Become an Apple Subscriber or Patron to listen!
This is the story of a forbidden relationship between a teacher & her student that ended in murder. In 1990, Pamela Smart’s name was splashed across national headlines as the country heard about how the 22-year-old who worked at a local New Hampshire high school began an illicit affair with her 16-year-old student. The student & three of his classmates were charged with murdering her 24-year-old husband of less than one year. Gregg Smart’s murder trial was one of the first in the U.S. to be broadcast on live TV which caused an absolute media frenzy. The case went on to inspire the 1995 movie starring Nicole Kidman & Joaquin Phoenix, To Die For.
Pam Smart grew up as one of three children alongside a brother & a sister. Her mom was a homemaker who was always there for her children while her father worked as a pilot. She was a happy child who was surrounded by friends & she was close with her family. They eventually relocated from Florida to New Hampshire, but when it came time for Pam to choose a college, she headed back down south to attend Florida State University. There was no denying that Pam was a hard working, goal oriented person & while attending college, she kept herself busy with classes on top of three jobs & even managed to graduate a year early.
Pam got a degree in communication & art & hoped to be a journalist working as a TV news reporter. She had her eyes set on being the next Barbara Walters. She worked in Tallahassee on the college radio station, hosting two radio shows where she dubbed herself the Maiden of Metal. Pam was extremely driven & kept her head down during college, working tirelessly, skipping the parties & relationships so she could focus on achieving her goals.
In 1986, Pam came back to New Hampshire for Christmas break & met a man named Gregg Smart. He was very social, happy & outgoing & Pam was drawn to his rocker, rebel style. Eventually, Gregg managed to charm her, the two bonding over their love of music. Pam’s mom was relieved to see her daughter enjoying life, finally turning some of her focus away from just work. With this, Pam began to let her guard down & emerged from her shell, socializing more than she had been. It didn’t take long before they fell in love which prompted Gregg to leave his home in New Hampshire & follow Pam back to Florida so they could be together.
On May 7, 1989, Pam & Gregg got married, Pam was only 21-years-old at the time & after, the couple moved back to New Hampshire & settled into a condo in the well-to-do area of Derry with their dog Halen. Pam got a job working at Winnacunnet High School as the media liaison, working among a dozen public schools. Her job was to introduce students to the world of television. It wasn’t her life’s vision, but a stepping-stone in the right direction. Pam acknowledges that it was a fantastic career for a woman of her young age. She was generously compensated, had her own secretary & she was doing very well for herself. Meanwhile, Gregg cut off his long locks & worked as an insurance agent alongside his father. He worked long hours in order to establish himself in the industry & as a result, many nights, Pam was at home alone as Gregg worked late into the evening.
At 22-years-old, when Pam wasn’t working, she grew restless & bored so she began spending her idle time hanging out with the high school students she worked with. Within their first year of marriage, Gregg came home one day & confessed to Pam that he’d had an affair. Understandably so, she felt devastated & betrayed & recalled a night when she expected Gregg to come home, but when she woke up the next morning, Gregg’s side of the bed was empty. When she spoke with Gregg later that morning, he told her that he stayed over at his friend’s house since they’d been drinking that night. After Gregg’s confession, she realized this had been a lie & he was actually with the other woman. Pam’s trust was broken & her self esteem took a hit.
On the night of Tuesday, May 1, 1990, only six days away from Pam & Gregg’s first anniversary, Pam was out, attending a school board meeting. She arrived back home at about 10 pm & as she approached the front door, she noticed that it was darker than usual & realized that the light by the front door wasn’t on as it normally was. As she entered her home through the front door, Gregg’s body lay on the ground, just inside the foyer. Pam immediately turned & ran to the neighbor’s house, screaming for them to call 911. The caller indicated that a girl was hysterical & indicated that her husband was passed out.
As investigators responded to the Smart home, they immediately found Gregg sprawled out on the floor, still wearing his work clothes & shoes, part of his body was on the entryway tile while the other extended over the carpet of the living room. A blue towel was draped over his head & as the towel was moved, they realized that Gregg had been shot in the back of the head in what appeared to be an execution-style killing.
Pam immediately called her parents & told them that her husband of less than one year was dead. She remained hysterical & inconsolable. Investigators wondered if Gregg came home from work that night in the midst of his home being burglarized. Parts of the house appeared to be ransacked, items strewn around the floor. The dressers in the bedrooms upstairs had been pulled out, contents spilled across the floor, but they noted that Gregg’s wallet lay on the floor between his legs & he still wore his gold wedding band. After Pam walked through the house, she saw that nothing of value had been taken except for a few pieces of jewelry.
The house had no signs of forced entry. Investigators located a chef knife from the kitchen lodged into the grass in the yard. As Gregg’s pickup truck was inspected, investigators found a marijuana cigarette & explored the possibility of it being a drug related murder, but this didn’t end up being the case. When phone records were searched, they discovered that Gregg had been in contact with a gambling service & traveled to Atlantic City, theorizing that he could have owed someone money, but this was another dead end.
During Gregg’s wake a few days after his murder, Gregg’s family was puzzled when they noticed a group of unknown teenage boys in attendance. The funeral was on May 4 & Pam needed to be physically supported by her dad & sister because she was so grief-stricken. The police had absolutely no leads at this time, baffled by the brutal murder of this young man who seemed to have no enemies.
Six days after her husband was killed, Pam gave her first media interview with a local TV station. She indicated that she wanted to convey to the public what sort of person her husband was. She also indicated that she did this to bring awareness to Gregg’s case & felt that since they lived amongst a condominium complex, someone had to have seen or heard something on the night he was killed. The interview was incidentally held on May 7, 1990, what would have been Pam & Gregg’s first anniversary.
On June 10, 1990, a little over a month after Gregg was murdered, a man walked into the police station in Seabrook, about forty miles/64 kilometers east of Derry. He handed over his handgun & told investigators that he believed it was the murder weapon in Gregg Smart’s case. Investigators from Seabrook immediately contacted those from the Derry PD with the information. The man said that he stored the gun in a certain location in his home & when he went to grab it one day, he noticed it appeared to be freshly cleaned despite the fact that he hadn’t been the one to do so.
Finding this odd, but having no explanation as to who may have handled his gun, he soon got some insight. Ralph Welch, a friend of the man’s teenage son, came to him & indicated that the gun may have been used to kill Gregg. When police conducted a ballistics comparison, the two bullets were a match & proved that it was indeed the murder weapon.
With this information, on that same day, June 10, 1990, Ralph Welch was brought into the station for a video recorded interrogation. Ralph said that he had a private conversation with the gun owner’s son who told him exactly what happened on the night of Gregg’s murder.
Ralph told the detective that three teenage boys went to Gregg’s house with the intention of murdering him. These boys included Billy Flynn, Pete Randall & Vance Lattime, who went by JR, all of which were high school students. During the murder, JR was outside, waiting in the getaway car while Pete & Billy broke into the house & set the scene to appear as a burglary. According to Ralph, the boys put the couple’s dog in the basement for safekeeping & when Gregg came home, he unsuccessfully attempted to get away. While Pete held Gregg’s head, Billy shot him.
Members of the Seabrook police were familiar with these three boys since they’d all had run-ins with the law. Ralph explained that they killed Gregg after Pam promised to give them a portion of Gregg’s insurance money. Pam told them they would each get $500 if they killed her husband, which in 2024, is worth $1200.
Investigators recalled their interview with Pam only hours after she found her husband dead on the floor & felt that she seemed very unemotional, but Pam argued that she was still in shock. Police quickly found a connection between Pam & the boys in question & soon learned that they went to the same school where Pam worked & she had been actively working on a school project with them at the time of Gregg’s murder.
Pam met 16-year-old Billy Flynn at Winnacunnet High School in Hampton, New Hampshire. The town sits on the coast, 35 miles/56 kilometers east of Derry. The two met as volunteers for Project Self Esteem, a school drug awareness program. Billy was a sophomore who played the guitar & dreamed of being in a band. Pam later admitted that Billy was exceptionally charming & made her feel special during a very low period in her life.
Pam soon learned about a contest for high school students who were tasked to create an orange juice commercial & the winners would win a trip to Disneyland. Billy worked as the cameraman for the project & he also wrote the music for the commercial while Pam served as the director. Police soon discovered that Pam & Billy were having an ongoing affair & Pam had been the mastermind behind her husband’s murder after she convinced Billy that they could only be together if Gregg was out of the picture. A teenage girl named Cecelia Pierce, who was also a student at Winnacunnet High School, worked alongside Pam during the orange juice commercial. She told detectives that she always saw Pam as a big sister. One day, Cecelia walked in on them having sex & Pam confessed that she was in love with Billy.
On June 11, 1990, Billy, Pete & JR were arrested as well as another boy, Raymond Fowler, who had also been in the getaway car, but didn’t seem to have much to do with the murder.
Cecelia also overheard Pam talking to Billy about her plan to get rid of Gregg. On July 12, 1990, police fitted Cecelia with a recording as she went to see Pam at her office at the high school. In the recording, Cecelia could be heard telling Pam that she was brought in for questioning. Pam told Cecelia that her lawyer warned her not to talk to her since there was risk she could be helping the police & Pam voiced her worry that Cecelia could be wired. Pam told Cecelia that unless she lied to the police, she would also be in trouble & potentially arrested as an accessory to murder.
On August 1, 1990, Cecelia called Pam at her office as investigators listened in. Pam told Cecelia that she felt terrible about hitting a rabbit with her car & Cecelia commented that it was interesting that she felt bad about the rabbit, but not about Gregg & Pam said she also felt bad about Gregg.
That afternoon, exactly three months to the day of Gregg’s murder, Pam was arrested at her office & charged with being an accomplice to first-degree murder. In the meantime, the boys remained in custody but refused to confess. It was their belief that if they kept their mouths shut about what happened, they would be released once they turned 18.
When the three boys were informed that they were at risk for being tried as adults & potentially faced life in prison, they quickly began talking. With this, they were given the opportunity for a reduced sentence if they provided information.
Billy said that Pam discussed her desire to have Gregg murdered on a daily basis as she told him how much she hated her husband. She threatened to end her relationship with Billy if he didn’t go through with the plan.
J.R. said that according to Pam, after Gregg was dead, she stood to receive $140,000 from an insurance payout, which in 2024 would be worth about $250,000. In return, they would each be given $500. According to the teens, Pam instructed them that after they killed Gregg, they needed to ransack the house to make it look like a robbery.
The trial started on March 5, 1991 & was the first-ever murder trial in U.S. history to be televised from start to finish. The trial didn’t only gain national coverage & news trucks from Japan, Germany & Australia were also present & the case was said to have become an absolute media circus. Some argued that the trial should not have been a form of entertainment since a real person died & Pam, a real human being, was on trial for her life as well as the boys, all who had families.
Pam was being accused of having the teenage boys kill her husband over money & sex. The defense argued that Pam had nothing to do with Gregg’s murder & claimed that Billy had orchestrated the whole plan due to jealousy. The three boys had been given a plea deal & by pleading guilty to second-degree murder, they would testify against Pam for a reduced sentence.
During the trial which spanned fourteen days, the jury learned that the boys had actually plotted to kill Gregg one month before they did, in April, but when they arrived at the condo complex, they noticed Gregg’s truck on the driveway. Realizing he was already home, they abandoned their plan.
On the day of Gregg’s murder on May 1, 1990, J.R. took his father’s .38 caliber revolver. When school ended, Pam drove Billy, Pete & J.R. to pick up J.R.’s grandma’s car in Massachusetts & as they drove, Pam coached them on the plan. She also asked their advice as to how she should act when she came home to “find” Gregg dead on the floor. From there, the boys picked Raymond up & headed to Pam & Gregg’s condo in Derry. J.R. testified that the gloves they brought with that day were too thin so they stopped at a store to buy tape that they placed around their fingers to prevent leaving evidence behind.
Pete Randall testified that Pam left the house unlocked so they could get in & BIlly & Pete entered the home through the unlocked bulkhead that led into the home’s basement. Meanwhile, J.R. & Raymond waited in the car at a nearby shopping center. They were given specific instructions not to cause any harm to Pam’s dog & she told them that while they waited for Gregg to come home from work, they should ransack the condo & they were free to take what they wanted.
As they made their plans, it was Pete’s belief that rather than shooting Gregg, it would be a better idea to stab him to death, but Pam voiced concern that they would get blood on her white sofa. Pete said that as Gregg came in the front door from work, Billy was ready with his gun while Pete held a knife from the kitchen. Walking into his home, still unaware of danger at this point, Gregg called out for his dog when Billy suddenly grabbed him & pulled him inside. Gregg began to scream & tried to run back outside while also worrying about the wellbeing of his dog.
Billy & Pete forced Gregg to his knees while Pete held his head down with one hand & held a knife in front of his face with the other hand. Pete demanded that Gregg remove his wedding ring, but Gregg refused saying that his wife would be upset if he did. Pete said that he was unable to go through with slashing Gregg’s throat so Billy took the gun out & shot him once in the back of the head. According to prosecutors, before Gregg was shot dead, he was on his knees, begging the boys to spare his life.
Pete was cold & unemotional as he spoke of his part in the murder. After Gregg lay dead on the floor, the boys took a pillowcase they’d filled with jewelry & ran from the house to meet J.R. & Raymond at the car. The next day, J.R. put the gun back with his father’s collection.
The jury was also shown photos of Pam suggestively posing on a bed in a white strapless bikini which the prosecution argued she used to lure Billy into her life. Billy tearfully told the jury that when he grabbed Gregg as he walked through his front door, Gregg was more confused than anything, asking them what was going on. Billy told him to shut up as he took the gun out of his pocket, held it up toward Gregg’s head & then froze. He finally snapped back into action & said, God forgive me as he pulled the trigger. According to Billy, Pam was the first girl he’d ever loved & he would have never murdered anyone if not for her telling him to do it.
Pam took the stand in her own defense & admitted to her affair with Billy. She claimed that after she broke it off, Billy couldn’t live without her so he killed Gregg out of revenge & anger.
After 13 hours of deliberation, on March 22, 1991, the jury was back with their verdict & a now 23-year-old Pam was found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder, accomplice to first-degree murder & witness tampering in connection with the death of her husband. As the verdict was read, Gregg’s family screamed out in relief. Pam was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Pam went on to exhaust every appeal which were all denied, all the while, maintaining her full innocence.
Billy Flynn & Pete Randall went on to serve 25 years, Vince “J.R.” Lattime served 15 years & Raymond Fowler served 12 years. By 2015, they had all been released.
In 1991, a made-for-tv crime drama film was made based on Pam’s case, Murder in New Hampshire: The Pamela Wojas Smart Story, that starred Helen Hunt as Pam & Chad Allen as Billy Flynn. The 1995 movie about Pam’s case premiered, starring Nicole Kidman & Joaquin Phoenix, To Die For, which was based on Joyce Maynard’s novel of the same name. The movie was shown to the inmates during a movie night & after, Pam was on the receiving end of a lot of negative attention. This resulted in her getting beaten by two inmates who accused her of being a snitch. Her orbital bone was fractured & she now has a plate in her face. During her time behind bars, Pam has been very active, providing tutoring services, being part of the ministry & obtaining two master’s degrees.
In June 2024, at age 56, after serving more than 30 years, all the while holding firm to her innocence, Pam suddenly had a change of heart. She is now finally accepting full responsibility for Gregg’s death as a way to reduce her sentence. She said that she began to dig deeper into her own responsibility while she participated in a writing program that encouraged her to venture into spaces she didn’t want to be in. She said for the first time, she accepted in her heart & her mind that she was responsible for Gregg’s death despite decades of deflecting blame. She indicated that she used the blame as a coping mechanism.
In the letter she wrote to New Hampshire governor Chris Sununu, she acknowledged that she was the one to blame for her husband’s absence from this world. In her letter, she expressed the desire to meet with him & New Hampshire’s five-member Executive Council which approves state contracts & appointees to the courts & state agencies.
Since she’s exhausted all of her appeals, she must now go through the council for any changes to her sentence. The council rejected her last request in 2022 & she appealed to the state Supreme Court, but it was dismissed in 2023.
References:
- Wikipedia: To Die For
- ABC News: Pamela Smart on teen lover who murdered husband nearly 3 decades ago: ‘I loved him’
- NBC News: Pamela Smart takes responsibility for her husband’s 1990 murder in prison video statement
- ABC News: 20/20 S42 E13 Broken Vows
- Heavy: Gregg Smart’s murder: How did Pamela Smart’s husband die?
- Wikipedia: Murder in New Hampshire: The Pamela Wojas Smart Story
- New Hampshire Bar Association: 150-year retrospective: The 1991 Pamela Smart trial – the first-ever televised trial in US history
