Susan Smith is approaching her first chance at parole this fall, 30 years after she drowned her two young sons, but reports of her romances behind bars show she still views humans as “disposable,” an expert said.
Smith, now 51, is scheduled for his first parole hearing on Nov. 4, three decades after he confessed to drowning his 3-year-old son, Michael Daniel, and his 14-month-old son, Alexander Tyler, in a South Carolina lake.
Prosecutors said Smith was driven to kill her children a week after her ex-boyfriend and potential partner, Tom Findlay, wrote a letter saying her children were an obstacle.
“Susan, I could really fall in love with you. But like I've told you before, there are some things about you that aren't right for me, and yes, I'm talking about your kids,” he wrote, according to Deseret News.
KILLER MOTHER SUSAN SMITH TOLD HER SUITMAN IN A PRISON CALL THAT SHE'S 'READY TO GO' AHEAD OF PAROLE HEARING: REPORT
Susan Smith, 51, is serving time in a South Carolina prison for the murder of her two young sons. (South Carolina Department of Corrections)
Licensed clinical and police psychologist Dr. Katherine Kuhlman told Fox News Digital that Smith's behavior is symptomatic of Dependent Personality Disorder (DPD), which she says was likely a contributing factor to Smith's 1994 crime and is evident to this day in his litany of romantic correspondences.
Attention deficit disorder is characterized by a “need to have others take responsibility for the most important aspects of one's life,” according to the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. People with ADHD have “difficulty disagreeing with others because they fear losing support or approval.”
Over the past three years, Smith has courted nearly a dozen suitors through monitored messages and phone calls from jail, according to the New York Post. Many of them have offered her financial security if she gets out of prison, and conversations with many of them have taken sensual, clipped turns, the paper reported.
More recently, one of those men told the outlet that he first fell in love with the inmate and then felt “deceived.”
SUSAN SMITH, NEAR PAROLE AFTER KILLING HER YOUNG CHILDREN, SAYS SHE WOULD BE A 'GOOD STEPMOTHER': REPORT
Michael Daniel Smith, 3, and his 14-month-old brother, Alexander Tyler Smith, are pictured in a family photo. Their mother, Susan Smith, was convicted in their deaths.
“She always wanted something from me,” the South Carolina man, who corresponded with Smith for 18 months before cutting ties with her, told the Post.
“For her, we are not men, we are targets,” he said. “She is always thinking about what she can achieve.”
“To her, human beings are disposable,” Kuhlman said. “Her children are disposable, her relationships are disposable. Once they no longer serve her, she's done. … The question is whether she's intentionally manipulative or whether it's a product of this disorder that she has.”
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The toys are 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 aren't a lot of treatments” available for personality disorders, especially not while incarcerated.
“There is no medication that can treat it,” he said. “It's a mindset that is ingrained in a person from childhood. They can learn to try to control it… but the treatment for personality disorders is quite intensive.”
“Prisoners don't get as much intensive treatment,” Kuhlman continued. “They're more focused on making sure depressed people don't kill themselves and keeping them calm.”
“She could [tell the parole board] that was working on it, but I'm not sure that was possible,” Kuhlman said.
SUSAN SMITH, THE MOTHER WHO KILLED TWO SONS IN 1994, SENDS ROMANTIC LETTERS TO HER BOYFRIEND FROM PRISON: REPORT
Legal ID photo of Susan Smith. She was convicted on July 22, 1995, of the murder of her two sons, Michael Daniel Smith, 3, and Alexander Tyler Smith, 14 months. (Photo by Brooks Kraft LLC/Sygma via Getty Images)
With a parole hearing scheduled for Nov. 4, Smith sounded hopeful in a recorded phone call.
“It's time for me to go,” Smith reportedly told a suitor by phone earlier this year. “I've done my time. I'm ready to go.”
But criminal defense attorney Philip Holloway told Fox News Digital that his chances of an early release are “unlikely.”
“I'm guessing she would be denied parole; the facts of this case are horrific,” Holloway said. “I see it as unlikely that she would be released and reintegrated into society.”
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Holloway cited Smith's long history of misconduct in prison. According to the South Carolina Department of Corrections, Smith lost dining, visitation and telephone privileges for drug use twice in 2010 and again in 2012. Also in 2010, Smith lost privileges for self-harm.
“[Her record] “This would suggest that there is an inability that remains within her, an inability to conform to rules and regulations in things that we expect,” Holloway said. “We have societal norms and rules and laws that we all have to abide by; if she is not able to follow the rules and live within the expected guidelines that are given to her, [in prison]”I see no reason to expect anything different if she is released into society.”
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David Smith holds a photograph of his slain sons Michael and Alex and smiles after his ex-wife, Susan Smith, was sentenced to life in prison on two counts of murder in Union, South Carolina. (Reuters)
Smith's affairs during his prison term should not influence the parole board's decision, Holloway said; instead, surviving relatives of his slain children could influence the board's decision with statements opposing his parole.
David Smith, the father of the two murdered children, has since remarried and had two more children. He and his family are reportedly planning to oppose Smith's release.
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“David still thinks about his children every day and doesn't want Susan to ever get out,” one of the man's relatives told The Messenger. “She belongs in jail… she's exactly where she belongs: in prison. And we will do whatever it takes to keep her there.”
Smith has confirmed his intention to appear at the hearing, the Post reported. Meanwhile, the South Carolina Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services has notified the victims' families of the upcoming hearing.
