Susan Smith faces her first chance at parole this fall, 30 years after drowning her two young sons, but reports about her relationships behind bars suggest she still views people as “disposable,” one expert said.
Smith, now 51, is scheduled to have his first parole hearing on Nov. 4, exactly 30 years after he confessed to drowning his 3-year-old son Michael Daniel and 14-month-old son Alexander Tyler in a South Carolina lake.
Prosecutors had said Smith was inspired to kill her sons a week after her ex-boyfriend and future lover, Tom Findlay, wrote to her saying the boys were getting in her way.
“Susan, I think I’m falling for you. But as I said before, there are some things about you that just don’t sit well with me. Yes, I’m talking about your kids,” he wrote. Deseret News.
Murderer’s mother Susan Smith tells inmate in prison phone call ‘I’m ready to get out’ ahead of parole hearing: Report
Susan Smith, 51, is serving time in a South Carolina prison for the murders of her two young sons. (South Carolina Department of Corrections)
Dr. Kathryn Kuhlman, a licensed clinical and police psychologist, told Fox News Digital that Smith’s behavior was a symptom of dependent personality disorder (DPD), which likely contributed to Smith’s 1994 crime, and is illustrated by a string of letters from her romantic relationship that continues to this day.
According to the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, DPD is characterized by “a need to hold others responsible for the most important aspects of one’s life.” People with DPD “have difficulty disagreeing with others because they fear losing their support or approval.”
Over the past three years, Smith has courted nearly a dozen suitors through monitored messages and phone calls from behind bars, the suit alleges. New York PostMany of them offered to provide her with financial security if she were released from prison, and her conversations with many of them took a breathless and sensual turn, according to the paper.
One of the men recently told the outlet that he initially fell in love with the inmate but later felt “tricked.”
Susan Smith, close to parole after murdering young son, says she’d be a ‘good stepmother’: reports
Pictured in a family photo are 3-year-old Michael Daniel Smith and his 14-month-old brother Alexander Tyler Smith, whose mother, Susan Smith, was convicted of participating in their deaths.
“She was always wanting something from me,” a South Carolina man who corresponded with Smith for 18 months before ending their relationship told The Post.
“To her, we’re not guys, we’re targets,” he said. “She’s always thinking about what she can get out of it.”
“To her, people are disposable,” Kuhlman says. “Kids are disposable to her, relationships are disposable to her. Once they no longer serve her, they’re over. The question is, is she being manipulative, or is it just a product of this disorder that she has?”
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A photo of the toy is displayed at a small memorial next to the spot where Michael and Alexander Smith drowned in 1994. (Photo by William F. Campbell/Getty Images)
Kuhlman told Fox News Digital that there’s “not much” to treat personality disorders, especially while incarcerated.
“There’s no medication that can treat this,” she says. “It’s a way of thinking that’s typically ingrained in someone from childhood. You can learn ways to control it, but treating a personality disorder is pretty intensive.”
“The prisoners don’t do as intensive treatment,” Kuhlman continued. “They’re more focused on keeping depressed people from committing suicide and keeping people calm.”
“she [tell the parole board] She’s trying to get over it, but I don’t know if she’ll be able to,” Kuhlman said.
Susan Smith, a mother who murdered her two sons in 1994, reportedly sent romantic letters to boyfriend from prison
Identification photo of Susan Smith, who was convicted on July 22, 1995, of murdering her two sons, 3-year-old Michael Daniel Smith and 14-month-old Alexander Tyler Smith. (Photo by Brooks Craft LLC/Sigma via Getty Images)
A parole hearing is scheduled for Nov. 4, and Smith seemed hopeful in the recorded phone call.
“It’s time to get out,” Smith reportedly told one potential suitor in a phone call earlier this year. “I’ve served my sentence. I’m ready to get out.”
But criminal lawyer Philip Holloway told Fox News Digital that it was “unlikely” she would be released early.
“Her parole will be denied. The facts of this case are horrific,” Holloway said. “I think it’s unlikely she will ever be released back into society.”
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Holloway cited Smith’s long record of misconduct in prison, where he was twice stripped of his dining room, visitation and phone access for drug use, in 2010 and 2012, according to the South Carolina Department of Corrections, and in 2010, his access was also revoked for self-harming.
“[Her record] “This suggests that she has an underlying inability to follow the rules and regulations that we expect of her,” Holloway said. “We have social norms and rules and laws that we all have to follow. If she can’t follow the rules and live by the expected guidelines that we’ve been given, then… [in prison]I see no reason to expect anything different if she were released back into society.”
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David Smith smiles as he holds up a photo of his murdered sons Michael and Alex after his ex-wife Susan Smith was sentenced to life in prison for two counts of murder in Union, South Carolina. (Reuters)
Holloway said Smith’s prison romance shouldn’t influence the parole board’s decision. Instead, the families of the murdered children could influence the board’s decision by speaking out against her parole.
David Smith, the father of two of the murdered children, has since remarried and had two more children, and it has been reported that he and his family intend to fight Smith’s release.
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“David still thinks about his sons every day and doesn’t want Susan to go out,” a relative of the man told the Messenger. “She deserves to be in prison… She deserves to be in prison and we will do anything to keep her there.”
Smith confirmed his intention to attend the hearing, the Post reported, while the South Carolina Department of Probation, Parole and Pardons notified the victim’s family of the upcoming hearing.
