Cold, Hard Facts
Review by Kim Cantrell
Often in true crime, we find that the victim (and even sometimes the suspect) is made out to a sympathetic soul who others are shocked wound up in a homicide situation.
Not so in the case of this extremely well written book by Aphrodite Jones about FBI Agent Mark Putnam who killed his pregnant mistress, Susan Smith, when she began pressuring him to support his child that she was carrying either by support payments or by divorcing his wife, Kathy, and marrying her.
Putnam eventually confessed to the crime after failing a polygraph administered by the FBI.
However, he told a ‘sweet and endearing’ version of how he ‘accidentally’ killed his mistress.
Unfortunately, Pike County, Kentucky officials let him enter his plea and confession before forensics were completed and Putnam was sentenced to sixteen years.
Not in a state penitentary but in a Federal medical center. {WT?}
Jones provides a clear, concise, yet unopinionated, account of the politics played in closing the books on Susan Smith’s case; just a poor girl from the hills of Kentucky, who was well known to use and sell drugs and defraud the welfare system.
Kentucky and FBI officials make it clear that Smith just wasn’t worth Putnam serving a life sentence.
Quite frankly, I had the feeling that, given the opportunity, Putnam would have walked away a free man if not for his confession.
This is truly one of the best true crime books I have read. Everyone in this book is portrayed just as they are; readers are not given the “airbrushed”‘ version created by many authors, especially of law enforcement officials.
As a matter of fact, Jones provides a clear view of the infamous “blue wall of silence” works among those in uniform.
If you enjoy reading the truth, irregardless of it’s ugliness, check out The FBI Killer.
You will not be disappointed.
Movies based on this case: Betrayed by Love starring Patricia Arquette and Steven Weber [Available on VHS only]
You know you want to read it, so go get it!
Updates from this book:
After serving 10 years of his 16 year sentence, Mark Putnam was released on September 29, 2000.
Mark’s wife, Kathy Putnam, died in 1998 from health issues related to her alcoholism.
