Movie about Kentucky FBI agent’s notorious act of homicide set to release next month
A movie documenting the notorious killing of an informant by a federal agent in Kentucky is finally set to release in the United States next month.
Above Suspicion, a thriller based on the true story of FBI agent Mark Putnam killing an informant who he had an affair with in 1989, will release in select theaters and be available for rent on May 14, according to Lionsgate Movies. The film will also be available on Blu-ray and DVD on May 18.
The film stars Emilia Clarke, who rose to television fame as an actress in HBO’s Game of Thrones. She plays Susan Smith, the informant who Putnam admitted to killing in Pike County before hiding her body in a ravine. Putnam is played by Jack Huston, who has also performed in The Irishman and American Hustle.
The movie was shot on location in several areas of central and Eastern Kentucky, including Lexington, Harlan County and Bourbon County. Its widespread release has been delayed for roughly five years for a variety of reasons.
Putnam was the first FBI agent to ever be convicted of a homicide. The movie is based on a book written by Joe Sharkey, which is also titled Above Suspicion.
The case was also the subject of an episode of the Investigation Discovery series “The Perfect Suspect” several years ago.
Putnam was fresh out of the FBI academy when he and his wife, Kathy, moved to Pikeville for his first assignment in early 1987.
Smith became an informant for him a few months later on a bank robbery she knew about, and the two ultimately began an affair. Smith’s brother said Smith and Putnam had sex in his car while parked on strip-mine roads.
Putnam transferred to Miami in early 1989, but Smith told him she was pregnant with his child. When he returned to Kentucky in June 1989 to prepare for a trial, the two went in his rental car to a secluded mountain road to talk.
Putnam said that Smith threatened to jeopardize his career and marriage by telling the FBI and his wife about the pregnancy. She then got mad and started slapping him, and he snapped and choked her to death.
He hid her body in a ravine the next day.
State police didn’t focus on Putnam as a possible suspect for months as they ruled out what they saw as more likely candidates in Smith’s disappearance, including drug dealers with whom she’d been involved and her abusive ex-husband.
But police eventually focused on Putnam, and the FBI joined the case. Putnam later showed investigators where he hid Smith’s body and pleaded guilty to manslaughter, taking a 16-year prison sentence.
Putnam’s wife died while he was serving 10 years in prison. He was released in 2000.
This story was originally published April 5, 2021 at 6:20 AM.