Susan Smith, notorious for the tragic 1994 drowning of her two sons in a South Carolina lake, has been earning thousands from admirers and vows eventual companionship if released from prison.
Documents obtained by the Daily Mail reveal extensive exchanges between Smith, 53, and multiple men while she serves her sentence at Leath Correctional Institution in Greenwood, South Carolina.
Regularly, Smith engages in 15 to 20 text messages daily and spends extensive time on the phone discussing romantic gestures with men ranging from 27 to their mid-60s.
After a man named Jason contributed to her prison account recently, Smith expressed gratitude through a message on the prison’s communication platform.
‘Thank you so much for the funds,’ she shared, ‘It was incredibly kind and thoughtful of you. I deeply appreciate God bringing you into my life right now. I’m grateful that you listened to Him and reached out to me.’
In another interaction, she told a suitor, ‘I’m not one to ask for money, but if you’d like to send some, I can guide you on how to do it.’ The man later confirmed a transfer to her account.
‘Love ya!’ she responds.
And to a third man, she writes, ‘I want to be with you when I get out. Thank you for the funds; they will come in handy.’
Smith is incarcerated at Leath Correctional Facility, where she is serving a life sentence
Smith killed sons Michael and Alexander in 1994
In March 2024, Smith asked yet another man if he would support her if she were paroled. The man explained that she had a large nest egg – a combination of money that he had saved up, gifts from her admirers, and the sale of family property.
“I’ll tell you what I did last night, thinking of you’, he said. ‘I made a spreadsheet that starts out with $213,000. You’re gonna have more than that. I think you’ll be in the $220,000 range, all put together. You can [spend] $40,000 a year. While you’re withdrawing from that balance, it’s still earning interest on the undrawn amount.”
‘In 20 years time, you will have spent most of that, but you will still have some left over.’
After a short pause, Smith sighs. ‘I love you so much,’ she says. ‘I love you too,’ he replies, before they make kissing noises to each other.
Smith has a long history of sexual activity with male suitors.
When she was a 22-year-old married mother living in Union, South Carolina, she started an affair with Tom Findlay, the son of her boss at Conso Products – a home décor trim company.
But after Smith kissed and fondled another man during a 1994 naked hot tub party, Findlay, now 56, dumped her – and told her in a letter that he didn’t want to be with a woman with children.
‘Susan, I could really fall for you,’ Findlay wrote. ‘You have so many endearing qualities about you, and I think that you are a terrific person.
‘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.
‘I’m sure that your kids are good kids, but it really wouldn’t matter how good they may be… the fact is, I just don’t want children.’
A week later, furious and despondent Smith let her burgundy Mazda roll down a boat ramp into John D. Long Lake with her two sons – Michael, three, and 14-month-old Alex – still strapped into their car seats.
After the brothers drowned, Smith falsely told police that a black man had carjacked her.
Susan and then-husband David Smith begged for their children’s return – although she knew the boys were dead
The boys’ bodies were found in a lake near the family home
For nine days Smith and her husband David made tearful appearances on TV begging the supposed kidnapper to return their boys before she finally confessed.
Smith was convicted on two counts of first-degree murder, but the jury rejected the death penalty and she was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole in 30 years.
But her last hearing was a disaster, and Smith was denied an early release. She can apply for parole again in 2026.
‘I will not die in prison,’ she wrote to Jason after the hearing. ‘I believe that God will be with me. When I get out, I want you to be in my life.’
