Everything She Ever Wanted (62 page)

as Paw and Nona signed the documents.

The second codicils came on August 1, 1975.
 
Jean Boggs was removed

completely as an executor, although she still received certain assets

under terms of her parents' wills.
 
Reeves and Hamner had been very

careful to see that both Allansons read and understood each section of

the codicils.
 
If Pat Allanson was in the house at the time, she was

not present at the signing.

On January 20, 1976, after Paw had his heart attack, Pat was given a

sweeping power of attorney.
 
And finally, on February 4, 1976, when

Nona and Paw were both hospitalized for extended care at South Fulton,

the third codicils changed the distribution of the elderly

Allansons'fortune completely.

Jean was eliminated altogether as an heir.
 
Paw and Nona Allanson's

current wills dictated that their assets would be distributed thusly:

(1) Fifty percent (50%) of the trust estate; or all real estate, farm

animals, jewelry, clothing, household goods, furniture and furnishings,

pictures, silverware, objects of art and automobiles ... shall be

distributed to my grandson, Tom Allanson, if he be in life.
 
If my

grandson, Tom Allanson, be not in life and is married to Patricia R.

Allanson at his death [a clause that Hamner and Reeves had insisted on]

then the property named in this subparagraph shall pass and be

distributed to Patricia R. Allanson.

(2) The remaining portion of my trust estate shall be divided equally

between my grandson, Tom Allanson, my grandson, David Byron Boggs, and

my granddaughter Nona Lisa Boggs.

(3) I have specifically excluded my daughter, Jean Elizabeth Boggs,

from any distribution of my estate.
 
I have done this as my daughter

has adequately provided for herself and I have further decided that

recent changes and events concerning the Allanson family situation

dictate that my estate could best be utilized and would be more

beneficial to the aforenamed individuals.

Tom Allanson was, indeed, "in life," but he was also in for life.
 
What

the third codicils to his grandparents' wills really meant was that,

should they die, his wife, Pat, would control 662/3 percent of a very

healthy inheritance.
 
She would have Tom's half of the entire trust,

plus Tom's third of the half that he shared equally with his two

cousins.
 
She would also be the executor.
 
Anything the old couple had

beyond the trust assets would also go to Pat.

As long as Tom was in prison.

Tom was cut off from his family; his information was controlled by his

wife.
 
Her letters and infrequent visits were his only window on the

world outside, and she didn't fill him in on all the boring details of

wills and codicils.
 
She kept assuring him ce would be that she was

fighting to get him out.
 
His last chan coming up in November.

Tom had no idea how dicey things were at home.

ALl through the melting-hot July of 1976, Pat and the Radcliffes waited

for the other shoe to drop.
 
The damnable East Point police were

snooping into every facet of Pat's life, asking questions, testing

everything they carted out of Paw and Nona's ;jll@@ house.
 
The police

were so rude; they clearly had no breeding at all.
 
They had been rude

to her mother and the colonel too, and it was unnerving to hear Bob

Tedford tell the newspapers that fourpeople might be arrested.

Tedford talked to one of Nona Allanson's nurses, Juanita Jackson, who

had cared for the elderly woman after Paw was hospitalized.
 
Juanita

had noticed that Nona seemed inordinately drowsy, and Pat had explained

that she was taking some pills and needed one every twenty-four

hours.

She showed Juanita a bottle of green and gray capsules.
 
But the old

woman slept so much that the practical nurse had suggested to Pat,

"Let's don't give her any more of this medication."
 
She didn't know

whether Pat had taken her advice or not.
 
Mrs. Allanson remained quite

groggy.

The sedative Vistaril came in a green and gray capsule in

twenty-five-milligram doses, usually given three or four times a day.

It had been prescribed for Paw-not Nona-and it was to be given

cautiously as it had a depressive effect, particularly when combined

with other medications.

"Who cooked?"
 
Tedford asked.

"Pat did some, and sometimes she brought in food.
 
I did some, and the

night nurse did some."

The only visitor Juanita recalled in the weeks between June 15 and June

28 was a pleasant, heavyset woman named Fanny K. Cash.
 
But there was

another visitor.
 
Mrs. Amelia Estes had been Nona and Paw's neighbor

for nineteen years.
 
She was appalled to find her old friend in a sorry

state when she called on Nona one day after Paw was hospitalized.

"I found her different from what I had ever seen before," she told

Tedford.
 
"You could tell something was wrong because she looked .
 
.

.

drugged.
 
She didn't really know anybody or know what she was doing or

saying.
 
. . . Pat asked her if she wanted to go out on the porch, and

we rolled her out there.
 
Pat went to the mailbox and I sat there with

her, but she could not hold her head up for any length of time .
 
. .

and if she came up, her eyes were rolling and wallowing around.
 
There

was something desperately wrong someway."

Mrs.
 
Estes had also been let in on Paw's supposed confession.

"I started to leave and Pat asked me if I had a few minutes.
 
. . .

She wanted to tell me about Mr. Allanson signing a confession to the

murder of Walter and Carolyn!
 
Of course it was a terrible shock to me

to think that such had been done.
 
. . . She said she had a terrible

time getting him to sign it because he thought if he lived through

this, they couldn't pin anything on him.
 
She said that he had

confessed to her while he was in the hospitaland she was crying-and

said she had to live with this without telling anybody for so long, and

nobody would ever know what she had gone through after getting the

confession and having to keep it to herself."

On July 20, Tedford left a call for Colonel Radcliffe, asking for

another interview.
 
Radcliffe returned the call and pointedly asked,

"Are you going to be advising me of my rights again?"

"Yes, I will be."

"Well, then I'm not coming in."
 
"You can ave your attorney present

during any interview I can't afford an attorney.
 
You'll have to

provide one.
 
No, I on't believe I will consent to an interview."

On July 26, Colonel Radcliffe changed his mind.
 
He and his wife came

in with their attorney and gave a formal statement to Tedford and

Investigator Richard Daniell.
 
As always, the Radcliffes were very

proper, very precise in their speaking patterns, iiijid they maintained

their position of annoyed dignity, as if it were patently ridiculous

for people of their social standing to actually speak with the

police.

Margureitte Radcliffe was the more talkative-as she always was.
 
Her

husband began most of his answers with "To the best of my knowledge .

and "Not to my knowledge."

Everything everything-they said dovetailed with their daughter's recall

of events at Paw and Nona Allanson's home.
 
Yes, the old woman had most

assuredly been terrified of "Big Allanson" and had begged them to come

and save her from Paw.
 
They had done what decent Christian people

would do.

Margureitte recalled that the bad weekend in June had really begun on

Wednesday afternoon, June 9. Nona had called the Radcliffe home on Tell

Road to say she had had nothing to eat, she had wet herself, and needed

help.
 
"I said I had no transportation at the moment, but whoever got

to the house first would come over," Margureitte said.
 
"My husband and

I went .
 
. . and gave her some water.
 
. . . I cleaned her up.
 
. .

.

Mr. Allanson said he was feeling not so good, his legs were a little

weak and had been bothering him, and he had not been able to do

anything for her."

Margureitte and Pat had stayed that night with the old couple.
 
Things

had, of course, been worse on Saturday morning when the colonel had to

break into the house.
 
Neither of them had actually seen Paw swallow

any pills.
 
Colonel Radcliffe thought it might have been Tang, and not

orange juice, that Paw had been drinking.

They had both seen the old whiskey bottle.

"I saw a pint bottle," Margureitte explained, "and I haven't the

remotest idea of what it was....... By the freezer, there's a mangle

thing-there was a bottle..... and the doctor had said, 'Get everything

out of his way."
 
Mrs. Allanson [Pat] said, 'Pour it out,'and before I

could say'beans,' my husband took it in the bathroom and politely

turned it up and poured it out.
 
I said, 'Maybe you shouldn't have

poured it out-because Dr.
 
Jones possibly will want to go a i .

Both the Radcliffes stressed that it was Dr. Jones who had planted the

idea of an "overdose" in their minds.
 
Margureitte a4ded some details,

however, to Paw's bizarrely assaultive behavior.
 
"She [Nona] .
 
. .

said at one point he [Paw] held her mouth and said, 'Drink this

coffee!'But it wasn't coffee."
 
Her voice lowered to a dramatic

whisper.
 
"Now I said to her, 'Ma, you mean he didn't have anything?"

And she said, 'I mean it wasn't coffee."
 
.
 
. . Then she said he had