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Beverly Russell

If they'd given out a prize for America's Most Hated Mom back in 1994, Susan Smith would've nailed that sucker. She's the South Carolina mom who drowned her two children by strapping them into their car seats and pushing the car into a lake. Then she told the police that a strange black man kidnaped them.

She did it all to hang onto a boyfriend who wasn't ready for kids. It was a kooky plan, but somehow she thought it just might work.

So what did Newt Gingrich have to say about this? Barnstorming the nation to promote Republican House candidates, he said the murders showed "how sick the society is getting." He blamed the child murders on the counterculture and Lyndon Johnson's Great Society programs.

Well, right back at you, Newt! It was a prominent South Carolina Republican who helped bring this tragedy. Susan testified at her murder trial that her stepfather, Beverly Russell, had molested her as a teenager, and had continued to have sex with her even during her marriage to the children's father.

At the time of the murders, Bev was head of his local Christian Coalition chapter and a member of the state Republican Committee. He had also been county leader of an anti-abortion group.

It was not until after Susan's conviction -- until Bev pleaded with the court to spare her from the electric chair -- that he finally admitted to molesting her. So Susan got a life sentence. Thanks, Bev. I'm sure Susan appreciates all you've done for her.

Poor Susan. She was one screwed-up gal. Her natural father killed himself when she was six -- right after her mother divorced him to marry Bev. At 13, she attempted suicide. Two years later, Bev started messing with her. He was still poking her just a few months before she drowned the kids.

Once in 1987 they had sex after he returned home from covering the town with "Pat Robertson for President" posters. If that made him horny, he's even sicker than I thought.

Bev said if he'd known their incestuous relationship would lead to such a tragedy, he would have tried to control himself. Incest gets tricky, huh, Bev? Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't.