I married my soulmate, then found out that he murdered his first wife, his second had disappeared

WHEN single mum Diane Beasley married John Smith, she truly believed she had found her soul mate.

But rather than a devoted husband, the man she's vowed to spend her life with was a cold blooded killer whose first wife's body was lying dismembered and rotting in a hidden box.

To the outside world, John Smith had been unlucky in love. He’d lost two wives, with his first marriage ending in divorce, and his second wife dying of cancer.

The truth was far more sinister though - John was believed to have murdered both women and covered his tracks, even managing to conceal the gruesome truth from his third wife.

The horrifying tale is featured in a new documentary to be aired on Crime and Investigation.

It details how amazed Diane failed to believe the FBI when they revealed the truth, and how close she came to becoming a victim herself.

A web of lies

At the start, Diane’s new boyfriend couldn’t have been more ordinary. Tall, skinny and jug eared, he was slightly socially awkward but pretty unremarkable.

Recalling their first meeting, she says: “I was not looking for another relationship at all. I had been divorced for three years and I was comfortable with occasionally dating.

“He was really sweet, really nice, very polite. He seemed like the perfect gentleman.”

John told Dianne he had been married twice. Firstly to his childhood sweetheart Janice, who divorced him, and again to a woman called Fran who he told Dianne had tragically died of cancer.

She recalls: “He told me he was at her bedside when she passed away so I felt for him."

But the brutal truth was that John had murdered his wife Janice and stored her dismembered body in a box. His second wife Fran was missing.

Jealous and volatile

Childhood sweethearts from Ohio, to the outside world, John and Janice appeared to have the perfect marriage when they wed at 19.

However, behind closed doors John became increasingly jealous and volatile, to the point that Janice had enough. She filed for divorce four years after they wed when a fight turned physical.

On November 17 1974, three days after the divorce was finalised, Janice went missing.

Two days after murdering his ex-wife, John filed Janice as a missing person.

Safe from suspicion after police managed to find no leads and the investigation halted in its tracks, John disposed of her body and carried on with his life.

Her remains wouldn't be found for another eight years - it was hidden in a makeshift wooden box in John's parents' home.

A year after Janice's supposed disappearance, John met Betty 'Fran' Gladden, ten years his senior, after moving to Florida.

Workplace lovers

They met while working at the same software company, quickly got to know each other quickly and John popped the question which Fran gladly accepted.

The couple moved to New Jersey, but just like with Janice, John’s temper fast became an issue and he would lose it over insignificant things.

A year into the marriage, Fran slipped on some tiles and was left with a broken him, bed-bound and at John’s mercy.

One month later, she disappeared.

One missing wife could be an unfortunate tragedy. Two was considered suspicious.

The police decided to look into the case after John reported Fran's disappearance, however, with no evidence it was shelved.

A shocking claim

But when a police officer who worked the case when Fran vanished became an FBI agent years later, he decides to investigate again - and discovers similarities between the two incidents.

A year after Dianne and John married in 1988, the FBI begin investigating him.

Their break came when he was caught for an unrelated traffic violation in 1996. This let cops trace John to California, where he had relocated, and they discovered he'd married Dianne.

After a year of surveillance on John to gather evidence, they made contact with Diane in 1999 and told her they suspected her husband was a killer and were worried for her safety - especially as John had been seeing another woman.

At first she refused to believe the FBI.

Diane recalls: “I was in total, total shock. I could not believe that they were telling me all of this about John Smith. Because I did not see anything but love for me through John’s eyes.”

But when her husband went on the run, Diane realised the FBI were right. She divorced him in secret.

'He looked like the devil'

Her worst nightmare came true when John appeared at her home, furious with rage after receiving the divorce papers.

Remembering the moment, Diane says: “He came up the stairs like two at a time and he had this look on his face like you’ve – I mean it wasn’t a mad person, it wasn’t an angry person. It was a devil person."

Miraculously, realising that Diane’s daughter was in the home, his demeanour completely changed.

“When he saw Summer, he changed and he looked at me and he said, 'Why are you doing this to me baby? Let’s talk. I want to talk to you.' And I told him the police were on their way - and then he just left," she says.

However, the FBI had been monitoring the house and were already waiting outside ready to snare him.

His brother Michael had opened up to them about John's strange behaviour after Janice's 'disappearance', including putting her clothing in a special box - leading them to discover her body in its hiding place.

In July 2001, John Smith was put on trial in Ohio for the murder of Janice Hartman and sentenced to 15 years in prison. He remains suspect of murdering Fran.

Diane visited her husband in prison in the hope of a confession but to this day, he continue to deny either of the women were killed by him.

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She still hopes to find justice for Fran’s family and make sure no other women fall victim to the brutality of John Smith.

Diane says: “I want to keep this story about John alive because Fran is still missing. And there might be a possibility, because of good behaviour, he might be paroled out of prison and nobody wants that. Because he will murder again.”

Watch I Lived With A Killer, John Smith on Monday 22 July at 9pm on Crime+Investigation.

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