John David Smith III

I heard about this case many years ago. It has been featured on shows like Forensic Files and The Detectives. It was also one of those stories that was made into a Lifetime television movie. One of the things that I find most interesting about some cases are some of the locations. For instance I have done several cases from the city and area in which I currently live and when I put the cases together I can picture the area as to the way it looks now. In fact, I live around the corner from where one of the cases I have blogged about occurred and I think of it every time I drive down that road. In this case I would become at least semi-familiar with one of the areas many years after I heard of John David Smith. I also learned the area had a history.

Although John David Smith did not likely know it, his marriage to Betty “Fran” Gladden would be his eventual undoing. That is not to say that I necessarily believe that when he met and later married Fran that he knew how that relationship would end. But, it was his actions, although what exactly happened has never been proven, that brought to light past issues for him. You know the sayings about not knowing who you messed with or messing with the wrong person or persons? Well that was very much the case here.

John Smith and Fran Gladden were married in March of 1990 in Florida. Fran had at least one grown daughter at the time. There could have been more but her daughter, Deanna, along with her sister Sherrie played major roles in John Smith's life. The couple had a whirlwind courtship and things seemed to go sour very quickly. By January of 1991 John had filed for divorce but they soon reconciled and in May of that year the couple packed up and moved to New Jersey.

Deanna last talked to her mother on the morning of October 4, 1991. Fran was recovering after hip surgery and was not feeling well. When neither she, or her aunt, Sherrie, could later reach Fran they both became first worried, and then suspicious. John had told the two women that she apparently went on some sort of “impromptu” trip with some friends. He told others that she had gone to visit her family in Florida. Both Deanna and Sherrie knew that Fran was not in good enough condition to go anywhere, let alone a vacation, she was barely mobile yet from her surgery.

Authorities in New Jersey were suspicious of John's story also but there never seemed to be anything that could prove he had done anything to Fran. Deanna and Sherrie were certain that he had done something to her and they began digging into John's past. They soon discovered something that would not necessarily bring closure in Fran's case, but it would bring closure to another and answer a lot of questions.

Deanna and Sherrie learned that John Smith had previously been married. On the surface this may seem like a minor thing but both women had heard him proclaim that his marriage to Fran was his first. So, the women set out to find John Smith's first wife and see what they could discover not just about his personality but also why he may have been hiding that relationship.

John Smith had married Janice Hartman in June of 1970 in Ohio when they were both nineteen years old. By most accounts it appears that the couple moved to Indiana to be closer to John's family. By 1974 the marriage was in shambles. It is unclear exactly when the couple separated and some of the exact details of what happened and when seemed to change depending on what article you read and in what time period. Some say the couple separated and that Janice returned to Ohio and was planning to divorce John, as if it had not occurred. Other sources proclaim that she not only filed for divorce but that it was finalized. November 17, 1974, just a few days after the divorce was allegedly final, was the last day that anyone heard from Janice. Her family suspected that John Smith was involved in his sister's disappearance, but like the case with Fran, nothing could be proven.

Deanna and Sherrie had discovered the events surrounding Janice's life through her brother and were now convinced more than ever that he had murdered Fran, but now believed she was not his first victim. As the years went on the women kept digging, not just in attempts to find Fran or discover what happened to her, but also to help the Hartman family, and if possible prevent John Smith from continuing his reign against women.

In September of 1998 John Smith was now in California and he married for a third time to a woman named Diane Bertalan. It is not clear what Diane may or may not have known about his past prior to their marriage. Deanna and Sherrie however became aware of the marriage and were able to contact Diane and tell her their story. It does not seem though that Diane was too receptive to them and seemingly did not believe what they were telling her about her new husband.

In the meantime in 1999 John's brother, Michael Smith, contacted the FBI. It is not clear what exactly happened that made Michael come forward with the story he had but it was a big one. According to Michael in 1974 he had seen his brother building what he called a box in his garage and he asked him what it was for. John told him that he was packing up some of Janice's things. Later John asked Michael to help him move the box to their grandfather's home and Michael did just that. In 1979 Michael received a phone call from his grandfather about the box he found. Michael went to his house and at some point opened the box. He would tell authorities that when he opened the box he discovered what he believed to be the corpse of Janice Hartman-Smith. However, instead of calling authorities he had called his brother John and told him to come get the box. It is not clear whether Michael told his brother that he had opened the box and discovered the contents. Michael would proclaim that he had no idea what John had done with the box after he came to his grandfather's home to retrieve it.

In 1980 along side a rural road in Newton County Indiana a box was found. The contents of the box contained a body. There was no sort of DNA testing at the time and the body was sufficiently decomposed to the point that really all anyone could later determine was that it was the body of a woman. Authorities in this area were not exactly immune to finding bodies in this area. It had long been a dumping ground for those associated with the mob in nearby Chicago. The county was full of fields and meadows and a body could easily be dropped there and left undiscovered for years. In fact, it is theorized that there are still likely bodies in that area that have never been found. This was a bit different. First, the mafia was less prominent by 1980, and secondly the fact that the body was in a box, and was a woman made her less likely to be associated with that organization.

At the time there seemed to be no way of knowing who the woman found in the box in the field was. Eventually the woman would be buried in nearby Morocco Indiana in the cemetery. For me I find this interesting because at the time the body was exhumed in the Spring of 2000 I had just met my husband who had family that lived just down the road from this particular cemetery and where the body had been found in 1980. As a genealogist I have been to this cemetery on at least a few occasions since that time, never connecting the fact that this story was involved.

After Michael Smith talked to authorities and the body from the woman found in the box was exhumed and examined the pressure was on John. In October of 2000 he was arrested in his Escondido California home. It was apparently not a complete surprise it seems since it was noted that he had been questioned and interviewed prior to his arrest. It was also noted that at least at that time his wife, Diane, supported him and publicly stated she thought the investigation into her husband was unfounded. It was said that not long after his arrest Diane would divorce John but whether she believed in his guilt at that time or not is not clear.

In July of 2001 John David Smith would face trial in Ohio in the death of his wife, Janice Hartman-Smith. Prosecutors would believe that it was there, in Ohio, in which she had been murdered and that John had then dismembered her body to fit into the box that he had made, in turn leaving it at his grandfathers home. It was also believed that he simply dumped the box on the side of the road after he left the home and headed back to his residence.

I must be fair in stating that beyond the information given to authorities by Michael Smith and the theory presented by the prosecution that I cannot determine what other evidence there was against John Smith. I do not take this as a belief in his innocence because it is not. I am simply saying from a legal standpoint I am unsure what the prosecution was able to present. That being said, the jury found John guilty and he was sentenced to fifteen years to life. He is currently in an Ohio prison and his next (his first?) parole hearing is scheduled for December of 2019.

In the meantime, while authorities in New Jersey still could not find enough evidence to charge John in the murder of his second wife, Fran, her family filed a wrongful death suit against him. A judge ruled that despite her body never being found that John Smith was “responsible” for the death of Betty “Fran” Gladden Smith. It seems unlikely that her family will sit quietly when John meets with the parole board even though the crime he was convicted for was not the murder of Fran.