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That night Susan Smith called a friend who she knew Tom was having dinner with, to ask if he spoke of her. A staff writer for All Thats Interesting, Marco Margaritoff has also published work at outlets including People, VICE, and Complex, covering everything from film to finance to technology. After almost a week of searching, Susan and David Smith appeared before the cameras, and once again Susan Smith pleaded and asked her children to stay strong. While juggling multiple lovers Smith became pregnant and got an abortion. Related To . However, support would soon turn to . . As the daily interrogation proceeded, the police discovered inconsistencies in Susans story. Tom Findleythe son of the owner of the company where Smith worked as a secretarywho didn't want children. By March of 92, the couple separated. Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? The company recently donated that money to day-care centers in the area. Life in prison would make her eligible for parole in 30 years. Refine Your Search Results. Javed Iqbal, a Pakistani serial killer who killed exactly 100 young boys, ranging from age 6 to 16. Susan Smith was convicted of murdering her children on July 22, 1995. Susan Smith slept with two corrections officers in 2000 and 2001, both the officers were convicted and Susan was shifted to another prison. Thomas S. England/Getty ImagesDavid Smith Sr. mourning his grandsons at John D. Long Lake. 4,617 17 Nov 01, 2008 #1 SUSAN SMITH'S LETTER TO TOM FINDLAY Dear Tom, Just a note to say thank you for everything. By November Smith announced she was pregnant again and the marriage had new life in it both literally and figuratively. Although the high-pressure jobs have contributed to the breakup of some marriages, they are considered among the best in Union. Not that it justifies a single thing, but her life wasn't easy. Lived In Ridgeway VA, Union SC, Bennettsville SC. The story opens with 23-year-old Susan Smith leaving her job at the Consol Products company, working as a secretary. Though the court of public opinion has largely sided with the prosecution, the state will have to actually consider Smiths pleas in 2024, when shell be eligible for parole. On national TV, she sobbed as she described the false kidnapping, claiming the man seized control of her car as she waited at a stoplight, then forced her out at gunpoint and drove off with her sons. Ms. Smiths lawyers contend she snapped under unbearable personal pressures and a history of mental illness. For nine days, she stuck to the story that a black carjacker abducted the children on a dark, desolate stretch of country road. Susan Smith's former cellmates and a prison guard who had sex with her are speaking out about the infamous woman's checkered time behind bars. When she was spared the death penalty, her husband stated on the courthouse steps, Ill never forget what Susan has done, and Ill never forget Michael and Alex. He also expressed disappointment with her sentence: Me and my family, of course, are disappointed that the death penalty wasnt the verdict.. And Smith already had two sons. Brooks Kraft LLC/Sygma/Getty ImagesSusan Smith was convicted of murdering her children on July 22, 1995. Meanwhile, David had no idea that she suffered from depression and dependent personality disorder. This Friday, the world will hear from David Smith again, 16 years after his ex-wife, Susan Smith, drowned their sons, Michael and Alex, in John D. Long Lake in Union County. You can also find more information, resources, and support at www.thehotline.org. When it was revealed that she was lying, anger arose in both local and national African American communities. With operations stretching from Union to New York to London, Conso is expanding steadily and claims to be the world's largest manufacturer of decorative trimmings for home furnishings. Eventually, she sent her car driving into a lake, she watched as the car with her two sons inside sank. Tom had caught Smith in a hot tub while making out with someone elses husband at a party. He holds dual bachelor's degrees from Pace University and a master's degree from New York University. Smith interacted with young women who had risen through the company's ranks to sales and marketing jobs paying more than $30,000. The couple decided to marry when Susan discovered that she was pregnant. Start your free 7-day trial. On the second day of the search, Susan Smith took a lie detector test and failed. According to aPeople report in 2020, a source inside the prison said that Smith is "behaving herself these days." She pleaded for the safe return of her boys, 14-month-old Alexander and. Garner, who has known Ms. Smith since she was in the first grade, said he spent two sleepless days searching for the youngsters on back roads, angry at the fictitious carjacker. If youre fascinated by the world of true crime, sign up for our newsletter. The story became international news, even landing on the cover of PEOPLE. The lake where Smith killed Michael and Alex went on to become a macabre tourist attraction. On top of that, Ms. Smith later said that a cause of her depression was her breakup with Conso employee Tom . She began sleeping with her bosss son, Tom Findlay, in January 1994. The idea that she would kill her . "I am not the monster society thinks I am," she wrote. They portray the drownings as a failed suicide. In 1994, Smith strapped her two sons, 3-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alex, into their car seats and pushed the vehicle into a lake. . Back in the 1990s, Susan Smith claimed a Black man kidnapped her sons, 3-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alexander. She gained the . Obituary. While he was on the stand, jurors heard two intimate letters, one Smith wrote to Findlay and one he wrote in return. It was later revealed that he had molested Susan when she was a teenager. Print length 304 pages Language English Publisher Authors Book Nook Publication date January 1, 2000 Dimensions In the decades since her conviction, Smith has said she regrets her crimes. In 1989, Susan Vaughan told her psychiatrist that her affair with her stepfather was consensual. It drew countless visitors who wanted to take . Her sentence was thirty years to life in prison, with the possibility of parole after the thirty years are up. "A passing love affair," Halleck called it. That 28-year-old witness, Tom Findlay, also wrote that he was afraid that their backgrounds -- he was a child of privilege, she a child of a mill worker who committed suicide when his wife left him -- were just too far apart. She said that she was living in what she called a veil of tears, not wanting to live without a mother. 1000s of new photos added daily. Smith was reprimanded by her mom for making the issue public. Susan Smith falsely accused a black man of carjacking her children in 1994 Andrew Smith, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. I was not myself, I was a good mother and I loved my boys. Published on July 9, 2021 11:53 AM. As the car was removed from the lake, the bodies of two children remained in their car seats, grossly deformed from being underwater too long. Divorced now and selling the brick ranch house where Smith grew up, the 54-year-old mother and grandmother who has been portrayed as cold, controlling and hard-edged is showing her emotional. The Tribune wrote that in a letter Findlay sent breaking up with Smith, it implied that "he broke off the affair, in part . Garner talked of the boys as a grandfather would, describing how he let them tag along on projects in the garage, pick apples in the yard and choose storybooks he would read them. She began sleeping with her boss's son, Tom Findlay, in January 1994. The following year, Rowe also pleaded guilty to having sex with Smith and was sentenced to five years probation. The inconsistencies grew more and more, and on the eighth day, Susan changed her written statement, when police confronted her with a new reason, why her version of the supposed abduction didnt add up. And is there a possibility that she could set foot into the world again one day as a free woman? When Smith was seven years old her parents got a divorce her mother remarried quickly once it was finalized. 2. In her free time she writes, cuddles with kitties, makes YouTube videos, and pretends she knows how to paint. Findlay, 28, short and balding with a pleasant face, has been the shadowy figure at the center of the Susan Smith mystery. He had her removed from the office. If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic abuse, you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 18007997233 or TTY 18007873224. Florida executes Donald Dillbeck for 1990 Tallahassee murder, Held without charge, a Miami inmates unborn child asks court for release in odd case, One step led Tampa runner, Gasparilla entrant to big weight loss, huge life gains, Hillsborough must right-size its school system | Editorial, Barnett agrees to $11.4-million in refunds. Findlays testimony also provided another view of Susan Smiths ex-husband, David Smith. Susan was born on April 2, 1939 in Mansfield, Ohio to William D. and Helen R. (Robinson) Gibson. However, after a nine-day . Tom Findlay, Susan Smith's ex-lover, started a new life in Birmingham, Ala. Cary Findlay, who is Tom Findlay's father and Susan Smith's former employer, let his mansion become a. The last time was in August, he said, two months before she drowned her only children. Susan D Smith, 44. Chances are you or someone you love has experienced what its like to be a caregiver while juggling lifes bills and responsibilities. And David Smith threatened to reveal her sexual relationship with her stepfather, Beverly Russell, she told Findlay two days before the children were killed. Susan Smith Trial: 1995 . 'He told me, 'Watch your back,'' Findlay said. Tom Findlay left Conso this year and now works as a graphic artist in another South Carolina town. He urged a jury Thursday to spare her life, saying he bore some of the responsibility for Ms. Smiths crime. The prosecution described Smith as calculating and wanting her children dead so Tom Findlay would reconsider dating her. I was not in my right mind.. Both Smith and Findlay worked at Conso. Later, she got out of the car, released the brake, and let it roll down the ramp into the lake. "Conso is an outlet for fantasy," said Mike Stevens, a commercial printer who does work for Conso. And because of this, Smith has become one of the more divisive and reviled criminals in the pantheon of American true crime, her name a sort of short-hand for the dark, obsessive lengths anyone will go to get what they think they want. He sent her a lot of money.. In a letter to Susan Smith, Tom declared he did not want kids, or to have a part in the life of Smiths kids, nor did he think she was a nice girl. Tom Findlay and Smith were among five people who partied nude in a hot tub at Cary Findlay's estate Oct. 15, 10 days before the boys were drowned in a lake. After graduating from high school, she then met David Smith, the man who would become the father of her two children. She says she was often a lookout for Susan when she would have sex with other inmates in the bathroom, cafeteria, shower and even in a dumpster. Due to a tumultuous marriage between her parents, full of aggression, they divorced when she was seven years old, and soon after, her father Harry, at the age of 37, committed suicide. Resides in Findlay, OH. Social Services did very little, and after some family counseling, Bev was welcomed back into the home. After getting to the location, divers found the car 122 feet from the shore upside down under 18 feet of water. . The greeters at Walmart didnt remember seeing her on the night of October 25th. This book is a quest for understanding -- for those close to Susan and for others. As deeply depressed as she was that Tom had ended their relationship, she was still sexually involved with David - and with her step-father, Bev Russell. In her letter to The State, she wrote, I am not the monster society thinks I am, I am far from it., Something went very wrong that night. She attended and graduated from Lexington High School in 1957. One day in October 1994, Susan Smiths kids, three-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alexander, joined her for a drive. The married man, likely worried about his mistress getting pregnant again and being told he was the father, ended their affair. On that occasion, Mr. Findlay said, Mr. Smith threatened to hurt him if he ever called again. Texas woman Andrea Yates drowning her kids to save them from the Devil, Alice Crimmins, the New York mom accused of killing her kids. But the defense may have also profited from his testimony. In November 2020, Jon Ozmint, former director of the South Carolina Department of Corrections, told the New York Post that Smith will always be a manipulative person, its who she is.. On October 25, 1994, a mother would commit an unspeakable act. Findlay received a salary of $214,615 last year, according to company filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and he controls 53 percent of Conso's stock, a chunk valued at $24-million. In October 1994, Susan Smith called South Carolina police claiming her two sons, 3-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alex, were kidnapped when a Black man stole her car. "The company realizes that what happens has to be played out in the courts and that it does not have anything to do with Conso or its business," Cooney said. According to aTIME, Smith attempted suicide when she was 13, though her mother and Smith's stepfather "refused" to hospitalize her. On October 25, 1994, Susan Smith trapped her 3-year-old son Michael and 14-month old son Alex in her car and rolled them into John D. Long Lake in Union County. They married on March 15th in 1991 due to Smith being pregnant. But eventually, her lies came crashing down and the horrible truth about what happened to Susan Smiths children was revealed. The man she wrote about was a graphic artist named Tom Findlay, who enthralled the court with details of a stormy relationship that came to a head on October 25, 1994. And despite reports that Smith hasn't had the most sterling reputation as an inmate during her incarceration atthe Leath Correctional Institution in South Carolina, it seems that Smith has her eyes set on her future meeting with the prison parole board. Rowe received five years of probation in 2001. Some think Smith hoped to land one of them. [.] When you visit this site, it may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. Working part-time at a Winn-Dixie supermarket, Susan was overwhelmed after an older, married co-worker broke off an affair with her, and swallowed an overdose of aspirin in an attempt at self-harm. Browse 35 susan smith criminal stock photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more stock photos and images. The authorities questioned both Susan and David Smith in hopes of getting some answers. A questionnaire asked potential jurors whether they had ever worked at Conso or had a financial stake in it. There was no motive as it was not even a planned event. On the third day of the search, there seemed to be a breakthrough. The prosecution introduced the letter and Mr. Findlay's testimony to portray Mrs. Smith as selfish and malicious, a woman prepared to trade the lives of her children for a chance to reclaim him. That disclosure concerned Mrs. Smith's estranged husband, David Smith, who, because of his grief over the loss of his sons, is expected to be one of the state's most compelling witnesses. Did Prince Andrew fly on Jeffrey Epsteins plane Lolita Express? When Susan Smith's story was first broadcast to the public she appeared to be a distraught mother desperate for the return of her two children. A death sentence means a choice of electrocution or injection. And I don't want to be responsible for anyone else's children, either.". "It's been a very long, tough roadsome severe depression," he says . As for Susan Smith, whatever we learn and eventually come to understand about the motivations behind her horrible crime, she will always remain . It has been hard to listen to lie after lie and not be able to defend myself, the letter read. The mom of two made headlines at. The case attracted international attention because of her false claim that a black man had kidnapped her sons during a carjacking, but instead. Susan Smith. But testimony in Smith's murder trial has thrust Union County's biggest employer into the national spotlight. She knows that her parole date is four years away and she cant get parole if she isnt being good., In 2020, Melissa Moore, a crime correspondent for The Dr. Oz Show, said that while communicating with Smith in prison, she realized Smith was a joy to talk to, saying, If she did not commit those crimes, she would be your best friend.. Per the source, it's because Smith "knows that her parole date is [a few] years away and she can't get parole if she isn't being good." Susan Knick Smith, 67. Susan rarely had a stable home life growing up. The man she wrote about was a graphic artist named Tom Findlay, who enthralled the court with details of a stormy relationship that came to a head on October 25, 1994. . I was not in my right mind.". As her story began to unravel, Smith admitted that there was no carjacker, and that she had let her car roll into a lake with Michael, 3, and Alex, 14 months, still strapped in their car seats. While the police and FBI continued their search, Susan and David stayed with their families. Despite the animosity in the marriage both parents were seen as devoted to the children. Susan Smith killings: . She was eventually found guilty of the highly-publicized crime. The relationship was by no means, normal and the couple was once again separated three weeks after the birth of their second child. Susan Smith (born Susan Vaughan) led a troubled childhood, though nobody at her high school would have noticed. Weeks after the birth of the second child, Alexander, the couple called it quits once more. It comes with the possibility of parole one that she'll be eligible for in 2024, per the New York Post. Susan Smith (ne Daniels 1961 [3] - June 8, 1989) was an American FBI informant. Forgiving, Smith said, is "something I guess I . Warning: The following contains disturbing descriptions of violence. Then, after insulting Findlay by claiming she slept with his father, he asked her to leave. Later, another prison worker, Alfred Rowe, pleaded guilty to an illegal sexual relationship with Smith. (Mrs. Smith later told him that she had fabricated that story, an apparent effort to return some of the pain that he had instilled in her, "as a joke," Mr. Findlay testified.). As the murder trial of Susan Smith begins this week in Union, Judge William L. Howard Jr., who is barring all cameras from the courtroom, has indicated that the proceedings will not come to. And was sentenced to five years probation had caught Smith in hopes of getting some answers breakup Conso! Happened to Susan and David stayed with their families psychiatrist that her affair with her boss & # ;... Father, he said, two months before she drowned her only.! That he had molested Susan when she was pregnant again and being told was!. `` Tom Findlay, in January 1994 killer who killed exactly young! Company 's ranks to sales and marketing jobs paying more than $ 30,000 become macabre! 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