English serial killer, George Joseph Smith, came to be known as the Brides’ Bath Murderer after he drowned three of his wives in a bathtub in order to get their will or insurance money.
Smith’s childhood was a troubled one. He had spent time in a boys’ reformatory school at age nine and had served time for stealing at age nineteen.
He showed a knack for convincing weak minded women to do things they shouldn’t have. He had them steal for him, lie for him, and he was able to bribe them for money.
He had married a total of six women (some sources claim he had seven wives). Three of his wives turned up dead. He had also seduced a married woman, eloped with her, and when he was through with the adventure, he tied her down to the floor and kept her there for several days.
1. The First Victim
When George Joseph Smith married his first wife, Beatrice Mundy, it was obvious he had plans for her. Three weeks before he killed her, a will was drafted by her that left Smith with $10,000 in will money in the event of her death. Ten days before the wife’s death in 1912, Smith had ordered the bathtub in which he would drown her.
During the trial for this death, Dr. Frank French stated that Beatrice Mundy had an epileptic fit while bathing and had drowned as a consequence. The jury ruled her demise as “death by misadventure.”[1]
2. A Second Drowning
Not a full year after Beatrice Mundy’s death, Smith met Alice Burnham and the two quickly married. Alive gave Smith $500 and insured her life for $2,500.
Not surprisingly, Alice was death a few hours after setting up her life insurance. On December 18, 1913, it was reported that the landlady heard Smith calling out. The landlady ran to the room and found Smith “bending over the tub, holding the head of the nude, dead woman.”
Alice Burnham’s death was ruled as accidental. [2]
3. The Third Drowning
Smith must have thought himself lucky, because drowning his first two wives worked so well that he went and did it again.
Margaret Elizabeth Lofty was Smith’s final wife. She was found dead in a bathtub while on her honeymoon with Smith in December 1914. The M.O. was the same as the previous two dead wives.
“[Margaret Lofty] visited a lawyer and made her will on the morning of Dec. 18, the day after the wedding, leaving $3,500 to Smith. The honeymooners took a walk at noon. [Later on], witnesses testified Smith ran downstairs, shouting: ‘My God! She’s dead in the tub.’” [3]
4. Forcibly Drowned
After the third death, Smith found himself on trial for the murder of three of his wives. During this time, experts and witnesses gave testimony about each deadly event.
In the case of Lofty’s death, a landlady testified that:
“…she heard a sound of splashing in the tub in the Smith apartment and immediately afterward the fall of something like a human body. Then she heard a long drawn sigh.”
It was concluded that Smith had forcibly held these women’s heads under water and that there was absolutely no way that these women could have drowned by accident given the size of the tubs, depth of the water, and the positions of the bodies. [4]
5. First Wife Got Away
Before the murders, Smith married his first wife in 1898 under the name of George Oliver Love. Shortly thereafter, he deserted her and she moved to Canada.
6. Loved Wife #2
In 1908, Smith married a second time, but under his real name. It was reported that she, Elizabeth Mabel Pegler, was his true love. After each of the other murders, he always returned to her.
7. Wife #5 Unharmed
After marrying his second wife, Smith married and killed Beatrice Mundy and Alice Burnham. He then met and married Alice Revail under the name of Oliver Charles James Smith. She survived her encounter with the man. [5]
8. Closing Statement
The prosecutor’s closing words were:
“With all the cunning of a great criminal, this man invented the epilepsy theory to explain away the death of each of his wives. He surveyed carefully the surroundings of each of his murder scenes and rehearsed in his mind the most insignificant details to make certain he could not be trapped. But like other shrewd murderers, he left loopholes.” [6]
9. Sentencing
Smith’s defense tried in vain to convince the court that Smith was mentally unbalanced. After having drowned three wives, it was decided that the best punishment for him was death by hanging. [7]
10. Hanged
George Joseph Smith was hanged on August 13, 1915 at the Maidstone Prison.
The fascinating part of the case was how Detective Inspector Arthur Neil set up a bath that was identical to the one used in the murder, and through experiments worked out that Smith grabbed the ankles of his victims and pulled them upwards, thus lowering their head into the water, which caused them to drown.