Tribute for Phillip John Smith

In 1979 he served as Business & Professional member of the Alexander Lindsay Junior Museum and served on the Board of Directors for San Ramon Community Services Group. Grace Company he donated uniforms and monetary support to the Contra Costa County Probation Department Recreational Program for their basketball team. In 1984 he joined Urban Land Institute and travelled all over the US to educational and service forums. 1987 served on San Ramon Library Foundation Board and donated the library site and offered to build the facility at his company’s cost. 1992 He served as the International Council of Shopping Centers All Star Panel Member at the Northern California Idea Exchange.

Detectives interviewed Smith three times, but he refused to answer their questions, and no further charges were brought. In his subsequent statement Smith admitted to being at the Rainbow with Corcoran and a male friend, but claimed they were later separated when they went to another pub, the Kerryman, and the male friend was ejected. Smith said that he and Corcoran then went to Monte Carlo's, a nightclub in Handsworth, and that when they left some time later, Corcoran was confronted by a man he described as a Teddy Boy, with whom she had argued at the Kerryman. Smith said that the man became aggressive, so he asked Corcoran if she wanted to go home.

There were bloodstains on the boots with which he had kicked both Corcoran and Jordan, which he was still wearing at the time of his arrest. Smith had tried to clean his clothes in the bath of his flat along with a pair of trousers belonging to Corcoran, and a bag containing items belonging to Hyde was discovered outside. Detectives matched the tyre marks from his car, which had four different types of tyre, to the Worcestershire murder scene and to Corcoran's body, over which he had driven.

All three bodies were discovered soon after the murders were carried out. An inquest into Lynott's death was held at Birmingham Coroner's Court in January 2003. The hearing was told that marks found on her back and an arm may have been bruising, but the pathologist who conducted the original post mortem could not be sure how she had died, because her body had lain undiscovered for Phillip John Smith up to seven days. It was also said that, despite her connection with Smith, police and four pathologists had failed to establish that Lynott had been murdered. Philip John Smith was born in 1965 at the City Maternity Hospital in Gloucester, where he grew up. The son of sawmill labourer Henry John Smith and his wife Rose Smith (née Luckins), he was the oldest of five siblings.

In the following 10 years he and his growing family lived in 7 different places – Sacramento, San Rafael, San Mateo, Corte Madera, Thousand Oaks, Alamo and Danville. As a rising star in Shell Oil Company, he knew he was scheduled to move to the east coast, probably New York. He also was realizing that large corporate life was not a good fit for him. So, in 1967 he joined a real estate company, Rinker Development Company and moved to Alamo as its Northern California Vice President to develop service stations. About a year later he ended up in the hospital with ruptured discs in his lower back and in traction trying to avoid surgery. Fortunately, a very talented surgeon, Dr. Liu, was able to “fix him”.