Bizarre Tom Smart Statement On Larry King Show

Larry King Show ^ | June 12, 2002

[PJ-Comix]

GRACE: Well Tom, I would have to agree with you. If police are searching the area with helicopters looking for this guy, that leads me to think that he's got some very important information that they want.

Tom Smart, message to the kidnapper tonight, what do you have to say?

[Lanza]

Hadn't thought of that, but the family are the actual realtors with the listing I believe.

[NormsRevenge]

Thanks .. I heard the question about polygamy asked as well? The Smarts are not truly active or should I say old-fashioned Mormons then I would assume.

[Freedom2specul8]

I saw him make that statement last night..I got the feeling that maybe a psychologist or someone coached him to appeal to the kidnappers in a way that only a psychologist can explain...

[Nam Vet]

But I did see it listed in the multple listing service local to SLC.

Nam Vet

[Lanza]

That's what the newspaper guy said would be discussed in his column tomorrow. He may very well say they were together because of remodeling, but he didn't mention it on MSNBC tonight.

[NormsRevenge]

I hear ya .. I come from a big family too and if your family is full of breeders, it dont take much to make for big family get-togethers and shindigs :-) Im an uncle and great-uncle way too many times myself . I lost count after 40 :-\

[Lanza]

I wonder why they were remodeling Elizabeth's room if they had the home up for sale (not implying anything sinister here, it just would seem odd)?

[Lanza]

There is a big difference. This family hasn't lawyered up right away like the Ramseys, and they do appear to be totally cooperating with the police.

[Utah Girl]

And I wouldn't trade my family for anything in the world. It is wild and crazy when we all get together.

[Eva]

I heard a reporter ask the uncle about a sketch artist before Klass ever got involved and the uncle was saying no right from the beginning. This guy is just plain weird. The whole family acts like the women in the Stepford wives with their mind numbed pollyanna attitude.

[Utah Girl]

From what I've read, Ed Smart would buy homes (probably those in default) and finish them or remodel them, and then sell them. It is quite common, I have a brother who does the same thing.

[Grig]

Then you probably heard the guest say that in Mormon families, the eldest is the leader, and the others give in to him.

If so you heard wrong. Being an elder brother doesn't give any more right or authority over your younger sibblings and their family among Mormons than it does among non-Mormons.

I'm generally not an intolerant person, but I've got a lot of problems with those Mormons.

Please at least be open to the possibility that the problems you have stem from an incorrect understanding of Mormons, as in the case above.

As for getting a sketch, I agree that it is odd, but the authorities don't seem upset about it, so perhaps there is a good reason instead of a sinister one. Perhaps she didn't see the perp well enough, was just too scared to remember what she did see, or they might have good reason to think that releasing a sketch might push the perp into killing the girl and running. Finding a killer is one thing, but finding and rescueing a girl held hostage without putting her life in danger is a very different thing, and that is what I think is going on here.

[Freedom2specul8]

The word Kidnappers should have been singular.. Sorry.

[GovernmentShrinker]

Yes, 10 year old Katie Beers' abductor decided to confess and lead police to her after 16 days (Dec'92-Jan '93). In that case, media attention was so riveted on the appalling situation she'd been living in before she was abducted (which included a sort-of-stepfather who lived with his wife, and Katie's natural mother, and Katie, and who was known to have molested Katie in the past, and bashed her pet cat to death against a wall to keep her intimidated), that there was much less focus on speculation about the abductor than in the Smart case. Both the "stepfather" and the abductor ended up in the slammer, and the "stepfather" is eligible for parole on July 1 (not sure when the abductor may get out, but he's still in right now). This was a really weird case, because the abductor didn't have to be TOTALLY out of his mind (just mostly) to think he was doing a Katie a favor by giving her a new home with him, in an underground vault. Child Welfare Services had previously been alerted to her situation and had done nothing. Katie is now 19, still lives with the foster family which raised her since the abduction, and is attending college.

[Lanza]

I know quite a few people that do that here too. Since I have never done it myself (except sell our own home to move to another), I just wondered why put it on the market while still remodeling, or even redecorate Elizabeth's room if they are selling. Then again, I know that real estate in that price range doesn't move as fast, so maybe they think they could possibly be there for a while.

[Iwo Jima]

Wow! This guy is a real headcase. If he is the leader and spokesman for the family, then the rest must be really bad off.

For the first time, I am willing to consider that Elizabeth might have run away. I think that I might run off if I had to put up with such loonies.

[GovernmentShrinker]

It struck a profiler who appeared on Fox last weekend as notable. He suggested this might indicate a hospital orderly, in whom the habit of makig sure someone he was taking somewhere had the proper footwear was so deeply ingrained, that he might have done it without thinking when under pressure. Since the maternal grandfather had recently died after a long illness, the family may have been spending time at a hospital recently.

[Utah Girl]

It's a lot of work to remodel and/or build a home. A brother of mine just moved into their new home, he, another brother, and my dad built almost all of it. And now the other brother is building a new home, with the same help from my dad. Only he has his eye on a new lot. His wife is not happy about this.

I know where I live, the housing market is in a bit of a slump. Houses are tending to stay on the market longer, and this might be the case with the Smart's home.

[Cicero]

If I were asked to make a public statement about somebody who had kidnapped my niece, a statement that the kidnapper might hear, I'd be very polite too--until he was caught and locked up.

[Grig]

I saw on CNN tonight a SLC police officer DENY the story about the screen being cut from the inside.