The 'Brides in the Bath' Murders | The 'Brides in the Bath' … | Flickr The 'Brides in the Bath' Murders The 'Brides in the Bath' Murders 1912-1914 George Joseph Smith became known in 1914 as the ‘Brides in the Bath Murderer’. A callous crook, he murdered women he had conned into marriage weeks, and sometimes just days after their wedding. Always insuring their lives and having had them make out a will in his favour, he thought he had found a foolproof get rich quick scheme. A cold-hearted con-man whose crimes were motivated purely by financial gain, he was born in the East End of London in 1872 and by the age of nine had been sent to reform school for thieving. He left at 16 with a talent for exploiting women. George Joseph Smith (January 11, 1872 – August 13, 1915) was an English serial killer and bigamist.

In 1915 he was convicted and subsequently hanged for the slayings of three women, the case becoming known as the "Brides in the Bath Murders". As well as being widely reported in the media, the case was a significant case in the history of forensic pathology and detection. It was also one of the first cases in which similarities between connected crimes were used to prove deliberation, a technique used in subsequent prosecutions. Between 1912 and 1914, he left three brides dead in baths after taking them for every penny. Smith made the drownings look like accidents and collected inheritance and life insurance without suspicion. GEORGE JOSEPH SMITH, one of the most atrocious English criminals ever, was born on January 11, 1872, at Roman Road, Bethnal Green, his father being George Thomas Smith, an insurance agent, and his mother Louisa Smith, nee Gibson. The son early displayed criminal tendencies, and seems to have been sent to the reformatory at Gravesend at the tender age of nine, remaining there till he was sixteen.

Smith later went to Bristol, where he set up a small shop at 389 Gloucester Road as a second-hand furniture dealer. At 368, in the same road, dwelt Edith Mabel Pegler with her mother. On July 1 she advertised for a situation as housekeeper, where a servant was kept. Smith replied to a advertisement, and she speedily consented to keep house for him, although he was not in a position to afford a servant. After a week' acquaintance, Smith had so captivated Miss Pegler' s maiden heart, that she consented to be his, although his means were very nebulous a mythical aunt who allowed him money, and " that he went about the country dealing." The marriage was solemnised at St. Peter's Registry Office, Bristol, on July 30, by special licence, Smith having married for the first time in his real name, describing himself as thirty-three years of age, a bachelor and general dealer, son of George Smith, deceased, figure artist . Later Police enquiries showed that Smith had conducted seven bigamous marriages between 1908 and 1914.

At the age of 26, in January 1898, using the name of George Love, Smith had married, legally and for the first time, 18-year old Caroline Thornhill in Leicester. They moved to London, and she worked as a maid for a number of employers, stealing from them under her husband's tuition. Caroline Love was arrested in Worthing, trying to pawn some silver spoons, and she was sent to prison for 12 months. On her release she incriminated her husband, who was then jailed for two years in January 1901. On his release , Mrs Love fled to Canada. In June 1908 Smith met a widow from Worthing, Florence Wilson, and married her three weeks later. By 3rd July he had left her after taking £30 she had withdrawn from her savings account, and selling all her belongings. By 30th July 1908 he had married Edith Pegler in Bristol who had replied to his advertisement for a house keeper. Then, in October 1909 he married Miss Sarah Freeman, using the name of George Rose.

He also married Alice Reid in September 1914, using the name of Charles Oliver James. Smith more smartly attired! Smith apparently had a masterful, hypnotic way with some women, a trait which was only exceeded by his ruthlessness in acquiring their money. When he appeared at the Old Bailey, charged with murdering Alice Burnham, Bessie Munday and Margaret Lloyd, Detective Inspector Neil demonstrated to the jury the method of drowning his victims by raising their knees whilst they were in the bath. His assistant, a nurse in a bathing costume, herself required artificial respiration after the court room demonstration, and Smith was duly convicted. Smith's trial took place during the dark days of the First World War, and the Judge, Mr Justice Scrutton, remarked upon the irony that "..while this wholesale destruction of human life is going on, for some days all the apparatus of justice in England has been considering whether one man should die..." The jury returned their Guilty verdict in 22 minutes, and Smith was executed on Friday 13th August at Maidstone prison by John Ellis. Caroline Thornhill, whom Smith had married legally, was now a widow, and she married a Canadian soldier the day after Smith's execution.

Done Solved: How the brides in the bath died at the hands of a ruthless womaniser | Daily Mail Online comments Killer: George Joseph Smith was hanged for the murders of his three wives - who all died in the bath The glow of the policemen's lanterns cast eerie shadows over the graveyard, as the church clock chimed midnight and the cheaply made coffin was raised slowly from its resting place. Inside, was the decomposing body of 38-year-old Margaret Lofty, a vicar's daughter who had been buried just two months previously. This was the first of three excavations requested by detectives in February 1915. Four days later, the cadaver of 25-year-old nurse Alice Burnham was removed from her Blackpool grave. Like Margaret Lofty, she had expired suddenly, as had 33-year-old Bessie Mundy, whose corpse was exhumed in Herne Bay, Kent, a fortnight later. All three were at first believed to have drowned after fainting or having a fit in the bath, but suspicions were aroused after it was discovered they had been married to the same man, serial bigamist George Joseph Smith.

His trial later that year, for what became known as the Brides In The Bath murders, was one of the most sensational of the 20th century. And the public was so fascinated by Smith's crimes that for many decades an effigy of him stood in Madame Tussauds' Chamber Of Horrors. The case would also be hailed as an early triumph for forensic science but, almost 100 years after the first murder, one fascinating question still remains unanswered - as a new book, The Magnificent Spilsbury And The Case Of The Brides In The Bath, by Jane Robins, reveals. Exactly how did the Bluebeard Of The Bath dispatch his victims? All three were fit and healthy women, fully capable of putting up resistance, and there was no sign they had been poisoned or drugged. Yet all were apparently drowned, with no evidence of violence or struggle. Only one person knew the answer - and that was Smith himself. A cold-hearted con-man whose crimes were motivated purely by financial gain, he was born in the East End of London in 1872 and by the age of nine had been sent to reform school for thieving. He left at 16 with a talent for exploiting women.

Victims: Alice Burnham, murdered in 1913 by her husband George Smith, and Margaret Lofty, who died in 1914 at his hands. Both were said to have suffered headaches and drowned in the bath tub His first and only legal marriage was in 1898, to a bootmaker named Caroline Thornhill, aged 19. She left him two years later, after he forced her to steal money from her employers, earning her three months in prison. But he had no shortage of victims. Large numbers of young men emigrating to the colonies, had left British females outnumbering men by more than half a million by 1910. The newspapers were full of stories about women who could not find husbands. Such spinsters were perfect prey for Smith, a smooth-talking spiv with a slim, muscular physique and a penchant for flashy gold rings and brightly-coloured bow-ties. He prowled seafronts and parks in his search for lonely and vulnerable females, mesmerising them with his deep-set grey eyes. 'When he looked at you, you had the feeling that you were being magnetised,' recalled one woman, who encountered Smith during those early years.

'They were little eyes that seemed to rob you of your will.' First victim: Bessie Mundy was killed by Smith in 1912. He planned her murder by claiming she had epileptic fits Smith gained a woman's trust by going through a bigamous marriage ceremony, then absconded with her savings. Those who lost only their money were fortunate - for soon his crimes would take a far darker turn. In the summer of 1910, he was walking in Clifton, Bristol, when he met Bessie Mundy, a plain but well turned-out young woman. Her late father was a bank manager and she had inherited from him £2,500, some £150,000 at today's prices. Smith introduced himself as Henry Williams, a picture restorer from London, and persuaded Bessie to marry him a few weeks later at a register office in Weymouth. In May 1912, the couple moved to Herne Bay and Smith asked Bessie to make a will in his favour. Afterwards he visited an ironmonger and asked the price of a cast-iron bath. He was told that it cost two pounds.

Two days later, Bessie was sent to the shop with instructions to haggle for a two shilling discount, unaware that she was negotiating the price of her own instrument of death. Smith then persuaded her she was suffering epileptic fits, about which she remembered nothing afterwards. In truth, Bessie had no history of fits but on Friday, July 12, she happily agreed to be examined by their local doctor and repeat to him the symptoms Smith had described to her. The following morning, the doctor received a pencil-written note from Smith. 'Come at once,' it read. 'My wife is dead.' He arrived to find Bessie on her back in the bath, her face still partially submerged. Smith claimed this was how he had found her. With no signs of anything untoward, the inquest jury declared Bessie had drowned after suffering a fit, clearing the way for Smith to inherit her fortune. Despite his sudden wealth, little was spent on her funeral. Smith choose the cheapest coffin available and refused to pay for a private plot, so Bessie had to be buried in a common grave. He even returned the bath to the ironmonger and secured a refund.

With the murder weapon disposed of, it seemed Smith had committed the perfect crime. But he had overlooked one thing. Unbeknown to him, Bessie was holding a bar of soap in her right hand when she died and the doctor had noted that her fingers remained clamped tightly around it. This clue later proved crucial to securing Smith's conviction, but two more women would die before then. The next was Alice Burnham, a plump and pretty young nurse who met Smith in Southsea in September 1913. On their wedding day on November 4, he took her to a doctor who certified she was healthy enough to take out a £500 insurance policy on her life, with Smith the beneficiary. That December he proposed that they visit Blackpool on a delayed honeymoon. This seemingly romantic gesture ensured that they were as far away as possible from the scene of his first murder. Turning down the first boarding house they tried because it didn't have a bathroom, Smith found them rooms with widow Margaret Crossley, then took Alice to the local doctor, claiming that she was suffering persistent headaches.

On the evening of Friday, December 12, three days after they arrived in Blackpool, Mrs Crossley noticed small drops of water seeping through her kitchen ceiling while Alice was having a bath upstairs. At that moment, Smith appeared in the kitchen and struck up a conversation, presumably to give himself an alibi. Shortly afterwards, he went upstairs and 'discovered' his wife dead in the bath. Once again, there were no signs of anything suspicious. The inquest jury decided that Alice had drowned after fainting. Alice had been married to Smith just over a month when she died, but his next victim Margaret Lofty lasted barely 24 hours. Posing as moneyed land agent John Lloyd, he met her in Bath the following November and they married on December 18, 1914, shortly after she had insured her life for £700. The couple began their brief honeymoon in Highgate, North London, with Smith taking his new wife to a local doctor on their wedding night. Like Alice Burnham, she was said to be suffering headaches. The following evening, their landlady Louisa Blatch was ironing in her kitchen when the sound of splashing came from the bathroom above.

This was followed by the noise of wet hands rubbing along the side of the bath and then a sigh. A few minutes later, Mrs Blatch heard strains of the hymn Nearer My God To Thee being played on the harmonium in the Lloyds' sitting room. Then the front door slammed, only for John Lloyd, alias Smith, to knock on it a few minutes later explaining that he had popped out to buy some tomatoes for his wife's supper but had forgotten his key. These elaborate efforts to prove he was anywhere but the bathroom when his wife died were unnecessary. Margaret's death was recorded as misadventure, bringing his murderous earnings to £3,700, around £190,000 today. He might have killed yet more innocent women if Alice Burnham's father had not read newspaper reports about Margaret Lofty's death. Suspicious about the similarities between her demise and that of his daughter, he alerted the police and Smith was arrested in February 1915, as he visited his solicitor to discuss Margaret Lofty's will.

With the Kent police suggesting that the death of Bessie Mundy might also be linked to the murders, witnesses came forward to identify Smith - and the grim exhumation of the bodies began. No evidence was found of foul play, but Home Office pathologist Bernard Spilsbury was struck by the fact that Bessie Mundy was still holding on to a bar of soap when she died. If she really had suffered a faint or a fit, as her inquest had suggested, her hand would have relaxed and let the soap go. This suggested that she - and, by implication, the other women - had died very suddenly, without time to put up a fight. But the question was: how? The theory Spilsbury advanced in court was that Smith had pulled their legs sharply out of the bath, sending their head underwater so fast consciousness was lost instantly. Modern science gives this some credibility. The rushing of water down the throat could put pressure on the vagus, one of the main nerves in the neck, causing a rapid slowing down of the heart rate and an instant faint. Yet most people suffering 'vagal inhibition' do not die, recovering quickly afterwards.

One of the most intriguing theories is that Smith hypnotised his victims, an idea suggested by George du Maurier's best-selling novel Trilby, published in 1894. Featuring the character of Svengali, an evil hypnotist who mesmerises the heroine into a life of servitude, this was followed by newspaper reports in 1905 about the activities of American bigamist George Witzoff. This real-life Svengali persuaded more than 100 women to marry him by means of hypnosis - and robbing each of their life savings. Might these stories have inspired the evil crimes of George Smith? And could this explain the extraordinary acquiescence of his wives in signing over their lives, reporting to doctors their purely imaginary symptoms and sinking below the bath water at his suggestion? This seems far-fetched, but it was the view advanced by Smith's own barrister, Edward Marshall Hall. After his client was found guilty and sentenced to hang, he wrote of his conviction that Smith had indeed killed his wives, but not in the way suggested in court. 'I had a long interview with Smith. I was convinced that he was a hypnotist,' he said.

'Once I accepted this theory, the whole thing was explained.' There are problems with this theory. Hypnotists say it is not possible to persuade a subject to do something that will harm them. And Bessie Mundy's grip on the soap seems inconsistent with the idea she had relaxed into a trance. Others suggest Smith terrified his wives into accepting their end. But the truth is, it is unlikely that we shall ever know. In August 1915, Smith was hanged at Maidstone Prison, protesting his innocence to the end - and taking with him the secret of how he killed three innocent women, who were desperate for love but were met instead with cruel and untimely deaths. THE MAGNIFICENT SPILSBURY AND THE CASE OF THE BRIDES IN THE BATH by Jane Robins is published by John Murray on April 15 at £16.99. To order a copy at £15.30 (p&p free), call 0845 155 0720.

ExecutedToday.com » 1915: George Joseph Smith, Brides in the Bath murderer 1915: George Joseph Smith, Brides in the Bath murderer August 13th, 2011 Meaghan (Thanks to Meaghan Good of the Charley Project for the guest post. -ed.) On this day in 1915, serial uxoricide George Joseph Smith was hung by the capable John Ellis at Maidstone Prison in the UK. Smith had committed three murders and various forms of larceny as well; he’d earned his noose several times over. Two things tend to trip people up when they’ve seemingly committed the perfect crime: either they brag about it to impress others, or they repeat the crime using the same methodology as before, since it worked so well the first time. Either of those actions greatly increases the risk of the criminal’s getting caught. Smith made the latter mistake. He was in a sense a victim of his own success. Smith was born on January 11, 1872. His criminal record began when he was sent to a reformatory at nine and served a seven-year sentence.

In young adulthood he was in and out of prison on theft- and fraud-related convictions. His complicated marital career began when he married Caroline Beatrice Thornhill, a domestic servant, in 1898. Smith persuaded her to steal from her employers. Caroline served time in prison as a result, and implicated her husband, who got two years for his role in the thefts. After George Smith’s release, Caroline thought it wise to put a few thousand miles between herself and her estranged husband, and so she left the UK for Canada. She never filed for divorce, however. Smith remained legally married to her for the rest of his life, so none of his numerous other marriages were legal. Unlawfully Wedded … The guy wasn’t good-looking, but he could charm like any good con artist. A year after his marriage to Caroline, Smith bigamously married another woman. He cleaned out her saving account and then deserted her. Between 1908 and 1914, he married no fewer than seven additional women, usually under an alias, and deserted most of them after a short time, sometimes only a matter of days — but not before he helped himself to their possessions and bank accounts.

As true crime writer Harold Schechter tells it in his book The Serial Killer Files: The Who, What, Where, How, and Why of the World’s Most Terrifying Murderers : Smith initially limited himself to scamming gullible spinsters out of their life savings by luring them into bigamous marriages … The moment Smith had his hands on his new bride’s money, he would disappear. Usually telling her he was going out on an errand — to pick up a newspaper or buy a pack of cigarettes — he would never return. On one occasion, he brought his newlywed wife to the National Gallery of Art and, after viewing some paintings, excused himself to go to the bathroom. She never saw him — or her life savings — again. That particular bride was named Sarah Faulkner. Smith had already plundered £350 in cash from her and her jewelry as well, and while she was waiting for him to return from the loo he was back at their hotel, swiping her clothing and the rest of her money. The only wife that didn’t fit this pattern was Edith Pegler.

Smith was away from her side for months at a time on “business trips” and when he returned it was always to ask for money, but he never left her for good and they remained together for seven years. As to whether he actually harbored some form of affection for her or whether he just didn’t want to kill his cash cow while it was still milkable, we can only speculate. Yet all these women were, in a sense, lucky. Smith may have broken their hearts and taken their cash, but he left them their lives. … ‘Til Death Do Us Part The first unlucky wife was Bessie Mundy, whom Smith murdered on July 13, 1912. They’d married in August 1910, but he left her after persuading her to give him £150 in cash. On the way out the door, he accused her of giving him a venereal disease. Eighteen months later, Bessie ran into Smith on the street. Somehow, the charmer got his ex to forgive him and resume their relationship.

In fact, Smith wanted to get his hands on Bessie’s £2,500 inheritance, but it was in trust and he couldn’t touch it. After their reunion, the couple drew up mutual wills, naming each other as beneficiaries. Bessie willed her husband £2,579. Less than a week later, she was mysteriously dead. Smith rented a house for them in Herne Bay and had a new cast-iron bathtub installed. Tragically, Bessie drowned in the bath. Her husband said he’d been out buying dinner and returned to discover the body. Since Smith claimed his bride suffered from epilepsy and that she’d had a seizure the day before she died, it was easy to believe she’d simply had an unfortunate accident. In spite of his newfound wealth, Smith had Bessie consigned to a pauper’s grave and even returned the slightly-used bathtub to the ironmonger for a £1 17s. refund. This, perhaps, is where Smith might have counted himself lucky and checked out of the homicide business — or at least thought about a different m.o. Instead, hubris and habit got him hanged.

The Brides of Bath murder victims: from left to right, Bessie Mundy, Alice Burnham, and Margaret Lofty. Next to go was Alice Burnham, who was making a goodly living as a nurse. Smith married on November 4, 1913, and became her widower on December 13. Alice and her new husband were honeymooning at a seaside boardinghouse in Blackpool when she drowned in the bathtub while he was supposedly out getting eggs. Smith, who claimed she had a weak heart, had insured her life for £500. She too was buried on the cheap. Margaret Elizabeth Lofty died in her London home a little over a year later, on December 18, 1914. Newspapers reported she had drowned in the bathtub while her husband — identified as Robert Lloyd — was out buying tomatoes. He and the landlady found the body. Lofty and “Lloyd” had married only the day before and, appropriately enough, the ceremony was performed in the city of Bath. Although it was initially classified as death by misadventure, Margaret’s murder ultimately lead to Smith’s downfall.

Rotten luck, it was: Alice Burnham’s father read an account of her death in the newspaper and, even though the husband had a different name, he couldn’t help but notice that Margaret’s death was suspiciously similar to his daughter’s. Joseph Crossley, who was the couple’s landlord at the time of Alice’s death, noticed the same thing. Since both the Burnhams and Crossleys had taken a dislike to Smith from the get-go, they both wrote the police, asking them to open an investigation. Authorities quickly determined that George Joseph Smith and Robert Lloyd were the same man. They sure had the same playbook. Margaret had made out a will just hours before she died, naming her husband the sole heir to her estate. She had also withdrawn her life savings from the bank the same day, and three days before she had taken out a £700 life insurance policy on herself, with her husband as the beneficiary. Ka-ching. When the grieving widower showed up at the insurance office to collect on Margaret’s policy, he was arrested. Lloyd/Smith was initially charged with putting a false name on a marriage certificate, but bigamy and murder charges would follow fast.

When news of the arrest was published, a police chief from Kent read the story and told the London police about Bessie Mundy’s death, which was strikingly similar to the other two. Forever Hold Your Peace But how could he could have drowned the women in the tub, without leaving marks of violence on their body? Margaret had only a small bruise on her elbow. For answers, the police turned to renowned pathologist Bernard Spilsbury . The first thing he did was exhume the bodies to determine whether the women had, in fact, drowned. They had. After experimenting with the very same bathtub Margaret Lofty died in, he determined how it might have happened. John Brophy, a crime writer, describes it chillingly: With honeymoon playfulness he would enter the room where his bride was already in the bath, admire her naked beauty, bend over her fondly, and, still murmuring endearments, hold her feet. Suddenly, he would tug her feet upward, jerking her head at the end of the bath, below the water, so that in a few moments she would be drowned with no bruises on the body or other signs of assault or resistance. Effective. Actually, you can see why he stuck to his system.

When Smith went to trial, it was only for the murder of Bessie; British law didn’t permit him to be tried for multiple murders in one go. However, the prosecution wanted to bring evidence in the Lofty and Burham deaths into the trial, arguing that they indicated a criminal “system.” The judge allowed it, setting a precedent that would be used in later criminal cases . In pretrial investigations later described in court, Spilsbury demonstrated his murder theory using Bessie’s bathtub and a female police officer in a bathing suit. It worked all too well: she lost consciousness immediately and they had to drag her out of the tub and perform artificial respiration to revive her. No wonder the jury was only out for twenty-two minutes before it delivered a guilty verdict. Caroline Thornhill, Smith’s legal wife, returned to Britain for his trial. She married a Canadian soldier the day after his execution. The “Brides in the Bath” case has remained vividly alive in British memory.

The historian Harold Nicholson compared Smith’s behavior to Adolf Hitler’s in his 1939 book, Why Britain is at War ; Smith was mentioned in novels by Evelyn Waugh, Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers, and in 1952 the case was made into an episode for the true-crime radio show The Black Museum . Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here . You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser. More recently, in 2003 the murders were featured into made-for-TV movie called The Brides in the Bath . Warning: Video contains NSFW naked ladyparts. Oh, and homicide. Part of the Themed Set: Branded . On this day.. George Joseph Smith and the Brides in the Bath|MurderMap - London Homicide Reported Direct from The Old Bailey Categories: Domestic Case synopsis: The 'Brides in the Bath' murder case was an international sensation at a time when millions were dying in the trenches of World War One and Zeppelins were flying over London.

It is the story of three women who died in almost identical circumstances shortly after marrying a bigamous swindler called George Joseph Smith. Smith's crimes only came to light after the third victim was found drowned in a bathtub in Highgate, north London. Margaret Lofty was 38 years old and desperate to escape spinsterhood when she met Smith - then using the name of John Lloyd - in late 1914. On December 17 that year, a week after taking out a £700 life insurance policy, she married him at Bath Registry Office before taking a train to London and renting a room at 14 Bismarck Road (now Waterlow Road). The following day the couple went to a solicitor's office on Islington High Street to draw up a will leaving all of Margaret's possessions to her husband. At just before 8pm, Margaret took a bath. A few minutes later the landlady heard the sound of splashing, a noise like someone grabbing the side of the tub and then a sigh. Moments later a song started to play on the harmonium. It was 'Nearer My God to Thee', the hymn supposedly played as the Titanic sank.

Her husband then left the house, supposedly to buy tomatoes for supper, and on his return made a show of not getting an answer when he knocked on the bathroom door. The landlady Louisa Blatch responded to his call for help and saw him trying to get his wife out of the bath. Her body was cold, her lips blue and swollen, and froth was coming from her nose and mouth. There were no signs of a struggle and the doctor carrying out the postmortem believed she must have fainted in the bath. Margaret was buried at Islington Cemetery on December 23 and on January 1 an inquest recorded a verdict of accidental death. 'John Lloyd' then disappeared owing 10s in rent. The truth only emerged because of the suspicions of a Mr Charles Burnham, whose daughter had also drowned in a bath at a boarding house in Blackpool a year earlier. In January 1915 he sent newspaper clippings about both the Blackpool and Highgate cases to Detective Inspector Arthur Neil at Scotland Yard and asked him to investigate. The following month the police arrested George Smith as he visited his solicitor's office in Uxbridge Road, Shepherd's Bush.

A week later, on February 8, the detectives learned that a third woman, Bessie Mundy, had drowned in a bathtub in Herne Bay on July 13, 1912. Her husband, a man by the name of Henry Williams, had collected more than £2,500 left in her will drawn up five days before her death. Witnesses and relatives of the victims quickly confirmed that John Lloyd and Henry Williams were in fact George Joseph Smith, born on January 11, 1872, at 90 Roman Road in Bethnal Green, east London. As the investigation continued a series of women came forward to say that they too had fallen prey to George Smith. It emerged that Smith had made a habit of pursuing women, marrying them and then disappearing with all their money. Only the first marriage, to an 18 year-old baker's assistant in 1898, was genuine. There were seven other 'wives' including the three murder victims. On June 22, 1915, Smith went on trial at the Old Bailey for the murder of Bessie Mundy (the murders of Alice Burnham and Margaret Lofty were used as supporting evidence).

The case was notorious not only because of the dominating, almost hypnotic figure of George Joseph Smith but also the role of pathologist Bernard Spilsbury, said to be the 'father of modern forensics.' Spilsbury, who also gave evidence in the trials of Dr Crippen and Frederick Seddon, came up with the theory that Smith yanked the victims' feet up as they lay in the bath, causing their heads to sink under the water. The sudden rush of water into their nose and mouth caused them to lose consciousness and quickly drown. The jury took 22 minutes to find Smith guilty of murder on July 1. He was executed on August 13, 1915, his last words to the hangman being: 'I am innocent.' _______ Links and Sources: The Brides in the Bath (TV Movie 2003) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends.

Error The Brides in the Bath ( 2003 ) 1h 39min | Crime , Drama , Mystery | TV Movie 31 December 2003 Dramatisation of the real-life case of George Joseph Smith who was hanged in 1915 for the murder of his three wives, each of whom he killed in turn by drowning them in the bath while trying to make the deaths look like accidents. Director: a list of 82 titles created 20 Jul 2012 a list of 3553 titles created 13 Sep 2012 a list of 1167 titles created 17 Jan 2013 a list of 42 titles created 3 months ago a list of 260 titles created 1 week ago Title: The Brides in the Bath (TV Movie 2003) 6.7/10 Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Add Image Add an image Do you have any images for this title?

Edit Storyline Dramatisation of one of the United Kingdom's most notorious serial murderers of the 20th century, George Joseph Smith. Smith assumed a number of identities in order to carry out bigamy and, driven by a desire for wealth, murder his wives during a period of five years from 1910. Written by Mal McKee 31 December 2003 (UK) See more » Also Known As: As Noivas do Banheiro See more » Filming Locations: Go and take a bath instead 14 February 2004 | by davideo-2 (United Kingdom) – See all my reviews STAR RATING:*****Unmissable****Very Good***Okay**You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead*Avoid At All Costs Originally broadcast on New Years Eve,this true-life tale charts the account of the 1915 trial and execution of George Smith,played by Martin Kemp (Abbey National must have ran out of stuff to flog.)Smith murdered his three wives by drowning them in bathtubs in order to reap the financial benefits each respective one of them represented.

It starts off fairly interestingly,but for some totally weird,unexplainable reason,by the time the second half has come round,the script sort of malfunctions and it becomes weirdly uninteresting,leaving the viewer forced to suffer it through to the final hurdle.Or just switch it off.** 6 of 23 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes The Brides in the Bath » bayguide Jan 17 The Brides in the Bath One hundred years ago this year, Herne Bay was the scene of a notorious Edwardian murder which became national front page news and led to a sensational trial at the Old Bailey. On 13 July 1912, Bessie Williams (above) was found dead in her bath at Number 80 the High Street.

(After the street was renumbered in the 1930s the address where the murder took place became Number 159.) It was discovered that Bessie had made a will five days before her death in favour of her husband, Henry Williams, by which he benefited from £2,579, 13 shillings and 7 pence (about £150,000 today). When his wife’s body was discovered, Henry was questioned closely by the police. However, the opinion of the doctor who examined Bessie’s body apparently convinced them of his innocence. At the inquest, Doctor Frank French, stated that he believed Bessie had suffered an epileptic fit and that the cause of her death had been asphyxia brought about by drowning. When asked whether the death could be due to anything else, Dr French replied, “I have no reason to suspect any other cause than drowning.” The jury at the inquest did not ask for a post mortem and returned a verdict of Death by Misadventure. But Henry Williams was far from innocent and this was not even his real name.

He was really George Joseph Smith and he had married Bessie Mundy a few months earlier with the express intention of getting hold of her inheritance. The couple’s first address in Herne Bay was at Kingsbury Villas, Kings Road, but as part of Henry’s plan to obtain her money, he took her to a better house in the High Street. The property did not have a bathroom so Henry installed a temporary bath in a spare room upstairs, which he ordered from Adolphus Hill, an ironmongers in the High Street (although he never actually paid for it). Henry then convinced both Bessie and her doctor that his wife suffered from fits that caused her to become unconscious. He murdered her by drowning Bessie in the new bath and persuading everyone she had had one of her fits. With Bessie’s legacy secured, Henry (or George) disappeared to the north of England where he married his next victim, Alice Burnham (above). Alice’s father had severe doubts about his prospective son-in-law, whom he described as being ‘of evil appearance’ but the marriage went ahead. Shortly after their wedding, Alice took out life assurance worth £500.

Her body was found drowned in the bath of the couple’s lodgings in Blackpool on 12 December 1913. Once again there was an inquest and once again George Smith walked free. The jury agreed that Alice Smith had ‘accidentally drowned through heart failure when in the bath’. George married his third and last victim in London under the pseudonym of John Lloyd. His wife, Margaret Lofty (below) also took out a life assurance policy soon after their wedding. Her body was discovered at 14 Bismark Road, Highgate, almost exactly one year after Alice’s death. On the afternoon of 18 December 1914, Margaret Lloyd went to see her solicitor and made a will in favour of her new husband. Later the same evening, John Lloyd told the owner of the house that he was going out to buy some tomatoes for his wife’s supper whilst she took a bath. When he returned he called out to Margaret but got no answer. He went into the bathroom and found that she had drowned. The inquest took place on New Year’s Day 1915 and once again a verdict of accidental death was recorded.

On January 3, Joseph Crossley, in whose house Alice Smith’s body had been found, wrote to the Metropolitan Police, enclosing a newspaper cutting about the death of Margaret Lloyd. He drew their attention to the remarkable similarities between her death and that of his lodger, Alice, a year earlier. The police began an investigation and it was quickly apparent that George Joseph Smith had many other aliases and wives. He had married Caroline Thornhill (under his real name) in 1898 and Edith Peglar (using the name Oliver George Love) in 1908, even though his first wife was still alive. When he married Bessie Mundy (as Henry Williams) in 1910 Edith was also living. George Smith was arrested on 1 February 1915 in Uxbridge Road, by Divisional Detective Inspector Arthur Neil. He appeared at Bow Street Police Court on 8 February charged initially with causing a false entry to be made in a marriage register. The chief police officer of Herne Bay read a report of the arrest and circumstances of the enquiry and contacted Inspector Neil. He drew his attention to the similarities between the case and the earlier death of Bessie Mundy.

The bodies of all three victims were exhumed and re-examined by Neil and pathologist, Doctor Bernard Spilsbury. On 23 March, Smith was charged with the murders of Bessie, Alice and Margaret and sent for trial at the Old Bailey. During Inspector Neil’s investigation he formed the opinion that it would be impossible for anyone to accidentally drown in any of the baths in question. The investigation is now famous as one of the earliest to use modern forensic techniques to provide sufficient evidence to convict Smith of the murders. George Smith was found guilty and sentenced to death on 1 July. It took the jury just twenty minutes to reach their verdict. He was executed at Maidstone Gaol on 13 August 1915. A film based on his life and trial was produced by Yorkshire Television in 2003. It was written by Glenn Chander, creator of Taggart, and starred Martin Kemp as Smith.

Question: What was the name of the 'Brides in the Bath Murderer'?
Answer: George SMITH