The Union Mayor discusses the impact of the Susan Smith case on the city and its resilience

UNION, S.C. (WLOS) – Union is not unlike most small towns in South Carolina. According to Mayor Harold Thompson, there is a lot of “local hustle and bustle” here.

Thompson described Union as “a progressive little town.”

“Anytime someone or an organization needs help with anything, people have no problem volunteering and coming and helping you with whatever you need,” he said.

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Thompson took over as interim mayor in July 2008 when former Union Mayor Bruce Morgan resigned following charges that he used his office to solicit bribes from contractors. Thompson was elected in fall 2008 to fill the vacant position.

He had lived in the Union area most of his life and was working for a television station in Spartanburg when Susan Smith knocked on the McClouds’ door on Oct. 25, 1994. Nine days later, he was one of the first media members on site at John D. Long Lake in Union when Smith’s car carrying her sons, Michael and Alexander, was pulled from its watery grave.

Thompson spoke to News 13 about the nine days in between when some of his friends were affected by Susan Smith’s lies.

Smith falsely told the McClouds and authorities that she was near the intersection of Highway 49 and Monarch Way when a black man got into her car, pointed a gun at her and told her to drive. Smith falsely claimed that a man made her get out of the vehicle near the McClouds’ home, and when she tried to get her boys from the back seat, he said there was no time and drove away with the children.

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Smith’s claims sparked a regional and eventually nationwide search. Thompson said he pulled friends from their Union homes and interviewed them because they matched the description Smith falsely gave authorities.

Thompson said the temperature in the small town was elevated during the search for the children, but he said when it was finally revealed that Smith was responsible for the deaths of Michael and Alexander, the community was upset but “not out of control.” advised”. “

“It could have been a racial thing, but deep down most black people knew it probably wasn’t a black person who would do something like that,” Thompson said.

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Thompson said a statement from law enforcement “that we had to do what we had to do to find the children” should have been given to the Union’s black community but never was.

Thompson said the impact of Smith has been something unions have had to live with for 30 years now.

“It’s part of what happened, you know. I think it got more attention than the corruption we had with people stealing money from the city,” he said. “It got more attention, not from the people who are in town, but from the people who come in.”

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After 30 years, Susan Smith is now eligible for parole. The South Carolina Board of Pardons and Parole has scheduled her hearing for November 20, 2024. In South Carolina, incarcerated people appear for hearings virtually from their current location.

Smith is being held at the Leath Correctional Institute in Greenwood, SC. News 13 plans to attend Smith’s hearing.