Remember the movie To Die For, starring Nicole Kidman? Did you realize it was based on a true story?

Pam Smart was Mary Kay Letourneau before Mary Kay Letourneau was Mary Kay Letourneau. Or something.

Smart is one of the most notorious criminals in the history of New Hampshire, so notorious that her local library has an entire page devoted to her and her trial. This probably isn’t too surprising considering Derry has a massive population of roughly 34,000 and Smart killed her husband with the help of her 16 year old lover and his three friends.

I’m thinking this would have been a big story just about anywhere.

Pamela is currently serving a life sentence in prison, and actually just recently asked for a pardon. She was denied.

It all started with something called “Project Self Esteem”, where Smart seduced 15 year old William “Billy” Flynn. Pamela wasn’t terribly happy with her marriage, so she thought it’d be a good idea to threaten to leave Billy unless he took out her husband. He thought that was reasonable, and he went ahead and killed Mr. Smart with the help of a few buddies.

Smart to this day says that she’s innocent and that Flynn killed her husband without her knowledge.

Fun fact: Pam has finished two Master’s degrees in prison, so she’s keeping busy.