Everything She Ever Wanted (71 page)

"A block, block and a half.
 
That is where my doctor was.
 
I had just

come from the doctor."

"At the time Walter and Carolyn Allanson were killed, you were

approximately one block from that place?"

"More like two."
 
Pat backpedaled and decided that she probably had

been more than two blocks away from the double murderscene.

Did you see Tom Allanson run down the street right after the two people

were killed?"

"No, sir."

"Were you aware that he was seen running down the street?"

State's Exhibit No.
 
1 .
 
. . ders."

it was afterwards, yes."

"So that puts both of you all within two blocks of the murder"-It puts

me in the doctor's office two and a half blocks away, yes."

"I believe you said a minute ago you were in ajeep"Yes.

Weathers was tripping Pat up on details, the "minutiae" that he knew he

had to have, the string of small lies, exaggerations, the

minimizations.

"Now, I believe you stated that this document batim exactly what

confession] is ver -1 believe the word you used- Walter Allanson told

you about how he went about killing his son and his son's wife?
 
Is

that true?"

"Yes, sir."

"And I believe you just testified to this jury that your mother typed

this because you couldn't type?"

"That's right."

'My name is "Then why does it say in the first sentence, Walter

Allanson, and I'm telling this to my granddaughter, Tommy's wife, Pat A

Hanson, and she's doing it on the typewriter because I don't write so

good anymore'?"

Pat looked at the prosecutor as if he were totally dense.
 
She hat Paw

had said exactly that-that he had assumed explained t she would be the

one to type it.

Weathers switched to the third codicil to the elderly Allansons' "You

heard Mr.
 
Reeves and Mr.
 
wills, dated February 4, 1976.

Hamner testify that if Walter Allanson died first, and Nona Allanson

died, that everything they had would be left to you and Tom?"

"I heard him testify that is the way it was-but I was not aware of it

at the time."
 
"Well, didn't you also state you were present there when

this explanation was made?"

She shook her head with slight irritation.
 
"I was present part of the

time.
 
I was not present the entire time in the [hospita room because

the attorney got there before I did, and he was explaining the document

to Paw."

"Did you hear Mr. Hamner say you were present in the room when he

explained it?"
 
Weathers pushed.

"I will have to beg to differ with Mr.
 
Hamner," Pat said firmly.

While she claimed that her memory was better than the attorney's, Pat

was actually quite vague about the details of the Allansons' wills,

knowing only that the "percentages" were to be divided up between her

husband and the other grandchildren.
 
She insisted that most of what

she knew about the wills and codicils she had learned only during the

current trial.

"Didn't you hear him say there was a catchall provision that if the

estate was worth more than the trust, everything in that estate-Mr.

Hamner testified-would go to Tom Allanson?
 
[That] if he was married to

you at the time, and if something happened to him and he was not able

to inherit, everything in that estate would go to you?
 
Did you hear

that testimony?"

"I heard the testimony, yes, sir.
 
I have been sitting here."

Pat clearly wanted the jury to believe that she had had no interest in

or understanding of the final disbursement of Paw and Nona's

considerable assets.
 
Indeed, she professed to be basically ignorant of

such folderol as wills and codicils.

Weathers asked Pat if she recalled using her power of attorney over the

Allansons' assets.
 
"You don't recall withdrawing anything from these

people's account?"

"There was no necessity to use it," Pat replied.

"Do you recall withdrawing .
 
. . money [from] Fulton Federal Savings

and Loan Association [by writing a check] made payable to Walter and

Mrs. Nona Allanson dated June 23, 1976, in the amount of one thousand

dollars?"

Pat could not really recall putting that amount into her own account

the next day, signing Walter Allanson and Patricia Allanson on the

back-but she did admit the endorsement was her writing.

Finally she said, "All right.
 
Yes, I did."
 
But she had, she insisted,

done it for Nona.
 
Nona wanted cash.
 
Pat refused to admit that she had

used the thousand dollars to pay for Tom's legal costs.

Weathers changed tactics and returned again to the way Walter

Allanson's confession had been recorded.
 
"Is this an exact account of

what Walter Allanson told you transpired?"

"It was as exact as I could possibly get," Pat said."
 
I don't think I

missed too many words.
 
I just-I'm just a slow writer."
 
"You think,"

Weathers said in his deep, resonant voice, 'Don't y "it's rather

unusual that .
 
. . [when] Fred and all these lawyers you know

personally-that [with] something of this significance, you take this to

a bank in front of people you had never seen and have it notarized

after a long day of shopping?
 
Just stop by to have a murder confession

notarized?
 
Isn't this stretching things?"

Pat sighed.
 
"It was not a long day, because we started the day late in

the afternoon, and it was only to get groceries and take care of having

that signed."

"So, in having it signed, you go to people who don't know any of

you-all and just say, 'Sign, Paw.
 
Sign, Paw'?"

"I did not say that."

"Then Mrs.
 
Tichenor's memory is incorrect?"

"Yes, I am afraid her memory is."

So far in her testimony, Pat had found many prior witnesses' memories

to be faulty, including Bill Hamner's, Fred Reeves's, and Bob

Tedford's.
 
Now, finally, she questioned the testimony of notary Joyce

Tichenor.
 
Everyone was out of step save Pat.

he twenty-eighth of June, the day Nona Weathers moved to t Allanson was

rushed to South Fulton Hospital to be tested for arsenic poisoning.

Pat had no memory of Bob Tedford telling her that Pa Allanson had

arsenic in his body.
 
"Mr. Tedford did not mention arsenic at the

time."

She had just contradicted her own earlier testimony without realizing

it.

"Mr.
 
Tedford's recollection, you say, is incorrect again?"

"I don't recall what Mr.
 
Tedford's recollection was.
 
. . .

That was not right because I had already found that out earlier at the

hospital.

It was another contradiction of her own memory.
 
Weathers noted it, but

let it pass.

"Well.
 
. . . If you knew that that man had arsenic in his body," he

said, "if you loved that woman, thefirst thing you where where would

want for her .
 
. . would be to get her some somebody could save her

life.
 
It's possible she had arsenic."

Again, Pat denied that anyone had told her Nona might be in danger of

arsenic poisoning.

Dunham McAllister objected, insisting that Tedford had never mentioned

arsenic in his testimony, and asked for a directed verdict of

acquittal.
 
He suggested that the state had failed to prove its case.

Weathers responded, "The state thinks this has been a very carefully

planned scheme.
 
. . . [She had the] opportunity.
 
She stated to

Tedford she was the only one who took care of them.
 
She was the one

who had the arsenic.

She's the one who had the most to gain.
 
The statement-the so-called

statementhas been completely refuted by Mr. Allanson.
 
He said he

never wrote it.
 
He never did anything to his own child or his child's

wife.
 
We think we are far, far beyond a directed verdict in this case,

Your Honor."

Judge Holt ruled against McAllister and the trial ground on.
 
Weathers

asked the court reporter to read Bob Tedford's earlier statements.
 
The

court record verified Tedford's testimony that he had told Pat on June

28 that the old man had been poisoned with arsenic and that the old

woman might have been poisoned too.

Pat remained on the witness stand, listening as her testimony was

undermined.
 
She seemed unimpressed.

"Do you recollect him telling you that?"
 
Weathers pushed.

"No, sir."

Weathers pushed even harder.
 
"What possible purpose could be served

.

. .

by telling this nearly eighty-year-old woman that insurance wouldn't

cover her going to the hospital?"

"I never said that."
 
Nor could Pat see that there was any reason for

Nona Allanson's welfare to be a police matter.
 
She suspected it was a

guardianship fight.

"You are stating that he [Tedford] just showed up in the middle of the

day and said, 'We are taking her to the hospital'?

t, Not going to say anything else-just, 'Let's go'?"

"That just about sums it up.
 
Yes, sir."