Susan Smith Mini Documentary — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:02he's got two kids yes maíam and her car
2. 0:05I don't
3. 0:06she's realistic or not inside out I need
4. 0:08the car long get down here three year
5. 0:13old Michael and 14 month old Alex Smith
6. 0:15have been missing eight days days again
7. 0:18the search is on Susan and David Smith
8. 0:23came out of seclusion there's
9. 0:24speculation this enforcement cannot rule
10. 0:27out anything the lead has fallen Bureau
11. 0:29be back there are so many people
12. 0:31consistencies the statements of Susan
13. 0:33Smith Susan Smith
14. 0:34Susan Vaughn Smith Susan Smith has been
15. 0:41arrested and will be charged with two
16. 0:44counts of murder in connection with the
17. 0:47death of her children Michael three and
18. 0:50Alexander 14 months get him going Pam I
19. 0:54got two kids
20. 0:57[Music]
21. 1:07there was this update if a breaking
22. 1:10story out of Spartanburg hooked up I
23. 1:13think as I remember it I was what
24. 1:15watching the news in bed and said that
25. 1:18there have been two little babies
26. 1:20kidnapped a union so bingo we sent one
27. 1:26of our best reporters in fact this is
28. 1:31the first carjacking so we got the car
29. 1:34we drove up to Union I remember going to
30. 1:37the sheriff's office first and
31. 1:40thankfully I had interacted and knew the
32. 1:44head of sled she Stuart back then and so
33. 1:47he told me they were getting ready to
34. 1:49fly John DeLong Lake it just seems so
35. 1:52unfair that somebody could take such
36. 1:54beautiful children she said that she was
37. 1:58stopped at a traffic light and around
38. 2:02nine o'clock at night and that while she
39. 2:04was stopped at a light a man jumped in
40. 2:07the car and forced her to drive got her
41. 2:11out of the car and goes away with her
42. 2:14children they were screaming hollering
43. 2:15crying and I'm just scared that he lost
44. 2:19his patience or stuff at that point I
45. 2:21mean we thought it was an abduction we
46. 2:23had no reason to believe that a family
47. 2:27member would have been involved as I
48. 2:29remember it it was the lead story on our
49. 2:31evening newscasts the last sentence of
50. 2:34her story was this is almost verbatim
51. 2:37verbatim authorities are not ruling out
52. 2:41anyone as a suspect including the mother
53. 2:43your hearts just feel heavy you know for
54. 2:46the things that's going on
55. 2:48I'd say nothing has ever happened like
56. 2:51they singing him before
57. 2:52the reason why I remembered so well as I
58. 2:56spent the next Howard or two hours with
59. 2:58viewers screaming at me
60. 3:00how dare you how dare you that poor
61. 3:05woman she's had her two little babies
62. 3:09kidnapped and you would suggest that she
63. 3:13might have been responsible this story
64. 3:16touches most every listener and knowing
65. 3:19that the media have plugged into Union
66. 3:21County outside the sheriff's office news
67. 3:23vehicles and high dollar satellite I
68. 3:25couldn't believe how many reporters from
69. 3:28all over the country were already there
70. 3:30it just it captivated the the heart of
71. 3:33the nation in the heart of the world
72. 3:34just like that
73. 3:35I remember when Willard Scott cried on
74. 3:38The Today Show when they showed the low
75. 3:42voice photos and I think America at that
76. 3:45point was crying people knew I was the
77. 3:47director I couldn't go anywhere I
78. 3:49couldn't walk down the street I couldn't
79. 3:51go in the restaurant I couldn't go in
80. 3:53the bathroom and somebody was saying
81. 3:55what's the latest on the Susan Smith
82. 3:56story what's the latest on have you
83. 3:57found those little boys please bring
84. 3:59them home so this this didn't happen to
85. 4:02strangers
86. 4:03this happened to people that they that
87. 4:05most everyone knew so and of course
88. 4:08everybody is out looking they all want
89. 4:11to find these little boys I would like
90. 4:13to buy a badge they're a dollar piece I
91. 4:16don't know where this black guy came up
92. 4:18and we just second orange unknown caller
93. 4:20so they had this sketch and sketch goes
94. 4:22up everywhere and so everybody was
95. 4:25looking for not only a car the boys but
96. 4:29that man in the Susan Smith case there
97. 4:32were reports of african-american males
98. 4:35being detained all over the country
99. 4:38because of a general resemblance to this
100. 4:40composite sketch a dialogue started in
101. 4:43the newsroom this composite is so
102. 4:48generic do we continue to use it in the
103. 4:51newsroom
104. 4:52to stop using that what was interesting
105. 4:54about the sketch is most people tell you
106. 4:58detail first and then broaden out to
107. 5:03more global information in her case it
108. 5:07was global without many details because
109. 5:11you want to say well anything is is
110. 5:13better than nothing right but not
111. 5:15necessarily so if it's gonna identify
112. 5:17nine hundred people in a five you know
113. 5:20mile square area there were people
114. 5:22riding around here with rifles in the
115. 5:25back of the trucks shotguns in the back
116. 5:28of the trucks and I'm sure there were
117. 5:31numerous people riding around with the
118. 5:32pistols in the car I think a lady I saw
119. 5:34actually on an interview I think it was
120. 5:37out of Spartanburg said at best um they
121. 5:40they were asking an african-american
122. 5:42lady said that's it does it bother you
123. 5:44that that they're blaming you know or
124. 5:47believed initially it was a black man
125. 5:52and that lady said the most insightful
126. 5:54thing I thought she said Union County
127. 5:58didn't blame a black man Susan Smith
128. 6:01blames a black man speak up like me
129. 6:05sweat official told me was we had to
130. 6:09weigh in balance he told us that it was
131. 6:12a tightrope because he had to continue
132. 6:15to keep her confidence
133. 6:17and so that was part of pretending that
134. 6:24the sketch might be real to play upon
135. 6:26this racial stereotype that we with
136. 6:29insulin felt that recovering the bodies
137. 6:33was more important key point though they
138. 6:37knew from the beginning she was lying
139. 6:40the biggest thing in the case was the
140. 6:46inconsistencies well the truth is if you
141. 6:48looked David Smith looked like a guy who
142. 6:53someone had kidnapped his kids Susan
143. 6:56Smith looked like someone who was
144. 6:58excited they've told NBC that there were
145. 7:02inconsistencies in your stories do you
146. 7:05know what inconsistencies they were
147. 7:07referring to no ma'am I really do not
148. 7:11know that who wants to carjack a car
149. 7:15with little children in there if it
150. 7:17wasn't a motive to take the children the
151. 7:21children should have turned up if it
152. 7:23wasn't a motive to steal the car in most
153. 7:26car jackings if it's a robbery the car
154. 7:28is abandoned somewhere close by so we
155. 7:30couldn't figure the motive
156. 7:31while the search intensifies both Susan
157. 7:33and David take polygraph tests an
158. 7:36investigator confronts Susan demanding
159. 7:39to know why she killed her children she
160. 7:42storms out of the room
161. 7:43jeopardizing wells his investigation we
162. 7:46got in a car at the exact same time of
163. 7:50day that she said it happened and we
164. 7:52decided to drive the route to see what
165. 7:56it was like well what we realized really
166. 7:58quickly is that that light doesn't turn
167. 8:01red at that time of the night because
168. 8:06there's so little traffic I went to
169. 8:08sheriff Wells I remember this and I said
170. 8:10that light blinks it doesn't go red and
171. 8:15he just looked at me like you know
172. 8:19exactly we all were sort of just waiting
173. 8:23waiting for basically Susan Smith to
174. 8:26crack
175. 8:28and she did well the other thing we did
176. 8:31what I was trying to determine is what
177. 8:33Michael and Alex would actually gone
178. 8:34through with the sinking of the car and
179. 8:36it took almost six minutes that their
180. 8:39their bouts for the car to sink and
181. 8:41again the car basically went turned it
182. 8:43over and then what happens you start
183. 8:45seeing water coming up ultimately in the
184. 8:48floorboard through the vents and I mean
185. 8:51it's just it just comes up and
186. 8:53ultimately covers the camera you could
187. 8:57have heard a pin drop in that courtroom
188. 8:59I heard a noise it's almost like a
189. 9:04giggle and I look over at Susan Smith in
190. 9:06like the law clerk for the defense are
191. 9:09playing right notes are played
192. 9:11tic-tac-toe and she's giggling or
193. 9:13whatever wild this is player and and the
194. 9:16jury's out so the jury comes in and I
195. 9:21hear noise from the other side of the
196. 9:22courtroom and yes this time Susan was
197. 9:26crying
198. 9:34guilty of murder on both counts in the
199. 9:37deaths of sons Alex and Michael today
200. 9:39Susan Smith was sentenced for drowning
201. 9:41her son's in a union county way
202. 9:47and today on this anniversary the State
203. 9:50newspaper released a letter Susan Smith
204. 9:52we figured that there were so many other
205. 9:54stories that had been done about Susan
206. 9:57Smith and about the case we needed to
207. 9:59figure out the story that hadn't been
208. 10:01told the the most memorable quote that
209. 10:05she gave was and I did I'm paraphrasing
210. 10:09here but I believe it was I'm not the
211. 10:11monster that society thinks I am is she
212. 10:13a monster I don't think she's a monster
213. 10:15at all none of them is the monster that
214. 10:19we think they are
215. 10:20she's a thousand percent remorseful good
216. 10:23and bad in all of us but what she did
217. 10:26her actions were monstrous did she know
218. 10:29right from wrong did she have other
219. 10:31choices at some point at the end of the
220. 10:34day Susan Smith has to open that and
221. 10:36that she made those choices however
222. 10:38horrible they are and she made those
223. 10:40decisions
224. 10:42[Music]
225. 11:16you