9/20/2023 0 Comments Informant susan daniels smith![]() ![]() Mark’s story was that, months after rumors of the affair began, the actual affair itself began. Susan said that it was a passionate affair, with the couple meeting in hotels, cars, and even Mark’s home while Mark’s testimony was that he only had sexual relations with her “about five times” in his car. Susan told friends and family that it went on for nearly the entire two years he was at the Pike County post although Mark argues that it happened only a few times and for less than a month. Exactly when, and for how long, is not something that can ever be truly known. Susan’s information and testimony regarding the individual she knew paid her well and secured the conviction of the suspect.Īt some point, an affair ensued between the two. ![]() After being introduced by a local police officer as someone who knew a top suspect in a series of bank robberies (which were federal offenses as opposed to local ones), Susan and Mark began to work together. The pay, however, for an FBI informant as opposed to a local law enforcement informant was much higher and more steady. This is how the unlikely coupling of Mark and Susan started.īeing an informant was a fairly common phenomenon in the area during this time although the pay was low and the risk was high. ![]() Mark had no supervision or mentorship available within the FBI so he sought out his own with local law enforcement. Shortly after Mark was transferred the other FBI officer was as well, placing another agent in the office with him. He quickly associated himself with local law enforcement which was atypical of the aloofness that local police associated with the FBI which, despite his status as an “outsider” did a lot for both his reputation as a law man in the local community and in the FBI structure as well. Mark, by all accounts, was eager to prove himself to the FBI and was not afraid of hard work. Although the couple was divorced they were often in an “on again/off again” status and it is likely the divorce was in order for Susan to be entitled to welfare benefits for the children. Susan and he had two children and divorced shortly after the birth of their second child, Brady, who had an older sister Miranda. Kenneth was a small time drug dealer and eventually found himself in trouble in the late 70’s, landing a short sentence in prison. Although Susan was known in her school and by her family to be a smart child, often checking out books at the local library, she would quit school after the 7th grade and shortly thereafter began to live with her soon to be husband, Kenneth Smith at age 15 to Kenneth’s 24 years. Susan Daniels Smith grew up poor in an area on the border of Kentucky and West Virginia, the fifth of nine children. In 1987 Mark, his wife, and the couple’s young daughter Danielle moved to Pikeville for his first assignment. Shortly after this he completed the FBI academy as he and his wife Kathy began a family and worked entry level jobs. After graduating high school, and being the captain of the soccer team his senior year, he went onto college in Florida and returned home. He grew up in Connecticut and secured a partial scholarship to a college prep school due to his soccer skills for high school. Mark had grown up a working class child although some had some unique opportunities similar to a child with a more upper class upbringing. Mark Putnam was a recent graduate of the FBI academy in 1987 when he was assigned the small post in Pikeville, an FBI outpost that was inside the Kentucky State Police post and manned by two agents. This was the days before the internet of course, but living in a small town, with a scandal that included something as big as the FBI, was pretty major. I remember when two books were quickly published afterwards and devouring both of them and any news article I could find on the subject. I remember when the story broke, being in the next town over, at the age of 12. This story was one of the very first true crime stories that I followed and is in part the reason I am obsessed with true crime in general. ![]()
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