A car matching the description of Susans Mazda was spotted in North Carolina, but it was not her car. He also testified that Susan Smith was intimidated by her husband. In her final year of high school, she received the Friendliest Female award and was known for her cheerful disposition. Susan was found guilty of killing Michael, 3, and Alexander, 14 months, and sentenced to life in prison. Susan told her high school guidance counselor and her mother about the abuse in 1987 when she was 16. (Cary Findlay . A lot of people knew Susan.". (Guess he hasnt seen the game tapes), US Supreme Court refuses to block Florida execution of Donald Dillbeck, Red-hot USF women close out home schedule with explosive offensive showing. As the diver's testimony took the jury under the lake and inside the car, people in the courtroom gasped, some bowed their heads, and Mrs. Smith, charged with murder for drowning her sons by allowing her car to roll down a boat ramp and into the lake, chewed her nails and sobbed without making a sound. She seduced us with a carjacking gone wrong two little boys were missing along with their mom's Mazda. . Back in the 1990s, Susan Smith claimed a Black man kidnapped her sons, 3-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alexander. Susan Smith (born Susan Vaughan) led a troubled childhood, though nobody at her high school would have noticed. Susan Smith and 6 Other Women Who Have Murdered Their Children. Brynley Louise is an avid watcher of movies & television, everything from action thrillers to the occasional sappy rom com. He is the elusive ex-lover who told Smith he couldnt continue their relationship because of her children, the man whose Auburn University sweatshirt Smith was wearing the night her children were killed, the man the prosecution says is the motive for Susan Smiths crime. In this (thankfully) small pool, there are still those that stand out in the minds of the public and perhaps one of the most well-known in the U.S. is convicted murderer Susan Smith, who, per A&E, was found guilty in 1995 for intentionally killing both of her sons. Russell was one of several relatives and friends to testify on behalf of Ms. Smith, who was convicted Saturday of rolling her car into a lake Oct. 25 with 3-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alex strapped in their car seats. He was subsequently fired from his job and spent three months in jail after pleading guilty to the illicit sexual relationship. Plagued by lifelong trauma, she married David Smith at 19 to start a family of her own. The married man, likely worried about his mistress getting pregnant again and being told he was the father, ended their affair. "Like I told you before, there are some things about you that aren't suited for me, and yes, I mean your children," said the letter, written on Oct. 17, just eight days before Mrs. Smith drowned her children. Later that day, Susan met the police behind the local church and finally broke down. Shes behaving herself these days, the source said. In the decades since her conviction, Smith has said she regrets her crimes. Findlay testified as a prosecution witness, but his sympathetic testimony may have helped the defense. Prosecutors say she killed her sons to remove an obstacle to a love affair with her wealthy boss son. She would ultimately find a partner in David Smith, a fellow Winn-Dixie supermarket worker who was raised a Jehovahs Witness by strict parents. Halleck said that she had sex with Tom Findlay, 28, the textile heir, but that he was not the main focus of her life. Reprint. She divulged her ongoing relationship with her stepfather, Bev, and even admitted she had an affair with Toms father. They both came from families tormented by tragedy. THE CASE OF SUSAN SMITH: THEORY TO APPLICATION 1 The case of Susan Smith began on October 25, 1994. Susan Smith: 20 Years Later. 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. David Smith Sr. mourning his grandsons at John D. Long Lake. who has been on the run for 47 years, was convicted of killing 14-year-old Mary Ellen Deener in 1966. The couple were very co-dependent on one another, the early days of their marriage being filled with comforting one another over their losses. It drew countless visitors who wanted to take . However, Susan Smith didnt leave it there. 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. Brooks Kraft LLC/Sygma/Getty ImagesSusan Smith was convicted of murdering her children on July 22, 1995. In addition to Findlay, several other Conso Products employees testified. But she changed her mind, and began driving aimlessly. Susan hadnt been a model prisoner, as she has been disciplined five times for offenses, including for drug uses. Javed Iqbal, a Pakistani serial killer who killed exactly 100 young boys, ranging from age 6 to 16. Those children had a right to enjoy life, and she had no right to take life from them! Defense attorney David Bruck declined to preview his presentation. He urged a jury Thursday to spare her life, saying he bore some of the responsibility for Ms. Smiths crime. Browse 35 susan smith criminal stock photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more stock photos and images. I feel no sorrow for her at all! He said they had sex. 2023, A&E Television Networks, LLC. 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. I was not in my right mind.. Buy White Printed Paisley Print Dress X29087 at LASCANA. One of the revelers, Susan. You dont have all the guilt of this tragedy, he read from a letter he wrote Ms. Smith this past Fathers Day. For seven months they attempted to fix what they had, but during off spells, Smith had an affair with an old boyfriend. Murder of Susan Smith. She tried anything she could think of to get him back. Meet Gladys Presley, Elvis Presley's Mother And The 'Love Of His Life', The Baffling Mystery Of What Happened To John F. Kennedy's Brain, What Stephen Hawking Thinks Threatens Humankind The Most, 27 Raw Images Of When Punk Ruled New York, Join The All That's Interesting Weekly Dispatch. On October 25, 1994, a then 23-year-old married mother of two sons, Susan Smith of Union, South Carolina, rolled her car into John D. Long Lake with her boys strapped . Among those are rare examples in which mothers kill their own children. 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. Findlay painted a picture of Susan Smith as a good friend and caring mother who was also suicidal and unstable. Online Exclusive Wife of Former Prison Guard Who Had Affair With Child Killer Susan Smith Speaks Out The wife of a former prison guard is speaking out about his past sexual affair behind bars. Susan Smith, leaving court in this photo, was convicted on July 22, 1995 of murdering her two sons, 3-year-old Michael Daniel Smith and 14-month-old Alexander Tyler Smith. TO BE HONEST WITH YOU THERE WAS A TIME WHEN I WISHED THAT SHE WOULD DIE IN JAIL, HOWEVER, IF SHE MAKES PAROLE, MY ADVICE TO HER IS THAT SHE WOULD NOT RECEIVE A WARM WELCOME IN SOUTH CAROLINA. Forgiving, Smith said, is "something I guess I . He hadnt. Susan Smith slept with two corrections officers in 2000 and 2001, both the officers were convicted and Susan was shifted to another prison. As a $17,000-a-year secretary to Cary Findlay, Smith worked for one of Union's wealthiest people. I was not in my right mind. She also noted, in something of a contradiction, that she had planned to kill myself first and leave a note behind telling what had happened., In the same letter, Smith also wrote that shed concocted the false story about the kids abductions because she didnt know how to tell the people who loved Michael & Alex that they would never see them again.. Tom Findleythe son of the owner of the company where Smith worked as a secretarywho didn't want children. ``My remorse goes way beyond sorrow, getting caught or anything else.. romance just days before Smith committed the crimes. 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. For nine days, she stuck to the story that a black carjacker abducted the children on a dark, desolate stretch of country road. That is so far from the truth. Mayor Jane Castors partner vowed not to lobby the city. Hulsen had a more sympathetic attitude toward Smith, saying she wasnt one to judge. Almost a decade later, David says he's doing well. Sex, Drugs and Sickness: Susan Smith's Life in Prison, 25 Years After Drowning Her Sons, Susan Smith Keeps a Photo of 2 Sons She Killed in Prison Cell, Says Source: 'Very Tortured Soul', Susan Smith Is 'Behaving Herself' in Prison After Being Disciplined for Drugs, Sex: Source, Cold Cases Heat Up: How Advances in DNA Technology Are Helping to Bring Justice for Victims, Victim of Sarah Lawrence Sex Cult Leader Who Later Became His 'Lieutenant' Gets 54 Months in Prison, Jen Shah Reports to Prison to Start Her 6.5-Year Sentence for Telemarketing Fraud Scheme, Susan Smith, in Prison for Killing Her 2 Kids, Is 'No Longer Corresponding' with Long-Distance Boyfriend, Who Is Larry Ray? Get breaking news delivered to your inbox as it happens. Today Susan Smith is incarcerated at Leath Correctional Institution in Greenwood, South Carolina. The letter included reasons to end their relationship, the reasons being differences in their backgrounds. Inside the Julia Wendall conspiracy, Did the Island Boys break up? Gifts processed in this system are not tax deductible, but are predominately used to help meet the local financial requirements needed to receive national matching-grant funds. UNION, S.C. (AP) _ Years after admitting he molested his stepdaughter Susan Smith when she was 16, Beverly Russell testified that they had consensual sex two months before she drowned her sons. 1000s of new photos added daily. TOM FINDLAY'S TESTIMONY: At trial, Smiths defense lawyers claimed she was severely mentally ill and pointed to her troubled life as cause. "In perspective, that is a glitzy operation for people born in Union who have never traveled beyond the emotional boundaries of Union County. The ex-husband of convicted child-killer SusanSmith has remarried and has two new children.David Smith appeared on C-N-N's "Larry King Live," last night. She began sleeping with her bosss son, Tom Findlay, in January 1994. But in 1994, she destroyed her own family when she murdered her children. At thirteen Smith attempted suicide, though nobody knew. Three hours later, she decided that if Findlay didnt want kids, she was going to get her own children out of the picture. I was not myself," she continued. 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 and her children, Alex and Michael. Im gonna get you.. In the latest quarter, the company reported a record net income of $1.4-million on sales of $15.9-million. 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. The jury deliberated for only two and a half hours, at which point they declared Susan Smith guilty of two counts of murder. Initially, there was an outpouring of support for the young mother whose sons had been kidnapped by a mysterious carjacker. The newlywed couple moved in with Davids great grandmother. The jury has heard embarrassing testimony about Smith's affair with co-worker Tom Findlay and her claim _ which she later recanted _ that she slept with J. Cary Findlay, Tom Findlay's father and Conso's chairman. She said that she was living in what she called a veil of tears, not wanting to live without a mother. "I was a good mother and I loved my boys. Findlay was one of nine witnesses Wednesday, the second day of testimony in a trial to decide whether Susan Smith lives or dies. On cross-examination, Mrs. Smith's lawyer, David Bruck, asked Mr. Findlay whether he had ever had reason to believe that Mrs. Smith would harm her children to win him back. All Filters. The defense told the jurors that shed been sexually molested for years as a child, dealt with the suicide of her father at the age of 6, and tried to kill herself twice as a teenager. Susan Smith, born Susan Leigh Vaughan on September 26, 1971, in Union, South Carolina. Just three hours later, Susan Smith put her kids in her 1990 Mazda Protege and set out for a drive. 'He told me, 'Watch your back,'' Findlay said. It drew countless visitors who wanted to take pictures or leave flowers for the boys, and in 1996, its grim reputation darkened even more when seven people (including four kids) drowned there, after stopping to look at the two kids memorials. Her motive: She was secretly dating a man who didn't want children. In the hospital, Smith admitted when she was thirteen she had attempted to kill herself in a similar fashion. On Wednesday, for the first time, Findlay gave his view of Smith. Unbeknownst to Smith, Tom was also preparing to break up with her. "They were her world," he said. Susan Sarandon has seemed like a mature star for decades, but when she first got her start, back in 1970, her first role called for her to lie naked in a bathtub in "Joe." 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. A Look Back At Susan Smith The South Carolina Mom Who Killed Her 2 Young Sons . 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 . "Conso is one fine small company," said Kay Norwood, a textile analyst for Interstate/Johnson Lane. But the account by Mr. Morrow, a diving expert with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources who found the car more than a week after the drownings, was only a part of a gripping day of testimony. Susan and David Smith were separated at the time and have since divorced. Her behavior behind bars has only made her more infamous, as shes been caught smoking marijuana and sleeping with a correctional officer. Both Smith and Findlay worked at Conso. One day in October 1994, Susan Smiths kids, three-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alexander, joined her for a drive. 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. David (who had advocated for a death sentence), intends to testify at every parole hearing his ex-wife has to ensure she never gets out. Ms. Smiths lawyers contend she snapped under unbearable personal pressures and a history of mental illness. Smith first made headlines on Oct. 25, 1994, when she told police she had been carjacked by a Black man who had taken off with her two young sons still in her car. The mom of two made headlines at. When her mother Linda married Beverly C. Russell Jr., it seemed the familys luck was looking up. Twice in 2010 and once in 2015, she was disciplined on drug charges, losing privileges for more than a year. Before Susan Smith had taken more than a few steps up a boat ramp after rolling her car into the lake with her two children strapped inside, she was already wondering what people would think of. Susan said that there were no cars in the intersection when the black man came and took her car away, but that light would only turn red for the direction she was traveling if there was cross traffic.. 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. According to Alfred Rowe, who pleaded guilty in 2001 to having sex with Smith and was sentenced to five years probation, Smith's drug use escalated when she switched prisons from Camille Graham Correctional Center in Columbia, S.C., to Leath Correctional Institution in Greenwood. Warning: The following contains disturbing descriptions of violence. 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