BETTER DEAD.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 September 1915, Page 12

BETTER DEAD.

A MUCH MARRIED MURDERER, WHOLESALE BIGAMIST TO HANG. London, July 9. In normal times the trial of that arclrbigamist and triple murderer, George Jacob Smith, would have provided our newspapers with very many columns of "copy," and the public with a plentiful supply of small talk, for in its way this trial was one of the most remarkable in the annals of crime. Yet, our daily papers generally reported the proceedings at the Central Criminal Court with remarkable brevity, and of public interest in the ease you could only discover traces here and there. The man-in-tlie-strect, indeed, seemed quite oblivious to the fact that one of the most notorious criminals of modern days was being fried for his life. Smith was indicted for the murder in baths at various places of three women with whom lie is said to have gone through the marriage ceremony:—Bessie C. A. Mundy, at Heme Bay, July 13, 1912; Alice Burnham, at Blackpool, December 12, 1913; Margaret E. Lofty, at Highgate, December 18, 1914. He was, however, only on trial in respect to the death of Miss Mundy. For eight days judge and jury sat listening to the terrible array of evidence against Smith, and there could be little doubt in the minds of those in court what the verdict would be, though the evidence was purely circumstantial. STARTLING COINCIDENCES. As the judge remarked in his summing up—a masterly and exhaustive analysis of the evidence, occupying over three hours—"That three women, should each have headaches and die in a few days in connection with the same man is a most extraordinary coincidence, to put it at' the least." In each of the cases the bathroom was unlocked; in two cases the deceased women insured their lives within rten days of death; in each case two or three days before death the deceased woman was taken to a strange doctor, in a strange place, where she was not known, complaining of headache, and that doctor was the one called at death. In each case the deceased woman was found by the prisoner, and in each case he did not let the water out of the bath without permission. In each case there was a bigamous marriage, and in oath case the burial was as cheap and obscure as possible. It was for the jury to say whether the set of coincidences could be the result of accident. The jury took less than half an hour to decide that the "long arm of coincidence" could not stretch far enough to snatch Smith from the gallows. FURTHER DISCLOSURES. After Smith had been sentenced, and removed from the clock, the judge, who expressed thorough concurrence with the jury's finding, gave them a further glimpse of the history of the condemned man. He said:—"lt may interest you to know, and it may show the'fairness of an English trial, that there was evidence before the magistrate which has not been given before yon. Three months bfore the death of Margaret Lofty, prisoner went through another ceremony of marriage with another woman, and robbed her of £l4O within ton days, and there was reason to believe that he went through another ceremony of marriage with another woman, whom he also robbed of a large sum of money. The fairness of the English law has not put these facts before you at the trial, but they may help to satisfy you that your verdict was a right one." It is said that the police could, if necessary, have produced a dozen women with whom Smith had gone through a form of marriage, and that practically he had left a bigamous trail through the length and breadth of the United Kingdom.

Unmitigated and callous monster as Smith has proved to be, there was one human touch in his composition. A master of crime who stuck at nothing to get money, lie seems to have been genuinely fond of one of his bigamous brides, Miss I'ogler, to wit. It was always to Miss Pegier Ihatlie, returned after he had got rid of— by••'defeis<Jj£ or murder —his other victims, and in 1 --the: box this 1 poor woman testified to his always kindly treatment of her, and to their mutual affection for each other. She implied that she had forgiven him, not only for having bigamously married her, but also for that which most women find it difficult to forgive—his manifold add proven infidelities after that mock marriage. Smith inhuman creature as he was—had undoubtedly the power of inspiring affection in the other sex. It was every time a case of "I came. I saw, 1 conquered," and the girl or woman became as elav in the hands of the potter. It is well for the world that George Jacob Smith will never again mingle with his fellow men. He is better dead. 1 (E, Smith was hanged last week. To the end he declared his innocence.)