The late 20th Century event that proved the most Spectacular — and, perhaps, disturbing — was the trial of Pamela Smart, a Winnacunnet High School media instructor who, in 1990, conspired with her teenage lover to kill her husband.

The crime occurred in May 1990 when Smart, then 23, talked WHS student William Flynn, 16, of Seabrook into killing her husband, Gregory. Two of Flynn’s friends, Patrick Randall, 17, and Vance Lattime Jr., 18, were also implicated in the crime.

During the sensational trial, Flynn testified that he took part in the murder because Smart had promised him that she would be his.

“I wasn’t doing it for money,” he said, it was “because I loved Pame and I wanted to be with Pame.”

The crime and the subsequent trial, which took place at Rockingham County Superior Court in 1991, attracted national and international media coverage. Books were written about the incident and subsequent trial, and also a TV movie was made. The case also inspired the motion picture “To Die For.”

“A jury of five men and seven women found (Pamela Smart) guilty of conspiring with three Seabrook teen-agers, one her lover, to murder her husband,” Hampton Union reported in its March 26, 1991 edition.

The story still has national appeal. Just this month in the National Enquirer, a story appeared revealing how Smart is attempting to get a law degree from behind bars.

Subsequent appeals by Smart’s attorneys were rejected and Smart is currently serving a life sentence. The three young men involved in the conspiracy received lesser sentences.

More on the Pam Smart story