Everything She Ever Wanted (68 page)

nail tip, that tells you that arsenic has been in the nail long enough

to grow from this site to this site here," he said, demongrating.

Dr. Burton explained that the same progression was true in human

hair.

Speaking of Paw Allanson, he said, "There have been two episodes of

arsenic introduced into the system.
 
. . . It's very rare to find a

level this high unless someone has introduced into his system a large

bolus of arsenic to give you that level.... The same is true for Nona

Allanson ... a very high level of arsenic found.
 
There is no way that

these amounts that we see in the nails and hair are within any normal

range."

It was Burton's opinion, given the Allansons'medical histories and

based on his tests, that someone had administered 'arsenic to the

elderly couple about six months before their hospitalizations in June

and July, and then again just before they were hospitalized.
 
"This is

consistent with chronic arsenic intoxication Burton said.

"Let me ask you this," Weathers continued.
 
"If someone were taking .

. . arsenic in their system-bearing in mind respective ages of the

people .
 
. . would this have any effect whatsoever on their mental

stability?"

"It could," Burton replied.
 
"Arsenic has been proven to cause changes

in one's mental attitude, capability, thinking, and reasoning; it can

cause neurological complaints and GI symptoms, headaches, muscular

aching, weakness, affect peripheral nerves and changes in sensation of

the legs and feet."

"With the type you found, would that be consistent with arsenic being

ingested through milk, orange juice, food preparation?"

"It can be ingested through any number of mechanisms or methods.
 
In

most forms, it is an odorless, colorless, tasteless process where one

does not know that they are ingesting arsenic."

Asked if he had ever seen a case of suicide by chronic arsenic

ingestion, Burton shook his head.
 
"No, sir."

"Never?"
 
probed Weathers.

"No, sir .
 
. . I have never seen one documented.
 
Several people have

committed suicide by the acute ingestion of arsenic, but each

individual's susceptibility to arsenic varies.
 
It would be hard to

predict on a chronic basis how much one would have to take .
 
. . to

induce sickness or death.
 
. . . Oftentimes, an individual becomes very

sick and it's a very unpleasant .
 
. . If one got very sick, he might

be hospitalized.
 
He might be treated and survive .
 
. .

unpredictable.

"Is not pain one of the manifestations of chronic ingestion of

arsenic?"

"Yes, sir."
 
If a would-be suicide chose to end his life in one gulp,

Burton stressed, the pain would be intense, even unbearable.
 
It would

be prolonged agony when administered slowly.

On cross-examination, Dunham McAllister did his best to shake Dr.

Burton, to show that arsenic is all around, everywhere, easy to ingest

accidentally easily misdiagnosed.
 
He maintained that many diseases

might have the same symptoms as arsenic poisoning.

Burton did not dispute that.

"So it's possible," McAllister said, "that arsenic poisoning can be

misdiagnosed for different ailments?"

"Yes, sir."

"More than a dozen?"

"Possibly, yes."

"What about a stroke?
 
Could it be misdiagnosed as a stroke?"

"Yes n to testify.
 
"Mr. Allanson," Weathers Paw was wheeled back i

began.
 
"I am going to ask you just a few questions, please, sir.

Can you understand me, sir .
 
. . ?"

"Yes."

"Did you give yourself arsenic?"

"Nope."

"Did you give any to your wife?"

"No.

"Do you know how it got into your system?"

"Nope."

"I have no further questions."

"Never seen any Paw trailed off On cross-examination, McAllister tried

to connect Paw's long history of farming with the supposition that

there must have been poison on his property.
 
But he didn't seem to

have the heart to bear down.
 
Cross-examination fell flat, showing only

the tremendously hard labor old Walter Allanson had performed for six

decades.
 
The witness could never remember using or seeing arsenic

preparations.

"No further questions."
 
jean Boggs took the stand next, and if she

felt a certain triumph to find herself in a courtroom where Pat

Allanson was being prosecuted, it was understandable.
 
She allowed her

eyes to flicker over the defense table from time to time.

Andy Weathers used jean's answers to catch the jury up on the violent

history of the Allanson family.
 
"You know, of course, Mr. and Mrs.

Walter Allanson?"

"Yes, sir, my mother and father."

"Now, I believe you also had a brother?"

"Yes, sir .
 
. . Walter O'Neal Allanson."
 
'And was he murdered in

Fulton County?"

"Yes, sir."

"Trial held in Superior Court of Fulton County?"

"Yes, sir."

'Who was convicted in your presence?"

Dunham McAllister objected.
 
"It's irrelevant to the trial in this

case."

"I intend to show motive," Weathers argued.
 
"I intend to stand by

that."

"[There's] been absolutely no testimony about motive at this point,"

McAllister countered.

"Fixing to be some," Weathers said agreeably.
 
"That is why I am

offering it."

The defense's objection was overruled.
 
jean was allowed to say that

Pat was the third wife of the man convicted of his parents' murders-Tom

Allanson.

Jean went on to describe her growing suspicion that something was wrong

in her parents' home.
 
Dr. Jones had alerted her that her father had

been drinking moonshine whiskey.
 
"My father doesn't drink," Jean

said.

She also recalled her conversation with Pat on the front porch of the

Washington Road house.
 
"She [said she] knew what funeral arrangements

that he wanted and that he wanted to be put away in a pink satin

interior casket, which didn't sound like my father.
 
She picked out the

clothes and my son was [to be] one of the pallbearers.
 
It didn't make

sense to me.
 
. . . When I started to leave .
 
. . she leaned across

the rails and said this to me, says, 'I hope he dies.

The prosecutor was also able to elicit testimony from jean that showed

the utter devotion Walter had shown toward Nona, the confusion and

upheaval that Pat Allanson had brought to their household, and the fact

that the old man neither drank nor took pills.

"Have you ever seen your father-has he beaten your mother?"

"Oh, my goodness.
 
No," Jean gasped.

McAllister suggested on cross-examination that Jean had neglected her

parents, visited them infrequently.
 
She explained that she too had

been ill in 1973 and unable to drive.
 
No, she had not visited often

after she recovered.
 
She admitted that it had not been pleasant

visiting her parents.
 
There had been "a coldness" after Tom's trial in

1974.
 
No, she had never been close to her brother, Walter-not even

from early childhood.
 
"We were just two different personalities."

When Weathers objected to the line of questioning, McAllister said he

was striving for materiality.
 
"It is a most complex family.
 
13M ting

to elicit from this witness some illumination of ry this family, some

explanat' n of this family."

10

They wrangled, and Judge Holt finally ruled that Jean's relationship

with a brother who had been dead for two years was irrelevant and

sustained Weathers's objection.
 
McAllister pounced.
 
Based on the

judge's ruling, he again insisted that no allusions at all to the

double murder or Tom Allanson should be made in this trial.

Judge Holt ruled against him again.

McAllister kept Jean Boggs on the stand for a long time, drawing forth

the information that she and her husband were now serving as her

parents' guardians, paying their bills, hiring their nurses.
 
He ended

his cross with "You asked the police-or I believe you said you

instructed the police-to carry out a full investigation, to go to the

crime lab with it?
 
Is that correct?"
 
jean sat up straighter.

"Certainly."

Andy Weathers had only three questions on redirect.
 
"Since Pat

Allanson left that house-answer this question'Yes' or'No' -has there

been any problem with your father as far as overdose of alcohol?"

"No, sir."

"Any problem as far as overdose of pills?"

"No, sir."

"Any problem of arsenic?"

"No, sir."

"No further questions."

Jean had done well, but this trial would, in the end, cause her pain.

She would be portrayed again and again as a neglectful daughter.

Perhaps if relationships had not been so strained in her family, all

this would never have happened.