Everything She Ever Wanted (73 page)

"I can't give you a date on that.
 
I have to be very truthful.
 
I have

to be perfectly honest."

Margureitte Radcliffe was fifty-six, only seventeen years older than

the daughter she was trying, as always, to protect.
 
She was still

beautiful, and she lifted her chin ever so slightly and surveyed the

courtroom with her "crystal gaze."
 
It was essential that she be

perceived as very truthful, perfectly honest, and always, always

correct.

"Were you aware that they were both full of arsenic?"
 
Weathers went

on, using phrases that clearly shocked Margureitte.
 
"Were you aware

that they had such a level of arsenic in their bodies [as] to alter

their human structure, that [it] would have resulted in death if

arsenic ingestion continued?"

"I heard the laboratory said that," Margureitte replied.
 
"I believe

last week I saw the lab report, but prior to that I had not."
 
Arsenic

was not something that Margureitte would have chosen to discuss in

detail; it was obviously burdensome for her, but Weathers kept alluding

to the poison.
 
He estab ished that Margureitte had had "training in

nursing."

"You would generally be familiar with the fact arsenic would cause

death if ingested in sufficient quantities?"

"The only thing I know about arsenic actually is that it is a poison.

I have no personal knowledge."

"I'm not implying for a moment that you do.
 
I'm just asking you as a

technical question-would you be aware that arsenic is a poison?"

I would think it was very dangerous.
 
Yes, very."
 
Margureitte blamed

the myriad typographical errors in the confession @ the occasional

lines that were capitalized, on her own inexperience.
 
"I'm really not

that good a typist."
 
point he wanted to make.
 
Paw s alleged Weathers

had another the murders of Walter confession had too many details about

and Carolyn Allanson to be simply guesswork.
 
It had to have been

written by someone who had been there, or who had been told what had

happened that terrible night.
 
Paw had emphatically denied any part in

the murders.

He had repudiated the confession.
 
Who, then, had written it?

king that question very subtly.
 
In So Weathers went about as many

places in the confession, there were references to Paw Allanson's

concern for his wife, to his fear that Mama "might have a stroke" if

she knew.
 
Why on earth would Paw have told anyone that he was a

killer?
 
It could have cost him what he held most dear.
 
Nona.

Margureitte Radcliffe agreed that Paw Allanson most definitely kept secret

to spare his wife's health.
 
wanted the document others asked, "if

the knowledge of the confession "So," Wea would not come from Walter

Allanson.
 
came to someone .
 
. . it .
 
. . It would have come from

some other party?"

"I'm not sure I follow you," Margureitte said slowly.
 
"I'd like for

you to make that statement again."

"Take the position the third party was there in that basement when it

took place, knew exactly the or right outside that area details, wasn't

concerned about Mrs. Allanson's health.
 
That third party or whoever

else was in that basement could have put something-or everything-down

on this piece of paper as to the way this happened.
 
Could they not?"

"I do not follow you at all."
 
Margureitte flushed as she spoke,

warily.

"I withdraw that," Weathers said.
 
what we are "I don't know what the

basement has to do with what we're talking about, sir!"

Margureitte's testimony was interrupted by a lunch break that

Thursday in May of 1977.
 
It was

just as well for the defense.
 
f another crime haunted Pat's The

scarcely acknowledged ghost o able murder of trial.
 
It was the crux of

this trial, really.
 
The doubt Hanson had Walter and Carolyn Allanson

was what old Paw A e event described in detail in supposedly confessed

to; it was this strange document full of typos and x-ed-out

sections.

Tom Allanson was in prison for that crime, but Pat Allanson had said on

the witness stand that she had been "one," "one and a half," "two,"

"more than two" blocks away at the moment the fatal shots were fired.

She had been a suspect in those murders.
 
She had never been charged,

but that old investigation remained alive and rife with dangerous

questions.
 
No one on the defense side of this case wished to see those

questions arise in courtroom 808.

Margureitte Radcliffe's afternoon testimony was taken up with her

typing of the confession, the choice of paper, the crossedout portions,

the manner in which she had inserted the paper into her typewriter-all

questions from Andy Weathers.
 
She couldn't recall why she had made

such choices.
 
She had no idea whether one would normally start typing

from the very top of a sheet of paper, block out the stationery heading

and go on, or whether one would start in the middle, and then type the

top of the page.

Did the jury see the significance of the different dates, the different

margins, the different paper on Paw's confession?
 
There was no way of

knowing.

Weathers asked Margureitte about July 26, 1976, the day she and her

husband had come to East Point police headquarters with her attorney to

give a formal statement about their recall of events in the Washington

Road house.

Their statements were taken just two weeks before Pat was arrested and

charged with criminal attempt to commit murder.
 
"Did you at any time

in this statement tell the police, the district attorney's office-or

anyone in law enforcementthat you had typed a confession of murder

signed by Walter Allanson?"

"No, I did not," Margureitte said.

"I have no further questions."

Colonel Clifford Radcliffe followed his wife onto the witness stand.

In response to a question from McAllister, he recalled finding the

whiskey bottle-a whiskey bottle, although he could not say if the

bottle in evidence was the same bottle.
 
The color of the cap looked

different to him now.
 
He attempted to say that his wife had told him

to "dump it out."

Weathers objected on the grounds the statement was hearsay.

The colonel hastened to explain that Dr. Jones had told Mrs. Radcliffe

to tell him to dump out the bottle's contents.

"Your Honor, that's hearsay on hearsay."

After a wrangle between attorneys, Judge Holt allowed the first hearsay

but not the second.
 
McAllister asked what the witness had done with

the bottle.

"I smelled the contents the colonel replied.
 
"I smelled the alcohol.

. .

. I dumped the contents down into the toilet and then I gave the bottle

to my daughter to put with the .
 
. . medication we were accumulating

in the house to give to Dr.
 
Jones."

He agreed with his wife and stepdaughter that Nona Allanson had called

them for rescue on June 12.

"Did she state anything to you in person when you arrived?"
 
McAllister

asked.

"Yes, sir.
 
. . . If I may-not only to me, but several times thereafter

to other people who came to the house."

"What did she state?"

"That her husband had tried to kill her."

"Thank you, sir."

During cross-examination, Weathers deliberately allowed the jury to

once again hear the story of the terrified old woman, the assaultive

husband who was drinking and gulping down pills, the trio of rescuers

who left Tell Road and rushed to Nona Allanson's aid.
 
Colonel

Radcliffe explained easily that he had never actually seen Paw taking

pills-he might have told detectives that, but he had corrected

himself.

"I did not actually see him, but there were open pill containers on the

counter."

"I am asking," Weathers suddenly took the offensive, "did you tell the

detectives when they came out there that he was gulping down handfuls

of pills?"

"That was my assumption at the time I first saw him."

Colonel Radcliffe had accused Bob Tedford of lying, of being confused

about who said what about the pills.
 
And now, once again, he had

reversed himself.

Weathers brought the colonel back to July 26-the day of his formal

statement.
 
"Had your wife communicated to you at this time that she

had typed a document .
 
. . signed by Walter Allanson admitting the

murder of his son and daughter-in-law?"

"At that time, I believe that she had indicated that she was typing a

document."

"Did you see the document?"

" I had seen it, but I had never read it."

"You were aware that your wife was typing this document purported to be

a confession of murder and you never read it?"

"That's correct, sir."

"You never mentioned that to the police at that time?"

"What, sir?"

"The fact that there was a purported murder confession?"

I don't recall that I did."

Weathers was astonished.
 
He walked a bit closer to the

distinguished-looking colonel.
 
"Well now, certainly, sir-I ask you to

search your memory.
 
Would you not recall telling the police whether or

not you had information to a double murder where a man and his wife had