Susan Smith is approaching her first shot at parole this fall, 30 years after she drowned her two young sons, but reports of her romances from behind bars show she still sees humans as “disposable,” one expert said.
Smith, now 51, is scheduled for her first parole hearing on Nov. 4, three decades to the date after she confessed to drowning her 3-year-old, Michael Daniel, and 14-month-old, Alexander Tyler, in a South Carolina lake.
Prosecutors had said Smith was driven to kill her boys a week after her ex-boyfriend and prospective affair partner, Tom Findlay, penned a letter about her sons being an obstacle.
“Susan, I could really fall for you. But like I have told you before, there are some things about you that aren’t suited for me, and yes, I am speaking about your children,” he wrote, according to Deseret News.
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 said was likely a contributing factor in Smith’s 1994 crime and is showcased to this day by her litany of romantic correspondences.
DPD is characterized by a “need for others to be responsible for the most important aspects of their life,” according to the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. People with DPD have “difficulty disagreeing with others because they fear the loss of support or approval.”
Over the past three years, Smith has courted nearly a dozen suitors over monitored jailhouse messages and telephone calls, according to the New York Post. Many of them have offered her financial security should she be released from prison, and conversations with many have taken breathy, sensual turns, the newspaper reported.
Most recently, one of those men told the outlet that he first fell in love with the inmate, then felt “duped.”
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“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.
“We’re not men to her; we’re marks,” he said. “She’s always figuring out what she can get.”
“To her, it looks like humans are disposable,” Kuhlman said. “Her kids are disposable, relationships are disposable. Once they no longer serve her, she’s done…the question is whether she’s intentionally manipulative or if it’s a product of this disorder she’s suffering.”
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Kuhlman told Fox News Digital that there is “not a lot of treatment” available for personality disorders – especially not while incarcerated.
“There’s no medication that can treat it,” she said. “It’s a mindset that becomes ingrained in somebody typically starting in their younger childhood years. They can learn to try to manage it…but treatment of personality disorders is pretty intensive.”
“Prisoners are not operating at that intensive level of treatment,” Kuhlman continued. “They’re more focused on making sure that depressed people don’t kill themselves and keeping people calm.”
“She could [tell the parole board] that she was working through it, but I’m not sure that would be possible,” Kuhlman said.
With a parole hearing slated for Nov. 4, Smith seemed hopeful in one recorded phone call.
“It’s time for me to get out,” Smith reportedly told one suitor over the 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 her chances of an early release are “unlikely.”
“I expect that she would be denied parole – the facts of this case are horrific,” Holloway said. “I see it’s unlikely that she would be released into society.”
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Holloway mentioned Smith’s lengthy record of prison misconduct. According to the South Carolina Department of Corrections, Smith lost canteen, 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] would suggest that there is an inability that remains in her, the inability to conform to rules and regulations in things that we expect,” Holloway said. “We have societal norms and rules and laws that we are all expected 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 don’t see any reason to expect any different if she is released into society.”
Smith’s jail time romances shouldn’t play a role in the parole board’s decision, Holloway said – instead, surviving relatives of her slain children could impact the board’s decision with statements opposing her parole.
David Smith, the father of the two murdered children, has since remarried and fathered two additional children. He and his family reportedly intend to oppose Smith’s release.
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“David still thinks of his boys every day, and doesn’t ever want Susan to get out,” one of the man’s relatives told The Messenger. “She belongs in jail… she is exactly where she needs to be – in prison. And we will do what it takes to keep her there.”
Smith has confirmed her intention to show up at the hearing, the Post reported. Meanwhile, the South Carolina Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services has notified victims’ families about the upcoming hearing.
