Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - She Murdered Her Own Kids - The Susan Smith story

Episode Date: February 9, 2025

This is the story of Susan Smith

This episode is brought to you by Total Wine and More, where you'll always find something you'll love. Like if you're in your local Total Wine and ask for a recommendation on a bourbon, you're going to end up loving it. Honestly, the prices make it easy to say yes to grabbing a little extra, like your go-to bottle of Cabernet. And if you're not sure what to grab, the team can point you in the right direction. Shop Total Wine and More in store or online and get everything you need at the lowest prices. Spirits are not sold in Virginia and North Carolina. Drink responsibly. B-21. This is your fix. I am your host, Stasi Schroeder.

Welcome to Tell Me Lies, the official podcast. What's the most unhinged thing of season three? Stephen, because he's so evil. I do think he is misunderstood. You see everyone base consequences. It's intoxicating. The writers just know how to trick you. There's always a twist in this show.

Tell Me Lies, the official podcast, January 6th, and stream the new season of Tell Me Lies, January 13, on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus. So this woman, her name's Susan, and Susan will do anything to get a man to pay attention to her. So one day she gets married to this guy, David, and they have two kids together. But that's not enough for Susan. So she starts smashing with a lot of people. She smashes with her husband, which makes sense. But she also smashes with her co-worker, his name's Tom Finley, and she allegedly smashes with Tom Finley's dad.

And not only that, she even smashes with her own former stepdad. Ew. But one day it all comes tumbling down when her husband David catches her having a flirty phone call with her coworker Tom Finley. And David gets mad and he's like, you better stay away from my wife, Tom. So then Tom Finley and Susan they stop smashing and they end the affair. But unfortunately it's too late for Susan and David's marriage. Because shortly after they file for divorce.

And once they do, Susan hits up old Tom Finley again and they start smashing again. But then one night, Tom invites Susan over to a hot time. party. And while she's there, for some reason, Tom Finley starts making out with another woman. So Susan gets jealous and she wants revenge and she finds a different dude at the party and she starts making out with him. And I guess Tom Finley, he doesn't like this too much. Because two days later, he sends Susan a letter. And in it, he basically says, yeah, you're great and all, but your actions at the party weren't very ladylike. And most importantly, he says, I like you, but you've got kids. And Tom Finley doesn't want kids. Now, Susan,

At this point, she's really upset, because she's super in love with Tom. And she doesn't take this letter well, and she is determined to win him back. So one day she shows up to visit him at work, and she's a total wreck. And she's crying, and for some reason she confesses to him that she hooked up with her former stepdad. Ew. And she tells him that she hooked up with his own dad. And Tom, he obviously had no idea any of this was going on. So he finally, once and for all, just ends it with Susan.

It is over. Here's the thing, though, Tom said it's over. But what Susan hears is, maybe we have a chance. So that night, Susan comes up with a wild plan to try and win Tom Finley back. Now, in that letter he had sent her, Tom mentions that he doesn't want kids. So now it's Susan's goal to get rid of her own children. So she goes home and she has pizza with her three-year-old and her one-year-old sons. Then she straps them both into the car and she takes them for a drive.

And when they get to a big lake in the area, Susan pulls over and she gets out of the car. And the kids are still strapped inside. And that is when Susan takes the car and she puts it in neutral and she lets it roll into the water. And it takes about six minutes, but eventually the car fully submerges. And of course, both the three-year-old and the one-year-old, they drown. Then Susan runs to a random stranger's home nearby and she's panicked and she asks to use their phone. and she calls the police, and she's like, help, my car was stolen with my kids inside.

So police, they rushed to the house, and Susan tells them this whole story. She tells them she was stopped at a red light at a deserted intersection. And some black guy came along, and he forced her out of the car at gunpoint. And then he stole her car with her kids in it, and he drove off.

Now, police, to their credit, they jump into action right away. They take Susan's description of the carjacker, and they create this whole police sketch. And then search parties are sent into the nearby forest, and police follow leads to other counties and out of state. And this story makes national news. And suddenly everyone is looking for this fictional black man.

And Susan, she's all over TV, asking for the kids to be brought home safely, pretending that she's a concerned mother. I want to say to my baby, that your mama loves you so much. I just feel in my heart, you're okay. And not doing a very good job at it. Regardless, the whole country is watching, and everyone feels bad for this trauma. traumatized mother who had just lost her kids.

Until. Police, they start to notice, things in Susan's story aren't adding up. Like how she said the carjacking took place at a red light, but that particular light wouldn't have been red at that time. Because that light wouldn't have turned red unless there was a car on the intersecting road. And Susan told police she didn't see any other cars on the road. But anyway, police are suspicious, and they think she knows way more than she's telling them. And they get her to take two different lie detector tests,

Which is pseudoscience, but the results further lead them to believe she's bullshitting. So they question her, they search her house, they search nearby lakes for the bodies, but Susan, she keeps the lie going. She even goes on TV and questions how could people ever suspect her having something to do with her own kids missing? And at this point, nine days have gone by, and police question her again, and they really put the pressure on her. And I guess she finally realizes that the tides have turned against her, And she crumbles and she confesses everything that she drove her own two sons into the lake and blamed it on some fictional black man. So they arrest Susan, here's her mugshot, she goes to trial, she's found guilty, she's sentenced to life in prison.

From there, she gets disciplined two different times for smashing with two different prison guards. And apparently she gets a girlfriend in lockup and she's romantically linked with six different guys on the outside. Shout out to South Carolina.