Smith served 15 months in the California Institution for Women for injecting actor John Belushi with a fatal dose of heroin and cocaine in 1982.
[3][4][5] Smith had been paid for a front-page headline story in the Hollywood tabloid the National Enquirer,[6] where she stated she was the person who injected Belushi with a fatal drug overdose.
Smith appeared prominently in the Bob Woodward book Wired: The Short Life and Fast Times of John Belushi (1984) and was played by Patti D'Arbanville in the 1989 film adaptation.
[12] Nevertheless, she continued to tour and party with Helm, Danko, and Manuel through the 1960s, and at one point became pregnant with a child known as "The Band baby," as its paternity was unclear.
[18] In a 1975 interview, Lightfoot expanded upon "Sundown" and hinted at the worry he experienced in his relationship with Smith: All it is, is a thought about a situation where someone is wondering what his loved one is doing at the moment.
[20]In 2008, Lightfoot gave an interview confirming that "Sundown" was written with his then-girlfriend in mind: I think my girlfriend was out with her friends one night at a bar while I was at home writing songs.
In Bob Woodward's book Wired, she appears as a drug dealer to Rolling Stones band members Ronnie Wood and Keith Richards during their touring and rehearsals as The New Barbarians.
[27] Released after initial questioning on the morning of Belushi's death, Smith spoke briefly to freelance writer Chris Van Ness.
[6] The National Enquirer reporters refused to testify at the subsequent trial and were threatened with incarceration by Judge Brian Crahan; however, he later vacated the contempt order.
[28] After the police released her on March 5, 1982, the morning after Belushi's death, Smith went to St. Louis on the advice of her lawyer, Robert Sheahen, to avoid reporters.
[2] Smith ultimately returned to the United States in June 1986, where she accepted a plea bargain by pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter and several drug charges.
[31] Smith was arrested in Vancouver, British Columbia in July 1991 with two grams of heroin in her purse, for which she received a fine of CDN$2000 and 12 months' probation.