Susan Smith, currently serving time in prison for the 1994 murder of her two young sons, has carried on sexual and romantic relationships with at least 12 men while in prison over the past three years, until one lovelorn suitor finally lost patience.
The man who’d been speaking to her for over 18 months cut off all contact last year, despite claiming to have been in love with the killer’s mother.
He told the Post that he began to feel like Smith was taking advantage of him.
The South Carolina man, who is in his late 50s, divorced and has grown children, said he felt “tricked” because Smith professed his undying love for him yet continued to have similar conversations with multiple other men.
“She always expected something from me,” one bitter man, who asked that his name not be used, told The Washington Post. “To her, we’re not men. We’re targets. She’s always thinking about what she can get out of it.”
The Post reviewed Smith’s phone and message records and confirmed that the man stopped speaking to her in November.
“I saw on the news that she was talking to other guys, so I looked into it myself,” the retired man said. “I actually got the records and realized she was cheating.”
Smith was highly communicative in prison: She messaged friends and suitors multiple times a day and maintained constant phone conversations, all of which were recorded and made part of the public record.
Smith, now 52, has been incarcerated at Reese Correctional Institution in Greenwood, South Carolina, for more than 20 years after the infamous murders of his two sons.
She is due for parole later this year and has told her family she believes she deserves to be released.
She was a 22-year-old mother when her car plunged into John D. Long Lake in Union County, South Carolina. Her sons, Michael, 3, and Alexander, 14 months, were still in their car seats. She stood on the edge of the lake as the car sank to the bottom and her two boys slowly drowned.
Smith then falsely told police that a black man had stolen his car and abducted the boys, prompting authorities to conduct a door-to-door search in the predominantly African-American neighborhood.
Smith and her then-husband, David, appeared on national news every day, praying for their sons’ safe return.
But nine days later, Smith finally confessed that there had been no carjacking and that he had drowned his sons in a lake.
Her motive was that she was having an affair with a wealthy man who didn’t want children. The car was pulled from the water with two young boys still strapped into the car seats.
She was convicted of murder but avoided the death penalty, instead receiving a life sentence with the possibility of parole after 30 years.
Smith, who is serving a life sentence, has her first parole hearing scheduled for Nov. 4, and suitors are promising her cash, cars and places to live.
“She always said she didn’t want to ask for anything,” the suitor says.
“But she gives me hints, and she’s happy to take anything I give her. I loved her, but I don’t know if she loves me, even if she says she does. I don’t think she’s capable of loving anyone but herself.”
