“Honestly, it was a tremendous relief,” Smith said. The detective and his counterparts in multiple jurisdictions across Ohio, Kentucky and Michigan had been trying to keep tabs on the serial killer since he was released from prison in 1992. A multistate task force that included Smith was formed in 2009, which a year later led to George’s arrest for the 1968 homicide in Michigan.
George’s previous two convictions are for the deaths of Francis Brown, 23, in Lake Orion, Mich., and Cindy Garland Rose, 22, of Butler County.
Brown was found strangled with her own underwear in 1968. He served 12 years for the slaying.
Rose, 22, died of exposure after being left in a field after being suffocated with her pantyhose in 1982. George served 10 years on a manslaughter charge.
George also is a suspect in the strangulation deaths of Tammy King, 26, of Price Hill, who was found dead in Reily Twp. in 1982; and of Della Mae Miller, 24, of Covington, Ohio, who was found strangled in 1967.
Up until the day of his arrest, detectives say George continued his pattern of charming women. Smith said he had been romancing a woman with children at the Monroe motel, and that he has charmed women all his life as he moved from Kentucky to Michigan and throughout Ohio. He used them to take care of him and for his own satisfaction, Smith said.
After getting into trouble last summer when he threatened the manager of an apartment complex in Amelia, where George had been living for months with a woman, he moved to Hamilton, taking up residence with his son. Eventually, he began seeing a woman in Price Hill, leading the task force to keep a close watch on his actions.
George moved to hotels in Butler County, eventually settling in at the Parkway Inn on Ohio 4 in Monroe.
“I know as long as he his behind bars he cannot hurt another woman,” Smith said. “It was a long chase, but it’s over now.”
Smith, who attended the last few days of the Michigan trial, said he is hopeful George, a native of London, Ky., may confess or be charged for King’s death.
“And once his DNA is entered onto a national data base, it is amazing what could happen,” Smith said.
Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2168 or lpack@coxohio.com.
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