George Joseph Smith

George Joseph Smith was convicted of the murder of three women, Beatrice Constance Annie Mundy 31, Alice Burnham 25 and Margaret Elizabeth Lofty 38, and sentenced to death.

He drowned them all in baths and the case became known as 'The Brides in the Bath Murders'.

He was caught after the landlady of his second victim in Blackpool became suspicious and informed the police when she read of the death of his third victim in very similar circumstances in Highgate.

The police were unaware of the pattern at the time and had no reason to suspect either foul play or of George Smith having committed murder. However, after they carried out certain investigations they developed evidence of a clear pattern and arrested George Smith, at first on fraud after he made a false entry in a marriage register. However, he was later charged with the three murders and tried at the Old Bailey where he was convicted. However, the trial was noteworthy for the use of the method of 'system' in which George Smith was not tried for all three murders, but rather the jury were asked whether they agreed that there had been a pattern in the deaths, that being that all women were drowned in baths and that upon agreeing that, if they felt that George Smith was responsible for one murder, that of Beatrice Mundy, and that there was a pattern that he was therefore guilty of all three murders.