Isabella Mueller (crime writer)
A crime that made headlines around the world was the murder of 24-year-old stockbroker Greggory 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 William ‘Billy’ Flynn, a schoolboy aged just 15. He had been having an affair with his 22-year-old teacher, Pamela Smart, and, acting on her instructions, killed her husband. This mix of sex, adultery and murder sparked a media frenzy that continues to provide material for films and books to this day. The central figure in this drama, which was almost Hollywood-worthy, was Pamela Smart, who was born on 16 August 1967 in Coral Cables, the daughter of John and Linda Wojas. Pamela lived in Miami until Year 8, before her family moved to Derry in the US state of New Hampshire. Pamela was regarded as a model pupil and an excellent cheerleader. After graduating from Pinkerton Academy, she studied communication studies 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 Bambi-like eyes – met Greggory Smart, who was two years her senior. The two were immediately drawn together by their shared love of metal bands. On 7 May 1989, they tied the knot. Whilst Pamela worked as a media consultant and taught at Winnacunnet High School in Hampton after graduating, Greggory enjoyed a successful career as a broker. Everything seemed perfect until Pamela began to suspect that Greggory was having an affair with another woman. Pamela was a young and attractive teacher who looked like a film star and was literally adored by her male pupils. One of them was William ‘Billy’ Flynn, whom Pamela met during the drug education programme ‘Project Self-Esteem’. Pamela began a sexual relationship with Billy, which was to end in disaster. On 1 May 1990, Pamela found her husband dead in their flat in New Hampshire. She immediately alerted the police. Greggory had been killed by a gunshot to the head. It soon emerged that Pamela had been having an affair with the underage Billy right up until her husband’s death. When Billy was questioned, he confessed to the murder of Greggory. He had killed him on Pamela’s orders, something she continues to deny to this day. Billy had driven to the Smarts’ flat with his friends Patrick ‘Pete’ Randall, Vance ‘JR’ Lattime Jr. and Raymond Fowler. He and Pete broke into the flat, where they overpowered Greggory. They forced him to kneel in the hallway whilst Pete held a knife to his throat. Billy then shot Greggory in the head with a .38-calibre pistol. This pistol belonged to Vance’s father. The four teenagers cooperated with the prosecution. Billy and the other three teenagers pleaded guilty to the premeditated murder of Pamela’s husband and testified against Pamela. Whilst Billy claimed that he had murdered her husband at Pamela’s request, as she would otherwise have ended their sexual relationship, Pamela insisted that Billy had killed her husband out of revenge because she had broken up with him. The police discovered that Pamela’s work experience student, Cecelia Pierce, may have known about the murder plot. Cecelia agreed to cooperate with the police. She was fitted with a listening device. The tape recordings captured a conversation in which Pamela said that it would have been the perfect murder had one of the teenagers not boasted about it. The police saw the motive not only in the $140,000 life insurance payout that Pamela would receive following her husband’s death, but also in her desire to avoid an expensive divorce. On 1 August 1990, Pamela was arrested in the car park of Winnacunnet High School and remanded to the New Hampshire State Prison for Women in Golfstown. The trial in the early 1990s caused a huge media stir. The trial began on 4 March 1991 in Rockingham and lasted 14 days. Pamela’s lover Billy and his accomplice Pete were sentenced on 22 March 1991 to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole. Pamela herself was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for aiding and abetting murder, conspiracy to commit murder and witness tampering. Billy and Pete were eventually released from prison on 4 June 2015. Billy’s accomplice, Raymond, was released in 2003 and Vance in 2005. This means that all four men are now free, whilst Pamela remains in prison. She has been serving her sentence at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women in the US state of New York since 1992. Whilst behind bars, Pamela obtained a PhD in Theology and three master’s degrees. She was ordained as a minister and teaches her fellow inmates. Despite her impeccable behaviour, she was severely beaten by two fellow inmates in October 1996, as she was allegedly aware of 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 case was dismissed. A year later, Pamela and a fellow prisoner named Carolyn Warmus filed a complaint against prison officers for sexual harassment. The trial lasted over five years and the New York State Court ruled in Pamela’s favour, awarding her $22,875, of which she received only $8,750, as the rest had been spent on her legal fees. For decades now, Pamela has been trying to lodge an appeal against her conviction, but without success. Perhaps this is because Pamela continues to this day to deny incitement to murder, a charge made by Billy, her former lover and her husband’s murderer. Only the two of them know the truth.
