George Smith | Serial Killer
George Smith
Born: 01-11-1872
Brides in the Bath Murders
American Serial Killer
Crime Spree: 1912 – 1914
Hanged on 08-13-1915
George Smith was a bigamist and a vicious predator of women. He was also a serial killer of the worst kind. (As though one kind might somehow be better or worse than another) He was a very persuasive man who used aliases and lies to get near the woman he ‘wanted.’
Married At Least Eight Times
The first time George Smith married it was actually legal. The rest however were bigamous. And, quite honestly, was simply a means to an end. He explained his frequent absences from the woman he really ‘married’ in 1908 by pretending to be an antiques dealer making business trips around the country.
In truth, he was swindling women out of their money then, most times, scooting on down the road.
At other times, however, he murder them.
George Smith
George Smith killed Bessie Mundy in 1912 after she had made a will in his favor. He killed Alice Burnham in 1913 after she too created a will in his favor and taking out life insurance policies with him as the beneficiary.
In 1914 he married Margaret Elizabeth Lofty. He took her to a doctor one evening, after she had taken out life insurance, with George as the beneficiary of course. He told the doc that his wife was suffering from a headache. George drowned her the very next day.
In all three cases George took the woman to live in a town where she knew no one. He would find the local doctor and say there was something wrong with her health. And of course he was the heart broken victim when the poor lady was found drowned in her tub. He was finally caught after a report of Lofty’s inquest in the News of the World was seen by Burnham’s father, who spotted the similarities in both women’s demise and informed the authorities.
George Smith Is Arrested
George Smith was arrested in 1915 and sent for trial at the Old Bailey. One of the strange things about the deaths was that the women’s bodies showed no sign of violence or of resistance. Bernard Spilsbury, the distinguished pathologist who gave evidence for the prosecution, suggested that Smith had pulled each victim’s legs up suddenly so that her head went under the water and she quickly drowned. Smith’s equally distinguished defense counsel, Edward Marshall Hall, privately thought he had used hypnotism. The jury convicted him and he was hanged at Maid-Stone Prison in Kent on August 13th. He was just 45 years old.
Source: history today| en.wikipedia.org | murderpedia
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