![]() It’s a dark story that deserves to be told: let’s discover it. Joe Sharkey published a book in 1992, Above Suspicion, explaining the events and directly inspiring the film. The murder of Susan Smith occurred in 1989, a crime committed by FBI agent Mark Putnam, and not many remembers it today. Filmed mostly in neighboring Harlan County, a few scenes were also shot in Bourbon and Harrison counties.More than twenty years have passed since the actual events depicted by the 2019 movie Above Suspicion, so most likely, those who watched the film today don’t know the true story behind it. The movie was filmed in 2019, but was not released in the United States until last month. According to the New York Post, he is now 61 years old, remarried, and lives in Georgia. Putnam received a 16-year sentence for murder, but was released for good behavior in 10 years, two years after his wife Kathy died of organ failure at age 38. He had stripped her body because she was wearing his clothes, and drove her around for at least a day in the trunk of his rental car before throwing her body over a hill in a remote section of Pike County. ![]() Putnam eventually pleaded guilty to the charges in 1990 after failing a lie detector test, and he told investigators where to find Smith’s body. The informant in Letcher County had also given information to the FBI in the past and he was staying in the motel room next to Putnam the night Smith disappeared. He said his mind changed when a Kentucky State Police detective from Pikeville called him and asked him to find one of his own informants and get him to Pikeville as soon as possible because Putnam was suspected of murder. Retired Letcher County Sheriff Danny Webb, who was a state police detective working on the chop shop case, said Putnam had been to his house and sat at his dinner table, and he would have never suspected him. ![]() Smith’s sister reported her missing on June 16 of that year, telling police she last spoke to Smith on June 8, when she said she was waiting for Putnam to drive her home. Putnam had transferred to Miami but returned to Kentucky in June of 1989 to work on cases here, including the chop shop case. The vehicles, mostly trucks stripped of their parts, were inventoried by Putnam and other state and federal officials and hauled to a vacant lot on the Whitesburg Bypass in October of 1987. The movie follows the events leading up to Putnam’s affair with Smith after he recruited her as an informant in a bank robbery case, and the slow deterioration of their relationship and Putnam’s ethics after she tells his wife about the affair.īefore his involvement with Smith’s murder came to light, Putnam was known to many Letcher County residents as one of the agents involved in a highly publicized raid of a junkyard at McRoberts, where large trucks and heavy equipment stolen from as far away as Georgia and Delaware were found. Taylor, a native of Norton, Va., is a former member of Appalshop’s RoadsideTheater. It also features Johnny Knoxville ( Bad Grandpa, Dukes of Hazzard, Walking Tall), Chris Mulkey ( Twin Peaks, Hawaii 5-0), Omar Benson Miller ( CSI Miami, Ballers), and Frank Hoyt Taylor ( Matawan, Talladega Nights). The movie stars Emilia Clarke ( Game of Thrones, Terminator Genesis) as Smith and Jack Huston ( Boardwalk Empire) as Putnam. Putnam, who was married and had a child, had an affair with Smith, and she was pregnant at the time of her murder. He investigated several high-profile cases in eastern Kentucky and had returned to the area to finish up work on the national “chop shop” case here when he killed Susan Smith. Putnam was fresh out of the FBI academy at Quantico, Virginia, when he was assigned to Pikeville in 1987. The movie, Above Suspicion, is based on a book of the same title written by Joe Sharkey in 1993. The movie poster for “Above Suspicion,” now showing on Netflix.Ī motion picture now available on Netflix is based on the true story of Federal Bureau of Investigation Agent Mark Putnam, who investigated a nationwide theft ring in Letcher County from the Pikeville FBI office and murdered an informant 32 years ago yesterday.
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