Witnesses offer conflicting accounts, Mars Voltas lead singer broke with Scientology and reunited with the band. Idk what black friend told you that but it sounds like bs to me. It appears there was ample evidence to proffer First Degree Murder Premeditation and Deliberation which might have been deliberately or inadvertently destroyed. Putnam left Kentucky and returned to his family in Florida. This threw Smith into a violent rage. What a great (in)justice system we have. What type of person marries a man who admits to a murder? If, as he claimed, Putnam tried to reviver her, his efforts were unsuccessful. He still took a life .. no way anyone should anyone be allowed a life of freedom after taking one. According to Jones, "going from a clerical position to being a special agent is rare, but Putnam was determined to beat the odds.". People dont say this out of white guilt, they say it because they either believe black people or they have witnessed it first hand like I have. Is Susan had not threatened him or lied about the baby perhaps the story would have turned out differently. The two of them reportedly drove up to Peter Creek Mountain on June 8, 1989, where Smith informed Putnam that she was pregnant and asked for financial support. Putnam was sentenced to 16 years in prison, but was released after 10 years, early in 2000, on good behavior. As far as Michael Brown, that gentle giant, the only way his DNA and blood splatter couldve gotten on the inside of the police cruiser was he was sticking his hand in there trying to get the officers weapon. For a whole year, Susan Daniels Smith (Sue Smith), who was four months pregnant, was missing. But in February 1987, Mark was given his first assignment, and instead of being in the bigger main office, he was reassigned to a two-man office in Pikeville, Kentucky, per "The FBI Killer. In 1987, an ambitious rookie FBI agent came to Pikeville, Kentucky for his first posting out of the academy. It might have made Susan less sympathetic to some. Putnam was to gather evidence to convict Lockhart. . [2], Putnam was released from prison in 2000, at age 41. I remember when the story broke, being in the next town over, at the age of 12. We have enough social justice warriors in the world. During his time in college, Putnam mentioned to his soccer coach that he dreamed of being an FBI agent. Thats exactly it. Putnam was the first FBI agent to be charged in a homicide. Another book written about the case, Above Suspicion (also released in 1992) was written by Joe Sharkey. In addition to the old 1994 movie about the case, there is also another movie that is in the works. The Inquisitr is a registered trademark. And then she met Mark Putnam and became obsessed. Shelby Ward was so incensed that she tried to conceal and carry a .38-caliber handgun into the courtroom, though it's unclear if she in fact planned on murdering Putnam since she said sheforgot that she had the gun. The new episode of "The Perfect Suspect," which airs at 9 p.m. Thursday on Investigation Discovery, focuses on the 1989 death of FBI informant Susan Daniels Smith in Pike County. I believe he behaved while in prison, thats why he only served 10 years, not because hes white. Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand. He confessed because of a guilty conscience which caused him health problems. According to Joe Sharkey, during his time in prison, Mark was described as a "model inmate.". Today, Putnam is remarried and lives in Georgia. And then she met Mark Putnam and became obsessed. But, still, most people at the theater Wednesday said they are committing to giving the film a shot. He chose to kill her period. The old feud was part of Susan, as she was a descendant of both clans. The old feud was part of Susan, as she was a descendant of both clans. Not one scintilla or shred of evidence to bring a charge or convict this man." The truth is, it could not be determined. Absolutely no consequences for that action. Cat Eyes chief virtues were gregariousness, loquaciousness and generosity, wrote Joe Sharkey in his book Above Suspicion. Qualities admirable in law-abiding citizens, but problematic in bank robbers.. After Mark Putnam was able to gain Susan Smith's trust, they started meeting two to three times every week. Isnt the fact that he was an FBI agent who had an affair with his informant and then killed her more pertinent to the story and any judgments about his conviction and sentence than his race? What is the point of stating this? Huh???? https://twitter.com/LyndaKelly/status/708741300259037184. Im sorry but theres something terribly wrong with that picture. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. . Investigation Discovery says The Perfect Suspect is a psychological thriller, dissecting every deep, dark secret and looking into each suspect until they ultimately find a killer.. The death of Smith is the subject of a new movie starring Emilia Clarke called Above Suspicion, out now. I see her in heaven with the baby. I hope someone in prison tried to rape his a**. Although Mark Putnam claimed that he murdered Susan Smith because she threatened to tell his wife about their affair and her pregnancy, Smith's sister Shelby Ward remains convinced that this wasn't the only reason she was murdered. Sad, but true. Geez. All Rights Reserved. This coward took away a young mother from young kids over a lie + his temper. Seriously he suggested taking away her child to be raised by his wealthy privileged wife that already had children by him. For Christmas, she bought Putnam expensive running shoes and a Nike shirt a big no-no for an FBI informant. Good read, Irving! According to Putnam, his contact with Smith became less frequent after Lockhart's case was closed. Two years before Mark was released from prison, his wife Kathy Putnam died suddenly from organ failure at the age of 38. Despite no longer being married, they still lived together. Yes, he killed her, but he was also a model inmate and had not once received any disciplinary incidents. People like him should be locked up for life,as the principles of his job he did not abide by Meanwhile, "The FBI Encyclopedia" writes that Mark continued establishing himself as a productive agent for the Bureau. He has told his story but she is not here to tell hers so we will never truly know what happened on the day of her death but one thing is certain, 10yrs was too short a time compared to the sentence being served to people of color for the same crime. But she never even tired and her children paid the ultimate price and so did Marks. But the sister of Susan Daniels Smith--the woman Putnam strangled, the woman whose body he hid for 12 months while her family agonized over her disappearance--is not. Mark Steven Putnam was born on July 4, 1959, in Coventry, Connecticut, to Barbara and Walter. The case received nationwide attention. And according to "Above Suspicion," there was a lot of money to be given out to informants. The reason others get much stiffer sentences will happen for a variety of reasons: the authorities have evidence, witnesses or a stronger case.sometimes the police have good interrogators who can solicit a confession or the suspects are plain ignorant or dumb? While visiting Pikeville to wrap up a case, Putnam took Smith on a drive to Peter Creek Mountain one night. The FBI assigned newly-minted agent Putnam to Pikeville, Kentucky for his first case, bank robber Carl Cat Eyes Lockhart. If you or anyone you know is struggling with addiction issues, help is available. [3] His aim was to arrest a famous 32-year-old ex-convict and bank robber, Carl Edward "Cat Eyes" Lockhart. This system is so broken and twisted in this entire country. Susan Smith. That partnership, according to reports, soon became an affair. I just wish it would all die down. Susan dropped out of school in seventh grade due to her family's financial difficulties. He moved there in 1987 with his wife Kathy and their two young children. On June 8, 1989, Susan Daniels Smith was killed in the Pikeville area. He was a man with a big secret. Years of struggles with alcohol had compromised her health. Her body was found last. Film crews were in Harlan County in 2016, recording a movie called Above Suspicion. See latest map, Fayette County schools not following law on gifted education, parents lawsuit claims, Transfer portal talk: Former Ivy League star with family ties to John Calipari in portal, Head-on crash leaves one person with life-threatening injuries, Lexington police say, After being drafted by Commanders, Chris Rodriguez knows his mom would be proud, Four people shot at prom after-party in Kentucky. Susan Daniels was born in Matewan, West Virginia in 1961. Susan Daniels Smith lived a life of poverty, violence and misery. The race thing is a bunch of BS. It would have remained there if not for Putnam, wracked with guilt, confessing to the crime and leading investigators to the corpse a year later. They jumped up whooping and dancing around as if everyone of them had won the lottery. Throughout all this, Putnam, 31, also has remained silent. He placed Susan in the trunk of his rental car. In an effort to get transferred, Mark also claimed that he and his family had received bomb threats. Its a woman who lost her life: Pike County murder hits movie screens, LMPD officer Nickolas Wilts recovery takes huge step forward, JCPS middle school student taken to hospital after eating suspected medicated gummies, LMPD: Man killed in wrong-way head on crash on Preston Highway, Spencer County High School student dies in crash, KSP: Marion County man charged with child sexual exploitation offenses, 2-month-old retriever puppies arrive at Ky. Humane Society after being found in ditch, Louisville man looks to attend his 84th Kentucky Derby. What happened to his children? [2] He studied at the University of Tampa, where he majored in criminology. She was the fifth of nine children (including her sister Shelby Ward). On June 8, 1989, Susan Daniels Smith was killed in the Pikeville area. His marriage strained, Putnam took Susan on a drive through the mountains a week before Christmas, and they had sex in his car. If he were a person of color, he wouldnt be out of prison in 10 years or at all for killing someone. He disposed of the body after the killing . I loved Game of Thrones, you know. At twenty-seven years old, Susan Daniels Smith was a dirt poor, divorced mother of two living in rural Kentucky. Her body was exhumed but it was too dehydrated to get an answer. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357). In his confession, Mark said that he pulled off on the side of the road to continue the discussion. On June 16, Smith's sister Shelby Ward filed a missing person report after failing to find Smith. The FBI arrested Cat Eyes Lockhart in December 1987. . Smith was a local dealer in methamphetamine, PCP, and cocaine, hardly a model citizen. In this case, the murderer wasnt a poor white man, and he was kind of an elite government employee. Eventually, Susan Daniels Smith became pregnant and Mark Putnam wanted to distance himself from Smith before the affair could ruin his marriage. According to Lexington Herald-Leader, he is possibly working in the Georgia area as a personal trainer. "He said he knew some things on Mark Putnam that was awful furnishing informants with guns and drugs," Ward said. He lives in Georgia, is remarried, and works as a personal trainer. . In exchange, he was allowed to plead guilty to a lesser charge of first-degree manslaughter. memorial page for Susan Daniels Smith (1961-8 Jun 1989), Find a Grave Memorial ID 224916506; Burial Details Unknown; . Irving, I just read the article you linked to and wow was it enlightening. This is about an FBI agent who murdered his informate? Once an informant was approved, FBI agents were allotted $5,000 "to be distributed at the agent's discretion." There, in 1989, FBI Agent Mark Putnam killed an informant with whom he was having an affair. I guess he told them that when that happened he was at the movies, but he wasnt at the movies obviously, she said. "Tricorner" is a place where the states of West Virginia, Kentucky and Virginia meet. Putnam, who already had been transferred to Miami, dumped the body off a coal mine road in the eastern Kentucky hills and returned to his wife and two children. According to The New York Post, the cause was likelyfrom her alleged alcoholism. Mark Putnam, who had a wife and children, lived his life as a happy family man but was steaming up the sheets with Sue Smith in hotels whenever he had the chance. ", By the time Mark and Kathy moved to Pikeville, she was pregnant with their second child. Get the day's top news with our Today's Headlines newsletter, sent every weekday morning. I agree with you Its becoming so ridiculous to keep throwing the race card in. Should he have know better yes, but Susan had a role in it as well. I read all the comments and found it entertaining, but if you watched the movie or read the book you would know why he got 18 years. Grow up. In the premiere episode titled, No Escape, detectives find the body of a naked woman and learn that the woman may be the missing informant who disappeared a year earlier. I hear you Erin. I wonder if he would indeed have been doing this is he was black or would have resorted to reoffending. on one of Susans bones? [4] Early life He soon met a girl from the nearby holler who worked as an informant. And now to, you know, see her in a movie, you know, about my hometown-even though it was a dark part of our towns history, said local man and Riverfill 10 employee Jonathan Collins. Im not white and I have to roll my eyes to that foolish question! She died of a heart attack at age 38 in 1998. Two years prior, Putnams wife Kathy died of organ failure likely from heavy drinking at age 38. In a signed confession, Mark Putnam said he choked Susan Daniels Smith, 27, on June 8, 1989, in an act of extreme rage while the couple arued over support of her expected child. Had he just been an average black dude, things probably wouldnt have worked out as rosy. Have you got friend together to paint or repair a him? Mark Putnam reads, exercises, works in the prison hospice and chapel, and is talkative during calls to his family. The two physically fought, and Putnam strangled Smith. Written, hosted, produced by Erica KelleyResearched by Erica KelleyEdited by Chaes GrayOriginal GraphicArt by Coley HornerOriginal Music by Rob Harrison-Gamma Radio, Major Source: Above Suspicion by Joe Sharkey, https://www.amazon.com/Above-Suspicion-Joe-Sharkey-ebook/dp/B01N49MWZH/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3TSQXJQASEJND&keywords=above+suspicion+book&qid=1567612166&s=gateway&sprefix=Above+Suspicion%2Caps%2C252&sr=8-1, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pikeville,_Kentucky, https://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-xpm-2000-09-29-0009292462-story.html, https://www.reddit.com/r/TrueCrime/comments/c1tys4/1989_murder_of_susan_daniels_smith_by_fbi_agent/, https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-07-07-mn-2951-story.html, https://tvcrimesky.com/2019/04/19/susan-daniels-smith-mark-putnam-fbi-killer-above-suspicion-pikeville-update-today/1514, https://joesharkey.com/2016/07/21/__trashed-2/, https://www.apnews.com/782fcc8b1c55b5c5a9b9eff10b35096f, https://www.journalinquirer.com/archives/former-fbi-agent-from-coventry-due-for-release-from-prison/article_22d7dc50-bb6c-5b1a-ac9c-b22905d2b879.html, https://bestofswla.com/2014/12/05/meet-smiths/, The Killing of FBI Informant Susan Daniels Smith. And in 1980, Lockhart achieved his own dream after stealing $300,000 from a bank in Grundy, Virginia. It tells a mighty sad tale. Mark Putnam initially approached Kenneth about being an informant. Susans collaboration with Putnam was successful. He is adjusting. furnishing informants with guns and drugs--Susan, too, she said. The affair was hot, heavy, and extremely passionate. Within five years of dropping out of school, at the age of 15, she met 22-year old Kenneth Smith, and the two of them began dating. He soon met a girl from the nearby holler who worked as an informant. Eastern Kentucky is about as far from the glitz and glamor of Las Vegas and Hollywood as you can get. Every time something like this occurs, the color card is played. After Mark Putnam was able to gain Susan Smith's trust, they started meeting two to three times every week. Racism equals hate. The network says the episode includes interviews with Bert Hartsfield, a sheriffs deputy in Pike County; retired FBI supervisor Jim Huggins, and Joe Sharkey, who wrote a book about the crime called Above Suspicion.. Not one scintilla or shred of evidence to bring a charge or convict this man.. Adaptation. Mark married Kathy Ponticelli, who was the "daughter of a wealthy real estate developer." She was strangled at age 28 by her handler and lover, a FBI Agent. Susan objected and began slapping him. The race thing rears its ugly head yet again. People may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. He said he knew some things on Mark Putnam that was awful . Because of Shelby Ward's persistence--and the wrongful-death suit the family has filed against Putnam--Susan Daniels Smith's body was exhumed in May and the autopsy on her resumed, two years. Putnam would later claim that they only had sex five times over a two-week period and only in his car. He did not know how to control himself and he paid the price. Besides the nonstop phone calls, Susan cut her hair short to look like Kathys. Dont miss out! After Kenneth's parole officer informed Putnam he was "totally unreliable," Putnam approached Susan to be an informant. But thats only part of the story. According to Sharkeys book, a concerned Kathy warned her husband: Dont you ever get involved with this woman . Hum I wonder why? In exchange, he was allowed to plead guilty to a lesser charge of first-degree manslaughter.. [3], In 1987, an FBI agent named Mark Putnam began his first investigation in Pikeville, Kentucky. things that my sister told me.. At that time, Putnam strangled and killed Smith and placed her body in the trunk of his car. "Susan, too [] There's a lot of things I've not told the press things that my sister told me. Your out of touch. They had no evidence at all and a failed polygraph test. My father was a deputy in Pikeville during this time. Connect with the definitive source for global and local news. The pay, however, for an FBI . Later, the medical examiner found that Kathy died due to a combination of pancreatitis and hepatic steatosis, according to the Journal Inquirer. Its sad that you rob a bank Cat Eyes and you get nearly 60 years thanks to Susan Daniels Smith, But you murder a PREGNANT informant and you only do 10 years? LoL. Although the marriage produced two children, its hardly surprising that there were problems. Im not saying Larry Miller should be prosecuted and Im not defending Mark Putnams disgusting actions, all Im saying that your comment about gee this wouldnt happen with anyone but a white guy is ridiculous. However, mid-1989 saw him back in Kentucky to wrap up a car theft investigation. As an informant, Susan, who was 25 at the time, relayed the shotgun she'd seen with Lockhart that hinted at the possibility of another grand bank . It may make better entertainment, but I walsy say if you want the real story, go to the book. Ya know the criminal justice system is messed up when someone does just 10 years for murder. Susan Daniels Smith lived a life of poverty, violence and misery. The movie does say she wasnt pregnant. Putnam, 30, of Sunrise, Fla., entered a guilty plea to one count of felony manslaughter in Ms. Smith's death. The 28-year-old woman, Putnams informant and lover, was reported to have been four months pregnant when she was strangled on June 8, 1989, but medical examiners officials say they have yet to find any trace of a fetus. lol right. Major Source: Above Suspicion by . I started choking her and telling her to shut up. Putnam said he tried in vain to revive her. [Photo by Ed Reinke/AP File]Trouble Comes Back To Town. Theres no hiding from it. Well now. Truly Shameful. Even the polygraph test wasn't admissible in court. Putnam was given a polygraph test, which is also known as a lie detector test. Putnam, who resigned Friday, worked in Pikeville for about two years until his transfer to Miami in May 1989. YupPigs always get away with the evil they do. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0DZ0UtgTu0. To date, he is the only FBI agent convicted of homicide. "Former FBI Agent Pleads Guilty To Slaying Kentucky Woman", "$5,000 in 1987 2017 | Inflation Calculator", "Victim's Sister Haunted by Slaying a Year After FBI Agent Confessed: Crime: Susan Smith's family, believing her death was motivated by more than an unwanted pregnancy, is pursuing further investigation", "Former Kentucky FBI agent relives notorious case as movie consultant", "Susan Daniels Smith, Mark Putnam: FBI, 'Above Suspicion' Pikeville Killer Today", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Murder_of_Susan_Smith&oldid=1151691126, Deaths by strangulation in the United States, Federal Bureau of Investigation misconduct, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents convicted of crimes, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, first FBI agent to be convicted for murder, This page was last edited on 25 April 2023, at 16:35.
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