Isabella Mueller (crime writer)
A crime that made headlines around the world was the murder of 24-year-old broker Gregory Smart in 1990. This was not only because it was one of the first trials to be covered by television crews in the courtroom, but also because the murderer was 15-year-old student William “Billy” Flynn. He had been having an affair with his 22-year-old teacher, Pamela Smart, and killed her husband on her orders. This combination of sex, adultery, and murder sparked a media frenzy that continues to provide material for films and books to this day. The main character in this almost Hollywood-worthy drama was Pamela Smart, who was born on August 16, 1967, to John and Linda Wojas in Coral Cables. Pamela lived in Miami until the 8th grade, before her family moved to Derry in the US state of New Hampshire. Pamela was considered a model student and an excellent cheerleader. After graduating from Pinkerton Academy, she studied communication sciences at Florida State University. Alongside her studies, she worked as a presenter at a small local radio station. Then, during the Christmas holidays of 1986, the attractive Pamela, with her long, dark blonde hair and doe eyes, met Greggory Smart, who was two years her senior. The two immediately bonded over their love of metal bands. On May 7, 1989, they tied the knot. While Pamela taught as a media consultant and teacher at Winnacunnet High School in Hampton after graduating, Greggory was a successful broker. Everything seemed perfect until Pamela believed that Greggory was having an affair with another woman. Pamela was a young and attractive teacher who looked like a movie star and was adored by her male students. One of them was William “Billy” Flynn, whom Pamela met during the drug education program “Project Self-Esteem.” Pamela began a sexual relationship with Billy that would end in disaster. On May 1, 1990, Pamela found her husband dead in their condominium in New Hampshire. She immediately alerted the police. Greggory had been killed by a shot to the head. It quickly came to light that Pamela had been having an affair with the underage Billy until her husband’s death. When Billy was questioned, he confessed to Greggory’s murder. He had killed him on Pamela’s orders, which she denies to this day. Billy had driven to the Smarts’ apartment with his friends Patrick “Pete” Randall, Vance “JR” Lattime Jr., and Raymond Fowler. He entered the apartment with Pete, where they overpowered Greggory. They forced him to kneel in the hallway while Pete held a knife to his throat. Billy then shot Greggory in the head with a .38 caliber pistol. This pistol belonged to Vance’s father. The four teenagers cooperated with the prosecution. Billy and the other three teens pleaded guilty to the premeditated murder of Pamela’s husband and testified against Pamela. While Billy claimed that he murdered her husband at Pamela’s request because she would otherwise have ended their sexual relationship, Pamela insisted that Billy killed her husband out of revenge because she had broken up with him. The police discovered that Pamela’s intern, Cecelia Pierce, may have known about the murder plot. Cecelia agreed to cooperate with the police. She was bugged with a listening device. The tape recordings included a conversation in which Pamela said that it would have been the perfect murder if one of the teenagers hadn’t bragged about it. The police believed the motive was not only the $140,000 life insurance policy that Pamela would receive after her husband’s death, but also Pamela’s desire to avoid an expensive divorce. On August 1, 1990, Pamela was arrested in the parking lot of Winnacunnet High School and sent to the New Hampshire State Prison for Women in Golfstown. The trial in the early 1990s was a huge media event. The trial began on March 4, 1991, in Rockingham and lasted 14 days. Pamela’s lover Billy and his accomplice Pete were sentenced to life imprisonment with the option of parole on March 22, 1991. Pamela herself was sentenced to life imprisonment without the option of parole for aiding and abetting murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and witness tampering. Billy and Pete were finally released from prison on June 4, 2015. Billy’s accomplice Raymond was released from prison in 2003 and Vance in 2005. This means that all four men are now free, while Pamela remains in prison. She has been serving her sentence at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women in New York State since 1992. Pamela earned her doctorate in theology and three master’s degrees while behind bars. She was ordained as a minister and teaches her fellow inmates. Despite her impeccable behavior, she was severely beaten by two fellow inmates in October 1996 because she allegedly knew about their intimate relationship. After photos of Pamela scantily clad appeared in the National Enquirer in 2003, she filed a complaint against the prison. However, the lawsuit was dismissed. A year later, Pamela and a fellow inmate named Carolyn Warmus filed a lawsuit against prison officials for sexual harassment. The trial lasted over five years, and the New York State court ruled in Pamela’s favor, awarding her $22,875, of which she received only $8,750 because the rest was spent on her legal fees. Pamela has been trying to appeal her conviction for decades, but without success. Perhaps this is because Pamela still denies inciting murder, which is what Billy, her former lover and her husband’s murderer, claims she did. Only the two of them know the truth.
