John David Smith III is an American murderer convicted of killing his first wife and also believed to have murdered his second. Skull fragments found in a locker owned by him belong to a third, unidentified, woman, and a photograph found in his possession of an unidentified woman is the basis of an ongoing "Jane Doe" inquiry.
Popular culture
He is the subject of the television movieMurder on Pleasant Drive, episodes of Cold Case Files, Forensic Files season 9, episode 19: Deadly Matrimony, the books Stranger in my Bed by Michael Fleeman and My Sister Is Missing: Bringing a Killer to Justice by Sherrie Gladden-Davis. The case was also featured on Medical Detectives, and Who The Bleep Did I Marryseason 2, episode 5: The Third Mrs. Smith.
Background
Smith married Janice Hartman on June 30, 1970 when they were both 19. The marriage was troubled; Janice's brother said that Smith was abusive from the start. Hartman left Smith in 1974 and returned to Ohio intending to divorce him. A few days later she disappeared. Soon after, Smith's brother Michael observed him building a narrow box which he claimed was for Janice's belongings. In 1979 their grandfather discovered the box and called Michael, who found inside it a dismembered corpse with rainbow hair which he believed to be Janice Hartman. He told John, who took the box away. Hartman's remains were discovered in a makeshift coffin in 1980. The skeleton remained unidentified until 2000 and the victim was known as the "Lady in the Box." Smith married his second wife Betty Fran Gladden Smith, in March 1990. While confined to her home by an injury, she disappeared from West Windsor, New Jersey on October 4, 1991. Michael Smith kept his secret until 1999, when he told the FBI about the box. Inquiries with law enforcement officials in Ohio and Indiana produced the box and remains, which had been found in 1980 by highway workers in an Indiana field.
Arrest and conviction
Smith was arrested in October 2000 in Escondido, California, where he was living with his third wife. He was convicted in July 2001 of the murder of Janice Hartman and sentenced to 15 years to life in prison. He unsuccessfully appealed his conviction in 2002. His first parole date was in 2011. The family of Janice Hartman sought civil damages against Smith's grandfather and brother for their alleged involvement in covering up Smith's crime for over twenty years, but the claims were unsuccessful. Smith remains incarcerated at Marion Correctional Institution. On November 28, 2019 he was indicted for the murder of Fran Gladden-Smith in 1991.
