True crime buffs may have heard of the ‘Brides in the Bath’ case which captivated the nation more than a century ago.

Ice-hearted killer and serial bigamist George Joseph Smith murdered three of his eight wives by drowning them in the bathtub in a real life Edwardian-era horror story that made headlines across the globe.

The moustached-murderer would eventually go to the gallows for his crimes, however, what is less well known is that the sinister conman had Southend connections.

He bought a house in the town and lived here with one of his wives for a time. He actually purchased the home from the proceeds of ripping off a previous spouse. Perhaps he was laying low so she wouldn’t find him? He’d certainly clocked up an ominous rap sheet by this time, although he was yet to commit his first murder.

READ MORE: 

Smith, it seems, was a bad lot from an early age. He was born in Bethnal Green in 1872 but by the age of nine he had been sent to a reformatory school in Gravesend, Kent.

He stayed there until he was 16. In 1891 he was convicted of stealing a bicycle and sentenced to six months hard labour. After that he was in and out of prison over larceny and theft charges.

Then he met an 18-year-old girl name Caroline Thornhill and they married. She would be his only legal wife. Caroline was sent out to work by Smith who just laid about at home, spending her earnings. While married to Caroline, the persistent charmer met Florence Wilson and secretly married her bigamously in 1908.

Smith told Wilson – who was a widow and moderately wealthy for the age – that he was an antiques dealer and persuaded her to give him money for his business. He took the cash and vanished – quite literally. He left her standing in the street while he told her her was popping across to buy a newspaper. He never returned.

He then wed Edith Peglar, the woman he would often return to between marriages and relationships.

Smith went onto exchange vows with numerous women, each time fleecing them for whatever he could get before disappearing. It later transpired that Smith would always demand to see his intended’s bank books before marrying them. He used several aliases and purported to be a successful art dealer and businessman. His victims were usually persuaded to marry him within just weeks or even days of meeting him.

His modus operandi seemed to be working well until he married Alice Smith. She was just 25 and worked as a nursing assistant. The pair lived in a boarding house in Blackpool for a few weeks after their wedding but then Alice suddenly died after ‘drowning’ in the bathtub.

The owner of the boarding house, Joseph Crossley, suspected something was up, especially after Smith seemed unfazed by his wife’s death and even remarked to him “when they’re dead, they’re dead.”

Crossley wrote a letter to Scotland Yard explaining how he feared Alice’s husband might have been responsible for her death. Crossley also sent the police a press cutting of another bathtub murder where a woman had died in suspiciously similar circumstances. Crossley believed Smith could have been responsible for both.

The press clipping reported on the death of a woman named Margaret Lloyd, aged 38. She had died in London in December 1914 in the same way as Alice – in her bathtub.

Detective Inspector Arthur Neil, of Scotland Yard, read the letter from Crossley and jumped on the case. Neil, a veteran detective, visited the Lloyds’ former home and discovered that Margaret had emptied her bank account on the day of her death and made a new will only days before she died. The sole beneficiary was her husband, ‘John Lloyd’. Similarly, Alice Smith had taken out insurance and made a new will shortly before dying, and the sole beneficiary was also her husband.

Neil wondered if ‘John Lloyd’ and ‘George Smith’ were the same person. They were.

After laying a spectacular trap for Smith, Det Insp Neil arrested him. It seemed the mysterious and sinister case had finally been cracked but then things took an even darker turn. There was a third murdered wife.

A senior police officer in Herne Bay, Kent, had read newspaper reports on the case which jogged his memory about an “accidental” death under suspiciously similar circumstances on his patch. A young woman named Beatrice “Bessie” Williams (formerly Beatrice Mundy) had also died in her bathtub, in July 1912, her body having been discovered by her husband Henry. She was aged 35.

The officer wrote to Neil, asking for a mugshot of George Smith. The photo was sent to Herne Bay and it was immediately confirmed that “Henry Williams” was just another alias for George Smith.

Neil now knew he’d caught a serial killer. What he didn’t have, however, was exact proof as to how Smith had murdered his wives. There was minimal evidence of drowning, and no physical signs of the victims having been forced under the water.

Enter renowned pathologist Bernard Spilsbury, who was brought onto the case. Today Spilsbury is considered the father or forensics and at the time he was hailed as ‘the living successor to the mythical Sherlock Holmes’.

Upon examining the three bathtubs, reading over the autopsy reports of the victims, and even performing tests involving the tubs and several volunteers, Spilsbury was able to determine exactly how Smith had committed his heinous crimes.

The three women had died of sudden shock, having been suddenly forced underwater. Smith had grabbed their ankles and pulled, leaving their legs in the air and their heads below the waterline. They would have died within minutes.

What’s more, all three victims had been killed on a Friday evening or Saturday morning. It turned out this was so a coroner could be called swiftly and the burial (normally in a cheap, common grave) could take place before the relatives of the women even knew what was happening.

On March 23, 1916, George Smith was charged with the murders of Margaret Lloyd, Alice Smith, and Bessie Williams. Smith’s trial began in June and it caused a sensation. Women especially were intrigued by the case and queued up outside the Central Criminal Court in London early in the morning in order to grab their spot in the public gallery. They even brought homemade sandwiches along with them for lunch.

The trial turned out to be the longest and most important murder case in Britain for 60 years. Smith denied everything.

Some of the facts that came to light during the hearing revealed just how calculated Smith was. The day before Margaret had died he had complained to the landlady over the size of the bathtub, then after she was dead he moaned to the undertaker about the cost of her coffin and bought the cheapest one he could.

As for Edith Peglar, the woman whose life he flitted in and out of, she told the court how she once told Smith she was going to take a bath when they were living in apartments in Bristol and he replied: “I should advise you to be careful of those things (bathtubs) as it is known that women have often lost their lives through weak hearts and fainting in the bath.”

When the trial was over the jury deliberated for just 20 minutes before rendering a guilty verdict. Smith was sentenced to death by hanging and was executed on August 13, 1915.

It was reported how Smith had spent his final days in almost ‘constant tears’ in his prison cell. On the morning of his execution he collapsed and had to be helped to the scaffold. Cheers rang out from the huge crowd gathered outside as the noose dropped.

At the time of his death Smith was aged 43 and was described as being ‘5ft 8 inches tall, of medium build, with dark hair and a sandy drooping moustache’. He was never considered a looker, but it was apparent that something in his character or demeanour must have been attractive to the opposite sex.

It was during the trial that Smith’s Southend connections came out. He had come to Southend in around 1909 and bought a house at 22 Glenmore Street.

He used £240 he had fleeced from his previous wife Sarah Freeman to buy the home almost outright, with just £20 left on the mortgage.

We can only guess at the relationships he had while here in Southend but we do know that while in the town he wrote to Edith Peglar, asking her to join him.

He also met another wife, Bessie Munday during this time – one of the unlucky victims.

It appears Smith had more than one home in Southend because Peglar told the court during the trial that when she would come to Southend she lived with Smith in an apartment ‘over an antiques shop which he leased’.

Smith later left Southend and went to Bristol where he, of course, married again and bought another home by borrowing money off the Southend property.

Perhaps the only woman in Smith’s life who came out on top was Smith’s first wife Caroline Thornhill.

We passionately believe in providing unrivalled quality journalism and value for money.

With a digital subscription, you can access our exclusive, insightful and trustworthy local news from just £1 a week.

If you are not already subscribing, sign up today to get instant access to our trusted local coverage - and an ad-light experience - check what package works best for you here.

She fled to Canada early in their relationship are realising Smith was bad news. She remarried the day of Smith’s execution, no doubt overjoyed to finally be free of the ‘Brides in the Bath’ murderer.

In 2003 a TV drama was made about the murders starring Martin Kemp as George Smith and film, stage and TV star Richard Griffiths as Sir Edward Marshall Hall, the barrister who defended Smith at his trial.

For some years, Smith’s waxwork was exhibited in the Chamber of Horrors at Madame Tussauds in London. Oddly enough another popular ‘murder waxwork’ at the attraction at this time was of James Canham Read who had become infamous as ‘the Southend Murderer’. He too was a lothario and was executed after murdering his pregnant mistress Florence Dennis in Southend in 1894.

The 23-year-old was found dead in a stagnant brook near Prittlewell. She was eight months pregnant and died from a single gunshot to the temple.

Read was hanged at Chelmsford. His waxwork was eventually melted down in 1949.