KILLED A FEW

Murderer’s past doesn’t

A BRITISH woman who is marrying an American double killer is not worried that he has “committed a few murders”.

Tracy Bottomley has pledged to wed imprisoned Ernest Otto Smith, who fatally shot a man and beat a woman to death with a tree branch 15 years ago.

She said: “He’s committed a few murders but I understand the risks of what could happen and I still love him.”

Smith, 53, is serving life without the possibility of parole for his crimes.

Tracy started talking to him after seeing an advert on a prison pen pal Facebook page in 2018.

She said: “You can’t help who you fall in love with no matter what the circumstances.

“Just because it’s a situation like that, it doesn’t mean you are deluded.”

Tracy, from Shipley, West Yorkshire, added: “Ernest doesn’t scare me.

“I’ve never been someone who gets frightened easily.

“At first I had slight intuition that these things could happen to me. He’s killed these other people.

“As time went along, we started getting close and trusting each other more to feel secure.”

Smith, who is serving his sentence in Ohio State Penitentiary, proposed to divorced Tracy on a voicemail.

He robbed, shot and killed James Dillingham in Toledo, Ohio, in 2005.

Smith was accompanied by Cathy Barnett, who he murdered while on the run in Kentucky in the same year, fearing she would report him to the police.

He and Tracy plan to wed before the end of the year.

LOVE ALBUM: Tracy’s photos of her and fiancé Ernest