Solved Murders - True Crime Stories - The Brides in the Bathtub A Killer’s Trick That Changed Forensic History Forever #44

Episode Date: August 24, 2025

#horrorstories #reddithorrorstories #ScaryStories #creepypasta #horrortales #truecrime #forensics #murdermystery #coldcase #criminology  This true crime story unveils a chilling case where a cunning killer’s gruesome method baffled investigators and revolutionized forensic science forever. A dark and twisted tale of murder, deception, and the birth of modern forensic techniques.  horrorstories, reddithorrorstories, scarystories, horrorstory, creepypasta, horrortales, truecrime, forensic, murder, killer, mystery, deception, coldcase, investigation, criminology, darkhistory, thriller, justice, unsolved, macabre

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So, let me take you back to London in December of 1914. This was a time when people still relied on horse-drawn carriages in some parts of the city, when gas lamps flickered on foggy streets, and when a story like the one I'm about to tell you would send chills through polite society. It starts innocently enough, a young couple, newly married and full of life, heads off for their honeymoon. A time for joy, right? But for Margaret Elizabeth Lloyd, it turned into her final chapter.

Margaret was beautiful, charming, and deeply in love, or at least that's what everyone thought. She and her new husband, Lloyd, arrived in London full of plans to celebrate their new life together. They rented a little place to stay during their honeymoon, a quaint residence with all the comforts of the time. But within days, tragedy struck. Margaret had been feeling unwell. Nothing dramatic, just a little under the weather. Lloyd, the attentive husband, accompanied her to the doctor, and they were told it was probably just a mild cold.

Back at the house, Margaret decided she needed a bath to relax. She filled the tub, stepped in, and never came out alive. Lloyd said he found her there, motionless, drowned in the bathwater. The doctor came, examined the scene, and declared it an unfortunate accident. His theory. Margaret's cold, combined with the heat of the bath, caused her to faint. She slipped under the water and drowned. A terrible, tragic mishap, it seemed.

But Inspector Arthur Fowler Neal wasn't so sure. When Neil arrived to investigate, he noticed a few odd things right away. First, the landlord mentioned something strange. Before renting the house, Lloyd had spent an unusual amount of time inspecting bathroom. He wasn't just making sure the place was clean or the plumbing worked. He studied that bathtub with a peculiar intensity, like a man planning something. Neil measured the bathtub carefully. It was a standard iron tub, about 50 inches long at the bottom, 60 inches across at the top. And Neil couldn't wrap his mind around how an adult woman could drown in such a shallow,

cramped space. You'd think she could just sit up, right? Something didn't add up. So Neil went back to question the doctor again. The doctor still stood by his original assessment. There were no bruises, no cuts, no signs of a struggle. Margaret simply drowned. But Neil caught another odd detail, Lloyd didn't seem grief-stricken in the slightest. He didn't weep. He didn't act devastated. Instead, he bought Margaret the cheapest coffin possible and arranged for a quick burial. For a man who just lost his bride, his behavior seemed cold. Then there was another twist. Margaret, just before her death, had drawn up a will leaving everything to Lloyd. And Neil discovered that there was also an insurance policy,

which would pay out a substantial sum to the grieving widower. Neal's instincts screamed that this wasn't just a tragic accident. This was murder. As Neil dug deeper, he found a pattern that chilled him to the bone. In the previous two years, 1912 and 1913, there had been two eerily similar cases. Two other newlywed brides, both drowned in bathtubs while on their honeymoons. Both had fallen slightly ill beforehand and visited doctors. One had a heart condition, the other epilepsy. Both deaths had been ruled accidental. And in both cases, the widowed husbands inherited everything. Could it be a coincidence? Neil didn't think so. He analyzed the husband's identities. The names were different, but the similarities were too strong to ignore. Could it be

the same man using aliases, marrying women, killing them for their money, and moving on to the next victim? Soon, Neil caught up with Lloyd. The man was arrested, and Neil confronted him with his suspicions. At first, Lloyd, calm, smug, denied everything. He smirked, perhaps thinking he was too clever to be caught. But when Neil threatened to charge him for registering marriages under false names, Lloyd cracked. He admitted the truth, he was indeed the husband of all three dead brides. His real name, George Joseph Smith. Born in 1872, Smith was the son of an insurance agent. But his life had been anything but respectable. He'd spent years in and out of prison for fraud and theft.

Still, there was a problem, no one had ever seen him commit murder. And there were no marks on the women's bodies, no obvious signs of violence. Neil had his man, but he didn't yet have an explanation that would hold up in court. How had Smith drowned these women without leaving a single clue? To solve this, Neil turned to one of the brightest minds of his time. Dr. Bernard Spillsbury, a brilliant pathologist who was building a reputation in forensic science. There's so much rugby on Sports Extra from Sky,

they've asked me to read the whole lad at the same speed I usually use for the legal bit at the end. Here goes. This winter sports extra is jam-packed with rugby. For the first time we've got every Champions Cup match exclusively live, plus action from the URC, the Challenge Cup, and much more. Thus the U.S.C and all the best European rugby all in the same place.

Get more exclusively live tournaments than ever before on Sports Extra. Jam-pack with rugby. Phew, that is a lot of rugby. Get Sports Extra on Sky for 15 euro a month for 12 months. Search Sports Extra. New Sports Extra customers only. Standard Pressing applies after 12 months for the terms apply. Kalini, did you know if your age between 25 and 65?

Well, you can get a free HPV cervical check. It's one of the best ways to protect yourself from cervical cancer. And you know what? I actually checked only recently when mine was due and no exaggeration. It took me less than five minutes. You go online to hse.e. Forward slash cervical check. Put in your PPS number.

Sheik in the date of birth. And then they tell you when your next appointment is due. Oh my God. It's real. And you can check her on the register on the website You can phone [phone]. If your test is due today, you can book it today or hcc.i.e. 4.slash cervical check.

Very examined the bathtubs carefully. All three tubs were brought to the police station and he walked around them, thinking. He focused on one victim in particular, the epileptic bride. She had been five feet seven inches tall, taller than the bathtub. Even if she'd had a seizure,

the way her body was found didn't make sense. During a seizure, the body usually stiffens, and the upper torso would have risen above the water. It was unlikely she would have slid fully under and drowned without a fight. But then Spilsbury noticed something odd in all three cases, the women were found with their heads underwater and their legs stretched out, feet sticking up above the surface. He began to develop a theory. What if the killer didn't push their heads down? That would have left bruises or defensive wounds as the women fought back.

What if, instead, he grabbed their feet and yanked suddenly? The unsuspecting brides, lying relaxed in the bath, would have been pulled toward the lower end of the tub. Their heads would slip underwater, and water would rush into their noses and throats. Panic, coughing, and in that moment of chaos, they'd lose consciousness before they even realized what was happening. It was a bold theory, but was it possible? To test it, Neil arranged an experiment. He hired a female swimmer about the same size and weight as the victims. She lay in the bathtub while Neil tried to push her head underwater.

As expected, she resisted easily, grabbing the sides of the tub and preventing him from submerging her. But when Neil suddenly grabbed her feet and jerked them upward, her body slid down, her head plunged under the water, and she did. didn't have time to react. Within seconds, she stopped moving. Horrified, Neil pulled her out of the water. Her head lulled lifelessly to the side. For 30 terrifying minutes, he and the attending doctor worked to revive her. When she finally regained consciousness, she remembered nothing except a sudden rush of water into her nose and mouth before everything went black. That experiment confirmed Spillsbury's theory, George Joseph Smith had found a perfect murder method. It left no marks, no signs of struggle. It looked like an accident every single

time. On June 22nd, 1915, George Joseph Smith went on trial at the old Bailey. The jurors were riveted, and horrified, as Neil explained how the murders had been carried out. Spillsbury's expert testimony sealed Smith's fate. The evidence was too strong, the method too damning. Smith was convicted of murder and sentence to death. The case became famous worldwide. Inspector Neal was celebrated as a brilliant detective, and Spilsbury rose to fame as one of the pioneers of forensic science. Their work showed how science and intuition could catch even the most cunning killers. And so, George Joseph Smith, alias Lloyd, the bathtub killer, met his end. But his story lives on as a chilling reminder, sometimes the most ordinary seeming people,

hide the darkest secrets. The end.