Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Killers Amongst Us: Beautiful Blonde Mom Breaks into Politics, MURDERED!

Episode Date: November 13, 2020

Linda Collins-Smith was a self-made woman. She built a financial empire based in real estate and hotel management. Her passion, however, was love of community. She worked tirelessly to support the area in which she lived by supporting improvements in tourism and civic pride. Collins-Smith was elected to both the state house and senate. Her body was found wrapped in a tarp at the end of her driveway. What happened to Linda Collins-Smith. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Hi guys, Nancy Grace here. Welcome back to Killers Amongst Us, a production of iHeart Media and Crime Online. Do you ever see people on TV and I don't know, maybe they're a celebrity, maybe they're a talking head, maybe they're a politician, a politician that takes stands about what they believe is right or wrong, or maybe they're a dirty politician. And you wonder, what is that famous person's life really like? Because you see them in one way, and you kind of think you know them, but you don't. You don't know what their life is like.

You don't know whether they've made enemies by the positions they take or the things that they say. What is going on in the lives of the people we see and read about? Who are their enemies? Who is within their circle of friends, their family? You know, the stark realization is there are killers amongst us. I'm Nancy Grace. Thank you for being with us for Killers Amongst Us. With me, an all-star panel to unravel a mystery. Levi Page, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter, professor of forensics, Jacksonville State University, author of Blood Beneath My Feet, and star of a brand new program, Poisonous Liaisons on the True Crime Network. Renowned psychologist joining me from New York, Karen Stark. Judge, trial lawyer,

anchor, Court TV, Ashley Wilcott. And two very special people joining me today from Arkansas, Tate Williams and Butch Smith. I want to talk for a moment about who is this beautiful blonde with the big blue eyes named Linda. Take a listen. Linda Collins grew up in small town Arkansas. She was born in Pocahontas but went to school in Willowford. Her family home was located 10 miles down a gravel road with no running water until she was in her teens. In fact, Willowford is the epitome of small town. Just 75 people live there today. It's this upbringing that Collins credits for her success in life. She says it's this background that taught her the value of hard work and the blessing of living in a land where

everyone from the poor country girl to the inner city street kid has the opportunity to achieve their dreams. Well, right there, our friends at Crime Online told me a lot. Linda Collins grew up poor in a small town in Arkansas. Now, I can relate to that growing up on a red dirt road in the middle of soybean fields and pine trees. Born in Pocahontas, Arkansas, goes to school in Williford. Her family home was down a gravel road with no running water until she was in her teens. I can remember my grandfather came and dug our well in the backyard. Because where we lived, there was no, as we called it, city water.

Straight out to Levi Page, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter. Tell me about Pocahontas, Arkansas. So, Nancy, that is a small town in the northern part of Arkansas, and it has a population of 6,608 people. 6,000 people. You know, hey, at least it's a town. When I grew up in Bibb County, we were in unincorporated Bibb County. We had to make an address, but I guess that's because that's the closest way, the only way as a marker to get the mail to us.

What do we know about Linda Collins? Joining me, Butch Smith and Tate Williams, her son and daughter. Tate, what can you tell me about your mom's upbringing? I mean, this is a real rags to riches story coming from a gravel road with no running water and finding her way up the ladder to business owner, realtor and politician. That's pretty impressive. Yeah, absolutely. She is a very strong woman. You know, she was raised to give it 110 percent everything she did to, you know, really put yourself out there. And if you're going to do it, you know, you do it to the best of your ability. And she definitely used that motto to really drive her through her life. What was she like as a mom, Tate?

What are your most vivid memories of your mom when you were growing up? She was very strict and strong. She expected the same out of us as she expected for herself. So if we did something, we were expected to do it 110% because 100 was just doing it, you know, just enough. You needed to do it, you know, more than that. You needed to give it your all. And so that really, she really used that in everything and all of our life lessons growing up to give us that same drive in life as well. What about it, Butch? What do you recall your most vivid memories?

Was it a birthday party? Was it her cooking dinner? What was it? What sticks in your mind? Well, to be honest, the cooking dinner thing was not necessarily a forte of my mother's. Not that she couldn't. The lady was just so busy that she really just did not have time,

to be honest with you. I would say that the, I guess the main takeaway or the main memory I've got of her is going to be the, just the sheer drive that this woman had that I have no idea how she accomplished the things that she did on a daily basis.

And, you know, just trying to strive to be like that and nobody can forget her red lipstick that she was always sporting around so that bright red lipstick always sticks out my mind when you say all the things that she accomplished in a day what do you mean by that well so she owned multiple motels she had built a franchise property back in 2000 she had another unfranchised property that we had purchased and remodeled. We had multiple rental properties that she also took care of. And all the while, she was still a mother.

And, of course, on top of all that, she was also in politics. And she was down at Little Rock at the Capitol and, you know, dealing with all that. And so she had a partner down there that she was staying at part-time. And she was always, always on the go. You know, too, Karen Stark, psychologist joining us today from Manhattan, I get it. Coming from a home where you didn't even have running water and you lived on a gravel road. Analyze what you're hearing, Karen Stark, about their mom, Linda. Well, when I'm hearing that, she's, believe it or not, sounds a lot like you.

You know, someone who didn't have much growing up and was completely ambitious. And we all know that raising children and trying to be successful for a woman is a hard thing to balance, but she was able to do that even though her cooking wasn't outstanding. And she was driven to success.

That's what I get from her about her friendliness. You know, I think sometimes people that grow up so poor, they just will spend all their energy, do whatever it takes to rise up out of that for themselves and their children. Take a listen. Early on, Colin Smith's business acumen was evident. She got into real estate and became a nationally recognized agent. From there, she began to move into the hotel business, and she became president of the Arkansas Lodging Association and winner of statewide tourism awards. Wow. Our friend at CrimeOnline.com, that's Dave Max speaking. Wow. Those are some serious accomplishments. Straight

out to Levi Page, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter. This woman, it sounds like a house of fire, as we say. Absolutely, Nancy. She owned hotels. She was a real estate agent. She served in the Arkansas House of Representatives and then went on to become a state senator. So this is someone that is extremely ambitious and very successful in life. She had a drive to her. And to top it all off, she's beautiful. Butch or Tate, do either one of you look like your mom? Tate does. I get it a lot. Do you really look like her, Tate?

I don't think so as much, but I definitely have family members that declare that I definitely am related to her. Well, you are one lucky girl. Let me tell you that. Coming from a gravel road with no running water, this woman claws her way to success single-handedly. You know, Ashley Wilcott, you're a judge, a trial lawyer, anchor court TV at AshleyWilcott.com. We're hearing a lot about all her achievements, but she has children. She has a home. She was a mother that took care of her children and raised them, trying to give them a better life than she had as a child. That's hard to do. It takes a lot of love to raise two children while you're

trying to drag the whole family up so they don't have to go through what you went through. That's exactly what causes the drive, right? You know, you just heard that from the family that she was driven, that she was busy all the time. Why do people do that to provide? And mothers specifically, when they have children, I see it in court all the time. Why do people do that to provide? And mothers specifically, when they have children, I see it in court all the time. They have that drive to provide for their children. And this is the American dream. How did she succeed? How did she find the success? Only by working her tail off and working hard. Good for her for doing the right thing to provide for her kids. And you know, it's hard for a lot of people to understand.

When you are working hard, you want to be with your children. You want to be there with them. And you'll move heaven and earth to be with them, to be at home, to be in their lives. But first of all, you got to put food on the table. And when you grow up the way this woman grew up with nothing, not even running water, you don't want your children to live the way you did as a child. I think it's hard for a lot of people that haven't been parents to understand that you want something better for your children. I mean, Joe Scott, as a death investigator professor, you have to face this every day between work and home. Yeah, you do, Nancy, and you have to make these determinations

of what's going to have the more weight to it. You know, right now I've got my grandchildren with me, which is the biggest blessing in the world. I'd much rather be with them than be doing work, for instance. And sometimes, you know, you have to make this decision. I have to work in order that I can spend more time with my family. And it's a very, very difficult balance to realize. Tell me to Linda's children, now adults, Butch and Tate. Tell me about your mom's nurturing side to you. I imagine the reason she was so driven is to try to have a better life for her family.

What about it, Butch? Absolutely, Nancy. She only wanted the best for us, but she didn't want the best in a spoiled kind of way. Let me kind of back up on it there. You know, while we were growing up as teenagers and things like that, when we were kind of coming of age, so to speak, we had the potential to become spoiled little children and things because the income was getting better for the family and everything like that.

And that wasn't the way that she worked, and that's not the way her brain was wired. It was, yeah, you get the necessities, but anything else that you want, you're going to work your butt off to get it just like I did. And so, you know, that was the nurturing side, I guess, in a way, is that she wanted us to be, you know, kind of in the same way that she was in that, you know, don't expect handouts. Don't, you know, don't base yourselfouts. Don't, you know, don't, don't base yourself off other people. You're going to do yourself. You're going to be you and you need to do the best you

that you can be. So Butch and Tate, this is all compounded by the fact that she's a single mom supporting you guys. Butch. Right, right. She divorced, from our biological father back when we were very young. I'd say before I was 10 years old, probably. Actually, I know it was before I was 10 years old. And so then, you know, from there, we were having to kind of live with our grandparents and stuff until she could get another home lined out and working nonstop with the real estate, just anything and everything that she could do to support us. And so she absolutely loved it, was very caring.

It's just that when somebody's working their tail off, as she did, and worked the hours that she did, we had limited time seeing her when we were younger until things financially improved a bit more. But she just did everything that she could to make sure that we were taken care of. Honestly, wonderful she is as a grandmother. Whenever she got to the point of, you know, me and my sister having children, financially she was much more stable than she was as we were growing up. And you know how parents are especially uh mothers with the grandchildren uh

you know they love to spend that time with those grandkids and really lend a lot to the kids and uh i've got a my oldest child has some uh mental disability and so she is his favorite person because she took a lot of extra time uh and spent with him i wonder if that's not why people say they're better grandparents than they were parents, because when you're a parent, you're trying so hard. Like, I run like a Comanche all day and then try to get with my children. Right. But, you know, it's because I'm trying to support them.

Yes. And I'm just thinking about what all she went through and her background. And, you know, it brings to mind Karen Stark, me getting home from school. We were latchkey kids because my mom had to work so late at night. My dad had to work different shifts for the railroad. So we would come home, and it was the highlight of my day when I heard my mom, sometimes it would be 6, sometimes it would be 7 or later, blow her horn as she came up the driveway,

and we would all have, whoever was home, we would all have dinner together. And she usually worked so late. We, and we were two little girls and my brother, would try to get dinner started. So, because I would feel so bad because she was working so hard. And I think a lot of people experience that across the country. And I know Tate and Butch did.

And, you know, the story doesn't sound strange to me at all, Nancy, because I grew up the same way. And I feel like my own mother was like that. She had to work. And what she wanted more than anything was for her kids to be okay, to do well, and to do better than she had done. And I hear that in this story. I hear a loving mother who was out there really doing anything that she could to provide for her family. On top of that, she didn't have a husband. So her children were being raised by grandparents.

It's really an American story, don't you think? One of those success stories where you do everything. I really do. I really do, Karen Stark. And think about it. She didn't just go for a lifestyle for her children. She wanted to make changes in this world. Take a listen to our friends at CBS. The 57-year-old mother was elected to the state Senate as a Republican in 2014.

Linda is one of those people that couldn't be bought, uncorruptible, that wanted to tell people that bad stuff was happening at the Capitol. Ken Yang was Collins' communication director. He says O'Donnell worked on Collins' re-election campaign. They were good friends. They traveled together and did grassroots stuff. Uh-oh. the 57 year old mother was elected to the state senate as a republican in 2014 linda's one of those people that couldn't be bought uncorruptible that wanted to tell people that bad stuff was happening at the capitol ken yang was collins's communication director he says o'donnell worked on on Collins' re-election campaign.

They were good friends. They traveled together and did grassroots stuff. Now, that's jumping into a cesspool right there to Butch Smith and Tate Williams. When you get into politics, I mean, you are swimming with some swamp rats for sure. And what I understand is that your mom, Linda, wanted to make changes in this world and expose bad things happening at the Capitol. Their words, not mine. You can make a lot of enemies that way, Tate Williams. Yeah, you can. You know, she, uh, I often heard people refer to her as having the backbone of 10 men. Uh, you know, she, when she felt something and it was a moral obligation to her, she did not back down and it didn't matter how tall you were because she was very short lady and, uh, she didn't care if you looked down on her, but she always held her ground, um, and made sure that people knew what was going on. She didn't want it. She wanted transparency.

She didn't want that to be hidden, especially, you know, in Little Rock. Taye Williams, the worst times I ever had at the DA's office when I was prosecuting was when I had to go to the Georgia State Assembly, the legislature, and lobby anti-crime issues. I mean, being around those politicians, oh dear Lord in heaven, I'd rather try a serial killer than try, I remember trying to get the rape shield law passed, and they fought tooth and nail. Of course, most of them were defense attorneys. They didn't want anything to protect a victim. And I looked around, I thought, what in the world if the public only knew what goes on in politics? And here comes your mom, Linda, the long blonde hair, the beautiful blue eyes. And she is going to expose, quote, bad things happening at the Capitol. And she would not back down. Oh, H-E-L-L, no she wouldn't.

And the only reason she was making it was because of sheer drive. Sheer drive. Take a listen to Erin Hogan. I remember watching her work all day here at the Capitol. And once her day was finished, she would pack up in the vehicle and take me along we would hop in there we would drive two hours however long it took to get back to her district and we would be at the meeting or event that she was going to for a couple hours and then we would hop back in the car we'd hop back in the car and get back here to Little Rock

so that she would be here for work the next morning we had a lot of long, good, heartfelt talks together on those drives and when we were not talking, she was on the phone helping someone that's who she was when everyone else was worn out and tired, had gone home, gone to bed, she was still working. Sometimes I would receive text messages from her at 2 o'clock, 3 o'clock in the morning and thank the Lord I did not see them until the next morning because I valued my sleep.

So while everybody else goes to sleep, Mom is up working, pushing it. I bet she was so tired at night, you know? She never slept. Whenever she would sleep, she didn't sleep a whole lot. Just like Erin said on there, Mom would text you at 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning. It was very, very regular, not occasionally. It was every couple days she would receive messages in the middle of the night, and she just hadn't went to bed yet.

And then she'd be up around 6.30, 7 o'clock the next morning, going right back at it again. Well, you know, my staff often mentions that I'm texting at 1 or 2 and then again at 5. It's not because I don't want to sleep. I just have so much to do. I mean, you know, to get it all in, it's hard to do. I've got a very strong feeling she didn't want to stay awake all night long. No, not at all. No, she just couldn't turn it off either, you know.

She just had to get it all done, you know. And then finally, once she got whatever it was that day she needed to get done, she could sleep for an hour or two and then get up and do it again. And she got that from her father. My grandfather is the same exact way. So, yeah, she learned it from him. But I got to say, as successful as she was, literally pulling herself up with her own bootstraps, she was unlucky in love.

Her first marriage ends. She did get the joy of having Butch and Tate, her son and daughter, the apples of her eyes. But she left your dad. They broke up. Butch, what happened? Well, that would have been back before I was even 10 years old. So back when I was very young, and I believe Peyton was still in diapers at the time. My father, he had hurt his back or injured it in some way, and he was very adamant about living on disability.

And he wanted my mother to quit her job, stop doing what she was doing, and just settle down and just live off the government type of deal. And that's just not who she was. It's not what she's made of. And she wasn't going to go along with that plan. She wanted something more than that. And so then I'm sure that led to other discussions and other issues. Again, I was a child then. But then they went ahead and they divorced.

And now that was kind of the deal with that. So that didn't work out. This was not a stay-at-home-and-live-off-government-disability woman. Oh, that was not going to work. She devotes herself to pulling her and her two children up to a different socioeconomic strata, and she worked around the clock to make it happen but then she seems to meet her knight in shining armor Philip Smith who turns out to be a circuit court judge so here she comes this hard-charging, beautiful blonde collides with Philip Smith, a lawyer who goes on to be a circuit court judge.

Wow. It finally seems like, in addition to the joy she gets from her children, she's getting happiness in her life. But that was not meant to be. Take a listen to Tyler Thomason at KARK. Court documents reveal the former senator was in the process of divorcing her husband, retired Judge Philip Smith. A hearing in that case was scheduled later this month, and according to documented testimony, the couple were at odds over money after selling a local hotel for more than a million dollars. The ex-lawmaker's former spokesperson tells us the divorce, quote, was not pleasant.

Uh-oh. Why is it that money seems to be at the root of so much heartache? Levi Page, what happened in the divorce? This guy's a judge for Pete's sake. Yes, they were going through a very bitter divorce proceedings, Nancy. What happened in the divorce? This guy's a judge for Pete's sake. Yes, they were going through a very bitter divorce proceedings, Nancy. At one point, Philip Smith accused Linda Collins Smith of hiding assets and he wanted her jailed. That did not happen. And he was also.

I guess it did. works her fingers to the bone to amass owning the the string of motels and suddenly comes along this lawyer and he wants to take the whole thing away from her oh no oh no that's not even you know scratching the surface of their divorce i mean at one point he was investigated for improper use of court equipment during the divorce proceedings and he was reprimanded and agreed to step down from the bench and agreed to never work again as a judge. So in the middle of his divorce from Linda, this comes out. Oh, I bet he had an ax to grind. But with politics, divorce, enemies, she had amassed clawing her way to the top and taking hard positions on fighting corruption at the state capitol, everything comes to a screeching halt. Nancy Grace, Killers Amongst Us, signing off. Goodbye, friend.

This is an iHeart Podcast.