman that he met in London, although her
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  name is not on the records. Even though he spent two years in prison,
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  that wife waited for him to be released. Upon his release, he
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  returned to her. Unfortunately, he only went back long enough to clear out
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  her bank accounts and then disappeared from her life. The next phase of his
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  criminal career started in June of nineteen oh eight. Smith married a wealthy widow
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  named Florence Wilson under another alias. After gaining Florence's trust, he cleared out
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  her savings and disappeared. By July of nineteen oh eight, he had already
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  found his next bride. He married Edith Pegler and actually used his real name
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  this time. Although he seemed to be happy with Edith, Smith relied on
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  the system that he'd created for income, so in October of nineteen oh nine,
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  using the name George Rose, he married Sarah Freeman. Six days after
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  getting married, he stole all of Sarah's money and returned to Edith. Smith
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  took another trip without Edith in August of nineteen ten, and he used the
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  name Henry Williams, Mary Beatrice or Bessie Monday. Bessie had a rather large
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  trust, but she couldn't access it. Smith took what he could from her
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  bank accounts and returned once again to Edith. Together, they bought an antique
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  business. Not only did it provide some legal income, but it gave Smith
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  a legitimate explanation for his frequent trips. He would tell Edith that he needed
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  to travel around the world to make business deals with other antique dealers, and
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  George Joseph Smith must have been a pretty smooth talker because he convinced Bessie to
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  take him back in May of nineteen twelve. And not only did she take
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  him back, but she had created a will making him the sole beneficiary.
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  She was worth in today's dollars about one hundred eighty thousand. She created that
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  will on July eighth. Smith bought a bathtub for their place on July ninth
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  and had it installed. Then on July thirteenth, Bessie died while taking a
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  bath in that bathtub. Quick to recover from the loss of that wife.
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  Smith married Alice Burnham in nineteen thirteen. Maybe receiving the money from the will
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  after Bessie's death made him realize that there was a faster way to make a
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  lot more money. Shortly after his marriage to Alice, he took out a
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  life insurance policy on her. Two months after the policy was signed, Alice
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  died while taking a bath. Smith cashed in on the policy, which was
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  the equivalent of forty five thousand dollars today. Not one to be alone for
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  very long, Smith used the name John Lloyd and married Margaret Elizabeth Lofty in
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  nineteen fourteen. They looked at a couple of places and then they found one
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  that they wanted to rent. Smith took out a life insurance policy and Margaret
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  for what would today be sixty three thousand dollars. Two weeks later, she
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  died while taking a bath. A paper named News of the World picked up
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  on the story of Margaret Lofty and ran a report about the woman that died
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  mysteriously in her tub. Soon after, Inspector Arthur Neil of the Scotland Yard
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  found a letter on the desk of Joseph Crossley, and Crossley was a landlord
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  from Blackpool. His letter contained two clippings. One was an article from the
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  News of the World about Margaret's death. The other was a coroner's inquest into
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  the death of Alice Burnham. Crossley owned the house where Alice died. He
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  noticed that there were several similarities between the deaths. Intrigued by the letter,
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  Neil started to look into the cases. He talked to the responding officer at
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  Alice's case. The officer said that he found it odd that the husband didn't
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  seem very upset about finding his wife dead in the bathtub. He also said
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  that the tub was pretty small for a woman to accidentally drown in it.
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  He talked to Crossley, who said that not only did Smith not seem upset,
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  he said quote when they are dead, they are dead, as if
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  it was just a matter of fact. Even though Smith had received money after
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  Alice's death, he spent as little on the burial as he possibly could,
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  placing her in a common grave. Neil also looked into Margaret Lofty's case.
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  She had married John Lloyd the day before she died. He had talked to
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  several of the local landlords and found out the soon to be husband. At
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  that time was only interested in apartments that had bathtubs. John Lloyd had also
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  complained about the cost of Margaret's burial and went with the cheapest options available.
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  Neil had a feeling that the crimes were connected, but he needed to find
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  proof. On February first, nineteen fifteen, Neil located John Lloyd on the
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  way to collect life insurance money for Margaret. He took him into custody for
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  questioning. Lloyd admitted that his real name was George Smith. That was the
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  name of Alice Burnham's husband. Now Neil could connect Smith to both women.
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  Smith maintained the story that he was in fact married to both women, but
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  just an unlucky widower. Neil was able to charge Smith with making a false
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  entry of marriage since he had used a fake name when he married Margaret.
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  With Smith in custody, Neil continued to look for more evidence to charge him
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  with the other crimes. He read over the original coroner's reports, and they
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  both stated accidental deaths. It was also noted that the husband claimed that the
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  women felt unwell. Shortly before the deaths. Neil had Margaret's body exhumed for
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  another autopsy. He thought perhaps the women had been poisoned. Before entering the
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  bath, he looked for the best pathologists in England to examine the body.
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  He found a man named Bernard Spillsbury. Spillsbury also wanted to exume Alice's body.
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  They even brought in the bathtubs to examine. Eventually, they learned about
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  Bessie and exhumed her as well. After examining all of the bodies, Spillsbury
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  found no signs of poison or any other foul play, although that also ruled
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  out the theory the women had seizures or fainted. Since there were no signs
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  of bruising from a fall, Spillsbury developed the theory that Smith would grab the
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  women's ankles and yank them under so fast that the water would flood their mouths
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  and nostrils. They wouldn't immediately be able to respond due to the shock from
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  the sudden intake of water, and lose consciousness in a matter of minutes,
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  ultimately leading to death by drowning. To prove Spillsbury's theory was possible, Neil
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  had a female swimmer come in and lay in one of the bathtubs. He
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  tested the theory by yanking her ankles and pulling her under. Within minutes,
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  there was no movement and she appeared to be unconscious. They immediately pulled her
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  limp body out of the tub. It took almost half an hour to resuscitate
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  her. The unorthodox experiment had proven the theory could hold up in court,
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  but it was also a horrifying experience for those involved because they thought they had
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  just killed this woman that volunteered to take part in this experiment. After recovering,
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  the experienced swimmer said she felt the water rushing up her nostrils and didn't
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  remember anything else until she woke up and saw anxious faces standing over her.
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  Neil realized that Smith had married three women, moved them to places where no
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  one knew them, and then would take them to a doctor to make it
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  seem like they had a history of headaches or fainting. All three women listed
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  him as sole beneficiary on a will or life insurance policy, and he was
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  the one to find them all dead. Neil believed that Smith had murdered his
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  wives and that he could now convince a jury how he did it. The
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  trial for murderers started on June twenty second, nineteen fifteen. George Smith was
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  convicted by a jury and sentenced to death on July first. On August thirteenth,
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  the forty three year old was hung at the Maidstone Prison. His trial
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  was one of the earliest instances where the idea of a systematic killer had been
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  allowed to be discussed in court. The press called the crimes Brides in the
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  Bath. The case cemented Spillsbury's reputation as one of Britain's greatest pathologists, and
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  Neil became one of the most famous detectives in Scotland. Yard George Smith is
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  remembered as a vicious predator of women. He quickly gained their trust, and
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  just as fast he took their fortunes and sometimes their lives. He married at
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  least eight women, but only the first was a legal marriage. The only
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  marriage that seemed to matter to him was the one to Edith. He actually
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  wrote Edith a letter write before his hanging, even though she testified in court
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  against him. She testified to how often he was away but always came back
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  with plenty of money. Maybe George Smith actually cared for Edith in some twisted
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  way. She said. He once told her to be very careful while taking
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  a bath. Women often lost their lives from fainting while in the bathtub.
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  That is ten Minute Murder for Today Brief and Bingeable true Crime. My name
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  is Joe. I'm the host, and thank you so much for listening.
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  If you're new, welcome, make sure you subscribe before you go, and
• 11:20
  also connect with ten Minute Murder on social media Facebook, Instagram, TikTok,
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  Twitter, I mean, I say Twitter, it is it even it's not
• 11:28
  called Twitter now, whatever it's called. You can follow there if you want,
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  but I don't really do anything active over there. It's just stuff that
• 11:37
  gets pushed from the other social media accounts. So if you're trying to reach
• 11:39
  me and you're trying to do it through Twitter, I got bad news for
• 11:43
  you. I'm not seeing that. The main ones to follow Facebook, Instagram,
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  and TikTok. And speaking of TikTok, that's where the place where you
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  can watch my newest favorite thing on the internet videos of people going to these
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  restaurants where the whole concept to be rude to the customers, like they roast
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  the heck out of you. Dick's Last Resort is one of them, and
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  then there's another one named Karen's Diner. And I've been to Dick's last resort
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  once and it was something listen, these people that walk in expecting Applebee's are
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  Chili's or whatever, and they are immediately roasted. I can't get enough of
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  it. It's so funny to me, especially if it's like an older lady,
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  and usually without fail, her mouth will just drop open. She cannot
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  believe that she's being talked to in the way that she's being talked to,
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  and they get like straws thrown out them or paper towels. It is the
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  funniest thing to me. I can't get enough of it. And if you're
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  thinking right now, it might be kind of funny to take me mall to
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  the dick's last resort without her knowing what it is and record the react.
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  Yes, do that? Police do that. There aren't enough of them on
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  the internet. I need to see more of it. I think I've watched
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  everyone that exists, so please, we need more of those videos. All
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  right, that's gonna do it. That is your episode for today. Thank
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  you so much for listening to ten in its murdering