Anngelle Wood
Oct 24, 2022
Updated: Jun 5, 2023
Part three of three in the series about Gregg Smart's murder and the trial that captivated the region (and the nation) in the winter of 1991. New Hampshire TV station WMUR 9 aired the Pamela Smart trial in its entirety. It was the beginning of our true crime obsession and illustrated how the media reshapes the narrative to often tell the story they want to sell.
Court TV was born.
Gregg Smart is the forgotten victim in the crime of the century - as it has been called over and over given its history of firsts. Gregg was murdered on May 1, 1990. The 24-year-old insurance broker was shot dead in his home six days before his first wedding anniversary.
At first, it looked like he'd interrupted a burglary, because that's what the killers were told to make it look like. As the investigation wore on, it uncovered a plot rife with salacious headlines by a mastermind who was first tried in the media before they were tried in court. The Smart case was a spectacle, the original crime of the century. The first televised trial.
WMUR Channel 9 in Manchester, New Hampshire preempted its daily programming to televise the two-week trial. People stood in line at 2am to get a seat in the courtroom. The pretrial coverage was frenzied. I often cover stories that affected me. This is one of those. I lived in Southern New Hampshire in the late 80s/early 90s. You couldn't go anywhere without hearing the name Pamela Smart.
Source materials
Books
Teach Me to Kill: The Shocking True Story of the Pamela Smart Murder Case, by Stephen Sawicki
https://www.amazon.com/Teach-Me-Kill-Stephen-Sawicki/dp/0380766493
Skylights and Screen Doors, by Dean Smart
https://www.amazon.com/Skylights-Screen-Doors-Dean-Smart/dp/1936680025
Court TV (you can see most of the testimony in the Pamela Smart trial)
Pamela Smart site
http://www.pamelasmart.faithweb.com/
Cecelia Pierce in New Hampshire Magazine
https://www.nhmagazine.com/breaking-silence-cecelia-pierce-speaks/
WMUR - Time line in Smart case
https://www.wmur.com/article/timeline-pamela-smart-murder-case/5135146
Pamela Smart: An American Murder Mystery
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8757062/
Captivated | The Trials of Pamela Smart
http://captivatedpamelasmart.com
Pamela Smart Trial 1991
https://www.encyclopedia.com/law/law-magazines/pamela-smart-trial-1991
Seacoast Online: Where are they now?
The Sensational Smart Case
https://medium.com/crimebeat/the-sensational-smart-case-cdd0e7085a31
Till Death: Why Pamela Smart Is the Only One Still in Prison for Her Husband's Murder, by Natalie Finn
https://www.yahoo.com/now/till-death-why-pamela-smart-100000510.html
The Smart family wants pam in prison
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEdoG_2fXoA
Washingon Post - Trial of the Century
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grL9DE1kRr4&t=149s
Sick Little Soap Opera trial in Exeter, NH
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXqWXZRCb4w
Murderpedia: Pamela Smart
https://murderpedia.org/female.S/s/smart-pamela.htm
Dean Smart's book https://www.fosters.com/story/lifestyle/2011/06/03/skylights-screen-doors-written/50012173007
NHPR - 26 Years Later, Gun Used in Smart Murder to be Returned to Owner
https://www.nhpr.org/nh-news/2016-03-30/26-years-later-gun-used-in-smart-murder-to-be-returned-to-owner
Crime of the Truest Kind
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Music by Joe Only one Kowalski and Andrew King appears in this episode