Landlady brought serial killer to justice after she found murdered bride in hotel bath.
A guest house owner discovered a frightening secret after uncovering a dead bride in her hotel bathtub: the husband was a serial killer.
A new real crime docu-drama short investigates a heinous murder that occurred in the early 1900s. In the presentation, Lucinda Herbert revisits the story of George Smith, a bigamous serial murderer who preyed on wealthy ladies, and the determined guest house landlady who helped bring justice to his victims.
Alice Burnham, sometimes known as the “bride in the bath,” was a young newlywed on her honeymoon at the beach when she was killed. In the 12-minute documentary, Deborah Contessa, a Blackpool crime historian and graveyard tour guide at Layton Cemetery, where Alice is buried, explains how Alice was’swept off her feet’ by the predatory George Smith, who was not the ‘handsome early Edwardian gentleman’ he portrayed himself to be.
The drama, which stars actors, recounts how Alice’s body was discovered jammed in the bathtub several days after her new husband purchased a life insurance policy in her name. While the doctor deemed her death ‘accidental’, the proprietor of the Regent Road bed and breakfast quickly grew suspicious. Ms Contessa explains: “Mrs Crossley was reading the paper one day when she came across an article about a woman who had died in exactly the same way” – which sparked her quest to discover the truth about George Smith.
George Smith was taken to Manchester Prison and eventually executed. Between 1908 and 1914, he had seven bigamous marriages under various aliases.
The case is today recognized as one of the most significant crimes in the history of forensic science, with pioneering techniques utilized to establish Mr Smith’s guilt.
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