George Joseph Smith

George Joseph Smith
George Joseph Smith
Born	George Joseph Smith (1872-01-11)11 January 1872 Bethnal Green, London, England
Died	13 August 1915(1915-08-13) (aged 43) Maidstone, Kent, England
Cause of death	Execution by hanging
Other names	Brides in the Bath Murderer
Criminal penalty	Death
Killings
Victims	3
Span of killings	1912–1914
Country	England
Date apprehended	23 March 1915

George Joseph Smith (11 January 1872 – 13 August 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 significant 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.

The son of an insurance agent, George Joseph Smith was born in Bethnal Green, London. He was sent to a reformatory at Gravesend, Kent, at the age of nine and later served time for swindling and theft. In 1896, he was imprisoned for 12 months for persuading a woman to steal from her employers. He used the proceeds to open a baker's shop in Leicester.

In 1898, he married Caroline Beatrice Thornhill (under another alias, Oliver George Love) in Leicester; it was his only legal marriage (although he also married another woman bigamously the following year). They moved to London, where she worked as a maid for a number of employers, stealing from them for her husband. She was eventually caught in Worthing, Sussex, and sentenced to 12 months. On her release, she incriminated her husband, and he was imprisoned in January 1901 for two years. On his release, she fled to Canada. Smith then went back to his other wife, cleared out her savings, and left.

In June 1908, Smith married Florence Wilson, a widow from Worthing. On 3 July, he left her, but not before taking £30 drawn from her savings account and selling her belongings from their Camden residence in London. On 30 July in Bristol, he married Edith Peglar, who had replied to an advertisement for a housekeeper. He would disappear for months at a time, saying that he was going to another city to ply his trade, which he claimed was selling antiques. In between his other marriages, Smith would always come back to Peglar with money.