Three Baths

What we know so far

In early January 1915, a Sunday newspaper ran a short, sad story: a new bride, Margaret Lloyd, had been found drowned in her bath at a lodging house in Highgate, London — the day after her wedding.

In the north of England, two readers stopped cold. Charles Burnham's daughter Alice had drowned in a bath in Blackpool a year earlier, weeks after her marriage. The Blackpool landlord, Joseph Crossley, read the same story and thought the same thing. Both wrote to the police.

Every death had been ruled an accident. Detective Inspector Arthur Neil was handed the letters and asked to find out if there was anything in them.