MARRIED THREE WIVES

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 71, 24 March 1915, Page 6

MARRIED THREE WIVES

ALL DIED IN THE BATH. A LONDON BLUEBEARD. 'Received 10.5 ajn.) LONDON, March" 23. George Smith is now charged with having murdered three of his wives, namely, Beatrice Mundy, in July, 1912, Alice Burnha.ni. in December, 1913, and Margaret Lofty, in December, 1914. When the iieeuscd came before the Court Mr. Bodkin, who appeared for the Crown, said that Smith obtained £2,800 by the death of two of the women, and might have obtained £700 by the death of the third. In the period during which the crimes were committed Smith intermittently cohabited with a fourth woman, with whom he liad gone through a bogus form of marriage. Smith's legal wife, whom he married in IS9S, was still alive. In tlie three cases the prisoner had persuaded the women to make wills appointing him sole legatee. All the women were drowned in baths, and Smith was in each case the first to discover the death. The woman Mundy was the daughter of a bank manager at Weymouth, and she inherited £2,500. Smith was born in London forty-three years ago. For some time he was a dealer in second-hand furniture and antiques. Mr. Bodkin said that after each death Smith disappeared, and rejoined Edith Pegler, whom be married in 100S, but left for weeks ami months at a time. Muudy purchased a bath for 37/6 on July sth, and executed her will on the Sth. The prisoner on tbe 10th called in a doctor and said his wife had had a fit. The doctor examined the woman, but found no signs of tbe occurrence. Again on the 12th the doctor was called in, but did not notice anything. On the 13th the doctor found Mundy in the bath with her head submerged. Mr. Bodkin asserted that the head must have been forced under or the legs raised in order to allow the head to slide down. Smit'i insured the woman Burnham for £500 on December 4th. Upon arriving at Blackpool on the 10th he refused to take apartments where there was no bathroom. Smith consulted a doctor about.Burnham's headaches. The woman was drowned on the 12th, and a quantity of hair was found on the sides of the bath, as though someone had struggled. Prisoner insisted that both Mundy and Burnham should be buried inexpensively in a public graveyard. Smith was arrested about a month ago, the first charge against him being that he made a false entry in a marriage registry. As a result of suspicious circumstances, the Home Office ordered the exhumation of the bodies of his three wives, who died shortly after marriage. The last woman with whom he went through the ceremony of marriage said that a few days after the event Smith took all her savings, amounting to about £90, and disappeared.