George Joseph Smith

George Joseph Smith is known as the ‘Brides in the Bath’ murderer. He married women bigamously, insured them, and then drowned them in the bath. 

Smith was born in Bethnal Green in London on 11 January 1872. His father, Thomas Smith, was an insurance agent and the family was reasonably well off.  When he was 9 years old George Joseph Smith was caught stealing. Smith was sent to a reformatory for 7 years. 

In the 19th century, reformatories were established as an alternative to sending children to prison. In them, discipline was very harsh but boys were supposed to be taught a trade to help them live useful lives when they left.

However, it seems such a severe punishment embittered Smith and left him with a deep resentment of society when he was an adult. He certainly wasn’t reformed.

Like many murderers, Smith had a record of stealing before he turned to murder. He persuaded a woman, who worked as a domestic servant, to steal things for him. However, he was caught in 1896 and sentenced to a year in prison.

After he was released from prison, he used stolen money to open a bakery shop. In 1898, he married Caroline Thornhill. Eventually, his business failed, and he persuaded his wife, who was a servant, to steal from her employers. She was caught and imprisoned, while Smith disappeared. However, when Caroline was released, she spotted Smith by accident, and she called the police. Smith was arrested, convicted, and sentenced to two years in prison. 

Smith then began bigamously marrying women. He would persuade them to give him his savings and then he would disappear. Smith found it easy to find victims because, at that time, many men had emigrated to North America and Australia, hoping for better lives. At the beginning of the 20th century, there was a shortage of eligible bachelors. 

Some women were very keen to get married, as life for a single woman was harder then than it is now. There were far fewer career opportunities for women and not having a husband made life difficult. No doubt, Smith could be charming when he wanted and he beguiled several women.

Eventually, Smith turned to murder. In 1910, he met a woman named Bessie Mundy in Bristol. She had inherited a considerable sum of money from her father. Bessie was in her 30s and, no doubt, was very keen to get married. 

Smith married her using a false name, Henry Williams, in Weymouth. However, Smith could not steal her fortune because her father had left it in the hands of trustees. (Perhaps he feared, rightly, that his daughter was naive and might be cheated out of her fortune). 

However, Bessie did have a relatively small amount of money of her own. Smith persuaded her to give it to him, after which he disappeared. He wrote Bessie a letter accusing her of giving him an STD. It was a pointlessly cruel accusation. 

Attitudes to sex and STDs were, of course, very different in the early 20th century and making such an unkind and shocking accusation shows that Smith was a vicious man.

Unfortunately, Bessie met Smith again in 1912 in Weston-Super-Mare. It was probably by accident that she saw him again. She spoke to Smith, who claimed it was all a misunderstanding. He thought it best to leave her when he found he had an STD, as he didn’t want to infect her. He also claimed he had been looking for her for a long time. Unfortunately, Bessie believed him. Sadly, Bessie was probably a gullible woman.  

The couple moved to Herne Bay in Kent. Smith realised that he could not steal Bessie’s fortune as it was held by trustees, as long as she was alive. However, if she made a will leaving it all to him and then died, he would inherit it. He could not obtain her money except by killing her. So Smith persuaded Bessie to make a will in his favour. He thought of an ingenious (and horrendous) way to murder Bessie and make it look like an accident. Smith went to an ironmonger and purchased an iron bath. He also sought out a doctor and told him Bessie had suffered an epileptic fit, although Bessie said she had only suffered headaches. 

On 12 December 1913 Bessie drowned in the bath. It’s thought that Smith grabbed her legs and pulled them upwards. The unfortunate woman’s head was submerged and the water rushing into her nostrils caused instant unconsciousness. Smith then held her until she drowned. There were no injuries to the body and no signs of a struggle. 

Smith summoned the doctor who found Bessie on her back in the bath with her legs protruding over the edge. 

The doctor assumed it was an accident, Bessie, he thought, had suffered a fit and had drowned in her bath. Subsequently, Smith inherited her fortune. 

Incredibly, Smith then took the iron bath back to the ironmonger and asked for a refund. He also arranged the cheapest possible funeral for Bessie. Such callous behaviour was likely to alienate people. If Smith had any sense, he would have tried to appear distraught over the death of his wife. In some ways, Smith was a very stupid man. Smith inadvertently left one vital clue. 

Bessie was clutching a bar of soap tightly in her hand when she died. The doctor noted that and later it was a useful piece of evidence against Smith.

Nevertheless, having got away with murder and made a great deal of money, Smith was bound to try it again. In 1913, he met a 25-year-old woman named Alice Burnham. He married her in November. Alice had some savings and Smith insured her life. 

Smith took the unfortunate woman to Blackpool and they stayed in a boarding house owned by Mrs Crossley. Once again, Smith summoned a doctor for his wife, claiming she was suffering from headaches. Smith drowned the unfortunate woman in a bath. Smith discovered the victim, and an inquest found that Alice accidentally drowned while having a fit. Smith inherited some money from her. He also pocketed her life insurance money. Once again, Smith shocked and alienated people by refusing to spend more than the bare minimum on a funeral. Mrs Crossley, who owned the boarding house, was suspicious of Smith but could not prove anything. An inquest was held but it found that Alice had drowned accidentally. 

The next victim was Margaret Lofty. Smith met her in Bath in 1914 and he persuaded her to marry him. This time, he called himself John Lloyd. Once again, Smith insured the woman and he persuaded her to make a will, leaving all her money to him. 

The couple married on 18 December 1914 and went to stay in a boarding house in London. On her wedding night, Smith called a doctor and told him his new wife was ill. Smith then told the landlady he was going to buy some tomatoes for his wife’s supper. 

On returning, he rang the doorbell. That was odd because he had a key. Smith had probably already drowned his wife but he wanted the landlady to know he was going out and when he returned. No doubt he hoped that when the death was discovered, the landlady would think Smith’s wife had drowned while he was out. 

However, this time, Smith’s luck ran out. The two previous deaths had been reported in local newspapers but this time the death of a woman on her honeymoon made it into the national press. The News of the World reported the story in some detail. Luckily, Mrs Crossley, the landlady of a boarding house in Blackpool where Smith murdered a previous victim, read it. So did Thomas Burnham, the father of Alice Burnham, whom Smith murdered in 1913. Both of them were struck by the similarities in the death of Margaret Lofty in December 1914 and that of Alice Burnham in 1913. Both suspected that  ‘John Lloyd’ was Smith using a different name. They urged the police to investigate. 

The police did. They quickly found that the last victim, Margaret Lofty, had been insured only three days before she died. She also made a will leaving everything to her husband, just hours before she died. They also found out that Alice Burnham had been insured shortly before her death.

The police waited for Smith to claim the insurance money for his last victim, Margaret Lofty. When he did, a detective asked him if he was John Lloyd. Smith said he was. The detective then asked if he was George Smith. At first, Smith denied it but eventually he was forced to admit it. He was arrested on a charge of bigamy.

The police then found that a similar suspicious death had taken place in Herne Bay, Kent, in 1912. It was the first victim, Bessie Mundy. However, the police could not explain why there were no signs of a struggle or injuries on the bodies. 

Surely if Smith grabbed a woman’s head and held it underwater, she would have struggled desperately? The brilliant pathologist Bernard Spilsbury provided the answer. If someone grabbed a woman’s legs and pulled them upward, her head would be submerged and she would instantly lose consciousness. 

A nurse volunteered for an experiment. She lay in a bathtub and a man pulled up her legs. As Spilsbury predicted, she almost instantly lost consciousness. 

The brave woman had to be revived by a doctor. Nevertheless, the police could now prove how Smith had drowned his victims, with no signs of a struggle. 

It was also remembered that the first victim, Bessie Mundy, was tightly gripping a bar of soap in her hand when she was found. If she had suffered a fit, her hand would have relaxed and let it go. It was evidence that the loss of consciousness must have been sudden. 

Smith was charged with murder, and he went on trial on 22 June 1915. Not surprisingly, he was found guilty and he was hanged on 13 August 1915.