After Susan Smith and her ex-husband David separated for the final time around 1994, the young woman soon entered what in the beginning was a consensual relationship with a man named Tom. 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. Not surprisingly, Smiths life in prison has been fairly rocky. Susan Smith murdered her young sons in 1994. . But on November 3, with police suspicious of her flimsy story, Smith finally relented and confessed about what shed done. Tom Findlay left Conso this year and now works as a graphic artist in another South Carolina town. Smith's relationship with Findlay, the son of a wealthy mill owner, has provided the prosecution with its motive for the murders of her sons, 3-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alex. Smith was willingly sleeping with Bev, and also began sleeping with Tom Findlay. 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. Susan J. 2. She is now working as a ward keeper assistant and interacts sparingly with other guards and inmates. The relationship was by no means, normal and the couple was once again separated three weeks after the birth of their second child. And David Smith threatened to reveal her sexual relationship with her stepfather, Beverly Russell, she told Findlay two days before the children were killed. And Smith already had two sons. It is highly unlikely Susan will make paroleat least not the first time, Ozmint noted. But she changed her mind, and began driving aimlessly. 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. "Union is a small town, and Conso employs a lot of people in that small town. Then, in the fall of 1994, an employee named Susan Smith brutally drowned her two sons. In her free time she writes, cuddles with kitties, makes YouTube videos, and pretends she knows how to paint. She says, You never know what someone is going through. However, she had a change of heart during filming when she received more details about Smiths crimes. Distraught, Smith got her children into her car and began to drive toward her mothers house. A divorced father of three, Russell was a thriving stockbroker, and a member of both South Carolinas Republican community and the Christian Coalition. So what has Susan Smith's life been like for well over two decades? They got married after only about a year of dating. Almost as soon as they were wed, the Smiths would begin relentlessly arguing and cheating on each other. Jurors in Susan Smith's murder trial heard the words written by an ex-boyfriend that prosecutors say drove the young mother to kill her two sons: ``I just don't want children.'' In a letter to Smith written a week before 3-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alex were drowned in a lake, Tom Findlay described her as ``intelligent, beautiful, sensitive, understanding.'' A car matching the description of Susans Mazda was spotted in North Carolina, but it was not her car. 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. 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. On the second day of the search, Susan Smith took a lie detector test and failed. Smith wrote David an apology letter which devolved into laments of everyone elses grief taking from her own feelings. Smith hid it well. She began sleeping with her boss's son, Tom Findlay, in January 1994. Jake Paul vs. Tommy Fury: Who made the most money from their fight? Findlays testimony also provided another view of Susan Smiths ex-husband, David Smith. 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. She was very frightened.. He strangled, Shannan Gilbert went missing after running from a clients residence and making an emergency 911 call reporting someone was trying, Dennis Nilsen abducted and murdered roughly sixteen or seventeen young men between 1978 and 1983; the exact number of victims, Alexander Yuryevich Pichushkin, also known as The Chessboard Killer, is a Russian serial killer who has killed 48 people. She pleaded for the safe return of her boys, 14-month-old Alexander and. Susan rarely had a stable home life growing up. ``If I had known at the time what the results of my sins would be, I would have mustered the strength to behave according to my responsibility, he wrote. Susan Smith and 6 Other Women Who Have Murdered Their Children. Start your free 7-day trial. Only time will tell if this will aid in keeping her behind bars for good. Later she stated she wanted to kill her sons and herself. 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. 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. Did Prince Andrew fly on Jeffrey Epsteins plane Lolita Express? He had her removed from the office. The prosecution claimed that since she killed her children it was easy for her to gain the sympathy of her former boyfriend Tom Findly. 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. Im gonna get you.. That was more important to her than the actual act, Findlay told defense attorney David Bruck during cross-examination. Before the couple got a divorce the two still slept with each other on and off. However, as she later confessed, there was no such crime. During her trial, her defense tried to present Susan Smith as a woman with a troubled past. In a long day of testimony, the relationship between Smith and Findlay took center stage. According to a prison source who talked to People last year, Smith is currently on a better path at Leath in anticipation of her possible 2024 parole. As a teenager, Susan was well-liked and outgoing. Smith, 23, is charged with two counts of murder in the Oct. 25 killings of Michael, 3, and Alex, 14 months. On January 19, 2015, Smith wrote a letter to Columbia, South Carolinas The State newspaper explaining what allegedly drove her to kill her children. The mom of two made headlines at. Life in prison would make her eligible for parole in 30 years. The couple decided to marry when Susan discovered that she was pregnant. I could never express in words how much you mean to me. 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. Refine Your Search Results. 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. 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. Susan Smith was convicted of murdering her children on July 22, 1995. "This is an incredibly sad tale," Norwood said. In regard to Cary Findlay giving up his job titles, he said S. Duane Southerland was hired as chief executive so Cary Findlay could spend more time on strategic planning. [Watch Cellmate Secrets: Susan Smith on Lifetimes site and apps.]. 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. Susan was found guilty of killing Michael, 3, and Alexander, 14 months, and sentenced to life in prison. On October 25, 1994, a mother would commit an unspeakable act. According to aTIME, Smith attempted suicide when she was 13, though her mother and Smith's stepfather "refused" to hospitalize her. You can find out more and change our default settings with Cookies Settings. Linda confronted her husband about it. It drew countless visitors who wanted to take . In 2015, she broke the silence with a letter written to the State Newspaper. The letter included reasons to end their relationship, the reasons being differences in their backgrounds. People Magazine. I was not myself," she continued. In addition to Findlay, several other Conso Products employees testified. But the rich, handsome 27-years-old broke things off with her in October writing Smith a letter clarifying he wasnt ready for a relationship involving kids. 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. The parents loved their son very much, but their personality differences were putting a strain on the marriage. Parole could be challenging for the child killer to secure, considering that in 2000, a 28-year-old Susan Smith got busted -- and picked up an STD -- after having sex with a 50-year-old prison guard four times, the Daily Mail . Reader discretion is advised. The story became international news, even landing on the cover of PEOPLE. The Charlotte brokerage underwrote the company's initial public offering of stock in December 1993. On the ninth day of the search, Susan and David appeared on all three national network morning news programs, declaring their innocence and pleading for the return of their children, Alex and Michael. "Conso is an outlet for fantasy," said Mike Stevens, a commercial printer who does work for Conso. Christiewho says she looked up to Susan as a mother figurealso claims she witnessed Susans sexual escapades first hand. That night Susan Smith called a friend who she knew Tom was having dinner with, to ask if he spoke of her. ``And yet we love Susan, too. He also didnt know that his wife had been dumped by a wealthy South Carolina man because he didnt want kids. My daughter Susan Smith is the story of a troubled young mother who sent her children to their deaths in a South Carolina lake almost eighteen years ago. As the daily interrogation proceeded, the police discovered inconsistencies in Susans story. She had a guy she was seeing and he used to fly up [to the prison] to see her. she says. Ive seen her do it all, Christie says. At home, however, he was molesting his 15-year-old stepdaughter, fondling her breasts and genitals. David was already engaged to another woman, but he broke it off to pursue a relationship with Smith. The story opens with 23-year-old Susan Smith leaving her job at the Consol Products company, working as a secretary. 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 Smith. 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. 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. . Findlay testified as a prosecution witness, but his sympathetic testimony may have helped the defense. Lived In Pittsburgh PA, Upper . They both came from families tormented by tragedy. Smith made an emotional plea on the television for the safe return of her children. The newlywed couple moved in with Davids great grandmother. The friend she said she was going to visit was not at her home that evening. 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. Findlay said he felt so threatened, he slept with a handgun under his pillow. 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. bore some of the responsibility of the crime, He also expressed disappointment with her sentence, local and national African American communities, said that while communicating with Smith in prison. Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Eventually, she sent her car driving into a lake, she watched as the car with her two sons inside sank. "I was able to see a small hand pressed against the glass.". On Thursday, November 3rd, Susan told the police that her children were not alright and fell to the floor sobbing. When it was revealed that she was lying, anger arose in both local and national African American communities. I could never express in words how much you mean to me. Buy White Printed Paisley Print Dress X29087 at LASCANA. According to aPeople report in 2020, a source inside the prison said that Smith is "behaving herself these days." There was no motive as it was not even a planned event. Each infraction has resulted in the loss of privileges, including loss of visitation, canteen and telephone privileges. For. Inside Susan Smith's Life In Prison Today, were also covered by newspapers like The New York Times. In the decades since her conviction, Smith has said she regrets her crimes. Per People, this included "self-mutilation and the use and possession of narcotics or marijuana," and as a result, each infraction cost her "loss of privileges, including loss of visitation, canteen and telephone privileges." Later that day, Susan met the police behind the local church and finally broke down. 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. At that point, says Rowe, "She could not longer get the male attention that she used as a drug.". All Filters. 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. One of the revelers, Susan Brown, still works at Conso. In her final year of high school, she received the Friendliest Female award and was known for her cheerful disposition. Meanwhile, she and her older brothers were moving into the home of their new stepfather (Bev) with their mom. 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