Susan Smith, who has been incarcerated for nearly three decades after drowning her two boys, is upbeat about her approaching parole hearing, telling one of her suitors on a taped phone call that she has done enough time in prison.
According to family friends, the renowned South Carolina convict, now 52, has spent the previous few months persuaded that a parole board will release her from prison following her scheduled hearing on November 4.
In preparation, Smith has been hard at work courting her admirers; according to recorded phone calls from Leath Correctional Institution accessed by the Post, the convicted killer had romantic and sexual talks with at least 12 suitors over the last three years.
“It’s time for me to get out,” Smith told one such suitor over the phone earlier this year. “I did my time. I am ready to go.”
According to another discussion examined by the Post, she asked another man in March how he might support her if she was paroled. The man responded that if she left, she would find a substantial nest egg waiting for her, consisting of money he had saved, gifts from her admirers, and the sale of family property.
“I’ll tell you what I did last night, thinking of you: I created a spreadsheet that begins with $213,000,” the caller told the notorious convict. “You’ll have more than that. I believe you’ll end up spending around $220,000 in all. You can spend $40,000 per year. While you withdraw from that sum, it continues to collect interest on the amount that has not been withdrawn.”
“In 20 years, you will have spent most of that,” he informed me. “But you will still have some of it left over.”
“I love you so much,” Smith said after a little pause.
“I love you, too,” the suitor responded.
According to the Post, the talk turned filthy when the man speculated about Smith’s appearance in a damp T-shirt.
“I’m going to have you in the front seat of my car,” the man added. “You’re so bad,” Smith said, giggling.
“I have some ideas for things we can accomplish. But I will make you fidget and squirm before I tell you.”
“Babe, I’m already wiggling and squirming,” the man said.
Late last year, she discussed “ways to get [his] attention” and how she might cater to him in the morning.
“I can get you up in the morning,” she added coyly. “And I mean up.”
Experts told the Post, however, that Smith is unlikely to be paroled on her first attempt, if ever.
According to South Carolina Department of Corrections records, Smith began serving her life sentence on November 4, 1994, after being convicted of two counts of murder in the deaths of sons Michael Daniel Smith, three, and Alexander Tyler Smith, fourteen months.
Smith let her car drift into John D. Long Lake in Union County, South Carolina, with the two boys in their car seats. She stood by as the truck sunk to the bottom, drowning both children.
Initially, Smith, then 22, told investigators that a Black guy had carjacked her while the two boys were still inside the vehicle.
Days later, she and her husband David Smith cried on national television, appealing for their safe return:
“Your mama loves you so much,” she stated at a news conference.
However, she confessed nine days later, claiming that she was driven by an affair with a wealthy guy who did not want children.
Tom Findlay, Smith’s prospective affair partner and ex-boyfriend, wrote a letter a week earlier that authorities say prompted her to drown the boys.
“Susan, I could fall for you. But, as I have already stated, some aspects of you are not suitable for me, and yes, I am referring to your children,” he wrote, according to Deseret News.
David Smith, the father of the two killed children, has remarried and fathered two more children. He and his family plan to fight Smith’s release.
“David still thinks about his boys every day, and he never wants Susan to leave,” one of the man’s relatives told The Messenger. “She belongs in jail and is exactly where she should be.” And we will do everything it takes to keep her there.
The Post said that Smith has confirmed her plan to attend the hearing. Meanwhile, the South Carolina Department of Probation, Parole, and Pardon Services has informed the victims’ relatives about the scheduled hearing.