(dramatic music)
*
(moans)
*
(Nicholas) For many centuries,
London was a dangerous place.
*
It was a magnet for the very worst kind of people.
Jack the Ripper dominated the headlines.
But he wasn't the only killer around.
*
Murder was afoot.
*
And the fear of death was everywhere.
*
But police had their work cut out
to track the culprits down.
*
In this series, we'll be investigating
some of the city's most notorious and intriguing crimes.
*
(defense attorney) The female defendant...
*
(narrator) Sexual intrigue...
(gunshot)
...vicious murder...
*
...as well as the latest technology,
fed the nation's insatiable desire
for gruesome stories of London's dark side.
*
In the early 20th century,
all was not well on the continent.
Tensions were mounting across Europe
and revolutionary movements were forming.
Many of the most ardent revolutionaries
were sent into exile,
and London was one of the few places
where they were welcomed.
(dark music)
(Donald) Britain was a refuge for people escaping
the pogroms in Tsarist Russia and Eastern Europe,
and so they fled to this country.
And it was an open door policy,
which infuriated the Russians.
Some of them were committing crime,
and it was a matter of great concern.
(crowd sounds)
(Donald) Surprisingly, they could come in with weapons.
(sinister music)
*
(Nicholas) Lenin would make London his home in 1908,
along with many other Marxists.
The huge losses of the Great War were soon to take their toll,
and terrible outbreaks of violence and murder
were already spreading throughout the capital.
*
(Alan) They introduced what they called the Aliens Act
to register aliens because of concern
about people coming into the country
and the fear of crime
that some of them would be committing.
*
(Nicholas) In 1909, the Tottenham Outrage shocked the city
when two Jewish anarchists from the Russian Empire
carried out an armed robbery that killed two people
including a police officer, William Tyler.
As a result, anti-Semitism and fear of immigration
started to ferment.
A year later, the Metropolitan Police
would be involved in one
of the most shocking chapters in its history,
the Siege of Sidney Street in the Whitechapel Area.
(dramatic music)
*
It all began when another gang of anarchists,
this time from Latvia,
committed the Houndstitch Murders in East London.
(Alan) Some burglars were breaking in to a jewelers
in Houndstitch.
Um, city police officers attended,
and they were met by this fire power
from very powerful weapons.
Two police sergeants and one PC were murdered.
(dark music)
(Nicholas) Members of the Scots Guards from the Tower of London
were sent to assist the police.
The situation was so serious
that the Home Secretary of the time,
Winston Churchill,
decided he had to head on over to Sidney Street immediately.
*
(Alan) Winston Churchill himself turned up
and actually took charge of the operation.
There was smoke coming from the windows of the house.
By about 2:00 in the afternoon,
the fire had taken hold.
Eventually, the roof of the house collapsed
and there was clearly nobody who was gonna be alive
and they found the two dead bodies.
*
(Nicholas) At the same time as the Tottenham Outrage
and the Siege of Sidney Street,
the suffragette movement was becoming far more militant,
and one vicious individual
was taking advantage of the position
in which many women found themselves.
With no vote and limited economic and legal power,
women faced gross inequality.
Assumptions about their feeble intellect
and incomparability with men abounded,
even while the suffragette movement was fighting back.
*
(Donald) The latter half of the 19th century
saw a lot of acts being passed in favor of women's rights.
Allowing women to keep their own property,
allowing them to have their own children,
separation from her husband.
All of these things came into being.
But women were still denied political rights.
The WSPU, the Women's Social and Political Union,
led by Mrs. Pankhurst,
are the most aggressive of the suffragettes.
They started off in a small way
smashing shop windows in Oxford Street.
Attacks were carried out on politicians.
One of the most famous caught Winston Churchill,
who was opposed to women having the vote,
and gave him a flogging with a dog whip, uh,
which attracted a certain amount of attention.
(laughs)
*
(Nicholas) For most, the only hope of being provided for
was in the societal structure that so constrained them,
marriage.
*
(Alan) By today's standards, women had a rough deal.
If they married, then the husband
would normally take complete legal possession
of their joint property.
And so if a young lady had money of her own,
then, uh, it could be a very difficult position.
*
(Nicholas) So for young girls,
the pressure to find a husband
before it was too late was acute,
as was the ensuing desperation
for those older, still unmarried women
that society threatened to leave behind.
These women were numerous
and easy prey for certain men.
*
One such woman was Margaret Lofty,
who in 1914 at the age of 38,
had married a mysterious fellow
who went by the name of John Lloyd,
and who seemed pretty well off.
*
Margaret had had a hard life
and marriage seemed to have passed to her by.
So you can imagine her excitement
at this late bloom of love.
The vulnerable, still heartbroken Margaret
fell hard for the rich older man.
She hid the relationship from her parents until they were wed.
But poor Margaret only lived one night as a married woman.
The next day, she was drowned in the bath
in the lodgings she took with her new husband.
(sinister music)
*
That husband claimed to have found her dead in the bath,
but all was not as it seemed.
*
News of Margaret's death would eventually reach the desk
of Inspector Arthur Neil of Scotland Yard,
who was already dealing with the challenges presented
by war with Germany.
(soft music)
(Sergeant Reed) Where is it they're all being sent, sir?
*
I mean, what harm's a German green grocer going to do?
Ever tried sauerkraut, Sergeant?
*
(Nicholas) It couldn't have been an easy time to carry out
a complicated police investigation.
The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
had sparked off the events of World War I,
and the United Kingdom had declared war
on the German Empire on August the 4th, 1914.
It was a very nervous time.
(dramatic music)
(siren)
(Inspector Neil) The war was giving us a lot of work.
The Defense of the Realm Act
had us interning aliens,
tracking down deserters,
enforcing curfews.
You couldn't even buy binoculars anymore.
That was banned.
We were so dog tired of it all.
*
(Nicholas) The Metropolitan Police had made preparations in 1913
for the potential outbreak of war.
They were tasked with monitoring the network
of foreign agents working for Kaiser Wilhelm.
Some officers who had retired were brought back into service.
*
David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill
had assigned uniformed women officers
to supervise munition workers,
a measure that would eventually give women
greater consideration within the police service
as a whole.
*
(Donald) There were more police at that time
than I think at any other-- almost any other time.
So policemen would later be called up,
as they were in the Second World War,
and drafted into the services.
But in the initial years when war was only just starting,
I don't think you've got a manpower problem
or a lack of investigative officers.
(Alan) Soldiers back on leave, or what leave they did have,
would cause disturbances,
so there was a need for a police force.
But in a case of murder,
the detectives would always investigate it.
(soft music)
(Nicholas) Among all the challenges thrown out
by the outbreak of war,
Inspector Arthur Neil
would receive a troubling message
from a concerned citizen.
A potential serial killer could be on the loose,
and his use of numerous false names
was going to make him very difficult to track down.
Fortunately, they had one of Scotland Yard's
greatest ever detectives,
along with a genius named Bernard Spilsbury,
a real life Sherlock Holmes,
who would help bring the Metropolitan Police
into the realm of forensic science.
(tense music)
*
Margaret Lofty had died in the bathtub
the day after marrying the mysterious John Lloyd.
At first, it seemed her death had been a tragic accident.
But Scotland Yard was about to receive a message
from a concerned landlord that was to cast suspicion
on Margaret's husband.
*
Fortunately, Inspector Arthur Neil
was on the case.
He would eventually become one of the so-called Big Four,
the four Superintendents in charge
of the Criminal Investigations Department
at Scotland Yard.
*
(Alan) Very tragic.
Only 25, young, healthy woman.
It came to light when a Mr. Burnham
was worried about his daughter Alice,
who had gotten married really, um,
against her parents' wishes.
Um, but she had died on her honeymoon in her bath.
(soft music)
*
(Donald) One of the victims, the father, saw details
of the death of yet another Mrs. Smith,
and went to the authorities.
And this was when the whole case
began to unravel against him.
*
(Alan) Mr. Burnham read another account
in The News of the World
of another incident that had occurred
in similar circumstances
and said, "That's exactly what happened to my daughter."
He went to the police, um,
and Detective Inspector Neil took up inquiries.
*
(Nicholas) Inspector Neil knew that these two sudden deaths in bathtubs
just a year apart couldn't be just a coincidence.
He set out to solve the mystery.
But it was 1915,
and World War I had started.
It wasn't going to be easy to catch a potential serial killer
when the whole continent was about to collapse.
*
The police needed to further investigate
this earlier death in a bathtub.
The first clues to this riddle
lay in the coastal town of Southsea.
(dramatic music)
*
Alice Burnham was a bright, pretty girl of 25.
She was the daughter of a coal trader,
had trained as a nurse,
and by 1913 had found a position
as carer to an elderly man
in the beachside resort of Southsea.
And that is when she met someone.
An older man, certainly,
but single, still quite handsome,
and conveniently rich.
This man of the world seemed besotted with her.
And just a month after their first meeting,
Alice wrote to her parents to say she was engaged.
On the 4th of November, they were married,
against her parents' wishes,
at a register office in Southsea.
And just six weeks later,
she was dead,
drowned in the bath.
*
Her now widowed husband
went by the name of George Joseph Smith.
*
(Alan) Who was George Joseph Smith?
Well, he was a man who had a number of different names.
He had, um, a number of different marriages.
(water splashing)
*
(Donald) He was a sort of petty crook and conman.
I mean, at one point he's supposed to be dealing
in antiques and general sort of wares.
And he had a criminal record when he was in his teens.
He believed in dominating women,
and he could be quite brutal,
quite prepared to beat them
if they didn't do what they were told.
(dark music)
(Nicholas) The similarities between this case
and the recent death of Margaret Lofty
were stark.
But could their husbands,
John Lloyd and George Smith,
be the same man,
or was it just a horrible coincidence?
*
All the police had to work on
was a general description of John Lloyd,
husband of the late Margaret Lofty.
(Inspector Neil) There was no sign of Smith, no sign of Lloyd,
and no clue as to if they were even the same man.
(Sergeant Reed) Age: unknown. Birthplace: unknown.
Height: 5'10. Eyes: Brown.
Walks with knees slightly bent together.
Sir, this could describe half the country.
(soft music)
Time for some real police work then.
*
(Nicholas) Inspector Arthur Neil
was working with Sergeant Harold Reed
who was making inquiries about the Brides in the Bath case.
Together, they would visit the location
where Margaret Lofty had died,
and Reed spoke with the Police Constable
who had been first on the scene.
*
(Police Constable) She was on the floor, naked.
*
I told him to cover her up,
the husband.
It wasn't right.
(Sergeant Reed) What did he look like?
(Police Constable) A bit over 5'9, brown hair, a little gray.
Full mustache.
He was pumping her arms back and forth when I got there,
trying to revive her, I suppose.
*
I took over before the doctor arrived.
*
(Sergeant Reed) I'm sure you did precisely as you were trained.
*
(Police Constable) Bath water was still warm.
*
(Inspector Neil) Lloyd had taken his wife to see the doctor
the day before she died.
Margaret had been suffering from a bad headache, apparently.
Though the doctor said Lloyd did all the talking.
*
(Nicholas) The officers at Kentish Town Police Station
made inquiries across the country
as they tried to find John Lloyd and George Smith
to see if they were indeed one and the same person
and to find out exactly what had happened
to Alice Burnham and Margaret Lofty.
*
Lungs and stomach filled with soapy water,
as you would expect.
But heart normal, brain normal.
*
Any news from Bristol?
(Sergeant Reed) They say without knowing which parish, sir,
there's nothing they can do.
Up to their eyes in work, apparently.
Well, aren't we all?
(phone rings)
*
Yes?
Speaking.
*
Uh-huh.
Yes.
*
Interesting.
Of course, do.
You have the number.
*
Thank you.
*
A week before she died,
Margaret took out life insurance.
£700.
Now her husband's solicitor is trying to claim it.
*
Margaret had lied to get the policy.
She had claimed she was of independent means.
She said she'd had no intention of marrying anyone either.
(dark music)
Lloyd was behind it all, of course.
*
(Donald) He would first of all go to the doctor
saying his wife was having fits or seizures.
Once this would be in place with the doctor,
then he would take out the increased life insurance
and then the wife would be drowned.
*
(Alan) George Joseph Smith went to the solicitor's
to pick up the, uh, details from his, um,
latest new wife's will,
which was going to result in him receiving money.
He found that in the solicitor's office
was Detective Inspector Neil,
who had some very serious questions to ask him.
(Sergeant Reed) George Joseph Smith.
Born 11th of January, 1872,
Old Ford, Bethnal Green.
No regular employment or fixed address.
Sounds a right bounder.
(Inspector Neil) We'll need to find out all we can about his finances.
(soft music)
(Sergeant Reed) You think there could be more, sir?
*
(Inspector Neil) It was a system.
Seduction, marriage, and then life insurance.
And these sham visits to the doctor.
I was convinced Smith had perfected it through practice.
(dark music)
*
(Nicholas) Their inquiries found out that a month before
Alice took out life insurance,
Smith had bought an annuity from the same company.
The cost of that annuity was £1300.
It's worth more than a hundred times that today.
That was a huge sum for a man with no obvious means.
The pressing question for the police
was what or who had been the source of that money.
The answer to that question would help unravel the mystery
of the Brides in the Bath.
*
Little did the police know
just how bizarre and terrifying a life
George Joseph Smith was leading.
The investigation would demand all the efforts
of one of the greatest forensic scientists of the era
and lead to an incredible trial
that would capture the attention of a public
looking for anything to distract them
from the worries of World War I.
(energetic music)
*
Thanks to a lot of detective work,
the Metropolitan Police had worked out
that the husband of the recently deceased
Margaret Lofty and Alice Burnham
was a man born George Joseph Smith.
He had used many aliases
and entered into numerous bigamous marriages
before disappearing with the women's money.
But he was finally in custody.
But Inspector Arthur Neil believed there may be
other victims as yet undiscovered.
And he was right.
*
In 1910, Bessie Munday was alone,
her dreams of marriage and family unfulfilled.
Now 33,
those hopes looked forlorn.
*
But the following summer, she met a man,
a Londoner calling himself Henry Williams.
He entranced her with tales of the capital
and of his travels across the globe
as a painting restorer.
A whirlwind romance led to marriage.
Her father, a bank manager,
had left her £2,500 in his will.
This handsome amount was invested in a trust
administered by her uncle.
All the time Bessie was alive,
the money was tied up in the trust,
but should she die,
the money would pass to the inheritor
of her estate.
(tense music)
(Alan) George chose to marry a succession of women
in order to benefit from the financial property
that came with them.
And, automatically,
their money on their death became his.
The ladies, um,
all stress his charm,
his magnetic eyes.
He said what an easy prey a woman was.
(Alan) He must have had some kind of hypnotic way
of dealing with women,
probably only exceeded by his greed
in getting their money afterwards.
*
(Nicholas) For a man of commanding intensity
to persuade a simple girl like Bessie
to make him her sole beneficiary was easy enough.
All he had to do now was get her to take a bath.
(dark music)
*
(Inspector Neil) Well, in truth, I could have passed the case on to a junior.
Would have been fine, I'm sure.
The whole thing could have been a remarkable
and tragic coincidence.
*
(Nicholas) But Inspector Arthur Neil
knew that two strikingly similar deaths
involving the same man
were unlikely to be a coincidence.
His department contacted
the home office's preeminent pathologist
to help with the investigation.
The pathologist wanted all the baths
in which the women had died
sent to London for further tests.
(soft music)
*
(Sergeant Reed) From the public, sir.
Possible solutions.
*
Apologies.
Cabby ignored my instruction.
Took an incorrect route.
*
Are you just going to stand there
or should we get started?
*
(Inspector Neil) That was Dr. Spilsbury,
a brilliant man.
Perhaps a little too aware of it, even then.
*
(Nicholas) With Bernard Spilsbury's assistance,
the police uncovered more and more
about George Joseph Smith's life.
They soon found out about his earliest victim, Bessie Munday,
but were always aware that it was going to be a challenge
to prove he was a murderer.
*
The bodies of George Smith's three dead wives were exhumed,
but little more could be learned from their decomposing remains,
even by the esteemed doctor who examined them.
This was Dr. Bernard Spilsbury.
The science of forensics was fast developing,
offering new and exciting ways
of catching and convicting criminals.
This was a time proud of its technological marvels.
And in Spilsbury, the nation had found
a real life version of Sherlock Holmes.
*
(Donald) Bernard Spilsbury made his name with the Crippen case,
and quickly established a tremendous reputation.
(Alan) He became the prominent pathologist
who would deal with high profile murder cases.
(Donald) He was very much like Sherlock Holmes.
One thing he always insisted on was a good sense of smell.
There's a couple of famous photographs
where the remains are out in the open
and Spilsbury's bending over
with his nose in this rotting flesh
and the detectives at the side are turning away
and it's quite clear one or two of them
are going to throw up...
(laughs)
...with what they're seeing and smelling.
*
(Nicholas) Spilsbury had been crucial in securing a conviction
in the international sensation
that was the trial of Dr. Crippen.
Even more recently than that though,
Spilsbury had been called in
for the case of Frederick Seddon.
Seddon, just like George Joseph Smith,
was accused of taking advantage of a woman,
stealing her money,
and then murdering her soon afterwards.
Spilsbury gave evidence at the trial
that led to Seddon's conviction
for the murder of Eliza Barrow
by poisoning her with arsenic
obtained from fly paper.
But it was the Brides in the Bath case
that would ensure Spilsbury's legacy.
(Donald) His reputation was so great at one point,
even if he was wrong jurors were prepared to believe him
rather than another pathologist
who in some instances were clearly right.
He had this legendary reputation.
As Bernard Spilsbury became
more and more prominent and well-known,
pathology took on more and more prominence
at these murder trials.
It was more and more scientific.
And it actually developed throughout the whole area
of what we would now think of as being forensic science.
(dramatic music)
Inspector Neil and Sergeant Reed
carried out an experiment
devised by Dr. Bernard Spilsbury.
*
The Kentish Town Police and Dr. Spilsbury
would work tirelessly trying to work out
just how George Joseph Smith
caused three of his wives to die in a bathtub
without obvious injury or even clear signs of drowning.
However, Spilsbury would have a flash of inspiration.
(soft music)
*
(Inspector Neil) They do like a good murder.
A Mr. Marchant from Highgate writes:
"It is quite possible to suffocate a person recumbent
in a bath by pouring into it a sufficiency
of carbonic acid gas."
*
I worry how he came by such knowledge.
Does Mr. Smith strike you as a scientific man, Doctor?
*
Doctor?
*
In 1841,
the Caledonia sank off the coast of Cornwall.
*
When the captain's body washed up
on the beach the next day,
something rather curious was noted.
*
The shock of going into the water
had rendered him unconscious so quickly
he still had a bag gripped in each hand
when they found him.
*
Inhibition, it's called.
*
There was no sign of struggle.
*
(Inspector Neil) Mrs. Munday had a bar of soap in her hand
when the doctor came.
*
And no sign of struggle.
(music intensifies)
*
(Inspector Neil) It was a theory, that was all.
Not something that we could get a conviction from.
So we worked hard, right down to the rock bottom facts.
And by the end, we had 253 exhibits.
Marriage certificates, death certificates,
letters, photos, you name it.
Every scrap of evidence I could gather.
This man was not going free.
(soft music)
*
(Nicholas) The trial was one of the most complex
in British legal history.
112 witnesses from 40 different towns.
The public were transfixed,
a welcome distraction from the war in France.
English justice continuing unabashed.
The sprinkling of sex and scandal,
together with a strangely alluring figure
of Smith himself,
helped draw big crowds to the Old Bailey.
(dramatic music)
Smith would be defended
by one of the most famous barristers of the time,
Edward Marshall Hall,
and Dr. Spilsbury's theories
would be put to the ultimate test
when he took the stand hoping to secure
a conviction for murder.
*
The police had George Joseph Smith in custody.
He was clearly guilty of bigamy,
but they were determined to convict him of murder.
Dr. Bernard Spilsbury had developed a theory
as to how Smith had dispatched three of his wives,
which he wanted to bring before the court.
In accordance with English law,
Smith was only tried for the murder of the first victim,
Bessie Munday.
But in a legal first,
the prosecution was able to use the deaths
of Alice Burnham and Margaret Lofty
as evidence of the work of a serial offender.
*
The star witness took his turn on the stand
on the sixth day of the trial.
Monday, the 28th of June, 1915.
(soft music)
*
Dr. Spilsbury, supposing a person taking a bath fainted,
would the breathing, respiration go on?
To a certain extent.
(Archie Bodkin) Can you give us any opinion at all
as to what would be the result
if the face was submerged whilst in a faint.
Would the--the water would come into the mouth?
(Dr. Spilsbury) Yes, and it would pass down into the windpipe.
And what effect would that have?
It would have a very powerful, smarting effect
and would probably recover the person from the faint.
Now if that person had, in fact, been conscious,
and then was suddenly submerged,
would there be a shock to the system?
(Dr.Spilsbury) Yes, if it were unexpected.
It might even if it were expected.
(Archie Bodkin) And if a shock were received due to a sudden submersion,
would consciousness be kept or would that be lost?
That would be lost at once.
You mean immediately after submersion?
Yes.
Or almost immediately?
*
Actually immediately.
Thank you, Doctor.
*
(Alan) In the trial,
they explained
that it is possible to drown in a bath
if, um, somebody's feet are pulled up from behind.
Suppose we develop the theory that, um,
the baths that they were shown were too short.
And if the body had gone rigid,
then the body would not have gone below--
below the water.
*
(Alan) A woman police officer
acted as a demonstration of this
at the trial.
*
(Donald) And Spilsbury nearly drowned her
because what he did,
he lifted her legs very suddenly
and pushed the head down,
and she lost all consciousness
almost straight away.
And, uh, she had to be given artificial respiration.
That was a very graphic demonstration,
which actually showed the method
that George Joseph Smith had employed.
*
Smith was defended by one of the greats of the day,
the theatrical barrister Edward Marshall Hall.
But even Marshall Hall found this case difficult.
His early attempts to stop evidence relating to the deaths
of Alice Burnham and Margaret Lofty
being heard were unsuccessful.
*
(Alan) Edward Marshall Hall as the defense barrister,
quite a flamboyant man.
Had a--very good at persuading jurors
that there was an element of doubt and so on.
Um, and a very good sort of legal mind as well
and one of the sort of prominent lawyers of his age.
(Donald) Marshall Hall was known as The Great Defender.
His party piece in the trials
was to use the scales of justice.
He would stand there
and one arm would go up and one would go down,
and this is how he would argue his case.
So if you had Marshall Hall defending you, then, um,
that was a great reassurance,
and he would do his best for you
in the highest tradition of, um, of barristers.
*
(Nicholas) George Joseph Smith himself never came to the stand.
Marshall Hall produced a note,
which showed that his client did not want to give evidence.
But The Great Defender was hoping he could pick holes
in Spilsbury's argument.
(Barrister Hall) Dr. Spilsbury, epilepsy is a very difficult subject.
It has varied symptoms?
Yes, it has.
(Barrister Hall) And of course they can be extremely varied in degree.
Yes.
(Barrister Hall) May I take it
that many people have suffered from
a very modified form of epilepsy,
a very modified form of attack
without being epileptics.
Yes.
Have you known of women washing their hair in the bath?
-Yes. -If you're in the bath
and using soap,
you cannot get the soap out of your hair very well
by simply rinsing it with that same soapy water,
can you?
No.
The very natural thing for a lady to do, then,
would be to lean forward,
put her head under the tap,
and let the fresh, clear water
run on her head.
That would be one method.
Assuming a woman had had a fairly hot bath,
and she was not in a very healthy condition,
that is the evidence we've got,
and she were rinsing her hair in this way
and had a sudden fainting fit,
would she not fall?
*
(Nicholas) The theory put forward by Marshall Hall
was dismissed by Spilsbury,
and although technically possible,
it did nothing to convince the jury
of George Joseph Smith's innocence.
Overall, it was Bernard Spilsbury's brilliant mind
and the dogged determination of Arthur Neil
which would prove decisive.
*
Marshall Hall's theatrical brilliance
and flights of fancy failed to save this client.
The jury retired on the 30th of June, 1915,
and took just 20 minutes to decide George Smith's fate.
(tense music)
*
George Joseph Smith was executed
at Maidstone Prison
on the 13th of August, 1915.
*
He did leave behind his only legal wife,
Caroline Thornhill,
whom he had married in 1898.
The day after Smith's execution,
she married a Canadian soldier.
*
The case of George Joseph Smith
and the Brides in the Bath
would remain in the British public consciousness
long after the end of World War I,
and his horrifying story would be brought back into focus
at the start of World War II.
In 1939, Harold Nicolson,
a well-known politician,
published a best-selling book entitled Why Britain is at War,
in which he likened the actions of Adolf Hitler in Europe
to the modus operandi of George Joseph Smith.
World War II would also see the involvement
of the man who'd helped convict Smith,
Dr. Bernard Spilsbury.
His forensic skills and knowledge of pathology
were harnessed in a top secret mission
called Operation Mincemeat,
which succeeded in deceiving Nazi forces
and saving numerous Allied lives.
In the interwar years, though,
Spilsbury had testified
in many other sensational trials.
*
(Alan) Bernard Spilsbury had this very eminent role
in giving evidence in so many murder cases.
Between the Crippen case and 1947 when he died,
he did something like 21,000 post-mortems.
The defense would say, "Well, if Spilsbury
is appearing for the other side,
we don't really stand a chance."
Um, in modern terms,
he would probably be criticized
for giving his own personal opinion
perhaps a little bit too strongly.
And there were some cases where the evidence
could have been interpreted either way.
But he was a man of his time.
(tense music)
(Nicholas) He helped to convict poisoners
such as Herbert Armstrong and Jean-Pierre Vaquier.
But his method of working would be brought into question.
(Alan) He undoubtedly helped to convict and establish the truth
of many, many high profile cases.
He lived until 1947.
Uh, two of his sons had died
and he was suffering from overwork.
(Alan) Eventually, he went to his laboratory
and cleared up all his paperwork
and then quietly committed suicide,
a very sad end to a very fine career.
(Nicholas) It may have been a very tragic end for Bernard Spilsbury,
but he left behind a tremendous legacy
in the field of forensic science and criminal investigation.
And his monumental efforts had brought down
one of the nation's most cold-hearted murderers,
George Joseph Smith.
*
Later in the century,
he'd probably be classified as a psychopath,
a man who acted without qualm or scruple,
but who nevertheless exercised great personal charm.
But there was no such word for a man like Smith in 1915.
He viciously exploited the iniquitous position
of women in society for his own ends.
(cheering, applause)
The suffragette movement did help remedy
some of the many problems that women faced in this era,
and the outbreak of war led to all prisoners
who were locked up for suffragette activities
being released in amnesty.
The First World War was altering society,
ushering women into the workplace,
and, later, into the political world as well.
*
But although their legal status did improve,
it would be a long time before the role of women in society
changed sufficiently for them to no longer
be such easy victims for the likes
of George Joseph Smith,
The Brides in the Bath killer.
*
The old morality and rigidity of pre-war days
was not swept away by the carnage of the trenches,
but would continue to affect the fate of women
for decades to come.
(theme music)
*
(bright music)