Death and Deceit

% "What can make a mother feel she has to turn to murder? Why didn't anyone reach out to help Susan Smith?"

Eileen Horvath

South Bend, Indiana

WHEN SUSAN SMITH WENT ON NATIONAL television telling of the alleged carjacking and kidnapping of her two sons, ages 3 years and 14 months, she forgot to include one thing in her story -- emotion ((Cover Stories, Nov. 14)). Smith did not appear to show the feelings one would display if one's children had really been taken. My first instinct was that she was not telling the truth, but I felt sorry for her and prayed that the boys, whom we thought were abducted, would be safely returned. I never imagined that a mother could be so cruel as to murder her own children. Problems at home with a spouse, finances, job-related difficulties -- nothing gave her the right to take the lives of two innocent children. Why did she do such a tragic thing?

Lisa Graben

Fyffe, Alabama

THE MOST DISCONCERTING ASPECT OF Smith's actions is that she talks, walks, looks and acts like the rest of middle-class America. By all accounts she was a model mother no different from others. What fine line was crossed the night she let her car roll into that lake? How unsettling to think that we live our lives a hairbreadth away from such acts.

Gene M. Golding Jr.

Greer, South Carolina

Via America Online

NOBODY COULD PUNISH SMITH MORE than she is punishing herself right now. Most women who do such a terrible thing have had terrible lives beforehand and even more terrible lives afterward. Their crimes should be abhorred, but they should not.

Eve Friday

West Kilbride, Scotland

IF SMITH DIDN'T WANT HER CHILDREN, why didn't she give them to their father? Or someone else?

Becky Schwend

Tillamook, Oregon

AOL: MTV 79

IF YOU'D EVER BEEN IN SMITH'S "HELLhole," you'd know why she did it. You can't give away your own children. You can't take care of them. The only way you can protect them is to end their lives. Signs of her problems were there if anyone had looked. Too bad no one in her town cared enough to reach out to her before her desperate act.

Charlotte Swerling

Cadott, Wisconsin

SUSAN SMITH'S CRIME IS ONE OF POOR timing. Had she killed Michael and Alex while both were in utero, few would have raised an eyebrow. It goes without saying that she wouldn't have been your cover story. Why does Smith's killing $ her children for her convenience seem so shocking when thousands of mothers do the same every week?

Gary L. Dikkers

Madison, Wisconsin

Via America Online

LET'S HOPE THAT MICHAEL AND ALEX went to heaven thinking that they were in a terrible accident and that their hysterical mother somehow just wasn't able to save them!

Jer-Yuan Tsai

Waynesburg, Pennsylvania

WHAT HAS HAPPENED IS A TRAGEDY, BUT this woman is not Satan in human guise. Until we try to understand what drives people to kill, until we put aside blind hatred, we will not come close to stopping such acts.

Matthew C. McCollom, age 15

San Lorenzo, California

AS THE PHYSICIANS WHO DELIVERED both of Susan and David Smith's children and as residents of Spartanburg, we followed this story with interest. Ultimately we were all saddened and shocked by the tragic outcome. We would like to point out, however, that your statement that Susan Smith "still owed money to the doctor who delivered Alex 14 months ago" is inaccurate. The Smiths' medical bills in our office have always been paid in a timely fashion. Susan and David Smith currently do not owe us one penny.

Carol W. Shuler, M.D., and other physicians of the Woman's Clinic

Spartanburg, South Carolina

THE OUTPOURING OF EMOTION IN REACtion to this case should focus our attention on the rest of America's children in need. Would we have heard of Smith if she had only beat the hell out of her kids?

Clayton Pennington

Nobleboro, Maine

SMITH'S DECEIT CREATES NEW PROBLEMS for children and families where an abduction has occurred. Who will believe them? Now there will always be a doubt in the minds of people. How willing will they be to help the next sobbing mother who claims her child was abducted?

Mimi Clemons

Germantown, Tennessee

AOL: Mimiclem

ONE COULD BELIEVE THAT SUSAN SMITH'S killing her two children was the manifestation of a person with a serious mental condition and suicidal instincts. As her children were a very piece of her own self, the ending of their lives in a certain way successfully repeats Smith's reported suicide attempts. Such an explanation does not offset the horror of her deeds, but may give a psychological alibi for monstrous and unthinkable infanticide. Her lawyers could argue that she loved her children as she loved herself.

Joao Augusto de Lima Lustosa

Rio de Janeiro

YOU OWE AN APOLOGY TO DAVID SMITH AND to all husbands and fathers who are providing a substantial living for their families. To call David "less achieving" with an annual salary of $21,700 was cruel. He was willing to contribute more than 25% of his gross income to child support. Some human compassion is due an extremely troubled young woman like Susan Smith, but not at the expense of the grieving father of the children she murdered.

Janet L. Bitner

Horsham, Pennsylvania