2,200 Pages Of Court Records Released About Cruise Ship Death

With the release Monday of more than 2,200 pages of court records, the 2005 death of George Allen Smith IV of Greenwich aboard a cruise ship in the Mediterranean continues to confound the experts - and to divide family members.

There were noises in George Allen Smith IV's stateroom not long before he plunged over the side of the cruise liner and vanished in the Mediterranean Sea after a night of hard honeymoon partying four years ago.

That is one of the few undisputed aspects of a case that has drawn worldwide attention, eluded FBI agents and forensic scientist Henry C. Lee, and driven a wedge between Smith's Greenwich family members and his widow, Jennifer Hagel Smith.

And with the release Monday of 2,200 pages of depositions and probate court hearings, the chasm between the families has only widened.

"You can't buy this stuff at home," Hagel Smith recalled Askin saying during a stop in Florence, according to a transcript. But there was one problem. Cruise policies prohibited passengers from bringing alcohol on board.

Askin wore tight shorts the day that he toured Florence and couldn't hide the bottle. So George Smith volunteered to stuff the absinthe in his shorts underneath a baggy T-shirt.

She said that George Smith also brought vodka on board to keep in the room so "he didn't have to pay for drinks the whole trip."

But bar receipts showed the partying went well beyond their cabin. Hagel Smith acknowledged in her deposition that she couldn't recall how many drinks she had the night before she learned that her husband had vanished. There are also references in the court records to Smith's use of prescription anti-anxiety medication.