Latest / Who Did What Now With Katie Charlwood / 59. The Brides in the Bath Murders

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59. The Brides in the Bath Murders · Who Did What Now With Katie Charlwood

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Speaker 1: You're listening to an airwave media podcast. Hi everybody, and
0:18
Speaker 1: welcome to HOODD What now the history podcast that's not
0:21
Speaker 1: your history class with me? Your host Katy Charlwood, history
0:25
Speaker 1: harlot and reader of books. So I guess the cats
0:30
Speaker 1: out of the bag. I don't know why I felt
0:33
Speaker 1: the need to sing that, but we're just going to
0:34
Speaker 1: accept that it happened. Everybody, good, Good. So I'm going
0:40
Speaker 1: to Kansas. I will allow you to make your total jokes. Now, Yes,
0:47
Speaker 1: well I wear Gingham quite probably because I'll think it's funny.
0:52
Speaker 1: No one else will, but I will, and that's the
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Speaker 1: important thing. So yes, I am going to be in
0:58
Speaker 1: Kansas at the end of May. I think it's Memorial weekend,
1:03
Speaker 1: Memorial Day weekend. You have a lot of weekends America.
1:08
Speaker 1: I'm doing the best I can, right, So yeah, I'm
1:11
Speaker 1: going to be there for the Heartland Pagan Festival twenty
1:14
Speaker 1: twenty three into the Night and I am and so
1:21
Speaker 1: I'm going to be doing a talk with a Q
1:23
Speaker 1: and A three workshops and there's going to be a
1:27
Speaker 1: live podcast recording. Now, this is a family friendly festival,
1:33
Speaker 1: so I'm going to have to choose my words incredibly carefully.
1:37
Speaker 1: That being said, if you're coming to the live podcast
1:41
Speaker 1: recording and you're bringing somebody who's you know, sensitive to language,
1:46
Speaker 1: just cover the ears when I say fuck that for
1:49
Speaker 1: a game of soldiers, because it's gonna happen. Like, I'm
1:51
Speaker 1: gonna do my best, but there's probably going to be
1:53
Speaker 1: at least three F bombs happening. I will try to
1:57
Speaker 1: replace them with other words like fluff or four work
2:00
Speaker 1: or fudge or frick or phantasmagorium, all my best, but
2:07
Speaker 1: yet so one talk on the history of witchcraft and
2:12
Speaker 1: mysticism throughout human evolution, and there's gonna be a Q
2:16
Speaker 1: and A on that, so I'm prepared. And then I
2:20
Speaker 1: have three workshops. These are going to be the Victorians
2:24
Speaker 1: Ruined Everything, a nineteenth century Guide to Mystics, and more.
2:29
Speaker 1: The next workshop is the Old Gods and the New
2:33
Speaker 1: Ethnic Cleansing and the pagan Revival, and the last workshop
2:38
Speaker 1: is Paganism and the patriarchy over five centuries of demonizing women. Then,
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Speaker 1: of course there's the live podcast recording, which I'm not
2:49
Speaker 1: going to tell you what it's about because I might
2:53
Speaker 1: have a better idea of what I want to cover
2:56
Speaker 1: by then because I want to stay on theme, obviously,
3:00
Speaker 1: and so we're gonna We're gonna work towards that and
3:04
Speaker 1: hope for the best. I'm going to be very tired
3:08
Speaker 1: and I'm probably going to become very hoarse by the
3:11
Speaker 1: last day. I think I'm there for the majority of
3:14
Speaker 1: the festival, but I'm just not there for the last
3:17
Speaker 1: ish day, just because I have to physically travel home
3:22
Speaker 1: and I lose a day traveling back. So I'm gonna
3:26
Speaker 1: be there for like ninety eight percent of this. I
3:30
Speaker 1: think I said on the last episode, I don't remember.
3:33
Speaker 1: I was very tired. I rarely remember anything I say.
3:37
Speaker 1: Actually it's it's I'm amazed when I remember anything. Like
3:41
Speaker 1: I get friends who message me things I've said, and
3:45
Speaker 1: I'm like, that's funny. Who said that? You you dick? Cool? Yep,
3:53
Speaker 1: thanks sounds a bit right. But yeah, I I'm in
3:57
Speaker 1: New Jersey for a couple of days, gonna see some people.
4:00
Speaker 1: I've got some stuff planned and I might I don't
4:04
Speaker 1: even know if i'll see in New York, like I'm
4:06
Speaker 1: so m I guess I'll find out. But if anybody
4:10
Speaker 1: has any recommendations for like good places to eat or
4:13
Speaker 1: like what what's good to eat over there, Like, I'm
4:17
Speaker 1: not touching any of your chocolate. I know it's not great,
4:21
Speaker 1: and I'm staying the fuck away from like corn syrup
4:24
Speaker 1: based goods. But I say that because corncerpts and everything.
4:28
Speaker 1: But like I've had like corn syrup sweets like Swedish fish.
4:34
Speaker 1: They're not pleasant. I don't enjoy them. You give me
4:37
Speaker 1: some cheetos, though I might devour those. I like potato chips.
4:46
Speaker 1: Why did I sound like Goofy from like Disney. Oh dear,
4:51
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, Oh my goodness. Actually, so I had
4:54
Speaker 1: to go buy some cards today just because I did.
4:58
Speaker 1: And I'm in the card shop and I pick up
5:00
Speaker 1: a condolence card and a Valentine's card and as I
5:06
Speaker 1: hand them over to the cashier, he kind of pauses
5:11
Speaker 1: and looks at them funny and kind of glances at me,
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Speaker 1: and me being me, I'm like, I look this poor
5:17
Speaker 1: boy dead in the eye and say, always good to
5:21
Speaker 1: be prepared. See. This is why I'm single. This is why,
5:27
Speaker 1: because I can't have normal conversations with people. The Valentine's
5:32
Speaker 1: card is to my friend, and I'm so happy. It's
5:35
Speaker 1: the funniest card. It's got chicken nuggets on because it's
5:42
Speaker 1: like and it's like, you're like chicken nuggets because you
5:46
Speaker 1: make me happy. And I'm like, that's perfect and I'm
5:49
Speaker 1: gonna send that because my friend deserves all the love,
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Speaker 1: all the love, all of it in all of its
5:56
Speaker 1: forms and as many ways that she can accept it,
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Speaker 1: Like that is what she does everything. What was it?
6:03
Speaker 1: Victor Hugo was like, I wish for this perfulness, for
6:06
Speaker 1: the extravagant, for the too much. She deserves the too
6:10
Speaker 1: much because she's just awesome. OMG. Actually, yeah, I'm also
6:18
Speaker 1: a terrible, terrible. I'm a great friend, but I'm a
6:20
Speaker 1: terrible friend. So two of my friends that didn't know
6:25
Speaker 1: each other previously they connected and as far as I know,
6:30
Speaker 1: there's nothing non platonic going on, but either way, I
6:35
Speaker 1: uh so I messaged one friend and I'm like, well,
6:42
Speaker 1: mister X, Like I straight up texted him like what
6:47
Speaker 1: exactly are your intentions with my best giral the apple
6:50
Speaker 1: of my eye, my ride or die? And he was like,
6:55
Speaker 1: my intentions are pure honest. Oh my god. No, I
7:01
Speaker 1: was just like I found it really funny. I don't care.
7:08
Speaker 1: They can bone if they won't, but like it was
7:11
Speaker 1: just the funniest thing. I was like, no, I'm running
7:14
Speaker 1: with this. This is hilarious. And also she is my
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Speaker 1: best girl, and I will straight up stab anybody who
7:20
Speaker 1: upsets her. Okay, that is how things are. That is
7:23
Speaker 1: my best day. I will break every single bone in
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Speaker 1: your body. I will snap you like a twig, and
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Speaker 1: then and then, while you were still living, I will
7:34
Speaker 1: bury you alive. And the last thing you will see
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Speaker 1: is my smirking grin above your face as you slowly suffocate.
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Speaker 1: But anyway, she's my gal. Love her so much. That
7:48
Speaker 1: good A bit dark, didn't it. No, we don't. We
7:51
Speaker 1: don't miss with my best day. Okay, I think we've
7:56
Speaker 1: learned that lesson. Okay, good talk. Anyway, I know what
8:00
Speaker 1: you're thinking. You're thinking, quit your jibber jabber in fact me,
8:03
Speaker 1: in fact you I will. But first we've got to
8:07
Speaker 1: get our source on. Our sources are Lord Darling's Famous
8:13
Speaker 1: Cases by Dudley Barker, The Trial of George Joseph Smith
8:20
Speaker 1: by Eric R. Watson, Death under the Microscope by Harold Diarden,
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Speaker 1: The Magnificent Spillsbury, and the Case of the Braids in
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Speaker 1: the Bath by Jane Robbins. And we have the braids
8:36
Speaker 1: in the bath case by the what we're observer, I
8:40
Speaker 1: use it incomfortably good. Then let's begin, because it is
8:46
Speaker 1: historical true crime time. So I've been wanting to talk
8:49
Speaker 1: about this for a long time because you know, I
8:52
Speaker 1: love my crime historical. The older, the better, you know.
8:57
Speaker 1: And I actually didn't realize that I had heard about
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Speaker 1: this case much earlier than I thought I did, because
9:04
Speaker 1: I thought i'd only like read up in it like
9:06
Speaker 1: a few years ago, but I had actually been informed
9:09
Speaker 1: of it at least ten years ago because I was
9:14
Speaker 1: getting ready for I think college one morning and my
9:17
Speaker 1: dad came in from night shift and we would just
9:20
Speaker 1: you know, chat, and for some reason, he was telling
9:24
Speaker 1: me about the modus operandi, the manner in which they
9:27
Speaker 1: believed the mortis occurred. For some reason, this was my
9:31
Speaker 1: breakfast and his dinner conversation. And yeah, I was going
9:38
Speaker 1: through like my notes the other day and I was thinking,
9:40
Speaker 1: wait a minute, why do I know this? Like why
9:43
Speaker 1: does this death sound so familiar? And then I was like,
9:45
Speaker 1: you motherfucker Steven. Steven. That being said, this is the
9:51
Speaker 1: man who buys me historical crime books whenever he's on
9:55
Speaker 1: trips away and has taken me on walking tours for
10:00
Speaker 1: like Jack the Ripper and other shit. So yeah, we
10:03
Speaker 1: shouldn't be surprised. But yes, let's talk about the brides
10:10
Speaker 1: and the Bath murders. And I'm actually going to start
10:14
Speaker 1: this story in Bath, the town of the town of
10:19
Speaker 1: Bath in England in nineteen fourteen December. So the First
10:26
Speaker 1: World War is happening like context, you know, some people
10:32
Speaker 1: are awayfighting. They they thought it was only going to
10:36
Speaker 1: last a couple months. They were wrong. On December seventeenth,
10:41
Speaker 1: nineteen fourteen, in the city slash town of Bath in England.
10:47
Speaker 1: Is it a city, I've always called it a town.
10:49
Speaker 1: I don't maybe I'm incorrect anyway. In this tranquil seaside town,
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Speaker 1: estate agent John Lloyd, Mary's margaret Elizabeth Lofty. So they
11:03
Speaker 1: get married and they decide they're going to honeymoon in London,
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Speaker 1: which sounds super fun. I'm sure the newlyweds, fresh in
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Speaker 1: their marital bliss, scoot off to Highgate in London where
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Speaker 1: they stay in a lodging house on fourteen Bismarck Road.
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Speaker 1: So these newly weeds, they are in the hustle and
11:27
Speaker 1: bustle and city of London for their honeymoon. So you
11:31
Speaker 1: know what they do. They cross their t's and dot
11:34
Speaker 1: their eyes and they head off to a solicitor in
11:38
Speaker 1: Islington because they want to make sure they've got everything.
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Speaker 1: You know, everything's above board, everything's going well for them.
11:45
Speaker 1: They go and visit a solicitor in Islington and they
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Speaker 1: both work out their will and testaments, you know, lest
11:53
Speaker 1: anything happen to one another. And after paper is signed,
11:58
Speaker 1: the ink is dry, they head back to the boarding
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Speaker 1: house for some fun time. Then I assume, you know,
12:06
Speaker 1: the newly married couple were doing. I mean, let's face it,
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Speaker 1: mister and missus Lloyd have had a trying couple of days.
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Speaker 1: They've gotten married, They've sorted out their will and testaments.
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Speaker 1: It's just a lot, you know. So she really just
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Speaker 1: needs to relax and I have a good soak and
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Speaker 1: a bath, you know what I mean, just chill out.
12:29
Speaker 1: So she goes for a bath and he decides to
12:32
Speaker 1: play the organ, not his organ, but the organ. I mean,
12:38
Speaker 1: that's exactly the sounds you want to hear when you're
12:41
Speaker 1: trying to have a lovely, relaxing bath. Christian hymns Yay.
12:48
Speaker 1: So after having a week ag on his organ, he
12:50
Speaker 1: pops down to see the landlady and tells her he's
12:52
Speaker 1: off to get some tomatoes for his wife's supper. So
12:56
Speaker 1: he leaves and he comes back shortly after, and he
13:00
Speaker 1: has to bring the bell, so he's supposed to have
13:03
Speaker 1: a key, but he's ringing the bell to be let in,
13:07
Speaker 1: and so the landlady lets him in and he calls
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Speaker 1: out to his wife but there's no answer. So he
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Speaker 1: makes a big show and he goes up the stairs,
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Speaker 1: enters the bathroom and gasp, shock hommer. What does he
13:21
Speaker 1: find but the lifeless body of his new bread laying
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Speaker 1: in the bath unresponsive. So there's an inquest because of
13:32
Speaker 1: the insurance policy. So the widow, John Lloyd, he cannot
13:38
Speaker 1: receive any benefits. He can't receive any of the funds
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Speaker 1: from his late wife's will without the inquest. I mean
13:46
Speaker 1: it's a formality really, They just need to roll out,
13:48
Speaker 1: like foul play and other things of that nature. So
13:53
Speaker 1: the inquest is supposed to happen fairly quickly, but due
13:58
Speaker 1: to one of the people involved, be Ill, one of
14:00
Speaker 1: the sort of juror people, it gets delayed for a
14:03
Speaker 1: little bit and doesn't happen till the first of January
14:05
Speaker 1: twenty fifteen. So it gets rolled in accidental death and
14:10
Speaker 1: the funeral happens quickly thereafter. So the funeral, it's it's
14:16
Speaker 1: basically a Popper's funeral. It's there's no show, there's no nothing,
14:20
Speaker 1: there's no like reverence. It's very much here. You go,
14:24
Speaker 1: say a prayer, put on the ground. Idiots like quickly
14:28
Speaker 1: and like when the funeral's over. He actually, you know,
14:30
Speaker 1: audibly says thank goodness, that's over. I mean, I mean, mmmm,
14:37
Speaker 1: that's I mean, I don't want to speak out of
14:41
Speaker 1: turn here, but to me that sounds like an it
14:44
Speaker 1: dey pity deny weeny bit of a red flag. Here's
14:49
Speaker 1: the thing about news. Bad news travels fast, and travel
14:56
Speaker 1: it did. Here's the thing about newspapers. Tabloids be tabloiding,
15:02
Speaker 1: and some stories just make headline. A newlywed bride drowns
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Speaker 1: in a bath on her honeymoon in London, the very
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Speaker 1: capital of England. My well, that's a news story. So
15:20
Speaker 1: news of the world is you know, it's a nationwide newspaper.
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Speaker 1: It's read all across the country. And two people in
15:28
Speaker 1: particular come across this story and find it rather interesting
15:35
Speaker 1: and find it strikingly similar two other deaths, and very
15:44
Speaker 1: soon the police receive letters from Missus Crossley, who runs
15:50
Speaker 1: a boarding house under mister Charles Burnham, and naturally they're
15:56
Speaker 1: are wee bit suspicious, and so they write to the police.
16:01
Speaker 1: I mean, the women were from different areas, and the
16:05
Speaker 1: husbands that have different names and occupations. But my, what
16:10
Speaker 1: a crazy random happenstance that that a new bride should
16:15
Speaker 1: be found dead in a bathtub so soon after being married. Huh.
16:22
Speaker 1: So Missus Crossley, she is suspicious as hell, and she
16:28
Speaker 1: says to her husband, fuck this for a game of soldiers.
16:31
Speaker 1: We need to contact the police. So she manages to
16:37
Speaker 1: contact Charles Burnham. I don't know if it's he goes
16:41
Speaker 1: to them or they go to him, because it was
16:46
Speaker 1: in their boarding house that a Missus Alice Smith seems
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Speaker 1: to have perished in the same manner as Margaret Lloyd.
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Speaker 1: So on January third, John Crossley writes letter on behalf
17:01
Speaker 1: of Missus Crossley and Charles Burnham. So the landlady of
17:06
Speaker 1: the boarding house and the father of the dead bride,
17:12
Speaker 1: the corpse bride, if you will too much, too far?
17:16
Speaker 1: Maybe Okay? So they contact Detective Inspector Arthur Neil, who's
17:24
Speaker 1: like heads of the division I think in Scotland Yard
17:27
Speaker 1: at the time. So they contact him and they're like, hey, mate,
17:30
Speaker 1: want to have we look at this? Might want to
17:33
Speaker 1: have we nosy around by the way, just saying wee
17:36
Speaker 1: bit SaaS And so he does offre he trots to
17:41
Speaker 1: fourteen Bismarck Road in Highgate in London and he heads
17:45
Speaker 1: to that boarding house and so he meets with the
17:47
Speaker 1: landlady of the boarding house and she shows him the
17:50
Speaker 1: room the newly weds stayed in and they have a
17:54
Speaker 1: look at the room. So she tells him that she
17:57
Speaker 1: finds a wee bit weird that they shows that room specifically,
18:01
Speaker 1: because it's not even the nicest room they have. The
18:05
Speaker 1: only thing that's convenient about that room is the bathtub.
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Speaker 1: So Neil inspector Neil, do lu lu doo doo. Inspector
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Speaker 1: do lul lu do do Neil, it's not a perfect sound,
18:19
Speaker 1: it's fine. So he's having a wee nosey around this
18:22
Speaker 1: bathtub and he's thinking that's a wee bit dodgy because
18:28
Speaker 1: the bathtub, and the first thing he notices is how
18:32
Speaker 1: pictit it is cozy, some might say, because it's only
18:37
Speaker 1: like fifty inches long and sixty inches like the top,
18:42
Speaker 1: and it's it's small. It's a small bathtub. And he
18:47
Speaker 1: finds a wee bit odd that she drowned in something
18:51
Speaker 1: so small, and the landlady tells him that it was
18:55
Speaker 1: only like three quarters full. It wasn't even that deep,
19:00
Speaker 1: and so he's thinking, that's that's weird, that's suspicious and
19:08
Speaker 1: it's worth investigating. So off he goes to the corner.
19:12
Speaker 1: He meets the corner and he asks there any signs
19:15
Speaker 1: of violence, because automatically he's thinking, bitch is drowned, right,
19:21
Speaker 1: definitely drowning. That seems to be the case. She must
19:24
Speaker 1: have been held under there must be like signs of bruising,
19:29
Speaker 1: and there isn't. Really there's like this wee bruise above
19:33
Speaker 1: her elbow, but nothing really to sing home about. So
19:36
Speaker 1: it's way a bit strange, and so he's looking at
19:40
Speaker 1: the death certificate. He's like, Okay, that's that's weird. But
19:46
Speaker 1: the coroner does say that although you know, there wasn't
19:50
Speaker 1: anything suspicious about like her body or whatever, what was
19:54
Speaker 1: odd was that mister Lloyd, the bereaved widow didn't. I
20:00
Speaker 1: actually seemed to you know, bothered or grieving or I
20:06
Speaker 1: don't know, maybe a wee bit sad that your new
20:09
Speaker 1: wife is dead. So after he deals with the corner,
20:12
Speaker 1: he goes to the undertaker and he finds out that
20:16
Speaker 1: mister Lloyd picked the cheapest coffin available, Like if there
20:23
Speaker 1: was a way to have like a bigger discount on it,
20:26
Speaker 1: he would have taken it. He would have put her
20:28
Speaker 1: in a burlap sack if it would have been socially
20:31
Speaker 1: acceptable to do so. So this is a ladding up
20:35
Speaker 1: being a wee bit odd and so Inspector Neil he
20:38
Speaker 1: is on a roll at this point. Off he goes
20:41
Speaker 1: to Islington, finds a solicitor and gets a copy of
20:46
Speaker 1: the will. There he discovers that the sole beneficiary of
20:51
Speaker 1: Margaret Lloyd's will, Kelsey Price, as her husband, mister John Lloyd.
20:59
Speaker 1: That very same day, the day of her death, Margaret
21:03
Speaker 1: Lloyd had cleared out her savings, gone to her solicitor
21:08
Speaker 1: and made her husband, her new husband, the sole beneficiary
21:13
Speaker 1: of everything everything she had. She then traveled back to
21:19
Speaker 1: a boarding house and three hours later she was dead. Now,
21:26
Speaker 1: being the smart week cookie that he is, or was
21:29
Speaker 1: I'm fairly certain he's no longer on this mortal realm.
21:33
Speaker 1: Inspector Neil starts putting two and two together and thinks, Aha,
21:38
Speaker 1: there's trouble afoot. The very next week, Inspector Neil receives
21:43
Speaker 1: a call from the coroner, Doctor Bates. Yes really who,
21:48
Speaker 1: as it turns out, has been contacted by the Yorkshire
21:50
Speaker 1: Insurance Company regarding a life insurance payout on behalf of
21:55
Speaker 1: a missus Margaret Lloyd for seven hundred pounds And this
22:02
Speaker 1: may shock you. The sole beneficiary of this seven hundred pounds. Ah, well,
22:10
Speaker 1: yes you are right, mister John Lloyd, the widower. So
22:17
Speaker 1: Neil he is still investigating, so he tells the coroner
22:20
Speaker 1: to just like stall a wee bit so we can look.
22:23
Speaker 1: And so as he's searching, he discovers that he discovers
22:28
Speaker 1: that the late Alice Smith, her husband, also received a
22:34
Speaker 1: life insurance payout upon her untimely demise. And this point
22:39
Speaker 1: Inspector Neil is absolutely convinced that he is dealing with
22:44
Speaker 1: the same person. He's like, this is a big a
22:47
Speaker 1: miss this is a murderer. So Inspector Neil decides to
22:51
Speaker 1: get a wee bit sleeky, a wee bit sneaky, and
22:54
Speaker 1: he tells the coroner to just like give a favorable thing,
22:58
Speaker 1: tell the insurance company it's good to go oh, and
23:00
Speaker 1: that John Lloyd needs to contact his solicitor. And so
23:05
Speaker 1: there's a stakeout and they are watching this like night
23:08
Speaker 1: and day, and finally, on the first of February nineteen fifteen,
23:15
Speaker 1: John Lloyd goes to sort out his late wife's will
23:18
Speaker 1: and upon leaving the solicitors feels away tug on his
23:22
Speaker 1: sleeve and who is it but Detective Inspector Arthur Neil,
23:29
Speaker 1: and he asks him, are you John Lloyd? He says yes,
23:34
Speaker 1: and then he asks him, are you George Smith, the
23:39
Speaker 1: husband of Alice Smith. The man doesn't answer, so Inspector
23:45
Speaker 1: Neil informs him that he's being arrested for putting folks
23:50
Speaker 1: information on a marriage certificate. And so he's like, yep, actually, yeah,
23:56
Speaker 1: it's me. I'm George Smith, because you know, what's a
23:59
Speaker 1: little bit of begarmy amongst friends, right, But when John
24:06
Speaker 1: Lloyd slash George Smith is taken in, he realizes that
24:13
Speaker 1: it's actually not just begamy he's being called in for,
24:17
Speaker 1: and that inspector, Neil knows far more about his life
24:22
Speaker 1: than he ever wanted him to know. What do we
24:25
Speaker 1: know about John Lloyd, George Smith, George Love, Henry Williams
24:33
Speaker 1: or Charles James? Why why would one man have so
24:37
Speaker 1: many aliases? Well, I'm glad you asked, because I'll tell you.
24:42
Speaker 1: But first let's start with the actual name. George Joseph Smith.
24:47
Speaker 1: So George Joseph Smith. He was born on the eleventh
24:50
Speaker 1: of January eighteen seventy two and Beth no Green in London,
24:55
Speaker 1: and his dad's an insurance agent. What his mom does,
24:59
Speaker 1: I don't fucking know. There's no information. I couldn't find
25:02
Speaker 1: it because she's a woman in the past. Why the
25:04
Speaker 1: fuck does she matter? But we can have this Oursehol's birthday,
25:08
Speaker 1: of course we can abs fucking lately. So yeah, there's that.
25:14
Speaker 1: When he's nine, I don't know what kind of upbringing
25:16
Speaker 1: he had, but nature nurture in it. When he's nine,
25:20
Speaker 1: he gets sent to a reformatory school, which is where
25:22
Speaker 1: they send you for acting like a little shit or
25:27
Speaker 1: you know, or when you know, crazy Christians invade your land,
25:31
Speaker 1: colonize it and then try to strip all part of
25:33
Speaker 1: your indigenous identity away from yourself. But that's not the
25:36
Speaker 1: case here. In this case, he was a little shit.
25:41
Speaker 1: So he gets sent there and then at some point
25:45
Speaker 1: near adulthood or in adulthood, he goes away for saving
25:50
Speaker 1: and swindling, something that continues on for most of his life.
25:56
Speaker 1: George sported a big, ginger, bushy beard and had eyes
26:00
Speaker 1: of a mad dog, and somehow still managed to be
26:04
Speaker 1: a ladies man, man's man, man about town. He had
26:08
Speaker 1: away with the ladies somehow apparently, but men hated him.
26:12
Speaker 1: Apparently he was arrogant and he irrigated them. See what's
26:16
Speaker 1: lucky for George here is that he is a Victorian man,
26:21
Speaker 1: and this is a period where like industrialization has really
26:25
Speaker 1: really taken to the fore, and many women had big
26:29
Speaker 1: fat dowries, they had money, they were a lot of them,
26:34
Speaker 1: and men were lucky and had power and needed wives
26:38
Speaker 1: and nobody wanted to be a spinster. Oh no ah.
26:43
Speaker 1: So yeah, he was very in a very convenient point
26:47
Speaker 1: in time. So he manages to I don't know who,
26:52
Speaker 1: some lady and neither courting, and he convinced her to
26:55
Speaker 1: steal from their employer or her employer, I should say,
27:00
Speaker 1: And what is probably the only legitimate business practice he
27:04
Speaker 1: has ever had. He uses this money to set up
27:09
Speaker 1: like a bakery, a bread shop, because yep, yep, that's
27:15
Speaker 1: a fun and awesome thing to do. So there he is.
27:21
Speaker 1: He's gone to prison, he's stolen a bunch of stuff,
27:24
Speaker 1: he had some money. He sets up a bakery. What
27:28
Speaker 1: happened to the first woman he courted, I'm sure not entirely,
27:35
Speaker 1: so she's not in the picture. And George, who you know,
27:40
Speaker 1: has a criminal passed and doesn't want to get caught.
27:43
Speaker 1: He is using the alias George Love because of course
27:48
Speaker 1: he fucking is. I'm George Love an I own a bakery.
27:52
Speaker 1: Marry Saunters in Twirling, his big bushy beard asking the ladies,
27:58
Speaker 1: so do you want assue my bread rise? You make
28:02
Speaker 1: my dough plump? So anyway, so his you stage charm.
28:09
Speaker 1: It works on the eighteen year old Caroline Thornhill, who thinks, wow,
28:15
Speaker 1: I've met this lovely baker named George Love. Things are
28:19
Speaker 1: gonna work out swell for me. I mean, it's the
28:22
Speaker 1: Victorian era. You're marrying a man with his own business.
28:26
Speaker 1: It's eighteen ninety eight. Things are going well for you.
28:29
Speaker 1: But then it turns out he is neither a good
28:32
Speaker 1: baker nor a good businessman, and he goes bankrupt. So
28:38
Speaker 1: what are they gonna do. She has to help the
28:40
Speaker 1: man she loves. Of course, you think missus love isn't
28:44
Speaker 1: gonna stand by her husband. Well, we'll see. So he
28:48
Speaker 1: basically pushes her into becoming a maid servant because she's
28:52
Speaker 1: a woman, clearly she knows how to be a maid.
28:56
Speaker 1: So yeah, she gets working as a maid and she
29:00
Speaker 1: kind of pulls a forty elephant scenario. So she goes
29:05
Speaker 1: in and she pill fors a bunch of shit and
29:08
Speaker 1: tries to flog it, and they actually do this successfully
29:11
Speaker 1: for quite a while. So they're moving around like London
29:14
Speaker 1: brighton pillar to post. You know, she's stealing silver and
29:18
Speaker 1: jewelry and then fencing it off because she's the one
29:22
Speaker 1: who's doing it because he's a lazy bitch and is
29:27
Speaker 1: doing his best not to get caught. So one day
29:30
Speaker 1: she's trying to get rid of a bunch of jewelry
29:32
Speaker 1: and this pawnbroker is just really fucking suspicious, calls the
29:37
Speaker 1: police and gets her arrested, and so she gets sent
29:41
Speaker 1: away to prison. So she gets put away for twelve months,
29:44
Speaker 1: she serves a twelve month sentence, and her husband, George
29:48
Speaker 1: Love fucking disappears, no howe nor hear of him. Oh. Also,
29:55
Speaker 1: in addition, furthermore, in eighteen ninety nine, so like the
29:59
Speaker 1: year he marries Caroline Beatrice Thornhill, he marries another woman
30:05
Speaker 1: whose name I cannot find anywhere, like he married someone,
30:11
Speaker 1: don't know who, but he married them. And who knows
30:14
Speaker 1: what he did in the interim period, because we have
30:18
Speaker 1: no fucking notion, because he did a bunch of shit.
30:21
Speaker 1: So after seven twelve months, missus Caroline Love is released
30:26
Speaker 1: from prison. And as she's sauntering about one day, who
30:31
Speaker 1: does she clap eyes on? Oh look, it's her fucking
30:34
Speaker 1: husband who left her to rot. So what does she do?
30:38
Speaker 1: She calls the cops, She reports him, She testifies against
30:42
Speaker 1: him and gets him sent away to prison. And that's
30:47
Speaker 1: where he goes now. And in nineteen oh one he
30:52
Speaker 1: is sentenced to two years in prison. So when he
30:56
Speaker 1: gets out in nineteen oh three, even if he was
30:59
Speaker 1: trying to like get revenge on Caroline, she's migrated. She
31:04
Speaker 1: got the heck at Dodge and she fucked off to Canada.
31:08
Speaker 1: Like by not dealing with you. She was smart. She
31:12
Speaker 1: got out. So he goes back to his other wife,
31:18
Speaker 1: his second wife that we know of, and he does
31:21
Speaker 1: what is effectively going to be a pattern of behavior.
31:24
Speaker 1: He clears out her savings and then buggers off. Apparently
31:29
Speaker 1: wife number two stood by him while he was imprisoned.
31:34
Speaker 1: I mean, good for you to have that dedication, I guess.
31:38
Speaker 1: But uh, let's not, shall we. Let's not. So what
31:43
Speaker 1: George Joseph Smith does for the next five years is
31:47
Speaker 1: anybody's fucking guess. We don't know. There's nothing. Was he
31:52
Speaker 1: in prison, was he using an alias? Was he stealing
31:57
Speaker 1: from women? Whom's to say? But going by his pattern
32:01
Speaker 1: of behavior and his modus operandi, I could very much
32:05
Speaker 1: like use basic logic to assume he. George would court women,
32:11
Speaker 1: sometimes marry them, and then convince them to just give
32:16
Speaker 1: him money, you know, for a business venture or for
32:19
Speaker 1: some life insurance thing, and uh, he would just take it.
32:24
Speaker 1: Sometimes he would just steal from them, he would just
32:26
Speaker 1: raid their savings and he would just piss off. In
32:29
Speaker 1: nineteen o weight, George marries a widow from Worthing, Florence Wilson.
32:36
Speaker 1: So they get married in June nineteen o eight and
32:40
Speaker 1: by July third, so a month or less than a month,
32:46
Speaker 1: he empties her savings account. He takes thirty pounds out
32:50
Speaker 1: of it, which is like three grand in today's money.
32:55
Speaker 1: So he takes all that. He clears their house in
33:00
Speaker 1: Camden and sells all their shit like he sells everything,
33:05
Speaker 1: takes as much money as possible, and then heads off
33:10
Speaker 1: to Bristol. And on the thirtieth of July he marries
33:16
Speaker 1: Edith Peglar. And now this marriage, this one's a little
33:19
Speaker 1: bit different from the rest because he hit one point
33:24
Speaker 1: and put this advertisement out for a housekeeper for you know,
33:28
Speaker 1: lodgings in Bristol, and Edith Pegler, Edith Mabel Peglar, I
33:34
Speaker 1: should say, she responds. So by thirtieth of July they
33:40
Speaker 1: get married. So he's left Florence on the third of July.
33:47
Speaker 1: He marries her on the thirtieth of July, and he
33:50
Speaker 1: tells her that he's, you know, an antiques dealer, so
33:52
Speaker 1: he's away a lot, and he would always come back
33:55
Speaker 1: to her with money, and she's probably the closest thing
34:01
Speaker 1: to caring about another human that he could do. But
34:05
Speaker 1: he loved money more than he loved her, like he
34:08
Speaker 1: claimed to love her, but money was just more important.
34:13
Speaker 1: Ruining lives apparently much more fun than you know, actually
34:17
Speaker 1: having one, but what do you know? Men and it
34:23
Speaker 1: so but yeah, I'm sorry this bothers me because that's
34:26
Speaker 1: the thing. Like between marriages he would go back to
34:29
Speaker 1: Edith and he was like, I'm back from sailing antiques. Hello, love,
34:34
Speaker 1: Like he would just keep going back to her and
34:38
Speaker 1: like was she in on it? Did she know what
34:41
Speaker 1: he was really like? And they were sort of cool
34:44
Speaker 1: with it? Like I don't know. I want to say,
34:48
Speaker 1: like and mad men don Draper's I think third wife
34:53
Speaker 1: who knows all his shit. She's like, yep, like this
34:58
Speaker 1: is this where we're at. But you know, him ruining
35:01
Speaker 1: people's lives is that I don't know. So in nineteen
35:06
Speaker 1: or nine he marries Sitar Freeman. Clearly money's getting dry,
35:11
Speaker 1: so he marries her and then a little while later
35:15
Speaker 1: he buggers off. He takes about four hundred pounds in total,
35:20
Speaker 1: so that's like what forty pounds in today's money. He
35:27
Speaker 1: sells her war bonds, he clears out her savings, he
35:32
Speaker 1: just grabs them and off he goes. So in August
35:36
Speaker 1: nineteen ten, George Joseph Smith under the alias Henry Williams,
35:43
Speaker 1: marries Beatrice Monday, and weymith I think is Beatrice who
35:49
Speaker 1: goes by Bessie. She's thirty eight, so she's she's again,
35:54
Speaker 1: she's out past spinster. She's now a thornback, like she's
35:58
Speaker 1: put out to past her at this point, she he
36:00
Speaker 1: an old, old maid and when he comes along, like wow,
36:05
Speaker 1: this is her chance for love, for companionship, you know,
36:10
Speaker 1: and all the other things that Victorian women are supposed
36:14
Speaker 1: to uphold. But Bessie here was very lucky because Bessie
36:17
Speaker 1: had inherited two five hundred pounds from her father, like
36:24
Speaker 1: when he died. Her new husband was hoping to get
36:27
Speaker 1: his hands on the cash. Unfortunately, Bessie's father was one
36:32
Speaker 1: too smart for him and had the money placed in
36:34
Speaker 1: the hands of trustees, so he would have to go
36:38
Speaker 1: through them to get her money. So he manages to
36:42
Speaker 1: like cajole and convince her to give him one hundred
36:45
Speaker 1: and fifty pounds, and once he gets it, he accuses
36:49
Speaker 1: her of giving him like disease, like an STI so
36:54
Speaker 1: he's like, you've given me syphilis or some shit like
36:58
Speaker 1: I mean, the Regency era. I think like one in
37:01
Speaker 1: five Londoners had syphilis. I mean by the time Victoriana
37:08
Speaker 1: came around, it's quite possible. But yeah, he's like, you
37:11
Speaker 1: have given me syphilis or whatever the fuck he said
37:14
Speaker 1: of venereal disease, but I don't know which one, but
37:17
Speaker 1: it's probably cephalous. But yes, So he accuses me of
37:19
Speaker 1: giving him a disease and he leaves her because he's
37:23
Speaker 1: like dirty woman, ah, nasty, and off he goes. But
37:30
Speaker 1: then what do you know? Eighteen months later, Bessie is
37:36
Speaker 1: promenading through weston super Mare, and show does she see
37:41
Speaker 1: but her long lost husband, Henry Williams. So he apologizes
37:48
Speaker 1: to her. He's like, sorry, I got an STI and
37:52
Speaker 1: then I didn't want to give it to you and
37:53
Speaker 1: I felt really bad about it. And she's like, I
37:58
Speaker 1: forgive you because I'm a Victorian woman. Yay. And Bessie
38:04
Speaker 1: she's just happy to have her husband back because this,
38:07
Speaker 1: I mean, it makes a respectable woman again, doesn't it.
38:10
Speaker 1: Her art dealer husband has returned to her and nobody
38:14
Speaker 1: has like a spotted dick or whatever, hurry, and so
38:18
Speaker 1: she brings him back to her lodgings and then off
38:24
Speaker 1: they go to a solicitor what do you know, and
38:27
Speaker 1: they draw up mutual wells because that's what couple should
38:32
Speaker 1: do when they reconcile finance. So what's refinance is married
38:39
Speaker 1: Woo woo. So off they go and they basically say
38:45
Speaker 1: that they will inherit like all the stuff that each
38:48
Speaker 1: other has in the event of the death. So if
38:51
Speaker 1: he dies, he gets the two and a half grand
38:54
Speaker 1: and if she dies, she gets nothing. Because the man
38:57
Speaker 1: probably doesn't have a pot to piss in. I mean,
39:00
Speaker 1: he's probably used the same wedding band for like all
39:04
Speaker 1: of them. I mean, did they wear wedding bands in
39:09
Speaker 1: the Victorian era? At this point, I feel like they did,
39:15
Speaker 1: Like I can't remember, someone will tell me. So they
39:19
Speaker 1: reconcile the refinance and Henry Williams rents a house for
39:23
Speaker 1: him and his reconciled bread in hern Bay, and Bessie
39:28
Speaker 1: thinks that this is just a wonderful place for them
39:30
Speaker 1: to restart their lives together. He gets a wee brass
39:34
Speaker 1: plaque because you know, he's an auctioneer, but a brass
39:38
Speaker 1: plaque does not make a home. You know, what makes
39:41
Speaker 1: a home a bathtub, And Bessie helps pick it out,
39:48
Speaker 1: She goes and picks out the bathtub and at this
39:52
Speaker 1: point Bessie's no longer a stranged husband. He's telling her
39:56
Speaker 1: she looks a wee bit peaky, and he takes her
39:57
Speaker 1: to this doctor in Kent and he explains that she's
40:01
Speaker 1: having fits. He's like, I think she might be epileptic,
40:04
Speaker 1: and the doctor says, sure, maybe Bessie had mentioned that
40:09
Speaker 1: she'd been getting headaches, and the doctor prescribes her some medication.
40:13
Speaker 1: On the twelfth of July, the doctor gets a call
40:16
Speaker 1: from Henry Williams saying that his wife is at a seizure.
40:19
Speaker 1: Can you come over at once? Like, oh dear, So
40:23
Speaker 1: the doctor comes to see him. He checks on her,
40:25
Speaker 1: he gives her some medicine and he says he'll pop
40:27
Speaker 1: by the next day he receives a note from mister
40:32
Speaker 1: Williams and what do you know, he went out to
40:36
Speaker 1: buy food one day, came back and found his beloved
40:39
Speaker 1: wife Bessie dead. So doctor French he rushes over and
40:44
Speaker 1: there he sees Bessie, but that's naked, face up in
40:50
Speaker 1: the tub. But there's like no signs of fuel play,
40:53
Speaker 1: there's no signs of violence. So when it comes down
40:56
Speaker 1: to it. You know, he signs everything off and he says, yep,
41:02
Speaker 1: death by epileptic fit, and so I think it becomes registered.
41:05
Speaker 1: It's like a death by misadventure. And so Henry Williams
41:10
Speaker 1: is finally able to get his hands on Bessie's inheritance
41:15
Speaker 1: of two thousand, five hundred and seventy nine pounds, thirteen
41:20
Speaker 1: shillings and sevenpence. When it came to laying Bessie to rest,
41:26
Speaker 1: she had a pauper's funeral and a pauper's grave. Cheapest, coughing, cheapest, everything, basic, basic, buried,
41:35
Speaker 1: bye bye. But of course, you know this man is
41:38
Speaker 1: a lazy motherfucker, and I don't know, he's just pissing
41:41
Speaker 1: his money. Wait at this point, I don't know, because
41:44
Speaker 1: the following year, like just over a year later, November
41:48
Speaker 1: nineteen thirteen, he marries Alice Burnham, a nurse, and so
41:55
Speaker 1: they get married and the nearly weds decide to honeymoon
41:59
Speaker 1: in Blackpool and they lodge in Missus Crossley's boarding house.
42:05
Speaker 1: So they go in there and Alice starts complaining of headaches.
42:11
Speaker 1: So yeah, for basically a month, Alice is complaining of
42:14
Speaker 1: headaches when she didn't originally have headaches. So she's doing
42:18
Speaker 1: that just like Bessie did. Now I'm no, you know, murderer,
42:25
Speaker 1: but I do like my poisons, so naturally I'm convinced
42:29
Speaker 1: he was poisoning his wives with something. It's not as
42:32
Speaker 1: if drugs. Drugs were hard to come by drugs, because
42:38
Speaker 1: you know, they were giving you like morphine and cocaine
42:41
Speaker 1: and ether and all this other shit like just there
42:44
Speaker 1: you go have it, Noah, no nam like yummy for
42:47
Speaker 1: your tell me drugs drags and they were just handed
42:51
Speaker 1: to get easy. You could just like soak your fly
42:54
Speaker 1: paper all that shit. Loads of ways to get all stuff. So,
42:59
Speaker 1: like one we were in a I'm convinced he was
43:01
Speaker 1: just causing headaches or maybe he was just really annoying,
43:07
Speaker 1: like for all no, because they wouldn't marry him if
43:09
Speaker 1: he was really annoying. Well, Wellholm's to say, oh wait,
43:14
Speaker 1: did I mention that he specifically chose this particular accommodation
43:18
Speaker 1: because the room had a bathtub? Huh my, oh my,
43:23
Speaker 1: what a surprise. So yeah, one day December twelfth, he's like,
43:30
Speaker 1: m missus Crosley, I'm gonna go buy some eggs for
43:34
Speaker 1: the wife in a completely inconspicuous and totally not weird.
43:39
Speaker 1: Way he informs her, I'm away to get my wife
43:43
Speaker 1: some eggs. And then he comes back, look, I got
43:48
Speaker 1: my wife the eggs. Wife, I have your eggs. And
43:53
Speaker 1: off he goes up to the room and alas his wife,
43:58
Speaker 1: Alice dead in the bath, found by him and missus Crossley.
44:06
Speaker 1: So the local doctor is called and he comes over
44:09
Speaker 1: and he finds nothing suspicious, because of course he doesn't hmmm.
44:16
Speaker 1: And you know, it's not all sadness. It's not all
44:21
Speaker 1: you know, whoe for mister Smith here because he's back
44:27
Speaker 1: to Smith again, by the way, George Smith. It's not
44:31
Speaker 1: all melancholy and you know grief because he does have
44:36
Speaker 1: a six hundred pounds life insurance that will keep him
44:39
Speaker 1: warm at night, just to secure him, you know, like
44:43
Speaker 1: a security blanket. But for greed. And like you know,
44:49
Speaker 1: the first wife, like Bessie, she gets a really basic funeral,
44:53
Speaker 1: She gets the pauper's grave. There you go by, it's
44:57
Speaker 1: been fun done now. So the the following year, in
45:01
Speaker 1: September nineteen fourteen, he marries Alice Reid. So this is
45:07
Speaker 1: you know, early on First World War. He marries this
45:11
Speaker 1: woman and he goes under the alias Charles Oliver James,
45:18
Speaker 1: and so he clears out her savings and books off.
45:22
Speaker 1: She doesn't die, luckily. He just takes her money because
45:27
Speaker 1: he can and because he wants to, because he wants to,
45:30
Speaker 1: because he wants to. And after bollocksing off and leaving
45:34
Speaker 1: Alice read high and dry, so he has married her
45:38
Speaker 1: and taking her money, and two months later he remarries
45:44
Speaker 1: Margaret Elizabeth Lofty. So Phil circle back to the beginning,
45:53
Speaker 1: and where is George Joseph Smith right now? That's right,
45:58
Speaker 1: He's in a jail cell where he is being held
46:01
Speaker 1: in awaiting trial after being arrested in January nineteen fifteen.
46:06
Speaker 1: The case against George Joseph Smith was definitely gaining traction.
46:10
Speaker 1: So this detective Inspector Arthur Neil, he had brought in Spillsbury,
46:15
Speaker 1: who is effectively known as like he's like the Sherlock
46:18
Speaker 1: Holmes of the era, like the actual one, as opposed
46:20
Speaker 1: to you know, Conan Oil's imaginings. And first thing they
46:25
Speaker 1: do in February is they arrange to exhume the bodies
46:30
Speaker 1: and in the cold February air, shovels in hand, they
46:34
Speaker 1: dig up Bessie Monday, Alice Burnham and Margaret Lofty, not
46:42
Speaker 1: at the same time. It's like one then the other
46:44
Speaker 1: because they're in different graveyards, like ones in Blackpool, ones
46:47
Speaker 1: in London. But yeah, they are exhumed and they are
46:50
Speaker 1: studied by Spillsbury, and like he looks at their bodies.
46:54
Speaker 1: He says, no sign of like suicide or anything like that.
46:58
Speaker 1: He looks for signs of seizures, of fits of violence.
47:03
Speaker 1: He checked to make sure there was no like circulatory
47:05
Speaker 1: issues or heart disease anything like that, you know, just
47:09
Speaker 1: ruling everything out, Doctor Bernard Spillsbury. He starts testing these bathtubs.
47:15
Speaker 1: He's like measuring them against like the height and weight
47:18
Speaker 1: of the women and the shape and just all this.
47:22
Speaker 1: I'm gonna call it forensic case science stuff. Before forensically
47:25
Speaker 1: sciency stuff was really a thing, ye old day forensics,
47:30
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. And after much research and testing,
47:34
Speaker 1: doctor Bernard Spillsbury is convinced he knows exactly how George
47:37
Speaker 1: Joseph Smith murdered his victims. George Joseph Smith is arrested
47:43
Speaker 1: on the fifteenth of February nineteen fifteen and is formally
47:47
Speaker 1: charged on the twenty third of March for the murders
47:50
Speaker 1: of Bessie Williams, Alice Smith, and Margaret Lloyd. And in
47:55
Speaker 1: June he goes to trial, but he's only officially tried
47:59
Speaker 1: for one of the murders, not all three, even though
48:02
Speaker 1: they use evidence from all three murders against him because
48:06
Speaker 1: they should pattern of behavior and things like that. So
48:09
Speaker 1: at the trial he doesn't give any evidence in his
48:12
Speaker 1: defense because what the fuck you're gonna do, mate, Not
48:16
Speaker 1: like he does have a tantrum at one point and
48:18
Speaker 1: just like shouts in the court like, don't do that.
48:21
Speaker 1: You're just a dick, Like I an idiot at that matter,
48:25
Speaker 1: Like I don't want to give serial colors any ideas,
48:28
Speaker 1: but please please do not be your own defense attorney, lawyer, solicitor.
48:36
Speaker 1: Don't do that, have a professional do that because you, ah,
48:41
Speaker 1: you're awful and and like it's narcissistic and you will
48:48
Speaker 1: not do well anyway. At least try and have some
48:51
Speaker 1: decent representation, because you just should, because you do need
48:56
Speaker 1: to be aware that you are not smarter than everybody else,
48:59
Speaker 1: clearly because you have been caught. And at the trial
49:04
Speaker 1: enter the pathologist, doctor Birard Spillsbury. The prosecution is very
49:09
Speaker 1: much relying on his testimony, and he has to explain
49:13
Speaker 1: how this man like murdered three wives without like damaging them,
49:18
Speaker 1: you know, how did he drown them? And that was
49:21
Speaker 1: the main question. How did this man drown his brides?
49:27
Speaker 1: How did he manage to drown these women in tubs,
49:31
Speaker 1: especially tubs that were quite small. I mean, Bessie was
49:35
Speaker 1: like five seven five eight and the tub was five foot,
49:39
Speaker 1: so it didn't really make sense like how she would
49:42
Speaker 1: like she would have to really sink in, Like her
49:44
Speaker 1: body really should have shot up, you know, if nothing else,
49:48
Speaker 1: it shouldn't have sunk under the water. So Spillsbury had
49:53
Speaker 1: a theory that George or whatever the fuck he was
49:55
Speaker 1: calling himself, will get a little bit fresh and floody
49:58
Speaker 1: with his new bride, and under the pretense of being
50:02
Speaker 1: you know, flirty and affectionate and intimate and all that stuff,
50:08
Speaker 1: he would grab the bread by the leg and yank
50:14
Speaker 1: her feet up, forcing the body under the water and
50:18
Speaker 1: pushing water like up the nose and into the lungs,
50:22
Speaker 1: and it would be like almost instantaneous. But in order
50:25
Speaker 1: to prove his theory, Spellsbrian needed a willing participant, which
50:31
Speaker 1: he managed to get. But remember this is also nineteen
50:34
Speaker 1: fifteen in Britain, which is already very stiffer bill up. Anyway,
50:39
Speaker 1: so a young woman in a bathing costume was scandalous
50:43
Speaker 1: at best and certainly wasn't appropriate for her court of law.
50:47
Speaker 1: So the jury was brought into a private room where
50:50
Speaker 1: a woman climbed into the bath and he demonstrated this.
50:54
Speaker 1: He grabbed her by the ankles, yanked her under, pulled
50:57
Speaker 1: her feet out, forcing her torso under the and what
51:01
Speaker 1: do you know, the woman almost drowns. They have to
51:03
Speaker 1: pull her out and then to like resuscitation and like
51:08
Speaker 1: and she knew this was coming, So imagine what it'd
51:11
Speaker 1: been like if woman was surprised. And so at this
51:14
Speaker 1: trial they have this demonstration. They have the landladies being witnesses,
51:20
Speaker 1: you have the Burnams, you have the Hens. Everybody's there
51:24
Speaker 1: testifying against him. But you know who also shows up
51:29
Speaker 1: in court hanging out in the back watching this man suffer.
51:34
Speaker 1: His first wife, Caroline Thornhill. And she's clearly having the
51:42
Speaker 1: best time, living her best life watching him, you know,
51:45
Speaker 1: getting his just desserts, watching him squirm and have an
51:49
Speaker 1: actual tantrum, like seriously shouting at the jury but I
51:53
Speaker 1: was not a murderer and now he's innocent. No, no, mate,
51:58
Speaker 1: you're not. And it basically takes the jury what twenty
52:02
Speaker 1: minutes if that, to like find him guilty, and they
52:06
Speaker 1: do so. Yeah, and on the first of July he's convicted.
52:13
Speaker 1: He was found absolutely fucking guilty and sentenced to death.
52:18
Speaker 1: He tried to appeal it. It was denied, obviously, and
52:23
Speaker 1: on the thirteenth of August nineteen fifteen, George Joseph Smith
52:29
Speaker 1: was hanged by the neck until dead and Matstone prison.
52:32
Speaker 1: I believe what happened to his body after that, I
52:35
Speaker 1: don't know. I don't care. I hope he got dumped
52:38
Speaker 1: in a pauper's grave like he did his wives, who
52:42
Speaker 1: I hope ended up with a proper burial after this,
52:46
Speaker 1: because you know, give him something. But yes, that is
52:51
Speaker 1: the story of the Brides and the bath Murders, not
52:55
Speaker 1: to be confused with the acid bath murderers, which I
52:58
Speaker 1: will talk about at some point at some point. So
53:03
Speaker 1: if you liked my retelling of this story, feel free
53:05
Speaker 1: to rate and review five stars, say nice things, or
53:08
Speaker 1: you can say mean things, as long as you give
53:11
Speaker 1: five stars, like, don't nag me, I've clearly got a
53:14
Speaker 1: praise kink, Oh, don't forget. You can follow me on socials.
53:17
Speaker 1: I'm on Instagram and TikTok and Twitter. It's hooded what
53:22
Speaker 1: now pod on like Instagram and TikTok and it's hooded
53:25
Speaker 1: what now pd because there wasn't enough characters for Twitter usernames.
53:32
Speaker 1: It's fine, I'm over it. I no, it's irritating, but
53:36
Speaker 1: I'll get over it. If you want to support the podcast,
53:39
Speaker 1: obviously social media rate and reviewing. If you want to
53:42
Speaker 1: donate too, there's a link in the description feel free. Ah.
53:48
Speaker 1: There's also the Amazon wish list, and merch is coming
53:51
Speaker 1: because I've been working with my friend who has been
53:55
Speaker 1: an absolute star and has helping me design some stuff.
53:58
Speaker 1: So there is urch coming, I assure you. Oh oh
54:04
Speaker 1: that's right. I actually have two giveaways coming soon, one
54:08
Speaker 1: of which is it was supposed to be for my
54:10
Speaker 1: five thousand followers on Instagram, but then I hit one
54:14
Speaker 1: hundred thousand really fast. So there's gonna be like books
54:17
Speaker 1: and stuff and things by artists and Irish creators and
54:24
Speaker 1: people I know that made coolshit are gonna be doing
54:26
Speaker 1: a week giveaway. It's gonna be really cool. And because
54:30
Speaker 1: I am, you know, going to be speaking at the
54:33
Speaker 1: Heartland Pagan Festival Into the Night twenty twenty three, the
54:39
Speaker 1: festival has very kindly gifted me one festival pass worth
54:43
Speaker 1: like one hundred and fifty dollars, So that's going to
54:46
Speaker 1: be coming up for grabs, So keep an eye on that.
54:49
Speaker 1: That will be coming up soon ish once I work
54:53
Speaker 1: out some kinks with that, and I think it's recommendation time.
54:59
Speaker 1: So for listen, I don't know if I did it
55:01
Speaker 1: last week, but I'm definitely gonna say it this week again.
55:05
Speaker 1: If I haven't already done it, go listen to My
55:08
Speaker 1: Future Best Day, Ruben Kay's podcast Come to Daddy, because
55:12
Speaker 1: he is an absolute delight. He's so smart and funny
55:16
Speaker 1: and I love him in a totally platonic way. For
55:21
Speaker 1: reading Burlesque and The Art of Days by Data Antes,
55:26
Speaker 1: it's a really wonderful book just about the history of
55:29
Speaker 1: like fetish and burlesque and all that kind of stuff.
55:32
Speaker 1: It is glorious. You absolutely should And for watching you
55:39
Speaker 1: know what, just watch Taylor Swift's Lavender Hayes video. I
55:43
Speaker 1: have been watching that on repeat. It's so good. It's
55:49
Speaker 1: so good. I adore it, I really do. But if
55:53
Speaker 1: you want to watch like a movie, you know what,
55:58
Speaker 1: watch Get Over It. There's a modern retelling of Shakespeare
56:02
Speaker 1: that they had this whole thing, like in the late nineties,
56:06
Speaker 1: early two thousands with they did this whole retelling of
56:09
Speaker 1: like Shakespeare and classics and they were really, really good.
56:13
Speaker 1: They were so good. Get Over It is one of
56:15
Speaker 1: my favorites because I love Kirsten Dunst. Most of her
56:19
Speaker 1: early stuff is just so funny, like it's brilliant. So
56:23
Speaker 1: go do that. And with that, it is time to
56:26
Speaker 1: say farewell, because it is time to rest Arios au revoir,
56:33
Speaker 1: where is em? My friends? Bye bye,