January 11, 1872 - George Joseph Smith
His method was patient and systematic: court a vulnerable woman, marry her under a false name, insure her life, and drown her in a bathtub staged to look like an accident. Smith carried out this scheme at least three times across several years, and it was the pattern itself — identified by a meticulous police inquiry comparing identical circumstances across separate cases — that ultimately brought him to trial and the gallows.
From Wikipedia
George Joseph Smith (11 January 1872 – 13 August 1915) was an English serial killer and bigamist who was convicted and subsequently hanged for the murders of three women in 1915. The case became known as the Brides in the Bath Murders. As well as being widely reported in the media, it was significant in the history of forensic pathology and detection. It was also one of the first cases in which striking similarities between connected crimes were used to prove guilt, a technique used in subsequent prosecutions.
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