" Cladwell said Smith then began crying, said she wanted to go home, and stalked out, hollering in the hallway of the sheriff's office: "I just can't believe they think I did it.". Williams testified about a conversation with Susan Smith on Oct. 17, eight days before the murders: "I have a problem," Smith said. . " With all of the crazy, mixed-up things that take place in this world today, I just dont have the desire to bring another life into it. The judge took into consideration the abuse suffered by the defendant. In the years since the murders, Davidhas switchedto a career as a commercial truck driver, moved 25 miles away from Union to the town of Moore, S.C., married Tiffany in 2003 and became the father to a girl and a boy, Savannah and Nicolas. It was such an unbearable thing.". Is Every Duggar Ridiculously Messy? THE MARGIN OF ERROR IS +/- 4 PERCENTAGE POINTS. At the time David was engaged to another woman and broke it off to be with Susan. He is known to some local young women as "The Catch." Tom Findlay testified as a prosecution witness at the trial-for. Her experience as an accountant earned her a position at Conso Products. In January 1994, Susan started dating a co-worker from her job at Conso Products Tom Findlay. . Back in the 1990s, Susan Smith claimed a Black man kidnapped her sons, 3-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alexander. . On one hand, I feel sorry for the guy because he got wrapped in this mess when he clearly stated he wanted nothing to do with the girl. Susan seemed to be integrating high society, just like her mother Linda. Now more than ever, Americans support the death penalty by striking majorities. A letter. This compact, bushy plant produces bright red tomatoes that ripen early in the season. It takes 60 days for Red Rocket tomatoes to reach maturit, Rootstock Selection for Short Season Tomatoes: What to Consider and Recommended Varieties, Rootstock selection is an important part of successful tomato production, especially in short seasons. Everything is different except the gently rippled lake and its thick ring of trees. I was not ready to assume the important responsibilities of being a father, Findlay wrote in a statement issued through his lawyers. The letter is a classic of its caddish kind; Findlay read it aloud in court. She served a pizza dinner to Michael, 3, and Alex, 14 months, and tenderly strapped them into their car seats. Williams said Smith came to her in tears that afternoon and asked to go home early. I could never express in words how much you mean to me. She kept those, too. "I think you're involved in this thing," Caldwell told Smith in an interview that day. "But seeing you kiss another man put things back into perspective . . The most startling testimony, however, came from Smith's ex-lover, Thomas Findlay, who said aloud in open court what has been whispered in this small Southern town since Susan Smith confessed to murder last fall -- that she had been having a secret affair with her stepfather, Beverly Russell. Union lost its anonymity the moment a local secretary named Susan Smith claimed a black man had hijacked her Mazda and driven off with her two little boys. Initially, Smith told authorities a black man had carjacked her and kidnapped the boys. Susan decides to use emotional appeals. The story gained national attentionwith the images of 3-year-old Michaeland 1-year-old Alex flashed on television screens across the country, including images of Smith and her grieving husband, David. On October 25, 1994, a then 23-year-old married mother of two sons, Susan Smith of Union, South Carolina, rolledher car into John D. Long Lake with herboys strapped inside, drowningthem both. The Monarch Mills headlight light was always green and only turned red if it was triggered by a car on the cross street. Susans thenhusband David Smith is nowremarried and a father again. He broke it off sometime in March, Findlay said, after David Smith caught them talking on the phone and angrily warned him to stay away from Susan. During her adolescence Susan became popular at school, she was a very attractive young woman and seemed to take leading positions in school activities. "There will always be something to remind each of us that such a thing happened here," she says. Sordid and tragic and powerfully real, Susan Smith's story begins with sex and ends with the murder of innocents. Over the next several days, Findlay testified, they had a series of highly emotional conversations. Smith's lawyers said in opening statements there was "no single reason" why Smith killed her children and insisted they would not attempt to portray her as a victim or use the "abuse excuse," a reference to Russell's admitted molestation of Smith when she was 16. I could never express in words how much you mean to me. Idania Pena sent a letter from Miami: "In loving memory of two beautiful creatures that perished in the hands of the person they most trusted: their own mother. "I had a bad day," he said Smith replied. UPDATE! Susan Smith chose to do the worst thing a mother can do and covered it up, Pope argued, pushing for the death penalty. If Smith in fact was rational, why risk a police investigation? She gained the . When it all came apart, she committed an act of savagery that defies understanding. David has stated that he will attend all parole hearings to try to keep Susan Smith in prison for the rest of her life. There was no motive as it was not even a planned event. Copyright 2023 | We Support Phalanx Family Services & St Agatha Catholic Church, Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Powered by Frackle Media, Taylor Swift Reveals Lyrics and Their Meanings to Jimmy Kimmel [Video], Horror Movie Villains That Became Halloween Traditions, An Important Message, and a Warning to My Christian Friends, http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0, http://www.abcnews4.com/story/26887424/a-look-back-the-susan-smith-case, http://www.thomasandrewart.com/KathyKemparticle.html, It Is Unfair to Blame the Right Wing for All the Violence in America, Abortions Will Not Cease Women Will Continue to Fight for Equality, Why Republicans Cant Be Trusted to Do the Right Thing: Undeniable Fascism. Excerpts from a letter Susan Smith wrote to Tom Findlay on Oct. 17, and his reply, written the same day and given to her Oct. 18. She keeps business cards of reporters she may never see again. With the promotion came a new life for Susan. Current Mayor Harold Thompson said while it is something the people of Union try to forget, its a part of history now., ABC News Susans ex, Tom Findlay, ironically went on to find happiness with a girlfriend and HER TWO KIDS! Or purchase a subscription for unlimited access to real news you can count on. But at Patrick's shop, he keeps a pocket paperback of "Sins of the Mother," one of many books published on the Smith case. She began sleeping with her boss's son, Tom Findlay, in January 1994. I want you to know that I have never felt with anyone, the way I feel when I'm with you. But on Oct. 16, Findlay testified, Smith acknowledged she was not even separated from her husband. David passed, but Susans results were inconclusive. The two had always proved to be good parents. Tom Findlay is the son of Cary Findlay, president of the company. Tom Findlay's letter, as gentle as it tried to be, had brought Susan Smith in direct and brutal contact with her own lies, deceit, narcissism, and lust. I was not myself, she wrote in a letter to, in 2015. Thank you for this well written article. . The emerging facts of her chaotic life--her father's suicide, her molestation by her politically prominent stepfather, her failed marriage and the tabloid prurience of her repeated love affairs-seemed to make her a symbol of small-town decadence. Where is Bev Berverly Russell? 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. "This case was an awful case of tragedy from the beginning. She seemed to be unhappy with her pregnancy, complaining almost all the time about her condition. TOM FINDLAY'S TESTIMONY: And as for your relationship with B. Smith was also disciplined in 2000 for having sex four times with prison guard Houston Cagle, who later pleaded guilty and spent three months behind bars for the crime. Susan told her mother and Social Services what had happened. The case appeared tailor made for an ambitious young prosecutor like Tommy Pope, who rejected repeated suggestions that he let Smith plead guilty in return for life in prison. Findlay said he had begun seeing Smith again last September after she assured him that she was in the process of divorcing her husband, a 24-year-old produce worker at the local Winn-Dixie. But others, when they travel, won't say where they're from because they'd rather not answer questions. Susan Smith has been returned to her tiny cell at the Women's Correctional Institution in Columbia, S.C. She has no personal possessions, no contact with other inmates and she wears only paper gowns--a precaution against suicide, because real clothes can be turned into nooses. In a last effort to control Toms feelings, she asked her friend to watch the children while she went to Toms office to tell him that everything she had said was nothing but a big lie. At 11 that night, Smith called Williams and said she wouldn't be at work the next day. Michael was born in 1991, Alex followed in 1993 and Susan gave every appearance of being a doting mother. Smith's mother and stepfather are still around. Smith ended her marriage to the poor boy who loved her and gambled on a rich boy who didn't. In May 1991, the stress of losing a child was too much for Davids parents. I remember this story well and its interesting to know how things have played out over the years. Their last meetings came on Oct. 25 at the Conso plant. The fact is, I just don't want children. . What the jurors heard was the fullest account yet of why she did it--and in the end, confronted with the pathos of it all, they decided both sides were right. And sometimes when her 5-year-old grandson says his prayers, he still says God bless Michael and Alex. Take an eye for an eye, prosecutor Tommy Pope urged the jury. Thank you for your article. Pastors who together counseled the inconsolable community became close friends. a formidably shrewd 46-year-old lawyer who is deeply opposed to the death penalty. During this period, Susan had a relationship with a former co-worker, which only made the situation worse. 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. Most Eligible Bachelor in Union Whatever! (The divorce was granted after her arrest. At this point she seemed to get everything she wanted, especially about relationships with men. Susan Smith murdered her young sons in 1994. This resulted in one of the most barbaric crimes that a human being can commit: killing her own children. 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