Rotten Mango - #128: “Hot Teacher” Teaches Boys To Kill (Case of Pamela Smart)

Episode Date: January 5, 2022

They were just like any other couple. They went on dates on the beach, went shopping for lingerie together, and they had “fun” wherever they could. In cars. At their houses. In the park. Everywhere. Sure, they were plotting a murder but does that really mean much in the grand scheme of their all-encompassing love? By night - they were plotting the perfect murder. By day - he was a 15-year-old high school student and she… Well, she was his high school teacher of course. Full Source Notes: rottenmangopodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rambles. Whether you're doing a dance to your favorite artist in the office parking lot, or being guided into Warrior I in the break room before your shift, whether you're running on your Peloton tread at your mom's house while she watches the baby, or counting your breaths on the subway. Peloton is for all of us, wherever we are, whenever we need it, download the free Peloton app today. Peloton app available through free tier or pay to description starting at 12.99 per month. Better being better boo. Welcome to this week's main episode of Rotten Mingo. I'm your host Stephanie Sue.

And let's just jump right into it. They were like any other couple. They went on dates at the beach. They shopped for lingerie together, they talked about their future, their dreams, their aspirations. They even had a very, very healthy sex life. I mean, they had sex in parked cars and parking lots and their respective houses. Sure, they were plotting a murder, but does that really matter? In the grand scheme of things, not really. In the grand scheme of their undying love. Come on!

By night they were killers! Plotting! The perfect murder! How to get away with it! But by day, he was a 15-year-old high school student, and she was his high school teacher. Zanya. This is the story of Pamela Smart, which is misleading because she's kind of an idiot. As always, full source notes are available at RottenMangoPodcast.com. There's a ton of documentaries on this case. I mean, the minute that I said her name, you guys are probably familiar with this one, right? I will link all of that in the source notes, but there's two books on this case that I

loved. Teach Me To Kill by Steven Sawiki. It's so well written. He even visited one of the main people involved in prison. I think he has a very unique perspective on things he put in the work. You can tell, the book reads like a movie. It's definitely one of those, this feels fake, type of cases. It's stranger than fiction. There's another book called Deadly Lesson by Ken Englade, and this one's really good too. It's the same author who wrote Cellar of Horror, which

is the story about Gary Hyde Nick, which is really good. His book on this case was honestly so meticulously researched so I highly recommend all of that. Now let's get into the main story. Welcome to Dairy New Hampshire. This is a small town. Yes, you're gonna get the whole small town spiel that every true crime documentary does. it's a quaint town. There's a perfectly manicured lawns, white picket fences, everybody knew everyone, low crime rates, they had bake sales. People kept their doors unlocked. Nobody could have ever imagined in their wildest dreams a killer was lurking behind the rose bushes.

But there he was. Yeah, that's this bill, okay? Dairy really was relatively a safe town. Mainly their crimes consisted of child abuse, child neglect, and drug bus. Their homicide rate was practically zero, almost all year round. For such a cute town, I mean, they had a really weird way of getting there. To get to Dairy, you would have to drive across a highway that is nicknamed Death Highway. Why is that?

I mean, that's just what they call it. So I think it's like called like the inner state. I mean, that's just what they call it. So I think it's like called the inner state. I'm sure there's like a bunch of numbers after there, but it's been nicknamed the Death Highway because it's mostly this like two lane road, and it's pretty dangerous. I mean, it's just not a great highway. People speed on there all the time.

You start at Hampton Beach, and then you turn into Dairy Tuesday, May 1st. It's around 10 p.m. Pamela parks her car in the garage of the apartment building building and she notices that the front light of their specific unit. So it's not necessarily they call it a condominium, but it reminds me more of town homes. Every unit has a basement and it has an upstairs, but they're all stuck together. They all have the same parking lot. So it's not as private as a single family home, but it's a town home. She notices that the front light of their unit, their town home, is off. I mean, that's strange because her husband Greg's car is in the parking lot so he must be

home. I mean, he always leaves the light on for her. She walks up to the door, pushes the key and turns and pushes open that door, turns on the light, takes one step inside and she screams so loud that her next door neighbors. They were in the middle of singing Happy Birthday. They stopped in the middle of it. Like, did you hear that? What's going on? Pam starts panicking. She's screaming. My husband, my husband, oh my god, my husband! She runs to her neighbors. Rings their doorbells aggressively. Please help me. My husband has heard he's on the floor.

I don't know what's wrong with him. Please help. Now this apartment belonged to a Kim and a Paul and Kim jumped into action. She's like ready to hurl herself across the bed, rush downstairs to open the door to pay him, but Paul is like, no, you're crazy. We don't know what's going out there. We don't know if this is a setup. So you go call 911 and I'll keep the door shut.

As Kim is reaching for the phone, I mean, she's thinking,, wait maybe he's right. This is really strange. Things like this don't happen in our area. She calls the police. Meanwhile Pamela moves on. Kim's not answering. Let me try the next door down.

Judy lived there and Judy immediately opened the door and she couldn't get Pamela to calm down enough to explain what was going on, but Judy is, she's very quick on her feet. She notices that Pam is screaming and keeps looking over her shoulder. As if someone's following her. So she grabs her, pulls her inside, locks the door, slams its shut, and she's like, what's going on? Call 911, my husband is on the floor.

I don't know what's wrong. So Judy's husband here is all of this, and he comes downstairs, and he's like, where is he? I can go help him. No! No, you can't. And Judy looks at him. He looks at her. That's a little bit weird. Why not? I mean, if your husband's on the floor, why can't we go help him? Maybe he was attacked.

So Judy didn't ask questions. She called 911 and by this point, there were six neighbors out on their steps trying to figure out what's going on. Trying to win the contest of best informed neighbor. They're just looking, they're peering, they're squinting their eyes. Oddly enough, Pam decided, let's not just wait in here with Judy and her husband. Let's go run out the door and shriek some more, wake up the rest of the neighbors. So she runs out of their screaming. I mean, the whole thing is weird. A neighbor named Arty comes out and he says, hey, what's wrong with the problem? My husband is on the floor. What's wrong with him? Where is he? So she points at her unit and already makes a run for it.

He booked it to help Pamela's potentially heart attack ridden husband. Maybe he's got a broken bone. Maybe he's been knocked unconscious. Maybe he bonked his head somewhere. He just needed a helping hand. A nice citizen, right? A fellow citizen that could help him get some medical attention. I say that not as taking jobs at arti, but truly like he thought that he was walking into this type of situation

where he could genuinely help. He wasn't trying to be a hero, he was just trying to save a life, but just as he reached her front steps, he heard her screaming, wait, don't go in there! There may be someone in there. Another neighbor heard this, and I guess they were closer to Arty than to Pam, and they started screaming, Arty, don't go in, just be careful! But Arty had an Islam door open the front door, and another neighbor decided, you know what? This guy needs backup, so they enter into the unit together. These two dudes.

Inside the unit, it's completely dark. The first thing that they see about 10 feet from the door was a candlestick, and then a foot. As they got closer, they found Greg face down on the floor. His legs were spread apart. His right arm was bent in an unnatural way. They said that his skin color made them nauseous. It was an alarming, unnatural color.

Like a purple, gray, very muted color. There was splotches of blood under his nose. They both knew that there's nothing we can do. Like, this is above our pay grade. We're not surgeons. We're not medical stuff. We know nothing. So they rushed back out and thankfully the police had arrived at that moment. They all saw Pam on the ground. The police walking into this. They see a woman on the ground. It's Pam on her knees sobbing, moaning, hysterically crying. I mean, they're assuming that this has to be the

victim's wife, right? Yeah. So they rush in, they can't find a pulse on Greg. They flip him over to perform CPR, but they see a bloody hole in the middle of his head. The police called for backup. Police start flooding this place and it's clear. Okay, someone's ransacked the entire house. They're stuffing from pillows just strung about, just tossed around the place. CDs were thrown out, a pair of speakers and a small TV were unplugged and near the back door. So it seems like okay, maybe this is a burglary. Upstairs the master bedroom was an even bigger mess, it looked like there was a tornado that got through it. Clothes were just taken out, thrown away, drawers were pulled out, in the bathroom sink, jewelry boxes were emptied,

and while the police are starting to investigate, Pam calls Greg's family. His parents and his 21-year-old brother, that they just lived just around the corner, like five minutes away. They made it their record time, and Bill Smart, which is Greg Smart's dad, is frantic. What's going on? What's the matter? What's wrong with my son? The police are not responding to him, and a neighbor turns to him and says, your son is

very, very sick. What? So I guess they just thought that someone was sick in the apartment, and they didn't know to him and a neighbor turns to him and says, your son is very, very sick. What? So I guess they just thought that someone was sick in the apartment and they didn't know that a murder had taken place. Hmm. So he's like, what? Where's Pam?

Pam! What the hell is going on with Greg? What's wrong with him? I don't know. Well, where were you? I was at the school. There was a meeting. Bill tried so many times to push through the neighbors and the cops and tried to get into

the house, but they just wouldn't let him. He was getting so frustrated, he literally yelled, what the hell is wrong with him? For God's sake, if he's sick, someone just go in and help him please! And an official looked out the door and yelled back at him. We can't help him, he's already dead. And through the door, Judy Smart, this is Greg's mom, saw. Saw glimpse of Greg's body and she became hysterical. Her world was falling apart. The police realized, oh shoot, we're forking this up.

We gotta get the family over to a different unit. Judy, this is the mom, right? She was gagging, throwing up. She was so confused, she just could not get a hold of herself. Her son was dead. Like, how could this have happened? She's acting like a normal grieving mother. Meanwhile, Pam was not weeping. She did seem very sad though. Like,

struck with pure sadness, but she wasn't crying. She just kind of sat there numb. She kept repeating out loud. What will I do with the rest of my life? So Greg's parents they decided to gather up all of their loved ones go to Greg's parents house that night and just kind of talk everybody that needs support we're all here for you just be together in this moment and Brian one of Greg's closest friends he comes and he sees everybody's distraught like just he remembers everybody has tears coming out of their eyes just sobbing Pam sitting on the ground sobbing and she kept screaming. Why? Why would someone do this? And everybody else is crying. They're wiping away their tears. They're holding back their

anger out the world because you know they're thinking the same thing that Pam's thinking. Why do bad things happen to good people? Why Greg? And they knew all of these guests, all of these attendees for this little late night thing. They knew that they shouldn't be thinking this or seeing this or feeling this. But a lot of them went home to whisper in their beds that night. Hey, honey, I know that's weird, but do you think Pam was acting? Wait, you noticed, too. I didn't want to say anything, but she was acting so strange. It's probably just shock, right?

Yeah, but that one moment where she was, did you see that? Where she was crying? And then she stopped and started ranting that she didn't have her contact lens solution? Yeah, I thought that was weird because she left it at home and she was ranting that it was at home. But that's where her husband was murdered. And I was like, okay, that's a little bit weird. Maybe it's just shock.

I heard her talking to her dad. Did you hear that? She was crying and she asked him, who will hug me now? Who will tell me they love me now? I just thought it was strange. I mean, your husband was just shot and you care about who's gonna tell you they love you? It's a little weird. Yeah, it's weird, but I feel bad for her. We shouldn't be talking like this. And they would all fall asleep thinking they were

just being overly judgmental, overly paranoid. They were being bad people. The next morning, two detectives showed up to have Pam sign some consent forms and they wanted to search her house in her cars, right? Which makes sense. And she said, of course, I'll do anything that I can do to help. She eagerly signs a consent forms in the police leave and she calls her friends. Hey, you guys don't think that's weird? What's weird? Why did they ask me questions about that night? Like where I was, what I was doing, like they didn't ask me anything. Oh, I don't know. Why? Okay, you're listening to this and you're smart, right?

You're putting two and two together. You're thinking Pam killed her husband, she shot him. You don't know why, but you know that she was the one to pull the trigger. Would you be shocked to find out that it wasn't her? But rather, a few high school kids. And the reason that they shot him is even more despicable. So you're thinking who is this Pamela smart? high school kids. And the reason that they shot him is even more despicable. So you're thinking who is this Pamela smart? This 22 year old widow that keeps sobbing at one moment and then the next moment, ranting about her contact

solution, being left at the house where her husband was just murdered hours ago. Who is she? She went by Pam and she was she was known to be a free spirit. One of her favorite models in life was live free or die. She liked that saying a lot. I mean, it's a very aggressive saying, I don't know if I would tattoo it on my bot or anything, but it's a lot. She just wish she could apply it more to her life. She was born in Miami to a Linda and John, and Pam's parents, they were married really

young. They were only like 18 and 20, and when they had Pam, they were not doing well at all financially, no good. But John worked his way up from being one of the lowest ranking jobs at the airport to becoming a pilot for Delta Airlines. Suddenly they were able to give their kids things that they never had. Like dance lessons, gymnastics, piano lessons, they traveled a lot with Delta's great family flight discounts for employees like they loved it.

And ever since Pam was young, she was kind of wild. She would tell people that being from Florida was the reason that she was a bit crazy. She would say, and I quote, I'm definitely a typical Leo, you know, I walk in and I have to be the center of everything everywhere I go. I'm always attracting attention for some reason or another. I'm loud, very outgoing and stuff. And she did really well at school. So she loved being the organizer.

Everything in her life had to be immaculate. Her clothes were color coordinated in her closet. She also wanted to be the leader, so it's not like she wanted the attention of just being this like crazy wild girl. She wanted it for being like this almost perfect, well-rounded, nose had a half fun, but also it's like a great leader and like has a great career. She wanted to be known as the leader,

she wanted to be the smartest one in the room, and as time passed, Miami's crime rates started to scare the family, and they decided to relocate to New Hampshire. They moved just south of Derry, and they bought this beautiful A to Room Ranch, and even a Cape Cod style house on Mohawk Island in New Hampshire

So they got these two houses like a vacation house. So they're living that comfortable life But it's because John is always away from home. He's always working and Pam would often show open hostility Towards that she just hated the fact that her dad was never involved in her childhood I mean, it's obvious to everyone that Pam and her dad had a really strained relationship. She thought her dad was cheap. Cheap? Okay, I know. He's got a vacation house.

She has like domestic lessons, but he wanted her to start working since she was 13 so that she could value money. And the her takeaway with now, he's cheap. Yeah, I mean, it's a hard to do it. Like he wants me to, he wants to save 200 bucks. Yeah, with my dairy queen job, that I'm making so much money at Yeah, with my uh dairy queen job That I'm making so much money at she hated working at dairy queen She hated working at these bakeries, but you know, he made him do it

So she does and Pam when they move to dairy new Hampshire You're thinking well, maybe she's gonna be like all of those other teenagers like it's so upset when they move like Oh, you got to leave all of your friends you you gotta leave all of it, all of these people. Everything you've done so far is just gone. You've gotta start fresh. But Pam loved it. She was instantly the popular kid. She was chosen as class president,

sophomore year. She was a cheerleader for both the football and the basketball teams. And she was a bit of an attention seeker. For example, there was an annual shrine game between New Hampshire and Vermont High School football all stars. These are the best of the best, okay? This is gonna be like the biggest high school football game you have ever been to, and Pam was one

of the lead cheerleaders for her high school. But all the way up until the game, she's completely missing. Am I a not picking up her phone? Where is she? Are we gonna do the routine without her? We need her for this. She's part of the squad when she finally arrives She arrives into the middle of the field on a mechanical camel This is the other mascot for the other competing school. So she literally Walked onto the field on top of the mascot for the competing school Not even the school that you go to or that you're supposed to be cheering for.

Why is she on that? She wants to make an entrance. Oh. And she's laughing the whole time giggling screaming like, I don't know how I got up here. Oh my god. No, this is so bad. Like I'm supposed to be on the other team. Huh, okay. So it's just kind of weird. She also said that her name was spelled PAM, but the E is silent. so it's pronounced PAM. Oh, I love that. So it's PAM. Mine's actually Stephanie with 5 E's at the end, but most of them are silent. Okay, I mean, all of the attention seeking wasn't good fun, right?

Nowhere near as toxic or violent as maybe like Harvey the Hammerman, like the one that's strangled people to get their attention so it slapped them across the face if they didn't give him attention. But Pam was, she was more fun about it. She did have some quirks of her own. She had very extreme personality traits. So on one hand, she was really kind, very nurturing at times. She always volunteered to read to elderly nuns. She would come over to a neighbor's house after school instead of hanging out with friends

because that neighbor's mom, sold grandma, was dying of cancer. This is not her grandma, this is not like a family friend. She doesn't know this grandma, but she just didn't want this grandma to be alone. So she would read books to her, she would, you know, kind of keep her company while she was battling this disease. But on the flip side, Pam loved to bring people down so that she could look better, typically in front of boys. She was very possessive of guys that she liked at school. One time she sees her crush, just introducing the new girl around school like this is

Halbi, this is the nurse's office, this is the guidance counselor's office, this is where your math class is, just be a nice guy. And Pam was seething when she saw this. She later cornered the girl into a little lock-in all along. She said, listen to me, new girl. He's mine, you stay away from him. It's like one of those high school drama. Yeah, Pam was really an antagonist, like she just wanted to kind of be the egg girl. She had a ton of nicknames and one of them was Sekka, which was a popular porn star at the time,

so they called her that. She loved it. A lot of her nicknames revolved around her just being promiscuous. She had a boyfriend at the time named Paul. He was the captain of the football team and he went by the nickname Sausage. So Seca and Sausage.

And yeah, his nickname was Sausage because he liked a party whether or not his girlfriend was there and he liked to stick his sausage into things. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Yeah. These nicknames go. Pam loved these nicknames.

She thought they were hilarious. She had another one. Wham, bam. Thank you, Pam. Yeah. What? Yeah, that was one of her nicknames. Now, it's unclear if she actually was promiscuous in high school or if these are just rumors.

Not that it really matters anyway, but Pam just really seemed to like the attention. You would think that most girls would be not, I mean, I feel like when I was in high school, it was not a good connotation to be called stuff like that. Like it almost felt like they were laughing at you rather than with you. So I feel like most girls would have been like, what? Why are you calling me that? Like stop calling me that. That's very sexist. And you are slut-shaming me. You stupid hoe.

But she liked it. She was like, yeah, call me. WAM, BAM, thank you, PAM. Honestly, she kind of strikes me as just being a little bit insecure. And I say that sympathetically. I mean, she's young. She's figuring out her life and how she feels about her own

self-worth. But for example, when Paul gets sick of her, there's the captain of the football team, right? He wants to move on to his next...game conquest. He tries to break up with her, and she lies to him and tells him that she's pregnant. And he's so worked up about this, and he wants to prove to everyone that he is a man, so he decides to marry her, but he quickly finds out that she had made up the whole thing.

And all of Pam's friends, this is like really messed with her, this whole breakup, they said, Pam was just never the type to dump a guy. She was always dumped and she would fall hard for a guy. It would tear her apart. She would get so attached to one person and it was like that person was a necessity in her life. And it wasn't always easy for her to pick up and move on afterwards. She also hated authority figures. I mean, it's kind of interesting because she did really well in school academically, but other than that, she hated teachers, mainly because they suspected her of not being the sweet, nurturing, intelligent, perfect girl that she wanted everyone to believe

that she was. The teachers were not after her for no reason. They did a pretty good reason, in fact. Pam stopped running for class president after junior year, after two years in office because teachers suspected she was bribing people to vote for her, skimming money off the top of the class funds, and drinking alcohol on school grounds.

Honestly, this girl has a bright, illustrious career ahead of her as a politician. In my humble opinion, she's got the necessary experience, skimming money, that's a big plus, put it on your resume for politician being shady. Love it, right? Now the teachers they confront Pam they didn't have much evidence But they said we're very suspicious of you young girl and just like all great politicians Pam decides to just retire from office No scandal, you know retire and grace She graduates high school and she's a Missing Sunny Florida, so she applies to FSU and

she becomes a communications major and her whole dream, her whole goal was to become a TV reporter. She wanted to be the next Barbara Walters. She wanted to work for ABC 2020. Anyway, while she's studying, she comes home from Christmas back to New Hampshire to be with her family and she runs into an old high school friend named Terry. Now, Terry was not one of her close friends. Terry actually wasn't cool enough to hang out with Pam and her high school cheerleading friends back then, but now she's kind of finding her place to shine. Now she's kind of like the cool kid. She even had a key chain with a penis shaped trinket on it, which you're like, why are you adding in this odd detail Stephanie?

Okay, hold on to your tits, I'm getting there. So anyways, Terry, she was at a local burger king and this guy also standing in line for his burger looks at her and is like, wow What's that on your keychain, a dildo? And she laughed, she thought it was pretty funny, the guy's cute, so it's even funnier, and usually Terry's not like this, but the next thing she knew, she was being invited to this party with the guy at Burger King and all of his friends. And the Burger King dildomand's name is Greg Smart, by the way, and he quickly became best friends with Terry. They were hanging out practically every weekend. Terry called him Greggles, like Giggles, but Greggles, Gregg called Terry Giraffe because

she was so tall and they would talk for hours on the phone. Terry even like Greg read her diary she trusted him that much. He came over to her place every single Sunday and she made him breakfast. But they never dated. Greg was a player. He didn't want a girlfriend. He just wanted to have fun and she was okay with them just being friends. Maybe you're thinking what I'm thinking, is this gonna be one of those cute stories where he changes for Terry, where he falls for Terry? No. No, not this guy.

There's no helping him. This is the type of player he was. Him and his friends would have contests about who would sleep with the most woman in one night. Greg's record was for women in a single night. He got brownie points because none of the women found out about the others. Greg was also notorious amongst the guys because he had sex with a pair of cousins in a Cadillac.

Yeah. So back to Christmas break. Terry runs into Pam and says, oh, I was invited to a New Year's Eve party. It's being thrown by this guy named Greg. I don't think you've ever met him, but do you want to come? And Pam's thinking, well, I'm bored. I don't have a New Year's Eve party to go to. I'm just in town for the weekend.

Yeah, I'll go. So she goes to his parents house, Greg's parents house, to go to this massive party, and she's kind of excited. She had heard about these parties. His parties were legendary. All the guys in town begged to be let in to Greg's party because they knew it was going to have the Holy Trinity present. Girls booze loud music.

Oh yeah, they were excited, okay. So the minute that Pam walks in, Greg is showering her with her attention. Not because he's in love or that it was love at first sight, but because she was Greg's type. She was pretty. She looked like all the other girls he talked to at bars or malls, But she was presentable, but she was into intimidating. She was approachable. She was like an approachable pretty So Pam is instantly interested in Greg because of his hair He had the hair of rock star John Bon Jovi. She was like damn. That's a great hair

There's a lot of hair. It's just a style a style and she's like damn John Bon Jovi. What a hair? It's just a style a style and she's like damn John Bon Jovi. What I hear what I hear No, Pam was just shook it how wild the party really was there was alcohol cocaine allowed music roaring on the stereo Yeah, Greg was jumping around the place in a black party hat and the two of them They spend the most of the night talking and typically Greg would sleep with a girl and then never see her again And I don't know if it was love. I don't know if it was Pam's undying persistence, which I tell you, she's a persistent type of person, or Greg deciding to be nice and not a party guy for once. They start going on a few dates after the party.

In reality it was hardly romantic, but Pam felt just had over heels for her. They felt like they could do long distance. Stay faithful. Get married, have kids one day. Greg on the other hand was sad, but not really. He was kind of excited to go back to his bachelor ways. Like, oh, your winter breaks over. Bye, go back to Florida.

Why would you break into these apartments? For money, for drugs, whatever was in there. Why aren't you afraid of getting caught at doing this? No, who's gonna catch us? What if it was in there? Why aren't you afraid of getting caught at doing this? No, who's going to catch us? What a police. It was the height of the crack era, and instead of locking up drug dealers,

some New York City cops had become them. I would suit up in my uniform and we're going to want some drug dealers, and I know how to do it really well. This is the inside story of the biggest police corruption scandal in NYPD history, and the investigation that uncovered it all. Did you consider yourself a rat? 100%. I saved my soul just like everybody else does. Listen to and follow the set, an Odyssey originals documentary podcast series available now in

the Odyssey app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your shows. I'm not a big guy man, but I love being that dirty mother f***er. He did, however, keep in touch with Pam through writing letters and phone calls with her once in a while and for a little over a month, Pam's entire lifeline and joy in life was talking to Greg. Her whole life was starting to center around him. She begged her dad to pull some strings with Delta and suddenly she's on a flight back home for Valentine's Day. She's gonna surprise Greg. How romantic, right? They turned out. Greg was already involved with another girlfriend. Pam found out, confronts him, and he straight

up tells her, I know you're mad. But the problem is, I don't want to break up with her, and I don't want to break up with you. I kind of want to date the both of you. And Pam put her foot down, she said, well, it's either me or it's her. And he said, okay, I'll see you later then. Oh, he dumped her. Yeah, that was the worst plan ever. She didn't see Greg again until the summer, right? The pair goes to Vermont to celebrate a mutual friends

18th birthday and somehow this trip brings them closer. So they didn't go as a couple, they went separately, right? So they just show up, they have a good time and they, I don't know what happened, honestly, but the rest of the summer, they're practically inseparable. Pam is infatuated, obsessed. I'm talking you by Netflix featuring Pamela Smart. Pam's mom though, she's not that ecstatic.

She doesn't really like this new boyfriend. She said, when I first met him, I had my reservations. This kid walked in my door, he had this long hair, and I didn't like it. He looked like a girl. He almost looked pretty. That was not what I was expecting at all, okay? I thought Pam's mom would be distraught at the fact that Greg's current attitude to woman is more of like a player the way he treats Pam. All of these things, not that he was, quote, too pretty, but that's just how Linda feels. Linda hoped that on

the sidelines, this relationship, like all of Pam's, which is slowly fizzle away, but that wasn't gonna happen. I really don't know what happened on this trip to Vermont, but Greg was a new man. For the first time in his life, he wanted to be with a girl. Maybe just as badly, if not more, than she wanted to be with him. All he could think about was Pam. He racked up hundreds of dollars of phone bills just to talk to her when she went back down to Florida. Him and his friends even traveled to Florida to see Pam. He was obsessed and he gave all of his fellow party guy friends the shock of their lives. When he announced,

I'm gonna be moving to Florida to be with Pam. What? That's crazy. Like you don't have a job? Are you gonna be in school? No? I mean, why are you doing that for a girl? You don't even, you don't even know her like that. His parents were oddly supportive. I feel like the smarts, Greg smarts parents. They had always tried to do everything that they could to support him. They were really good parents. They were very generous. They went to Florida with him. They helped him find an apartment. They paid the first month's rent, the deposit. They bought him all of the necessities

and when it came back time to say goodbye, they remained strong. They said goodbye, Greg, we'll see you later, right? But once they got into the car, both Mr and Mrs. Smart broke down completely. Like, they love their son so much, but they want to support him. He wants to be in Florida with Pam. So now in Florida, Greg has his own apartment, Pam's in a dorm, and they were inseparable. They tried to spend every waking moment together. They would go to these clubs, these concerts, and on the weekends, they would drive to Daytona or Orlando. I don't know how they had all of this time,

but both of them worked on top of all of this. Greg was picking up as many manual labor jobs as he could. He was working as a landscaper. Pam, she hated her dad for it, but she had a spectacular work ethic. She was studying, working all the time. She worked for the Florida Department of Commerce as a part-time receptionist. She was interning from WCTV, Channel 6, the CBS affiliate in Tallahassee, like she's doing the most. Now remember how I said that she wanted to be a TV reporter? This internship

ruined her hopes and dreams of becoming a TV reporter. First of all, she realized the job is not that glamour, sexually. When you watch them on TV, you're like, wow, they get their hair and makeup done and they just sit there and read from a prompter. But they were really struggling. The salary for a news reporter was much lower than the cheap thoughts than that she hoped. And you have to wake up in all weird hours of the night whenever there's breaking news. I mean, it's kind of weird.

She liked some aspects of the craziness, but do I really want to do that for the rest of my life? With all of this going on, it just made sense that Pam and Greg would eventually move in together. They barely had enough hours in the day. This is their way to blossom. They're already very serious relationship into something bigger. So Greg's parents, as always, they were supportive.

They said, yes, moving with Pam, we love it. But Pam's parents, they had no idea they moved in together. I think a lot of them didn't even know Greg was down in Florida. Every time they came and visit, Greg would pack up all of his stuff, move it out of the house. We've absolutely no trace of himself in his own home home and stay with another friend until Pam's parents left. Eventually, they couldn't hide it from her parents any longer because Greg had scraped up enough money

to buy Pam her dream, diamond, solitaire, engagement ring. And he proposed. So Pam says, the way that the proposal went down is that every single person who's ever near me tells me that I smell like a baby Because I'm always showering myself in baby powder I'm the only person that I know that wears deodorant before I go to bed I always have perfume on and I don't know I just hate everything that smells bad

So every time I take a shower I get my powder puff and I use powder baby powder and rub it all over my body No one day I come home and I don powder, baby powder, and rub it all over my body. No, one day I come home. And I don't know what happened that day but I was totally agitated. Like I had the worst day ever, I was crying, complaining about something, and Greg, Greg just kept telling me, why don't you take a shower? You'll feel so much better after you shower. And I'm like, why? I don't want a shower.

But he wouldn't stop, so I finally took a shower and I lift up my powder puff and I find a box. I'm like, what? I opened it up and oh my god it was a ring. I start crying and he wouldn't say it. He's just standing there watching me and I'm like, well go on, say it. And he says, I'm not going to say it. So I started saying, we'll get down on one knee and he's going, no, I'm not getting down on one knee.

And finally I just said, fine, yes, I'll marry you. Even though he never really asked me, he never really said, will you marry me? But we got married. I would want you to say it. I'd want you to get down on it. Yeah, but the whole like presentation. You're all surprised.

You're gonna have to, yeah. I'm assuming she's naked. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I didn't even think about that. Wow. I don't know if I would, how would I feel if I'm proposed to you?

The way I came into this world just completely butt naked, cheeks out and everything. Stoke wet hair, looking like a seal. I don't know. I don't think that'd be my prime. So she accepts. And they tell everyone that they got engaged. Even Pam's parents seem to come around.

They were just worried that she was pregnant. She wasn't. They still wanted her to finish college. She said, yes, of course. Greg, on the other hand, he was stressing. He realized in the world of capitalism, there is no way he's going to buy a nice house, potentially a boat, which that's the joy of getting older and getting

married, right, is to have a house and a boat, all by earning $3.35 an hour. So he starts learning about the insurance business. Now his dad was a higher up at MetLife and his dad was kind of guiding him like, okay, well, this is a good living. So he studies for his exam. He even cut that long hair that Pam loved so much so we could start working as a trainee at MetLife. So they're growing, they're settling down. I mean, this is good. They even bought a tiny cute little shitsu. Now Pam was a little bit annoyed because she really wanted a yorky, but the shitsu was so cute. When she saw that little puppy, she just her heart melted.

Like any other couple. They did have their little points. I think the two of them, they just had super big egos, big personalities. They wanted to both be the center of attention. They fought each other to be the center of attention at parties Grad like to piss off Pam by calling her pain Like he thought it was hilarious that she would say it's it's about pain like game But the years silent and it's Pam so he would always be like oh yeah, babe It's like really mean it's not even funny. He'd be like, oh yeah, pain. And she would just get so mad about it. Sometimes he would drop off pain or pain miles away from the house in a snow storm.

Just so she would be forced to find her way back home in the midst of a snow storm. Whenever they thought, Greg didn't really like to talk about it, so he would just say, whatever pain and give her the silent treatment for days. Another couple of remember sometimes the fight got so bad, like they would go to the bars with Pam and Greg and the whole night. Greg would just make very scandalous comments about the waitresses. They were all wearing these t-shirts with hot pink shorts as their uniform and as the beers kept flowing, you know, Greg's comments about the waitresses, they got more and more and more and more disrespectful towards Pam.

And the waitresses, and all of it started inching and inching closer to a big climax of the night that ended with Greg chugging a huge mouthful of beer. So now he's got like a, like what do you call it, a squirrel filled with nuts, but it's beer. And he turns to Pam and just just works a giant stream of beer straight into her face and says, fuck you. He's kicked out of the bar by the bouncer. So with all of this going on, Greg decides to move back to New Hampshire. He's not

killing it in the insurance game as he thought he would if he moved back home. His dad works at MetLife. He's a higher up. He could help him. He could pull some strings, get and get started. So he's like, listen Pam, this is what I want to do and I move to Florida for you. Now you've got to make some sacrifices, it's time for you to make a choice. So she had to choose either from living her dream life, chasing reporting jobs all over the country, or choosing your fiance and moving back to New Hampshire. So between her big dreams and Greg, Pam chose Greg. And it wasn't a bad choice because when she got back to New Hampshire, she was hired by the school district to be the new media center director.

She would take care of equipment purchases for all the high schools in her district. She would oversee the disbursement of the equipment to the school district and honestly, she would bring a young, excited energy to the school board. Everybody called her, uh, office baby because she was only 21 and everyone on the school board is like in their 50s or 60s, they've been doing it for decades. She always had these exciting ideas and for Pam, this was like the second best option to being a reporter. She had her own secretary at 21.

Her state's benefit package was better than her dads at Delta. She had a great salary. She didn't have to report to a boss and was a very cushy job. She spent most of her time using the video equipment at different schools. One of the main high schools was across the parking lot from her office. She would write press releases. She was just trying to get the high school students interested in media and interested in reporting and all

of these things and she loved it. Meanwhile, Greg is working for MetLife and his dad's office and he's killing it. Greg had a way about him. He was confident. Some might say cocky, but in the insurance industry, when you are looking at someone who's so young, trying to sell you insurance, customers might feel better if they're cocky, if they're so self-assured. You feel like they know what they're doing, right? So the couple they finally save enough money and they start renting a townhouse about a five-minute walk from Greg's parents and they started on their journey to get married. This is actually really romantic. They set the date for their wedding and it would be at the same place

Pam's parents were married 30 years ago. And and it would be at the same place Pam's parents were married 30 years ago. And Greg and his buddy, they were married like one week apart. They had this big joint bachelor red party. All of their fiancee were invited. So Pam went and even their families went. The soon to be wives got their men these cute gag gifts, like a cake and the shape of a butt and shirts that said, man is not complete till he's married.

And then he's finished. And then the guy who's got, and then he's finished. And then the guy who's got their future wives G-strings. I don't know why that bothered me so much, but it was just so unoriginal. Not thoughtful at all. Like, never been done before, right? So they have this crazy bachelor at party, and the wedding was wild. They rented limousines.

They had nearly 225 guests in attendance. They had a bar, and it was not conventional at all. Greg drank so much before the ceremony that during the whole actual moment where they're up there with like the priest or whatever, he could barely hold his feet. They said it was the fastest I do the crowd had ever seen. He's just like, I do, I do, we gotta go, I gotta pee.

The wedding was fun. But afterwards, this is where the drama started. Pam meticulously counted all the money each wedding guest had given her. Now it was about two weeks after the wedding. She invites over her mother-in-law, Greg's mom, Judy, to the condo. Not to bond, not to hang out, not to talk about Greg,

but to start some shit. Pam sat her down and went through her side of the family's cards. She said, well, my uncle from Florida gave us $500. This uncle from my dad's side, I've only met him a couple times, but he gave us $300. My aunt from my mom's side, another 500. Now, I want to show you something, okay? She starts naming Greg's uncles and aunts. This aunt gave us $50. This one, $30. 30, Judy, do you know that 30 doesn't even pay for the price of the meal that they had at the wedding?

Why is she like that? I don't know. Just really despicable. Meanwhile, Greg is sitting there like he's starting to feel tense and she just keeps going and going and he says, Hey, that's enough, Pam, but she won't stop. Judy felt so uncomfortable that she rushed out of their entiers. And to make matters worse, Pam's parents called Greg's parents. So the in-laws called each other and they shared their concerns.

They said, were worried that Greg is not gonna provide the life that Pam deserves. He's got no college education. He doesn't strike me as the next visionary of a Fortune 500 company. We just don't know. She deserves a life of luxury. They comforted Pam's parents, but they felt so gross. They felt like they were selling the idea of their son. Like Greg was a piece of merchandise when honestly this is their son that they love so much.

And now they're trying to convince this random couple that they don't even care about, that their son is great for their daughter. Like what? Pam's parents honestly should have been worried about something else. The fact that the couple were so different. Greg loved being outside, he loved skiing, being active, writing his four-wheeler. Pam, she loved lying on the beach. Greg loved work, life balance. And Pam, she was ambitious, she wanted to be the best.

And the couple knew this about each other, but they were determined to make it work. So they started bonding in other aspects. They were both huge clean freaks. Pam liked to fold her dirty clothes before placing it into the hamper. What? That is something else. Greg's favorite thing to do was to see the clean lines that a vacuum made on the carpet. So over the next few months, after their marriage, both families, they start warming up to each other.

It wasn't easy. But Pam was, she tried to make it a priority. She would spend time with Greg's parents. They would go boating with Greg's dad. She would go to Arabic's classes with Greg's mom, and they start getting very attached to each other. It seems like everything's going well. Everything's looking up.

So why is it that Greg would be dead less than a year after their wedding. What happened? Well, let's go back to the investigation. The police start searching the neighboring areas for any clues, you know. They found Greg dead in his home. He had been shot. There's this big field behind the condos or the townhouses that lead to a nearby shopping plaza.

So they start kind of rifling through there and they think maybe the killer had taken a shortcut out of here and they start searching the place. They find a long carving knife, jabbed the ground about 100 yards from the smarts condo. When they took it into evidence, they found out that it belonged to the smarts. Around the night, for other small pieces of evidence, paper towels, a white plastic jewelry box, two pieces of a cardboard jewelry box, and because it was getting dark, the police decided, let's pack it up for the night and come back tomorrow. That's when they find more things. And they say hey boss we found this cigarette should we keep it? Now just

trash it. Are you sure we could get maybe some DNA or something? Yeah no kids are out here all the time smoking it just trash it. Hey boss we found this latex glove. What should we do with it? Yeah, just trash it. What's up with this dude? He's like, well, there's a medical office nearby. They probably just littered. One of the nurses probably ran out into the field, littered one latex glove and then went back, which makes sense. So they trashed those items. Now the police, they start going through with their police interviews. And Pam was obviously one of the first to be interviewed. She was 22 years old at the time.

And she said that day, she usually works from 8 to 4, but she had gone home a few hours earlier because they had a late evening meeting. She got home around 10, she drove 45 minutes back home. So the school meeting was 45 minutes away. She gets home, opens the door, finds Greg dead on the ground, and she had seen shows like Rescue 911, and they always tell you, don't move the body, don't touch the body, so instead I went out screaming for help. I'm just so confused. Police officer, why did none of the neighbors hear my dog going crazy? There's no way that my dog would not have barked like crazy if strangers were in

the house. And she said, oh my god, a few days ago, I don't know if this is pertinent, but a few days ago, I had a cook out in my backyard, like a barbecue. Maybe we accidentally left the back door unlocked. I don't really remember, I mean it's such a safe area, as you know, most of us don't lock our doors, but now, now I can't stop thinking about it. Maybe we did lock it, maybe we didn't, I don't remember. Now something about this interview rubbed the detectives the wrong way.

It had been less than 12 hours and she had found her husband killed, but she was so chill. She didn't cry. Her voice never cracked. She seemed more anxious than she was sad. But of course, everyone deals with grief differently. Officer Jackson remembered that he was asking

all the uncomfortable questions. Was Greg having an affair? Were you? Do you guys have financial problems? Drug problems? She said no, no, no, no. She seemed very composed. Sure, she had a few tears, but she didn't seem overly remorseful or guilty either. So that's good. But more than that, there were things that bothered Officer Jackson. He mentioned to her to not talk to the press about details of the case. He's saying we're not even letting people know that we think it's a burglary because we want this to be privileged information confidential to the police. We're still investigating this just happened, right? And she got incredibly defensive. She said, don't talk bad about the press. You know, I'm one of them too. I thought

that was so strange. Because from what they knew, Pam's job was to run around school take pictures, writing newsletters about kids designing toothpick bridges, hardly breaking news coverage. I mean, not saying that her job isn't important or vital or fulfilling, but that's a little strange. It also bothered Officer Jackson, but he brushed it off, because honestly, he's dealt with stranger reactions from innocent people.

Like truly, everybody greaves differently and I feel like every case we talk about it, they end up being guilty or like being a bad person and we're like, see everybody greaves the same way and this is proof, but truly everybody does. But it doesn't stop there. It gets weirder. The family, they're arranging for the funeral and they had to be escorted back into the house which is taped off as a crime scene where Greg was killed to pick out his clothes and grab some clothes for Pam.

Now the police went there early and they put down a towel on where Greg's head has been because there was blood everywhere, so they covered it with the towel and they were shocked. They watched with their mouths just hung open as Pam just walked right on top of the towel. Like she just stepped on the towel. Oh, step on to it. To get to the on top of the towel. Like she just stepped on the towel. Oh, step on to it. To get to the other side of the room. It's just very heartless.

Like most people couldn't even look at the towel. Like Greg Smart's parents couldn't even be near the towel. I mean, they knew what was under the towel. Yeah. But she just walked right on top of the towel. In the same visit, she yelled at the officers for closing the back sliding doors on one of her drapes. She also asked if someone was going to clean the fingerprint dust off the couch. So they were too shocked to say anything

and then Pam went upstairs. Now this is where Officer Jackson has a lot of experience. He's been through this process a lot and he knew it would take a long time. Usually when it comes to picking clothes for your deceased family member, you take a lot of time. You want to select the right outfit. You want to maybe you want to pick their favorite tie, or maybe you want to pick the tie that you bought them, or you shared memories with,

they're like, oh, remember this shirt that we all wore? Like you, this is, this is what they're going to be buried and you think about all these things, and then you get indecisive, and you wonder if you're making the right choice. Like, do they want to be buried in this? What if, what if they changed it, and then you get into size 7 and you wonder if you're making the right choice. Like do they want to be buried in this? What if they change the end and you have like crying breaks? But Pam just opened a couple of drawers and pulled out literally the first items that she

touched. None of them even matched. To the point where Officer Jackson said, I don't know if any of these clothes are appropriate for someone who's going to be buried. Like usually people are dressed, you know, to their best or somewhat. This is a little weird. So he said, why don't I pick? And she said, okay, go ahead.

So they leave the house and then that's when Pam sat down and broke down on the curb. So it's like, I don't know. Maybe she really is grieving strange. The officers were just so confused. So the police are confused by this whole crime scene. On top of all of this, you know, they need to solve this murder, but nothing is making sense.

The fact that the house was ransacked and things were taken from the house implies that maybe it was a burglary gone wrong. Maybe someone was robbing the house, Greg walked in on them and they felt like, wow, they saw my face, I can't get in trouble, I have to kill him, right? Now, there were some issues with this. For example, the bottom floor was torn up bad, and the upstairs, other than the master bedroom, I mean, it didn't look as bad, it didn't look like the same style, it didn't look like the same ransacking. So does that mean that there were two burglars?

One downstairs, wreaking havoc, the one upstairs that was more interested in efficiency and getting the goods and leaving? But there was also a three diamond gold ring, Greg's wallets and his keys near his body. The burglar had left all of his credit cards. They didn't take his wallet. If it had any cash in his wallet it was now gone, but they left every single credit card. Yeah, but because you don't want to get tracked. Well, that's why it's very confusing. First of all, it doesn't make sense to rob a very busy condominium at night. Most people who lived there weren't home during the day, so they were home during the night.

Sure, maybe the people you're robbing aren't home, but all the neighbors, the people nearby, and there's a lot, and they can hear, and they can see something, they can report to you. That doesn't make any sense. The police also felt like the gun didn't fit. So small-time thieves probably pulled this off, because you're robbing the house at a bad time. There's gonna be witnesses in the condo. You're also not taking a lot of things. It's not a professional job. Everything was ransacked in a way that was so messy.

It didn't look like these were people who knew go in, get out, like this is what we get, go, go, go. Usually in their experience, too, police said said small town thieves don't carry guns. It's the professional robbers who do. So if it was a professional robbery, they would have taken the diamond ring, the credit cards because they have connections to sell credit cards. Because these are real professionals, right? But if it weren't a burglary, let's say it's not a burglary at all and so when staged it to look like one, which could make sense because why did they leave this stereo in the TV, you know, it's just weird. That means that someone wanted Greg dead. They looked in the interviews and apparently Greg and his parents talked about how they would often go to Atlantic City, which they liked casinos, the nightlife, they liked gambling, and maybe

maybe Greg's gambling was bad. Maybe he pissed off the wrong people. Some neighbors said that the couple threw very loud parties with all types of people in and out of that condo. Maybe he was dealing drugs. Maybe the murder had something to do with drugs. The police officer did find a joint in Greg's pickup truck, but other than that, they found no narcotics, no other evidence, but even K-9 dogs found nothing. So it was back to ground zero.

Meanwhile, Pam's busy too. A day and a half after her husband's murder, she reaches out to Bill Spencer. You're like, who's Bill Spencer? This guy's got a reputation as being an aggressive reporter, like the ones that chase after witnesses of crimes and like, sit him down and I don't know. He's just an aggressive reporter, which honestly, the way he found out was strange. Bill had been working on this case. He had been reported about Greg's murder. I thought it was very strange. A met life insurance, you know, agent, why did he get murdered, what happened? And he wanted to interview the 22 year old young widow, Pam, for his next article.

But he highly doubted, there's no way widows don't really, they're not interested in talking to reporters, especially not so soon. I mean, there's just no way, but he gets a call from his office one day. Hey guess what, Pam smarts on the line for you. Yeah, right, wouldn't that be great. No, I'm serious, and he thought the whole thing was a prank, so he gets on the line and he says, why, how low Pamela smart, how can I help you? And he's, he's thinking it going to be one of his buddies. He's laughing, but there's

no laughter on the other end. Hello? Bill? This is Pam smart. Oh my god. She's calling. And Pam goes on to say, did you know Greg's murder was not drug-related like the way that you reported? I mean, the fact that this type of claim is out there is preposterous. The police are not telling the public the truth of what truly happened. Well, what happened? The police are not telling you guys that there's evidence of a burglary. They want to hold on to this information a little longer, so that they have the upper hand or whatever, but you're muddying Greg's name.

He's not involved with drugs. He's not a gambler. This is not the truth. I would like to meet with you and tell you the truth of what happened. Can you meet me outside my parents house before I leave for Greg's wake? So Bill goes, he's got a cameraman following him and Pam is wearing a bright fuchsia dress to Greg's wake and people thought it was a bit weird because awake is not necessarily a funeral, but it's a grieving moment, usually people wear black, but she later defended herself and said, this is the color that Greg liked best on me. So before the wake, Pam tells Bill about how the house was ransacked, the stereo speakers were near the door, the jewelry was missing, she was positive that Greg interrupted a

burglary, drugs, had nothing to do with this and this is the truth. So Bill goes on with this information and Pam goes to the wake where there were a lot more problems unfolding. Pam's mom was arguing with Greg's dad about having an open or closed casket. Bill was frustrated. This is my son, I want the casket open. Yeah, well my daughter Pam wants it closed and she's his wife and she's not going to come to the wake if the casket is open.

The smarts felt bulldozed. I mean this is their son but they didn't even choose what he was going to wear. They didn't even choose where he was going to be buried where the wake was going to be. They even hated the cold grey metal casket that Pam wanted him to be buried in. And it was just so frustrating. At the wake, Pam was still going through crying one minute, completely composed the next minute and having these crazy mood swings. There were also some strange guests at the wake.

A guidance counselor from the local high school showed up and even brought a few high school students. None of them knew Greg. Greg's not a teacher. We have 16-year-old Billy, 15-year-old Cecilia, 17-year-old Vance. And now Pam knew Cecilia and Billy. They had worked on a high school videotape competition

with her. Cecilia was also Pam's intern at the Media Center. Vance was Billy's close friend, and didn't really know Pam that well, but they all showed up to show their support. And they all kind of looked awkward, and really uncomfortable. And there's a guidance counselor? Yeah. So I don't know why they brought them. up to show their support and they all kind of looked awkward and really uncomfortable.

And there's a guidance counselor? Yeah. So I don't know why they brought them. Now Pam waited for the casket to be closed before she approached it and she leaned over it, put her hands over it and she started praying. She started praying so heavily and shaking and screaming, why? She screamed, why? For like 15 to 20 minutes.

Just like, why? Why? Why? People were so scared that she was gonna push the casket over. Like, that's how, that's how intense her movements were. Her friends pulled her away, and she would even joke right after. So she was immediately like, why? Why? Why? For like 15, 20 minutes sobbing, shaking the casket, really worrying people. And when they pulled her off and she's leaving the wick, she started joking with her friends. I'm so glad that's over. Everyone just kept hugging me and half the time. I just had people's armpits in my face. Pam also started a memorial fund in Greg's name.

Did she choose the medical research program or any of the usual list of charitable funds, charities that the fund would donate to? No. The funds were going to help by the school district equipment for a mass media course that was going to be taught at Winnecannette High School and get through the teacher for this classes. Pamela. It's just a little strange, like it's just a strange way to put the funds, but she told a reporter, at least I will always know that Greg is part of my day. Every day, he will touch the lives of every student who goes through the course in some way,

and I just, I feel like a piece of him is there for me, and it's important to find something positive out of this tragedy. So a lot of people supported the memorial fund, including one of Pam's old high school cheerleading friends, Sonia. She even took the week off work. She left her husband in her house,

and she stayed with Pam to comfort her. She remembered every night Pam would toss and turn cry all night, she couldn't even imagine what does it feel like to be 22 and widowed. She must be going through an incredibly tough time. Another person who wasn't getting much sleepy there was Greg's mom. One night she had woken up in the middle of the night and decided, I can't do this. I have to go to the last place that I saw Greg alive, which was his house. So she tried sneaking out of her bed, leaving her husband sleeping there and she tried to sneak out of the house.

But all of her kids were there. Her eldest son and his wife were there to support their parents and also they were grieving and they caught her. These mom were you going? Unwunk. Not alone, you're not. so they were grieving and they caught her. And his mom, were you going on a walk? Not alone, you're not. Let's get our jackets. And the three of them, of course, inevitably,

end up at Greg's place. Now, the crime scene had been released, so they unlocked the door and they go upstairs. Mainly, they were just looking at his pictures, smelling his clothes, literally laying on his bed, just grieving. And as they're doing this in the middle of the night, they hear noise downstairs.

Judy reaches into her pocket, pulls out a knife. And her son is like, Mom, where did you get that? Don't worry about it. If there's someone down there, I'm gonna take care of them. And she went down, and thankfully, the sound was nothing. But nevertheless, I'm kind of an awe of Judy Smart. Like this woman went from grieving mom to like, I'm gonna fuck someone up like if this

is the killer. No, it's her last day. Like she just went at it. Then the next morning is Greg's funeral. Bill, Bill Smart remembers sitting there, just tears, not streaming down his face. Everybody has just a snows full of snott, eyes full of tears, it was bad. And Pan turns to him. And she leans for it as if she's trying to whisper something into his ear. So of course he thought something's wrong and he leans in. And she says, Bill, did you ask for a

full mass? That's like a full service, like a full religious service. And he's wiping the tears. Well, no, I don't know. Oh, that's weird. I told him to make it short. What? And she leaned back. Like, as if this is just a random Sunday service, like, make it short, we got places to go.

He was so shocked by this. The next day, the police asked Pam to come in again and give a list of everyone out there wetting a year ago. And of course, she said, yeah, I'll do that, but it actually brought some other things. This wobbly candlestick, this and that, and she's just literally throwing things at the investigators. She's just trying to be overly helpful. She also goes and tells the media all of this.

She's like, I just turned in a candlestick that had a dent in it. I just turned in this. Oh, there were some stains on the carpet here. Like like she's not being helpful. She's actually hurting their investigation So from then on the police ordered that Pam and her parents were gonna be kept in the dark They weren't gonna know anything about the investigation. Mm-mm. They could ask all the questions they wanted The police weren't gonna answer. We are police suspicious of them. No, but they just keep ruining their investigation They're like you gotta stop talking to the press. Oh, okay.

Why are you so obsessed with the press? You know, Pam said yes to virtually every interview request that she got, and she got a lot. A lot of reporters realized that Pam was a widow that wanted to talk on and on. They could sniff it from a mile away that she just seemed like she wanted the attention. She would say things like, we didn't have any problems, we were very happy, we just wanted to be

happy together. I've had a lot of friends and family ask me, but most of my strength comes from inside. Just knowing that if Greg was here, if this was one of our friends who died, he would be saying this is awful, but things will work out in the end. Pam also let the person know every single detail of the investigation she knew. She kept talking about Greg walking in on a burglary. That was her theory. She made sure to point it out in every single interview. She said the burglar is some jerk, some drug addict person looking for a quick ten bucks. Greg didn't have enemies.

If he did, that person's name would be the first out of my mouth to the police. Bill Spencer interviewed Pam again on their wedding anniversary and she was sitting on the couch petting her dog and she talked about how Greg would want her to be strong. He was her inspiration to move on, despite all the pain that she felt. Sometimes I ask myself and I can't figure out where the strength is coming from But it seems like it's coming from inside maybe Maybe it's a part of Greg or whatever that's helping me go on with everything, you know And I feel like if this happened at any point in Greg's life

It wouldn't be fair and it wouldn't make sense then. It's just an awful tragedy and now, you know There's no better time in his life for this to happen. That's one of the things that I think is keeping me going. That if Greg were here right now, he would say, life's not fair, and you have to take what happens in stride and move on and move forward. Bill remembered he felt so touched, so moved that he looked up from his notepad, he was crying. And Pam, Pam was it, she was very composed. He was so emotional during this interview, he didn't even know the bizarre things coming out of Pam's mouth. There's no better time in his life for this to happen. You have to take what happens in stride.

Your husband was just murdered. In every interview Pam did, these two things that she never failed to push. First, the Memorial Fund to support the class that she's teaching next semester. And how did the neighbors hear nothing? Surely someone knows something and they're not talking. I know a gunshot sound is not common here, but at least you would have looked out your window, right?

I'm hoping that there's someone who's afraid to come forward. But I hope at the end of the day, the conscious gets to them and they come forward and she smiled and told a story of Greg You know, I kept the top layer of our wedding cake and I popped it into the freezer and Greg He complained you're taking up space in our freezer and right before his death He said I can't wait till our anniversary so we can get rid of that damn cake. And I laugh about it now because I finally got rid of it. And I know that Greg is looking down saying, I'm glad you got rid of that dang cake. Just such a weird story. Pam actually

didn't throw it away. She gave it to Bill Smart, Greg's dad. She kind of tossed it at him and said condescendingly here, take it. I didn't like the cake anyway. She also put all of Greg's things into black plastic bags, and right before she moved into another condo near the high school, she invited all of her friends and family over to help her move. Everyone thought, help a grieving young widow move furniture? Everyone's on board.

Let's do it. So they come, they pull up their sleeves, and they're ready to move a couch up and down a flight of stairs, but that didn't happen. Most of her stuff was already moved. She just wanted to give them free things. Most of it was her dead husband's belongings. Even during lunch a lot of Greg's friends said it was shocking. Pam and her friends all sat around just feet from where Greg's blood was still in the carpet,

talking, laughing, drinking beer, eating chicken fingers. Why would she be in such a good mood? Well she had just gotten $300,000 of insurance money. Now you're thinking did she kill him for insurance money? Not necessarily. She was also being encouraged by everyone to be social again. She was the center of everyone's attention. I want to help Pam.

Hey you're going to a party. Let me ask Pam if she wants to go. So she goes to a local concert about a month after Greg's murder. Her old high school boyfriend remember Paul, the captain of the football team. He was there. He was the lead singer of the band. And everyone was so excited to see Pam nod at home and getting out for once, but they didn't expect her to have this much fun. She stood up on the table, she starts belting out songs like with her ex-boyfriend Paul. It was so weird. Paul said she was footloose and worry free. Like why are you singing with your ex-boyfriend less than a month after your husband was murdered in cold blood? She even gave Paul her number and said, why don't you come visit me in my new condo? And he said,

yeah, yeah, yeah, I will, but he never did because that's freaking weird. Uh-huh. No, he's so suspicious if he goes. Exactly. There was another instance where she went to the bar with Terry, the one that introduced her to Greg, they were becoming close. And Pam would go around telling patrons of the bar, just matter of fact, not emotional, yet my husband's just been murdered. So Pam's just having the time of her life and the police are still trying to figure out who would want Greg dead.

They even look into all of Greg's old sexual escapades before he was married, so apparently he had gotten a girl pregnant and refused to pay for her abortion. And her dad was so pissed off, so upset that he went around town telling everyone he was gonna shoot Greg. But all of these turned out to be dead leads. Then the police get a tip from a woman. She refuses to give her name in the beginning. She was too nervous, but she said, the wife planned it all. I know these things. She wanted insurance money, and he was killed in the house.

She came home, put on the performance of her life. The person you need to talk to for more information is a minor. She's 15 years old, but she knows everything. She knows the truth. Her name is Cecilia Pierce. She's a friend of the wives. Even though she's much younger, the girl was at the wake. The police had heard this name before, Cecilia, not because she was at the wake, but a week before Greg was murdered, it said that Cecilia had spent the week at Pam's condo. So a student spending the week at a teacher's condo is kind of weird, right? Like why would she get herself wrapped

up in the murder investigation? Like this is a high school kid. So let's let's find out what's going on with Cecilia. But before we do that, we need to backtrack before Greg was murdered. We need to talk about another high schooler, a different one by the name of Billy Flynn. about another high schooler, a different one, by the name of Billy Flynn. Billy Flynn was the other kid at the funeral. And his old backstory is pretty sad. His parents had gotten divorced, and Billy had moved from Southern California to New Hampshire with his mom, and he was upset about this. He started to retreat, he became more quiet and insecure, but three of the local kids,

JR, Ralph, and Pete, they decided to take billion. It was almost like a project of theirs. Like, we're gonna help this kid build his self-esteem. The three guys that had been close for a really long time, they practically grew up together. The families considered them brothers essentially, and the four of them just formed this teenage boy group. They were very typical.

They were loud, just so loud, acting tough, pretending to be like the toughest kids on the block. Ralph was the oldest and he was slowly pulling away from the group because he had a girlfriend. JR, he was kind of the artsy one. Yeah, like straight out of a movie like this, this whole click, okay. He wore thick glasses, he loved books and poetry, he loved to take things apart to find out how they worked. Pete, he was the smart one, he was very good at math, but I mean grades wise, he didn't do well though. Maybe he felt like he was too bored in school, oddly enough.

Billy, the new addition to the group, he was more of a dreamer. He spent countless hours just doodling, playing on his electric guitar. He seemed more gentle, more approachable, and he was really insecure. Sometimes when he was talking, his voice would drift off quietly, and he would just kind of like, you know, and then he would just stop midway of his conversation. He didn't get along with his mom, he barely talked to her, and honestly he was kind of a jerk to her. This is what his own mother had to say about him. Outside of the family, people saw a kid that was polite and charming,

and yeah, that was one side of Billy that he projected to people that he wanted to impress. He wanted to be liked, but inside the family he took his anger out on home. He could be whatever he was feeling and most of the time, Billy was feeling like a prick. He was like a volcano waiting to erupt. A lot of it I think has to do with the fact that he never had a stable life. Even when his parents were together, his dad was super rough on him. Just expected him to be an adult and get things done the right way the first time. Things like washing a car. Like he would have the kid wash the car until it was perfectly the way he wanted without

even teaching him how to wash a car. So Billy's dad ends up cheating on him or cheating on the wife and not ruin his relationship. Billy's mom packs her bags, takes the kids to New Hampshire, and a few months later, out of the blue. Billy's dad is knocking on the door. He wants to spend Christmas with them, and for the first time ever, he was the perfect dad. He was showing Billy love, telling him,

I'm sorry, I love you, I was too hard on you. I want you to come back to California. I want to see you more I want to be there for you They promised okay. We'll see each other ASAP. Let's start planning But that never happened because not too long after his visit Billy's dad was out drinking and he refused all offers to crash at a Sister's place and he drove home He was on the highway doing 80 miles per hour, and he crashed into the back of a gasoline tank. He was that was carrying 9,000 gallons of gas and the whole thing

burst into flames. And he died. So from that moment I think Billy just got worse. He just kind of retreated into his own place, but randomly he would have moments where he wanted to prove himself to people. He would do these reckless things like attach his skateboard to the back of a moving truck and right on it. Unsurprisingly, the skateboard flew off the ground because it hit something and he just was sent flying. He was unconscious, he lost his memory for a day and he had these horrible headaches for weeks. So anyway, this is the crew and we have quiet Billy, smart guy Pete, tough guy Ralph and emotionally unavailable J.R. And they are small town thieves together. I wouldn't say that there is bad as some of the other teenagers we've talked about, but they did steal bikes,

they broke into cars to take radios and sometimes if someone left their keys in their car engine, they would take that car, take it for a joy ride, and then leave it in the neighboring parking lot across the street, just so they could watch the confusion of the owner. The struggle of like, what the fork just happened? Anyway, the kids decided to sign up for a club called Project Self-Asteem. You're thinking, Mom, these don't really sound like the kids to be a part of an extracurricular club. They thought it would be a great place to pray on young girls with low self-esteem, okay? So yeah, that was their whole plan.

So on the first day of the club, the teacher runs in or walks in and it's Mrs. Smart. And 15-year-old Billy immediately turns to JR and says, I think I'm in love. Yeah, we'll get in line. All the boys had a crush on Mrs.R. and says, I think I'm in love. Yeah, we'll get in line. All the boys had a crush on Mrs. Smart. Of course, I mean, this is most likely an innocent high school crush. And it's up to the teacher to make sure that I don't know. They're not a pedophile and they're not predators. They don't abuse their power, right?

Billy would talk to Mrs. Smart about how hard it was being introverted, how sad and painful it was to lose his father. The death of his father was unbearable. Then right after a class he would meet up with his buddies, snored a line of cocaine. Yeah, I know that took a while turn. And he would be like, damn, she's smoking hot. There was another girl in that class that took an instant liking to Mrs. Smart, 15-year-old Cecilia Louise Pierce. She was very talkative and nice, and she had joined the club because she was a bit insecure about her weight. So

she's instantly infatuated with Pamela. I mean Pamela's pretty skinny, hot. She's everything Cecilia wants to be, and not only that, she treats Cecilia with respect. She listens to Cecilia. This is the big sister. This is the mother figure that she never had. So Cecilia does have a great mom, but maybe it the mother figure that she never had. So Cecilia does have a great mom, but maybe it's different, you know? It's just different. She just felt like Pam cared about her and listened and she just was missing this her whole life and they start forming this sisterly bond. They got along so well that Pam asked if Cecilia wanted to be her intern. And she agreed. And the first project that they set to work out on is a competition sponsored by the Florida

Department of Citrus. So kids around the country would compete for various prizes, including a trip to Disney World by making a commercial about the great nutritional value of orange juice. To promote orange juice. So Pam, with the school's permission, and Cecilia, they start recruiting fellow classmates. Of course, Billy was down. He hated orange juice. Okay, he hates the idea of the project. It's so lame. Orange, can juice you say? Who cares? But if Pam is there, he's gonna be there. His friends didn't think the teacher was that hot enough to participate in a whole video presentation. So they said, yeah, no, this one's all you Billy. So he takes on the role of the cameraman. Pam and Cecilia really take the whole thing seriously. They start driving around to

different locations to get shots like beaches. The Recreation Center to an apartment where Billy lived. Billy's mom even saw Pam and thought to herself, ah, no wonder he's involved in this extra curricular. I get it now. Pam appeared in the commercial in a skimpy leopard skin patterned outfit. It was her cave woman OOTD, so she was gathering wood and washed her clothes in a nearby stream all in a very very tight. Again, not outfit shaming, but her students are there. And I'm sure that she did this all through the great power of citrus brought to you by Vitamin C. After each day of filming, she would take the kids to Wendy's and they all bonded.

But their production cut her off. They did not win any awards. Pam honestly didn't care though. She felt like she was in high school again. She was the popular kid except the fact that she was their teacher and she was 22 and they were all 15. But to Pam it was the same. She felt young, she felt popular, she felt needed. You know, and after the project ends, Billy found his way to Pam's office every single day. He wore a black leather jacket and a

single earring, which oddly is two times as cool as a pair of earrings for some reason. The math doesn't add up to me, but what do I know? Pam loves Billy's visits and she loved male attention, what's sick and twisted is that she didn't care that it was coming from a 15-year-old. See, Pam's marriage was falling apart. They were no longer in their honeymoon phase, they had nothing in common, they're drifting apart. Greg gets home late, 9pm, Pam's got to get up early to go to work, their schedules never match. They literally drive 45 minutes in the opposite direction to get to work. I mean, in their free time, Greg would go play cards or hang out with his friends. You'd go to parties. Meanwhile, Pam, she would take dance lessons, public relations lessons.

She loved reading the news. She read four to six newspapers a day. What? They were so different, they started taking separate vacations. Greg would go skiing in Canada and Pam would go on cruises with her family in Mexico and even when they went on double dates, Pam would literally only talk to the wife and Greg and the other husband would go off and do like husband stuff. Pam would later even claim that Greg was cheating on her, that he didn't come home

one night and she confronted him. He said that he was drunk. I stayed over at my guy's friend's house. That's not a big deal. She doesn't believe him. So she keeps telling him, tell me the truth, tell me the truth and he responded. You're not gonna like the truth. Allegedly, he admitted to having spent the night with another woman, but he said, it doesn't really count though because I hardly remembered anything. I was so drunk. Pam claimed this happened. She was devastated, but she didn't have it in her to leave. So she stayed, but the fighting continued. One time it got so bad Pam walked all the way

in the snow, and just her nightgown and slippers to Greg's parents house. They woke up frantic. What's going on Pam? What's going on? Greg slapped me in the face, bent me over the staircase and tried to strangle me. Now Bill Smart was pissed. No, he was not a dad. He was not that type of dad. That's like, oh, well I'm sure my son had a reason because my son's always right. No, he ran over there. He grabbed Greg by the collar and said,

what the hell are you doing? Did you hit Pam? He said, what? What are you even talking about? I haven't even touched her. She's such a pain in my ass. I just told her to get the hell out of here. You didn't hit her.

No. But he was a little bit drunk. So the next day Bill gave him an intense lecture. I just told her to get the hell out of here. You didn't hit her. No! But he was a little bit drunk. So the next day Bill gave him an intense lecture. If you don't remember, then maybe you were too drunk. Maybe you did hit her. He took Pam's side. But something that was done intentionally was that Pam would write a Billy-free study period

passes so that during his lunch break, he could spend his free hour with her. And he would stop by and they would talk and just kind of giggle and chat. Billy mentioned to Pam that, hey, my mom's landlord, he owns like a one hour Photoshop. If you ever need to get any film developed, I can get you a discount. She said, you know, that's so funny. I've actually been looking into getting some film developed. Why don't you come with me to pick it up? So they go and they drive over, drop it off, pick it up, and when she got it she's giggling. I'm just so silly, I'm so goofy. Why, what's wrong, Mrs. Martin? Well, I mean, look at this

picture. It's of me and my girlfriend on the bed with bikinis on, but I just don't feel like I like that good. What? There were more pictures of Pam doing very very sexual poses in her bikini, and of course Billy the 15 year old he's drooling. He says, oh I thought you looked good. The next day Pam comes up to him and says, we don't really like these pictures me and her. So you can have them or I'll just storm away. Of course he's going to take it. Not long after that Pam called in her intern, Cecilia and said sit down I need to talk to you about something. What is it? I think I'm in love with Billy.

What? No, I'm serious. I think I'm in love with Billy. Get out of here, that's crazy. I'm serious. Can you tell Billy to come in here so I can tell him myself? So Cecilia brings in Billy and she sits him down and Pam says, do you ever think about me when I'm not around? Yeah, I think about you all the time, Mrs. Martin.

Me too, Billy. And I don't know what to do because I'm married. And she ended it there, but I'm gonna finish it for her. And I'm your teacher slash predator and I'm 22 and you're 15 and like, take me to prison right now and I'm an evil person. Anyway, she didn't say any of that. She just said, I don't know what to do because I'm married. I can't stop thinking about you. After just said, I don't know what to do because I'm married. I can't stop thinking about you. After this confession, they start seeing each other more.

Like Billy starts coming into our office more and more often and Pam keeps telling him, I'm so depressed because I'm so unhappy in my marriage. Greg is verbally abusive, he's physically abusive, and each time Billy heard all of this, he started getting riled up. He wanted to hurt Greg. How dare he abuse his beautiful, perfect, innocent, victim wife!

And she would say, Billy, I want to be with you, not my husband! But I can't divorce him, he'll never give me up, he will take everything that I own, the dog, I will have nothing, the money, everything, I don't make enough money to get my own apartment, I would have to move back in with my parents. Billy, do you think you know anyone that could kill Greg? Yeah, this 15 year old kid. No, Billy's shocked. He doesn't know anyone that could kill someone and really, he's thinking Pam's not actually

being serious, right? So, he kind of brushed it off, but Pam would still go over to Billy's place to work on videos together and one time they were alone. They laid on his water bed playing music and Pam asked, well aren't you going to kiss me? And he said, yeah I will. She said, well when? And I quote, do I have to come over there and f**k you? Yeah. So they kissed, they don't go further than that, but they talked nonstop about how they wanted to have sex with each other. Pam said she wanted to give Billy a lap dance and wear a special lingerie for him.

A few days later, Pam, Cecilia and Billy, they were at a clothing shop and she pulls Billy aside and said, do you see that over there? That lingerie, it was like a lingerie lace type thing and she said, he's like, yeah, I see it. Would you like it, Billy? Yeah, I guess so. Well, that's pretty much what I bought for me, to where, when we do it.

That Valentine's Day, Pam invites Billy to spend the night at her condo because Greg was on a ski trip with his friends. Cecilia was invited to hang out too, and Cecilia was so happy. She had no idea that she was just being used to make the whole sleepover look a lot more appropriate and innocent if that's even possible. So anyway, Pam during their sleepover starts playing some

movies. Essentially 50 shades of gray and the three of them are watching it on the couch and Pam and Billy they get up and they go upstairs to her married bedroom and Cecilia stays on the couch and Billy said he sat naked on the upstairs couch and she came out in her lingerie. And she did some twirls for him and constantly asked if she was fat. And then she looked at him. Well, I guess they had sex, but I'm going to say she looked at him. It would be his first time having sex and he was assaulted by his teacher. She assaulted him on the bed and the floor.

And the next morning she dropped Sicily off and then Billy and she told them I had so much fun. But that'll probably be the last time we ever have sex. Obviously I want to have sex with you more, but Greg probably won't be gone on trips any longer. And he said, wait no Pam, but I want a relationship to keep going, I want to be with you. I know, I do too, but it's just not possible. They were both sobbing in her car. This 22 year old was sobbing.

This teacher was sobbing with her student and said, listen, there's only one thing we can do in order to be together and have sex again. It's to kill Greg. She knows exactly what she's doing. Oh, yeah. And that is where we end off on part one of Pamela Smart's case. There's going to be a part two as the mini-sode on Sunday, so stay tuned for that because

you would think that it would not get crazier, but it does. So we'll cover the murder, the arrests, how they were caught, and then even how everyone behaves and jail and how they all start turning on each other because I mean you're talking about high school kids. So I will see you guys on Sunday for the mini-sode. Bye! I mean, you're talking about high school kids, so I will see you guys on Sunday for the mini-sode.

Bye!