(Pamela Smart at her court appearance. Picture credit: eonline.com)
This is one of those cases that you will have heard about, you may have seen the movie 'To Die For' starring Nicole Kidman as the fame hungry weather girl who has an affair with a teenager boy and convinces him and his friends to murder her husband.
Some people don't know that the movie was actually based on a real life murder case which was the death of the young insurance salesman, Greg Smart. To Die For wasn't the only movie made about the the case, Helen Hunt starred as Pamela Smart in the made for TV movie 'Murder In New Hampshire - The Pamela Wojas Smart Story'.
I've known about this case for years and I thought about covering it in these next couple of posts as I have seen some recent articles popping up online about Pamela who continues to state that she is innocent to this day. I will go back over the case from the start and bring it right up to present day as I usually do with my posts. I hope you find my posts on this case interesting, informative and let me know your thoughts on this story, is Pamela guilty or innocent?
Before I delve into the details, just a reminder that you can find all of my social media links here and my weekly personal posts as well as details on how to buy me a coffee to support my work (if you like) here
Pamela Wojas as she was known back in the 80s was a student with dreams of fame, she wanted to become a reporter and like a lot of young women her age, she was out at a New Years Eve party in 1986 and it was there that she noticed 20 year old Greg Smart. Greg was everything Pamela wanted in a guy, he was intro heavy metal music, could play the guitar and had long hair. Greg seemed to be popular (especially with the girls) and came across as quite confident and a bit of a rebel. Pamela decided to introduce herself to him. As the night wore on they were flirting and Pamela started to play with his hair which was one of her favourite things about him. They exchanged phone numbers and started dating.
Greg was popular with girls and he loved to go on dates but with Pamela things were different, he seemed to be really serious about her and he was really thinking about his future and giving up the party lifestyle. Everyone was shocked when Greg asked Pamela to marry him, he seemed to be ready to finally settle down but he was still only in his early 20s.
Pamela and Greg seemed to be the perfect couple but behind the smiles the cracks were beginning to grow. They both wanted different things. Greg wanted to start a family and focus on his career and Pamela wanted to work in television as a reporter.
When Greg began working in insurance, the AC/DC T-shirts were replaced with suits and the long hair was cut off, the guitar put in storage. Pamela was devastated and didn't like this change in Greg, she wanted him to stay as he was. Despite Pamela's dislike of Greg's mature image, the pair went ahead with their wedding. They moved into a lovely house and had a dog, everything seemed to be going well, Pamela took a job as a media coordinator at Winnacunnet High School in Hampton, New Hampshire.
Seven months into the marriage however the cracks began to appear again when Greg didn't come home one night, Pamela sat up all night waiting for him and when he finally returned she confronted him about where he had been. Greg finally confessed that he had been out all night with another woman. This revelation deeply affected Pamela who was hurt that so early on in the marriage that he could cheat on her, she started to question herself and thought that she wasn't good enough. They sat and talked it through and decided to give the marriage another chance, Pamela agreed but deep down she just couldn't forgive him and felt deeply betrayed.
At this point one wonders if Pamela should have just walked away from the marriage but it seemed that they had quite a nice lifestyle and some people have speculated that she didn't want to give that up.
Pamela carried on with the marriage and continued with her job at the high school whilst Greg focused on his career. Pamela was bored, feeling unattractive and possibly a bit neglected by Greg who had gone from being wild and fun to being mature and career focused. Pamela was still a young woman and craved excitement.
As part of her job as a media coordinator at the high school, she put together a project which focused on drug awareness called ''Project Self-Esteem''. Pamela advertised for some of the students to get involved and this is where she met 15 year old Billy Flynn (William Billy Flynn) and Cecilia Pierce.
Pamela was 22 years old and quite an attractive woman. Quite a lot of the young boys in the school had a crush on her including Billy Flynn. Boys or girls having crushes on their teachers is an everyday thing but what was beginning to develop between Billy and Pamela went way beyond that. Billy was a quiet, polite young man who had long hair and a fixation on heavy metal and playing the guitar. Pamela zoomed in on Billy straight away because he reminded her of how Greg used to be. One has to wonder if Pamela had really low self esteem at this point, being in a boring marriage at a young age, her husband's infidelity and now here she was being attracted to a boy who was way to young for her but she became addicted to his attention. Billy would pay her compliments, tell her she looked beautiful or he liked what she was wearing. She was only 22 years old but Billy made her feel young again and desirable.
The flirtation between the pair of them heated up pretty quickly and they began spending more and more time together. Billy was totally smitten with Pamela and she had given him sexy photographs of herself posing in her underwear. As a teenage boy having his teacher lusting after him,(who he thought was hot as a lot of the other boys did) this situation must have seemed fun and exciting. Things took an even more crazier turn when Pamela invited Billy and Cecilia (who she also became really close too and treated Cecilia like a little sister) to her house whilst Greg was out of town working. She put on an erotic romantic movie for the three of them to watch. After the movie was finished she took Billy upstairs and seduced him, he lost his virginity to her that night. For the next two months they had a full blown affair and had sex wherever they could, in the car, in the house when Greg was away, in Billy's bedroom when his mother was downstairs. Billy was infatuated with Pamela and thought she was the most amazing woman, he would have done anything for her.
(Pamela Smart. Picture credit: nationalenquireruk.com)
Back home with Greg, Pamela was still unhappy with the marriage but knew a divorce would be an absolute nightmare because Greg would take everything even the dog. Some people believe that this was her motive to want to get rid of him.
Pamela was enjoying being a teenager again (in her mind) with Billy Flynn. Billy, being a young man and thinking the whole thing was a huge ego boost, couldn't resist telling his close friends about it.
The affair was hot and heavy and Billy was completely and utterly under Pamela's spell, it was at this point that it's alleged that she began telling Billy that Greg was abusive in the marriage and that she wanted to be with him but he would take everything. She allegedly told him that if he didn't find a way to get rid of Greg, she would never have sex with him again and the affair would be completely over.
In Pamela's version of events, she claims that she told Billy that she wanted to focus on her marriage and didn't want to see him again to which Billy was utterly devastated and angry.
This situation came to a horrific head when on the night of the 1st of May 1990, Pamela came home to find her husband dead from a single gunshot wound to the head. The house looked like it had been burgled and when the police arrived they said later that Pamela was hysterical at first but then seemed to be quite happy to answer questions which they found quite unusual for someone who had just found their husband dead. Pamela insisted that Greg's death was a burglary gone wrong. The police couldn't put their finger on it but something was not quite right especially for the murder to have occurred at that time of night in a busy neighbourhood, burglaries usually happened in the early hours of the morning or when the occupants were not at home.
Just hours after Greg's death, Pamela was giving interviews to anyone who would listen which the police were not comfortable with and began to withheld information from her as she kept talking to the press. Journalists later recall how Pamela greeted them with her hair and makeup done, clothes looking perfect and even suggested posing with some of her wedding gifts for a more sympathetic look. It was very strange behaviour, it was as if Pamela was loving all of the attention she was getting, she finally felt like a celebrity and was getting the fame that she was so hungry for.
Pamela and her relatives have said in recent interviews that Pamela was on a very high dosage of anti-depressants and wasn't in full control of what she was doing. Pamela also says that she had nothing to hide so didn't see anything wrong with getting her side of the story across.
The police were still trying to figure out what exactly happened to Greg and who was involved for weeks afterwards but then they suddenly got a breakthrough. A parent of one of Billy Flynn's friends contacted the police and informed them that they were concerned that their son may be involved and that he thought his gun had been used in the killing of Greg Smart. Billy with his three friends , Patrick ''Pete'' Randall, Vance ''J.R'' Lattime Jr, Raymond Fowler and Cecilia were all brought in for questioning. It was during these interviews that it was revealed that Pamela and Billy had been having an affair.
Cecilia worked with the police to trick Pamela into a confession. They arranged for Cecilia to wear a wire so that her conversation with Pamela would be recorded. There was a problem with the tapes with parts of the conversations deemed inaudible but they could make out some of the conversation which authorities believed enough to spell out Pamela's guilt and role in the murder of her husband.
At one point during the conversations, Pamela was heard to say ''If you tell the truth, we are all going to f*cking jail''.
Shortly after this, the police raced over to Winnacunnet High School and confronted Pamela Smart, the officer said to her ''I've got good news and bad news for you. the good news is, we know who killed your husband. The bad news is, you're under arrest''
The boys (Billy together with his friends, Patrick, Vance and Raymond) all confessed to the police what had happened and about the affair Billy had with Pamela.
The trial was a sensation and gripped the country. People looked on in shock as 15 year old Billy Flynn sat sobbing his heart out on the stand when describing how he killed Greg Smart. He looked like a little boy (because he was still a young boy) who was so lost in what he had done. He described how Pamela had told him what to do and that he would never have killed Greg if it wasn't for Pamela, she told him he would never see her again if he didn't do it. He talked through tears of how Greg begged for his life and refused to hand over his wedding ring. Billy pointed the gun at Greg's head and said ''God forgive me'' and fired.
We all know what Billy did which nobody is denying is horrendously wrong but one could see that this was a boy who was in way over his head, who was remorseful about what he had done. Greg's brother also felt some sympathy towards him at that moment.
Continued in part two...
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- The Truck Stop Serial Killer
- The Dark & Haunting History of Overtoun Bridge
- The Stuff Of Nightmares | The Toy Box Killer: David Parker Ray
- Beyond Evil: The Murder of Jessica Lunsford
- Death Row Scot: The Kenny Richey Story: Part One
- Death Row Scot: The Kenny Richey Story: Part Two
- Death Row Scot: The kenny Richey Story: Part Three
- Don't Talk, Just Listen...The Weepy Voiced Killer
- Amityville | The DeFeo Murders
- What Really Happened To Mavis Bran?
- Nowhere To Run: The Marilyn McKenna Story | Part One
- Unsolved : Part Three: The Highway Of Tears & The Disappearance Of Maddy Scott
- Unsolved: Part Two | What Happened To Melanie Melanson?
- Unsolved: Part One | Molly Bish & Holly Piirainen
- The Dark Side of The Internet: The Amanda Todd Story
- The Story of Bible John
- The Truck Stop Serial Killer
- The Dark & Haunting History of Overtoun Bridge
- The Stuff Of Nightmares | The Toy Box Killer: David Parker Ray
- Beyond Evil: The Murder of Jessica Lunsford
- Death Row Scot: The Kenny Richey Story: Part One
- Death Row Scot: The Kenny Richey Story: Part Two
- Death Row Scot: The kenny Richey Story: Part Three
- Don't Talk, Just Listen...The Weepy Voiced Killer
- Amityville | The DeFeo Murders
- What Really Happened To Mavis Bran?
- Nowhere To Run: The Marilyn McKenna Story | Part One
- Unsolved : Part Three: The Highway Of Tears & The Disappearance Of Maddy Scott
- Unsolved: Part Two | What Happened To Melanie Melanson?
- Unsolved: Part One | Molly Bish & Holly Piirainen
- The Dark Side of The Internet: The Amanda Todd Story
- The Story of Bible John
Some other posts you may be interested in:
- Coffee & True Crime Q&A With Jo | Part One
- Coffee & True Crime With Jo | Part Two
- Coffee & True Crime Q&A With Jo | Part Three
- Coffee & True Crime With Jo | Part Two
- Coffee & True Crime Q&A With Jo | Part Three
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Wow wow I feel sorry for Billy. Pamela really had him Billy where she wanted him. Because he was young and did not know anything different he she used that to her advantage and doing her self up for the papers and TV that is not right. So yes I think she is in the right place and she is guilty. And as alway very well written and to the point. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
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