and they thought Billy Wilder was exaggerating:
[swiped from <URL:http://www.teleplex.net/SHJ/smith/index.html>
website of Spartanburg (SC) Herald Journal]
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The Susan Smith Trial: Archives
Carnival atmosphere surrounds Smith trial
8 1994-95 Herald-Journal, Spartanburg, SC
By CLAY MURPHY
Staff Writer
UNION, S.C. -- With the Susan Smith murder trial somberly under way within
the Union County Courthouse, the surrounding blocks took on a festival-like
atmosphere Monday.
Street-corner vendors peddled everything from bagels and hotdogs to bottled
water and cigarettes while children standing on sidewalks hawked spaces in
nearby parking lots.
The vendors were thriving on sales to more than 100 employees of media
outlets, but fewer than two dozen citizens turned out to see the first day
of the death-penalty trial.
"We just came here to have somewhere to go," said 87-year-old Quay Hunter.
He and his wife drove from their home in Lancaster in the hopes of getting
seats in the courtroom.
"We were just lying in bed this morning and decided to come," said the
retired textile mill worker. "We go somewhere just about every day."
Other tourists included a self-employed Greenville couple who said they
have emotional ties to the case and a Miami professional wrestling manager
who said he likes to see good lawyers work.
"It's the same kind of thing that I do," said the Florida man, who goes by
the "working name" Casino Riviera. "They get behind a microphone and shout
out a good, compelling lie."
But almost completely absent from the scene were the very owners of the
courthouse: Union County residents.
Locals made up about half of the 20 or so people seeking courtroom access.
Few others could be found roaming around the building.
Union native Elizabeth Morris was surprised not to see more of her
neighbors at the courthouse. She and her two granddaughters, ages 13 and
14, waited outside for hours before court began.
"We've followed the whole thing," Morris said, adding that her
grandchildren have developed a scrapbook of the Smith case. "We want to
keep following it until the end."
Others in Union, however, appeared determined to go about their business as
if the town's most notorious murder trial had not just begun.
Monte Lancaster, vice president of Arthur State Bank, said the Main Street
branch was far busier Monday than had been expected.
"So far, so good," said Lancaster, president of the Union County Chamber of
Commerce. She, like many downtown merchants, fear the trial may dampen
business.
The vendors who set up shop across from the courthouse to cater to the
media weren't complaining, either.
"Booming" is the way Mary Nolan described business at her ice cream truck
turned convenience store.
"Everybody's been trying to keep cool today," she said from the truck,
which now supplies corn dogs, burgers, lemonade, iced tea and newspapers,
in addition to the regular flavors of ice cream.
At the Clinton Chapel, two blocks from the courthouse, Sandra Dawkins is
expecting dozens of hungry people to take up her church's offer of fried
chicken, rice and gravy, green beans and more for $5 a plate.
"Tomorrow I expect to be filled," she said, adding that the staff of the
AME Zion church is preparing 150 meals a day. Profits will go toward
renovating the chapel.
The four or five parking lots surrounding the courthouse haven't fared as
well, but owners say they're confident the spaces, which cost between $5
and $15 each, will be filled after testimony gets under way.
Sitting on the steps of the courthouse with her granddaughters, Morris said
she was infuriated by some of the steeper prices charged by the parking lot
owners.
"And we're the City of Hospitality," she said indignantly. "They're making
money off these two boys' deaths. That's not right. That's not Union."
But Cheryl Strand, who brought her catering outfit to the parking lot
across from the courthouse, said she and others are supplying a needed
service.
"If it hadn't been me," she said, "it would be somebody else."
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