A BRITISH woman set to marry an American double-murderer has admitted he may kill her – but she doesn’t mind.
Tracy Bottomley, 41, from from Shipley, west Yorks has never met her incarcerated fiancée – but says she is prepared for whatever having a serial-killer spouse may entail.
Ernest Otto Smith was jailed for life without parole for the murder of a man and woman in 2006.
Tracey says she fell in love with the double murderer in 2018 after they began talking via a prison pen-pal scheme.
“Ernest doesn’t scare me – I’ve never been someone who gets frightened easily.
“Yes he is a serial killer, he’s committed a few murders, but I understand the risks of what could happen and I still love him,” Tracey says.
The lovebirds bonded over trauma from abuse they have suffered, according to Tracey.
“[Ernest] also spoke about what he’d been through and how he was a victim of child abuse which led to him using drugs to battle his depression and anxiety.
“I’ve been in an abusive relationship before and the way he spoke about how his experiences as a child changed him really resonated with me.
“Being killed isn’t the best way to go, but everybody dies one day. I’m going to die eventually and I don’t mind the fact it could be at the hands of him.”
She had been single for three years after a string of unlucky relationships and a failed marriage in 2003.
She said: “Ernest’s advert did detail his crimes so I knew that he’d been jailed for life for killing two people.
“I wanted to get to know him, so I sent my details through and a few days later, I got an email from him.”
Soon enough, the pair were emailing three times a day.
Eventually they spoke on the phone and the killer described how he had murdered his victims, James Dillingham and Cathy Barnett.
“Ernest doesn’t sound like a murderer, you can’t hear anything crazy in his voice
Tracey Bottomley
Tracy said: “He told me step by step how he murdered each one of his victims and why.
“Hearing him talk about it on the phone, I could hear the emotion in his voice as he reflected on what he’d done.
“Ernest doesn’t sound like a murderer, you can’t hear anything crazy in his voice, he regrets what he’s done.”
Smith robbed, shot and killed James Dillingham in Toledo, Ohio, on January 2, 2005.
He was accompanied by Cathy Barnett – but he then murdered her, fearing she would tell police of his crimes.
He attempted to break Cathy’s neck and then beat her to death with a tree branch.
He was convicted in March 2006 in Ohio and sentenced to 32 years in solitary confinement in prison.
In letters written to Tracy from his cell at Ohio State Penitentiary, he wrote: “Girl do you know how happy you make me? Where have you been all my life?
“I’m falling in love with you girl, I feel like you were meant to find me.”
Tracey will fly to the US next year to marry the convicted murderer at the Ohio Department of Prisons.
Tracy added: “I’m still in shock that Ernest proposed, I didn’t see it coming at all but I love him so obviously I said, ‘Yes’.
“He’s writing a book about how child abuse can turn people into serial killers based on his own experience. And he’s even mentioning me in a few chapters.
“People always ask me if I’m scared at the thought of what he could do to me. But I’m not scared of Ernest at all – I love him.”
Smith has written a book about his life called Against The Current.
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