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

UNION, SC (WLOS) — Union is not unlike most small towns in South Carolina. It has a lot of “local buzz,” according to Mayor Harold Thompson.

Thompson described Union as “a progressive little town.”

“When people or an organization needs help doing something, people don’t mind volunteering and coming in and helping you do what you need,” he said.

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Thompson took over as interim mayor in July 2008 when former Union Mayor Bruce Morgan resigned after being indicted on charges that he used his position to solicit contractors. Thompson was elected in the fall of 2008 to fill the vacancy.

He has 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 members of the media on the scene at John D. Long Lake in Union when Smith’s car with her boys, Michael and Alexander, was pulled from their watery grave.

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

Smith falsely told McClouds and authorities that she had been near the intersection of Highway 49 and Monarch Way when a black man got into her car, held a gun at her and told her to drive. Smith falsely claimed the 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 off with the children.

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Smith’s allegations launched a regional and eventually nationwide search. Thompson said he had pulled friends from their Union home and questioned them because they matched the description Smith falsely gave to 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, while the community was outraged, “it didn’t get out of hand . “

“It could have been a race thing, but you know, deep down, most black people knew that it wasn’t a black person who was likely to do something like that,” Thompson said.

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

Thompson said Smith’s influence has been something unions have had to live with for 30 years now.

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

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After 30 years, Susan Smith is now eligible for parole. The South Carolina Pardon and Parole Board has scheduled her hearing for November 20, 2024. In South Carolina, incarcerated individuals appear for the hearing 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.