Dear penpal: I love rainbows, Mickey Mouse and killing children

[Satisfying Andy Licious]

This just in:
Convicted child killer Susan Smith (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/07/11/national/main562946.shtml) has placed an online personal ad from behind bars, seeking pen pals with a list of loves including Mickey Mouse, rainbows and waterfalls. "I hope to receive letters from those who are not judgmental and who are sincere," reads the ad, accompanied by a photo of a smiling Smith, 31, wearing sweat pants marked "SC Department of Corrections."

Dear Susie: I love rainbows and lollipops and Mickey Mouse. I love long walks on the beaches.
Uhh, let's stay away from beaches, though.
And I love taking long, leisurely drives ...
But let me drive, m'kay?

[iampunha]

Dear Susan:

I want to have kids, but I'm afraid they'll be too big to fit in car seats, so you won't legally be able to drive them into a lake...

Actually it's against my religion to drive and it should be against yours, too.

How 'bout them Braves? They really killed the Cubs the past few days ... do you think they can keep the Cubs under .500 in the other two games of the series? Maybe their fans can drown their sorrows in some beers.

Randall Simon really ought to be jailed for taking a bat to the head of that sausage a few days ago. I bet his wife thought he'd never do something like that.

I went swimming a few days ago. The pool was only an inch deep so the kids couldn't drown even if they fell in and got smothered.

Love,

me.

[Smeghead]

You know, sometimes it's good to be judgemental.

[Mockingbird]

Originally posted by Satisfying Andy Licious
This just in:


Dear Susie: I love rainbows and lollipops and Mickey Mouse. I love long walks on the beaches.
Uhh, let's stay away from beaches, though.
And I love taking long, leisurely drives ...
But let me drive, m'kay?

I had that happen when I was 19.

A convicted child molester answered my personal ad in the Wisconsin gay magazine.

It was a serious moment of ick.

[anya marie]

Not in a million years would I waste paper and stamps on her.

[Larry Mudd]

Here's her ad (http://writeaprisoner.com/template.asp?i=z-221487).

She's really sweet-looking.
I have grown and matured a lot since my incarceration...I don't know if growth and maturity are really what you need to come back from something like that. If she had instead said, "I am considerably less murderously unbalanced since I've been in here," I might be a bit more interested.

Even still, she's way higher-up on my "to do" list than, say, Karla Homolka.

[sugaree]

I am having a tremendous amount of fun reading all of the personals on that site.

Who could pass up a chance to get to know someone who is "...educated, graduated and knowledgeable in area’s that does not come with instruction manuals." 'Area's' such as home invasion and breaking and entering!

[Greywolf73]

You beat me to it, Andy Licious. I was going to post in the Pit about this very same thing today. That website has asked her to remove (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/07/11/national2201EDT0815.DTL) the ad. Last night our local news said she had received over 800 emails already.
Gah.

[slight hijack]
This one hits close to home. I knew Susan Smith when I was a teenager--our church youth groups played softball together and one of my mother's best friends was her children's babysitter and was one of the last people to see them alive. Everyone always thought Susan was a really "nice girl" and she was one of those people that fit the cliched saying about murderers, "I never thought she'd do something like that--she was such a nice girl!"
(I've always wondered, does anyone ever say things like, "Yep, I always thought s/he was evil--I'm not surprised one bit that s/he killed 14 people and buried them in the basement"?)
[/slight hijack]

[Annie-Xmas]

Sort of a hijack: In her book "Motherhood, the Second Oldest Profession," Erma Bombeck writes in the introduction: This book was written too late for Judy, a woman in her early 20's I met through a brief correspondence who was in prison for the unspeakable crime of killing her child. Withdrawn, unable to communicate, and living in her own private hell, she spent her days in solitaire reading and re-reading my earlier books. Later she wrote to me: Had I known mothers could laugh at these things, I probably wouldn't be where I am today.

I do agree though, that Susan Smith is a serious problem of ick.

[sugaree]

Well, a guy my husband knew in college committed sexual assault with a healthy dose of plain assault and attempted murder tacked on. My husband says he was always an ass and never nice.

[hardygrrl]

Damn. I checked the site and Diane Downs is not listed.

I bet her and Susan could have lovely chats about drowning vs shooting your children, about being so desperate for love you'd kill... about the difficulty of being a modern day Medea.

:rolleyes:

[Dreaming of Maria Callas]

Come on, there's no need to be so cruel. Justice was served, the woman is in prison having received her punishment. Now is the time for forgiveness to begin. Christian Dopers should understand this (people of other moral persuasion may continue their slamming of this woman).

UnuMondo

[Weirddave]

From her ad:

I consider myself to be sensitive, caring, and kind-hearted. I´m currently serving a life sentence on the charge of murder.

Quite a jaring juxtaposition.

[Doomtrain]

You know, I think deliberately drowning your kids makes you subject to people being judgemental. If we can't be judgemental about that, it's time to throw in the towel.

[manhattan]

Originally posted by Greywolf73
(I've always wondered, does anyone ever say things like, "Yep, I always thought s/he was evil--I'm not surprised one bit that s/he killed 14 people and buried them in the basement"?)
[/slight hijack] Yep. (http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/South/07/09/plant.shoot/index.html)

[hardygrrl]

Originally posted by UnuMondo
Come on, there's no need to be so cruel. Justice was served, the woman is in prison having received her punishment. Now is the time for forgiveness to begin. Christian Dopers should understand this (people of other moral persuasion may continue their slamming of this woman).


Maybe I'm just picky, but I don't think religious leanings play here. I'm fairly sure that a lot of people agree that people who kill children, especially their own, deserve the scorn they get.

[Morrigoon]

hardygrrl: as fun as that sounds... nope. Go back and reread - it's God's job to be judgemental. We have to forgive the goat-felching asshat.

[Hentor the Barbarian]

"If you like Pina Coladas, and getting caught with a shiv.
If you’re not in solitary, if the governor will forgive
If you like making love at midnight, but find that cell floors will scrape
I’m the lady you’ve looked for, write to me, I’ll escape"

[MEBuckner]

Well, I ain't no steenkin' Christian, so I can be as judgmental as I wanna be.

Besides, what the Bible actually says is (http://bible.gospelcom.net/cgi-bin/bible?passage=Matt+7%3A1-2&NIV_version=yes&language=english) "Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."

I don't personally have any problem with being held up to the standard that if I ever drown small children I will be judged harshly.

[manhattan]

Originally posted by Morrigoon
hardygrrl: as fun as that sounds... nope. Go back and reread - it's God's job to be judgemental. We have to forgive the goat-felching asshat. Well, there's two nice things about being a atheist right there. I can still be judgemental toward child-killers and I won't go to hell for cracking up over the immediately preceding post.

[manhattan]

Crap. By "immediately preceeding post" of course I mean Hentor's, not the one where Buckner jumped ahead of me. God will get him for that.

[Annie-Xmas]

Originally posted by hardygrrl
Damn. I checked the site and Diane Downs is not listed.

I bet her and Susan could have lovely chats about drowning vs shooting your children, about being so desperate for love you'd kill... about the difficulty of being a modern day Medea.

:rolleyes:

Diane Downs has never admitted shooting her children. I read both Ann Rule's book and Diane's own. I did notice how Rule never wrote a word about Diane's defense.

There are unanswered questions: What did she do with the gun? How do you shoot three children in a small car and not get any blood on yourself? Was Diane's gunshot wound self-afflicted?

I'm not saying she didn't do it. I just think there's serious doubt about it.

[Morrigoon]

Manhattan: I have no problem with you cracking up. It was intended to be amusing :)

[Dreaming of Maria Callas]

Originally posted by MEBuckner
Well, I ain't no steenkin' Christian, so I can be as judgmental as I wanna be.

Besides, what the Bible actually says is (http://bible.gospelcom.net/cgi-bin/bible?passage=Matt+7%3A1-2&NIV_version=yes&language=english) "Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."

I don't personally have any problem with being held up to the standard that if I ever drown small children I will be judged harshly.

Well, I was referring to Jesus' commandment to comfort prisoners.

UnuMondo

[Tuckerfan]

Originally posted by Hentor the Barbarian
"If you like Pina Coladas, and getting caught with a shiv.
If you’re not in solitary, if the governor will forgive
If you like making love at midnight, but find that cell floors will scrape
I’m the lady you’ve looked for, write to me, I’ll escape" Hentor, you slay me! ;)

You know, the composer of the song you're parodying absolutely hates Pina Colada's and isn't very happy that the song's the one thing he's best known for, so I'm willing to bet that he'd be pleased as punch at your parodying his work.

[ioioio]

(to the tune of "God Will" by Lyle Lovett)

Who keeps on trusting you
when you've been killin',
drownin' your kids in the lake?
Who says he'll forgive you
and that he still wants you
'though your racist alibi was fake?

God does, but I don't.
God will, but I won't.
And that's the difference between God and me.

[sleestak]

I went to the SF Gate web site and next to the Smith story was an ad for the Make A Wish Foundation.

Strange.



Slee

[Satisfying Andy Licious]

Originally posted by Hentor the Barbarian
"If you like Pina Coladas, and getting caught with a shiv.
If you’re not in solitary, if the governor will forgive
If you like making love at midnight, but find that cell floors will scrape
I’m the lady you’ve looked for, write to me, I’ll escape"
:D

[iampunha]

Originally posted by UnuMondo
Christian Dopers should understand this (people of other moral persuasion may continue their slamming of this woman).

How does not being Christian automatically entail being of a different moral persuasion? Are there things contained only within the Christian morality spectrum?

[Boyo Jim]

I just love the the personal data tracked for each "penpal". In addition to age, sex, etc. they ask for the following:

Earliest Release Date:
Latest Release Date:
Seeking Legal Help:
On Death Row:
Serving Life Sentence:
Seeking Donations:
Incarcerated Since:
Incarcerated For:

[anya marie]

If she had surrendered her children to someone else's care, I would have more sympathy for her, but she did not and they are dead. No more sunshine, no ice cream cones, no nothing, dead.

If I committed a crime similar to Susan Smith's, I would not expect a lot of sympathy from others. I could expect my family to be there during my trial and maybe the occasional visit while incarcerated , but not much else.

[Dreaming of Maria Callas]

Originally posted by iampunha
How does not being Christian automatically entail being of a different moral persuasion? Are there things contained only within the Christian morality spectrum?

Sorry, I tried to be clearer on that by typing "people of other moral persuasions" instead of "non-Christians" because I understand so-called Christian values are often found with non-Christians.

OTOH, it's a damn shame some Dopers feel "I'm an atheist, so I don't have to forgive this woman and can be as cruel as I want, yay!" Too bad the atheists with more compassionate beliefs re: forgiveness aren't more visible.

UnuMondo

[TeaElle]

We were not wronged by Susan Smith, at least not in any truly tangible fashion. We, even if we are Christians, are not charged with forgiving her for unless she has "trespassed against us" with her crime.

Even if we do "forgive" her, that doesn't mean that we must not judge her current actions. She is being treated with all the compassion she deserves; she hasn't been mistreated, she is cared for in prison at a higher standard than many citizens who have committed no crime. (She's certainly protected, out of the elements, given health care, fed regularly, etc.) She also apparently has access to a computer. (I didn't think that was permitted. Odd.)

To be wide-eyed with shock at the rosy picture she's attempted to paint of herself in light of the facts: forgiveness and compassion aside, she brutally murdered her own children and then trotted out the hoary old "evil black man" to mask her crime while playing on the national sympathies with a tears-and-snot act for the cameras. That's not something that we can or should forget. More importantly, it's something that Susan Smith shouldn't be allowed to forget, either. As far as I'm concerned, she shouldn't have the time to think about Mickey Mouse or rainbows because her beautiful little boys don't either.

[TeaElle]

Argh, that last paragraph got lost in a sea of bad editing.

To be wide-eyed with shock at the rosy picture she's attempted to paint of herself in light of the facts: forgiveness and compassion aside,

Should be:

"To be wide-eyed with shock at the rosy picture she's attempted to paint of herself in light of the facts is far from unacceptable. Forgiveness and compassion aside,"

[ new life motto ] Preview is my friend. Preview is my friend. [ /motto ]

[sugaree]

Originally posted by Boyo Jim
I just love the the personal data tracked for each "penpal". In addition to age, sex, etc. they ask for the following:

Earliest Release Date:
Latest Release Date:
Seeking Legal Help:
On Death Row:
Serving Life Sentence:
Seeking Donations:
Incarcerated Since:
Incarcerated For:

And note how few really fill in the box for "Incarcerated For."

I am a Christian. However, I am not a saint, and I would need the compassion of a saint to be able to forgive her.

[Infectious Lass]

I feel compassion for Susan Smith. Her crime was terrible and yes, evil, but I read about the sadness in her life before she did that terrible thing and I feel pity for her, as well as revulsion at her crime.

I don't know if it makes me a bad person that I feel pity for her, I think that she has to live with what she did every day, perhaps I am naive, but I thought it was a suicide attempt and she tried to take the kids with her which is so wrong of course but it is apparently very common and in their irrationality they think it is the best thing to take the kids with them.

Perhaps I am too naive and she is a cold blooded killer, but nontheless I feel pity for her and her children and thier dad and all the family. for everyone. I hope that doesn't make me like a bad person or misguided.

[Satisfying Andy Licious]

Originally posted by Infectious Lass
I don't know if it makes me a bad person that I feel pity for her, I think that she has to live with what she did every day, perhaps I am naive, but I thought it was a suicide attempt and she tried to take the kids with her which is so wrong of course but it is apparently very common and in their irrationality they think it is the best thing to take the kids with them.

Smith tried to pass it off by saying she really intended to kill herself. She has said a lot of self-serving and manipulative statements. But consider her claim of suicide-attempt-gone-wrong:
She had strap the two boys into their seats:
Drive to the waterfront:
Get out of her car,
Then set the car in motion from outside the vehicle
Stand and watch as the vehicle with her children inside rolled slowly into the water.
And watch at least long enough to ensure that the children would die.
Then come forward with a race-baiting story that a black man attacked her.
If she's claiming she was confused and distraught, she sure managed to carry out each step of those tasks with lethal effectiveness. That's someone committing premeditated murder.
You're not a bad person for having sympathy for her. Sympathy is not the trait of a bad person. But there are so many more people in the world who are better deserving it.

[Count Blucher]

Originally posted by anya marie
Not in a million years would I waste paper and stamps on her.

I'd think that someone might find it great fun to write her a long sensitive letter, wipe his or her butt with it, place it in the envelope, and then mail it to her.

She'd probably open it up and say "You know, that's just SO Childish..." just before she got it.

[Boyo Jim]

Their search engine sucks, they can only be found by name or state in which they are incarcerated. What if I wan't to correspond solely with strong armed robbers, or statutory rapists? Or lifers?

Anybody remember the name of that kind of cute teacher chick who was boinking the boy student, even after she was imprisoned for it once? :D Maybe she's lonely again?

[Lute Skywatcher]

Probably not what Jim is thinking of but how about the teacher (http://www.nojunkfood.org/author.html) suspected of boinking student Edward Furlong (http://www.cfac.org/Attachments/venice_hs_censorship.html)?

[byter]

Originally posted by Boyo Jim
Anybody remember the name of that kind of cute teacher chick who was boinking the boy student, even after she was imprisoned for it once? :D Maybe she's lonely again?

Mary Kay Letourneau?







Susan Smith
In my spare time..

hehe

[Boyo Jim]

hijack/

Originally posted by byter
Mary Kay Letourneau?

...

hehe

Bingo! She doesn't have an ad on the penpal site. However, she maintains a website with the help of a friend on the outside. (http://www.marykayletourneau.com/home.html) The site seems to have been more or less abandoned in mid-2002.

/hijack

[drachillix]

Originally posted by Larry Mudd
Even still, she's way higher-up on my "to do" list than, say, Karla Homolka.

Shes cute but I have a hard time imagining introducing her to my sons mom.....no...really, shes all better now :rolleyes: .