By Patrick Cronin
Seacoast Sunday, February 10, 2008
[The following article is courtesy of Seacoast Sunday and Seacoast Online.]
The woman who married Billy Flynn is awaiting word to see if her husband will be getting out of prison early.
Kelly Flynn met and married Billy Flynn — who murdered Gregory Smart execution-style with a 38-caliber revolver on May 1, 1990 — while he was incarcerated in Maine.
While Kelly Flynn did not want to be interviewed for this story, court documents shed a little more light on their relationship and how it came about.
The details were revealed in a letter submitted to Rockingham Superior Court Judge Kenneth McHugh in support of her husband’s request to suspend his sentence and be eligible for parole now instead of in 2018.
McHugh has yet to issue his ruling in the case.
“When Bill and I met six years ago, I felt an instant connection with him,” Kelly stated. “I knew from the start that my relationship would be a changing one.”
Kelly explained that when she started writing to Flynn in prison, she was coming out of a 12-year abusive relationship.
Writing to him was “cathartic,” she stated, “I had come out of my divorce with many scars and a total lack of trust in men,” Kelly stated. “Maybe part of the initial attraction was the fact that he was in a prison cell and he could not hurt me. I had all the control.”
Written words led to phone calls, then to visits.
“The more I got to know Bill, the more I realized that he was not the same person who became involved with Pam Smart at the tender age of 15,” Kelly stated.
Pamela Smart is currently serving a life sentence as the mastermind in her husband’s murder plot.
“Bill is a man that has learned from his past experiences, and has tried to give back in the ways that he can by becoming an advocate and leader for others in prison,” Kelly stated.
She said their relationship blossomed over six years and they made it official in a ceremony behind bars.
“What started out as a friendship developed into something more, and despite our unconventional situation, I have never been happier or had this level of trust in anyone,” Kelly stated.
She said when Flynn gets out of prison, she will be there to help him adjust.
“I am not naive, but a 39-year-old woman with a teenage daughter, so I know there will be adjustments for all of us, and some of them may be hard,” Kelly stated.
“I am more than willing to take on the challenge as I love this man dearly, am deeply committed to him, and will embrace this difficult role to give him the support he needs.”
While Kelly’s daughter also wrote a glowing letter in support of Flynn’s early release, she recanted those statements in another letter.
That letter was presented to Judge McHugh two weeks ago during the hearing on Flynn’s request to suspend his sentence.
In the letter, Kelly’s daughter said she would not live with her mother if Flynn is there.
Flynn’s lawyer, Cathy Green, also told the court that Kelly was no longer employed as the executive assistant to the superintendent of schools in Wiscasset, Maine. But she has since found other full-time employment as a clerk at a bank.
Kelly stated she hopes the judge will consider all that Flynn has done in prison and consider the man that he has grown up to be.
“Whether you decide that he gets out now, in a few years, or in many years, my commitment to him will not change,” Kelly stated. “I am in this for life, because without him I would have less in my life and when I think of my future, I cannot see it unless it includes him. He is the heart of me.”