"No, the murderers put her kids in harm's way."
No, her actions set into motion the murderer's actions. She took out a huge amount in life insurance policies and made Bradfield the sole beneficiary, disinheriting her children, trusting that if anything happened to her he would be the right person to handle the money. But if only SHE had ended up dead, no doubt her ex-husband would have brought the matter to court and the court would have ruled in favor of the two minor children not Bradfield, who was not Reinert's husband. So the children had to be eliminated along with Reinert. It was part of the plan.
"Echos In The Darkness" by Joseph Wambaugh tells the whole story, or as much of it will ever be known. It stated:
About Susan Jane Gallagher Reinert it could be said that there were mixed feelings that Christmas. The lawmen said that she'd walked into danger with her eyes wide open, holding a child by each hand. The more that was learned about the $25,000 investment (she'd given Bradfield $25,000 in CASH to "invest" for her) and especially the $730,000 worth of life insurance policies, the angrier the task force became. It would've been hard to find a cop or special agent who spent much time pitying the woman who ended up in the trunk of her car in a Harrisburg parking lot. You would often hear a lawman say , "She got what she deserved."
But every one of them was working hard in the hopes of finding the children dead of alive. The bulletins showing those handsome young faces was heartbreaking.
What they could deduce about Susan Reinert's death was this: she'd been called away from her house suddenly. When she and her children arrived at their rendezvous they were met by more than one executioner. It took more than one to control a desperate mother and two hysterical children.
The one hundred pound woman fought back, but was beaten severely, possibly with fists. Her mouth was taped and she was cinched so tight that the links gouged a trail around her body.
As she lay helpless she may well have seen and heard her children being murdered. She may well have seen and heard more than that.
She could not die until such a time as a killer could establish an unshakable alibi. It was at least 24 hours, perhaps 36, before Susan Reinert was murdered, in order to fix an acceptable time of death.
One can speculate about the night and day and night of unimaginable agony this mother suffered as she came to understand the folly that had brought she and Karen and Michael to this. When the lethal injection came, she probably welcomed it.
Task force members in frustration would often say "That woman's stupidity was a crime."
To call Susan Reinert's pathetic love for a man "a crime" was acceptable cop hyperbole, but no crime deserved THIS punishment. To devise a death as cruel as Susan Reinert's required a supremely Gothic imagination.
