Shirley Bellinger

Shirley Bellinger, played by Kathryn Erbe in the HBO series Oz , is a fictional character who was first presented in the related book OZ: Behind These Walls: The Journal of Augustus Hill. She is based on child murderer Susan Smith.

Prisoner 97B642. Convicted December 6, 1997 - Murder in the first degree. Sentence: Death. Sentence commuted in 1999, then commutation of sentence revoked in 2000.

Shirley Bellinger is the first and only woman to be incarcerated at Oswald. She was sentenced to die for murdering her daughter; she drove her car into a lake with her daughter in the back seat, then swam out as the car sank, leaving her daughter to drown. She swears it was an accident, but that it nevertheless "had to happen".

While she keeps mostly to herself and has a shy, charming demeanor, she shows some signs of psychological instability; shortly after her arrival, she exposes herself to fellow prisoner Timmy Kirk and prostitutes herself to inmates and guards alike in return for preferential treatment. She believes she is doing God's will, and it is suggested that she is a devout Christian.

Along with James Robson, Bellinger is one of two regulars who do not live in Emerald City.

Bellinger arrives on Death Row and comments on how "comfortable" her new home is to Warden Glynn. While on Death Row, she flashes her vulva to Timmy Kirk who is on mop duty. Father Mukada visits Bellinger on Death Row in an effort to see her state of mind. She opens up to Mukada about how she was not a religious person growing up and that her first husband was Jewish and her second husband Zeke was an atheist. She then makes a pass at Mukada by commenting on how his collar is on too tight. Mukada gets nervous and immediately tells her to stop. She then breaks down and cries. Later, she sees Diane Wittlesey pass on through. Bellinger asks Wittlesey to be her friend to which Wittlesey denies, asking Bellinger how she could live with herself after what she has done. Bellinger replies that she did what she had to do and that she is able to sleep. She then puts her hand on Wittlesey's hand in a gesture of sympathy. She exchanges a series of pornographic letters with a "secret admirer" from within her cell block. When her pen pal turns out to be fellow inmate Simon Adebisi, who exposes himself to her and demands fellatio, she rejects him because he is black, sending him off with a racial slur.

...
Wikipedia