dynoguy88
08-23-2014, 12:26 PM
I know this case was solved very long ago, on the night of the original broadcast in 1991. So I doubt I get many responses. But this case was always very freaky to me with Smith killing his wife Judith, his step-daughters Kristi and Wendy and his attempt at killing Frank Allen.
This segment wasn't handled like most of the murder segments during the height of UM's awesomeness. Usually we got backstory on the victim(s) and interviews with family members and friends before getting into the ugliness of their murders. In this situation, UM skipped all that and went straight to the terrifying ordeal of Frank Allen's attack and the quick discovery of the bodies. Insanely scary, yes. But it still made me want to fill in some of the blanks. Like why would a conman turn to murdering his family members in such a horrific way? I was researching online and found the court report for Smith which gives some specifics leading to the murders that I found interesting.
1. Smith and the family had lived in that house for just a few weeks when he killed them all.
2. Frank Allen originally hadn't planned to sell the house (which makes me wonder how they even came into contact in the first place) but Smith offered him $50,000 over the appraised value and Allen agreed to sell him the house. Both agreed that Allen could retain a bedroom for himself for his business trips.
3. Not surprisingly, both of the checks Smith wrote to Allen for a good faith deposit and the October mortgage payment were on accounts that were already closed. Smith told Allen that he would straighten this out and he would have good checks waiting for him when Allen arrived in Nevada on October 5th, which ended up being the day Smith tried to kill him.
4. Wendy Cox was scheduled to get married the month after her murder. In fact, one of the reasons Smith had originally told Allen that he was in a rush to move into the house was because he wanted to make preparations for Wendy's wedding in November.
5. Smith bludgeoned and strangled Judith, Wendy and Kristi as they slept on October 5th. Just a few hours after killing them and the sun rose, Smith called Allen and told him, "I thought you were coming up here this morning." Allen told him that he wouldn't be arriving until later in the day. At that point Smith said he and the family would be driving to California to go furniture shopping and he would leave the two checks on the wet bar with Allen's mail.
Judith's daughter-in-law Yolanda Cook ended up calling the house four times that day between 8:00 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. Each time, Smith answered the phone and said the women were not home because they went wedding dress shopping for Wendy. Looking back at this now, it's insanely scary to think Smith stayed in that house all day long with three dead bodies just waiting for Allen to get home and kill him.
6. Frank Allen didn't end up arriving until around 1:30 a.m. He said the first thing he noticed was that the security system to the house was turned off. That may be why he had such a horrible feeling that something was wrong.
7. Behind the wet bar, Smith had left a note that Allen could find the two checks in an upstairs room. That may have been an attempt to lure him to his murder, but that's just a guess on my part.
8. Allen spotted Smith crouching in the closet with the hammer before he jumped out and started attacking him. His escape was exactly what we saw in the reenactment. He ended up reaching the guard house and yelling for the security guard, "He's after me! He's after me!" While on the phone with the police, the guard turned to his right and saw Smith's Lincoln exiting the gated community with Smith behind the wheel.
9. Smith telephoned Yolanda Cook a few hours later at 5:00 a.m., as seen in the reenactment. But he told her that Frank Allen was the one who killed the family because he was angry at Smith for not being able to pay the rent. :rolleyes:
10. After Smith's capture, one of Judith's sons mentioned at the trial that Smith considered himself a 'Lone Wolf' and often say, "I gotta get out of here. Sometimes Smith would say that he just wanted to go away and live on an island somewhere "around no kind of family or nothing like that." The son also remembered Smith telling him that "the worse thing to f*ck up a man was to have a family." (I guess that's the closest we're going to get to a motive. He was just a sick man who wanted out of family responsibilities.)
Smith took the stand on his own behalf and came up with a creative story about some men he owed money to ended up killing the family. He also mentioned that he couldn't afford the house so he paid Frank Allen $200,000 worth of cocaine along with the deposit check. :rolleyes: It's a bunch of BS but if you want to read the rest, here's the link...
http://www.leagle.com/decision/19941530881P2d649_11527.xml/SMITH%20v.%20STATE
This segment wasn't handled like most of the murder segments during the height of UM's awesomeness. Usually we got backstory on the victim(s) and interviews with family members and friends before getting into the ugliness of their murders. In this situation, UM skipped all that and went straight to the terrifying ordeal of Frank Allen's attack and the quick discovery of the bodies. Insanely scary, yes. But it still made me want to fill in some of the blanks. Like why would a conman turn to murdering his family members in such a horrific way? I was researching online and found the court report for Smith which gives some specifics leading to the murders that I found interesting.
1. Smith and the family had lived in that house for just a few weeks when he killed them all.
2. Frank Allen originally hadn't planned to sell the house (which makes me wonder how they even came into contact in the first place) but Smith offered him $50,000 over the appraised value and Allen agreed to sell him the house. Both agreed that Allen could retain a bedroom for himself for his business trips.
3. Not surprisingly, both of the checks Smith wrote to Allen for a good faith deposit and the October mortgage payment were on accounts that were already closed. Smith told Allen that he would straighten this out and he would have good checks waiting for him when Allen arrived in Nevada on October 5th, which ended up being the day Smith tried to kill him.
4. Wendy Cox was scheduled to get married the month after her murder. In fact, one of the reasons Smith had originally told Allen that he was in a rush to move into the house was because he wanted to make preparations for Wendy's wedding in November.
5. Smith bludgeoned and strangled Judith, Wendy and Kristi as they slept on October 5th. Just a few hours after killing them and the sun rose, Smith called Allen and told him, "I thought you were coming up here this morning." Allen told him that he wouldn't be arriving until later in the day. At that point Smith said he and the family would be driving to California to go furniture shopping and he would leave the two checks on the wet bar with Allen's mail.
Judith's daughter-in-law Yolanda Cook ended up calling the house four times that day between 8:00 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. Each time, Smith answered the phone and said the women were not home because they went wedding dress shopping for Wendy. Looking back at this now, it's insanely scary to think Smith stayed in that house all day long with three dead bodies just waiting for Allen to get home and kill him.
6. Frank Allen didn't end up arriving until around 1:30 a.m. He said the first thing he noticed was that the security system to the house was turned off. That may be why he had such a horrible feeling that something was wrong.
7. Behind the wet bar, Smith had left a note that Allen could find the two checks in an upstairs room. That may have been an attempt to lure him to his murder, but that's just a guess on my part.
8. Allen spotted Smith crouching in the closet with the hammer before he jumped out and started attacking him. His escape was exactly what we saw in the reenactment. He ended up reaching the guard house and yelling for the security guard, "He's after me! He's after me!" While on the phone with the police, the guard turned to his right and saw Smith's Lincoln exiting the gated community with Smith behind the wheel.
9. Smith telephoned Yolanda Cook a few hours later at 5:00 a.m., as seen in the reenactment. But he told her that Frank Allen was the one who killed the family because he was angry at Smith for not being able to pay the rent. :rolleyes:
10. After Smith's capture, one of Judith's sons mentioned at the trial that Smith considered himself a 'Lone Wolf' and often say, "I gotta get out of here. Sometimes Smith would say that he just wanted to go away and live on an island somewhere "around no kind of family or nothing like that." The son also remembered Smith telling him that "the worse thing to f*ck up a man was to have a family." (I guess that's the closest we're going to get to a motive. He was just a sick man who wanted out of family responsibilities.)
Smith took the stand on his own behalf and came up with a creative story about some men he owed money to ended up killing the family. He also mentioned that he couldn't afford the house so he paid Frank Allen $200,000 worth of cocaine along with the deposit check. :rolleyes: It's a bunch of BS but if you want to read the rest, here's the link...
http://www.leagle.com/decision/19941530881P2d649_11527.xml/SMITH%20v.%20STATE