- As Don Stoop and Michelle Berry continued their questioning of the Crists, their physicians, and their other employees, it became tragically, unbelievably, clear, what had happened. Betty Crist, had been systematically drugged with medications obtained from forged prescriptions, and she had been robbed of her dignity, of her health, of her treasured belongings.
- But most of all, she had been robbed of the few months of precious time that remained for her to be with her husband. as she slept away the days in her stuffy room, through the spring of 1988, her Jimmy was far away from her, and his illness was progressing with those days, taking him still further from her. She would regain her dignity, her health, some of her treasures--but she would never in this world find again those lost days with her dying husband.
- Stoop's eyes widened as he heard how entirely changed her (Pat) voice was when she jousted with attorneys--one moment imperious, the next ever-so-slightly flirtatious. . . . Pat herself had continually opened and irritated the wound in her hip. She had used the emotions of all these people, who feared for her life; she had bent them and twisted them and squeezed bloody anxiety from them. She had orchestrated it all. (Shelley told us she had cancer.)
- This woman had hurt other human beings physically, and Stoop listened to the way she worked insidiously to erode their last vestiges of serenity. he wondered which was worse. . . . A woman who whined, wept, accused, and predicted nothing but doom. She timed her responses meticulously. She was like a cat. She let the mouse go just far enough, and then she pounced and impaled her prey on the unsheathed claws of her words. . . . Despite her tears, one thing was patently clear, she was enjoying herself.
- If Tom mentioned anyone but her, Pat grew petulant and gave orders. "I love you, Tom. I love you. Sugar. I don't want anyone else in our lives." (Classic abusers, isolate their victims, I meet A, she bribes, A, I meet B, she bribes, B, man, I am with, she, eventually, takes, through, money, and sick sex!).
- When Don Stoops questioned Debbie Cole Alexander's ex-husband, Gary, he didn't care to discuss Pat either--beyond discribing his former mother-in-law as a "vicious, scheming, evil bitch." he recalled all too well when, he had been informed that Pat had hired a hit man to kill him. . . . He was still afraid of Pat, and he made no excuses for it.
- Pat Taylor Allanson and Debbie Cole Alexander where charged with:
- seven counts:
- violation of the Georgia Controlled Substances Act, Count I;
- violation of the Georgia Controlled Substances Act, Count II;
- theft by taking, Count II, and violation of O.C.G.A., Section 43-26-12. The seventh charge involved the accused impersonating registered nurses.
- The arrest warrants were next. Out in McDonough, the household of Colonel and Mrs. Clifford Radcliffe was once again braced for another legal shoe to drop. Their little girl was now fifty-three years old and they had pampered and protected her for all those years. Their home had always been her home, her troubles and pain their trouble and pain. They had sacrificed everything to make her life perfect. Pat could do no wrong in their eyes, and yet the world continued to hound her. When would she be happy? When in God's name would it ever end.
- (Her eldest daughter, Susan and her husband, Bill, promised after, Pat poisoned, the Allanson grandparents, and probably killed, the husband of Mrs. Crist, they would never stand by and allow, Pat to hurt anyone again.) "Susan is mentally ill, you know. She needs psychiatric care. Both of them have been making threatening phone calls to me. Bill and Susan are sick people. Bill called Mrs. Crist, and he has threatened my life--I can't tell you how many times." . . . How many years had they done this. Stoop wondered, how many decades of being there for Pat?
- Pat was the big fish whose history showed her to be the dominant partner in all her relationships.
- They had relived the terrible events of the spring of 1974 that had led to the murders of Walter and Carolyn Allanson, revisited all the places where the smell of blood seemed still to cling, and believed that Pat Allanson had been right there in the thick of it all--not the shooter, but the prodder, the manipulator, the liar. The instigator. They wanted to see all the dark corners of Pat's life illuminated. They were detectives. Akins was a prosecutors. The relationship in any county or state office is--and always had been--both symbiotic and one of natural enmity. Investigators tread on shaky ground and take chances; prosecutors like to know where they are and they lean toward predictable odds. Both want to win. But it might be safe to say that detectives are more philosophical about losing. . . . He (Stoops) didn't give a hoot for headlines either, but he was a hard-liner on justice. He would remain furious for a very, very long time. "Bill Akins never should have plea-bargained. And I'll never change my mind about that."
- Susan and Bill had betrayed the pack, and the others would never forgive them. Whatever Pat had done, she had always been taken back, not only forgiven but supported and carried above all of them on arms of love. Susan had spoken up only to prevent her mother from doing harm and she was exiled. . . . She (Pat's mother) blamed Susan for everything. The decline of the family had begun, of course, with her treachery.
- Pat's latest conviction appeared to have started a slow winding down of the Family; its gracious facade cracked, and bit by bit chunks fell off , giving a glimpse of what lay beneath. . . . Warsaw. . . . During the yard sale, the family circled the block--not once but five, ten, fifty times; Debbie and her husband and Ronni, pointed, laughing, and jeering. . . . Why couldn't they just let her go? (I was followed to Montana, then, to Washington! That is after, they, the family, Shelley, and crew, stole, millions in cases, houses, law practice, etc.)
- Pat never heard the word, No.
- Throughout those years. Pat lied, stole, contrived, manipulated, seduced, and betrayed. She married twice and even attempted murder to get what she wanted. She wanted love and happiness, she wanted money and the things that money can buy, and she usually found someone to give them to her. If not, she set out to get them for herself. no one else mattered: people were merely the means to an end. yet nothing she attained was enough to fill up the emptiness in her life. She was like a vessel with holes in the bottom; love and things and people and money and happiness seeped away.
- In the beginning Pat got her way because the family loved her so; later, they dreaded her sharp tongue, her wrath, and her temper tantrums. In the end, perhaps they could not bring themselves to examine her crimes in a bright light, fearing that they too were in some way responsible. . . . only the parts they could deal with comfortably.
- Every family maintains a balancing act; some members need more attention, more affirmation. Others are independent or just plain loners. usually, individuals needs change frequently and different family members become the current "burden" to be kept aloft until the balance shifts once again. In a functional family, problems, eventually work out and everyone takes a turn at being the bearing wall or the burden. Pat was never the "bearing wall." She was never allowed to take responsibility for her own llife. At the first sign of trouble, someone--usually Boppo and Papa--rushed forward to save her. . . . she played to manipulate everyone in her life.
- If she was not crazy, however, Pat quite likely suffered from a melange of personality disorders. She did not view the world or her relationship to it the way most people do. She knew the difference between right and wrong, but it didn't matter. She had been raised to believe that rules were for other people and what mattered was that she got what she wanted. , , , It is better to be "crazy" because crazy can be cured. Personality disorders, die with the host, entangled for life in the brain's functioning.
- No one knows for certain where personality disorders come from. Most psychiatrists agree, however, that they are not present at birth but, rather, take root in the first few years of life. Normally, a child of three or four will begin to understand that his or her actions can cause pain to a parent, to another child or a pet--that other creatures hurt too. This understanding and awareness leads to the development of the conscience, the still small voice inside that warns humans that certain actions are cruel , insensitive, and against the mores of their society. It is the conscience that provokes guilt, a much maligned emotion that is actually vital to the survival of humanity.
- Still, one wonders if too much "kindness" cannot warp a child as surely as abuse. . . . Put simply, she had no conscience. That is why she could goad Tom into a disastrous confrontation with his parents. That was why she could drive her own parents into bankruptcy with her ceaseless demands for money. . . . easy to play games with their emotions and their lives. Pat had not the faintest inkling of what they were suffering. She had no desire or ability to connect with other peoples' emotions. Her suffering--even that which she inflicted on herself--was all that mattered, and she used her pain as another weapon to make the people who loved her suffer even more.
- A number of personality disorders often go hand in hand, and Pat was probably also a narcissistic personality. Like Narcissus of the Greek myth, who idolized his own image in a pond, she was quite literally in love with herself. She believed that she deserved whatever she desired. She was shocked when she didn't always get it . . . by the time Pat met Tom, she had lost the capacity for happiness, if she'd ever had it at all.
- The true state of Pat's physical and emotional health may never be completely known or understood. She herself might have been powerless to control it. But it was among the strongest weapons in her arsenal to exert control over others. (The interesting thing, is that, when, I was first diagnosed with, Pick's Disease and suppose to die, by, 2002, someone, told me, that, I had been, diagnosed with, Narcissistic Personality Disorder? The last thing, among, some, I heard my mother say, was, you, always take care of others, and never worry about yourself . . . you need to take better care of yourself! I thought it odd, that, perhaps, someone did a personality test on Shelley, because, it never came up, in any tests, or mine, never, and that is where, they started to exchange daughters, leaving the one, who always, took care of her own, problems, like abortion, do ya think, rather, than expecting, others to take care, of my problems . . . my mother, also, thanked me, in my divorce for never, burdening, anyone, with my family, and the divorce, NEVER! Shelley, had four kids from, all but her two husbands, and lived with my parents, for a straight 7 years, and with, Rachel, and me, and whomever, would or could take her! They say, you love the ones you serve . . . they served, Shelley, for the last, 35 years! They follow me, and live off me, I am, the Southwick, money machine! She is the conduit, to pass through, like the empty business shells, that my father, specializes in, putting on the stock market, waiting for some company to buy it up and give it form . . . Shelley was just as empty, until she became me . . . mommy and daddy didn't have to worry about me, ever, so to get, Shelley off their backs, making her me, great! The family was all about that! My mother said, everything came to easy to me! It might. But, I didn't take any short cuts, never, ever! I did get everything I ever wanted, but I EARNED IT!).
- Referring to, Zebulon, the grandparents, of Tom . . . There she could be Scarlett and Tom her rich and blindly devoted Rhett. Perhaps because her world did not give her everything she ever wanted. Pat could not stand being herself. Scarlett had been full of strength, a woman who could stand alone and fight for what she wanted. In the end, Pat was only a pale imitation.
- And all around them lay the evidence of the destruction of a family, caused not by the neglect of a child--but by the utter, complete, almost, mindless, indulgence of a child.
- The only member to survive with dignity was the one they had all reviled--the one who had the courage to do what she knew was right even if it went against the family; Susan (JoAnn, not to be confused with, younger sister, Susan, who, does, all the church and family think she should do, including, her husband, Kevin!). They all quoted Mary Siler (Grandma--could be Grandma Southwick), but no one but Susan had listened to her words:
- What we have done will soon be a sealed book. If it's been good or bad, we can't change it. It will stand as it is. It is sad, for some of us will have marked up pages in our book from many unkind words to someone, or maybe we did not try hard to make others' lives happy. . . . --Mary Valli Siler.
THIS BLOG, IS MY BOOK, MY LEGACY, TO MY CHILDREN, GRANDCHILDREN, AND WHOMEVER, WANTS, OR IS WISE ENOUGH TO READ IT . . . MEN ARE THAT THEY MIGHT HAVE, JOY, ROMANCE, LOVE, RIGHTS, FREEDOMS, LIBERTIES, PRIVILEGES, PROTECTIONS, BUT WITH THE LIMITS OF THE LAW! THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION, WAS AND IS AN INSPIRED DOCUMENT, MADE FOR ALL MANKIND, NOT JUST FOR AMERICA!
I WANTED TO SAY, AND CHALLENGE, THOSE HIGH SCHOOL KIDS, NOT ONLY IN TEXAS, WHERE THE LAST, ALLEGED SHOOTING, WHAT IS GOING ON WITH TRUMP, THIS WEEK, OR THAT DAY? BUT, IN ALL YOUR, FERVOR, ENERGY, POWER, TO TRY TO GET GUN CONTROL, TO SAVE YOUR LIVES . . . DON'T MISS THE KEY, ELEMENT, ON "WHY" THESE FELLOW CLASSMATES ARE, SHOOTING AT YOU . . . THEY ARE LONELY, NEED FRIENDS, MAY BE HAVING DIFFICULTY AT HOME, OR IN SCHOOL, AND HATE SITTING ALONE AT LUNCH, OR WALKING DOWN THE HALLS THEY ARE THREATENED OR BULLIED, WITH HORRORS YOU CAN'T IMAGINE, AT SOME POINTS IN THEIR LIVES . . . REACH OUT, EXPAND YOUR CLICHE, BEFRIEND THE LONELY, THE SCARED, THE FRIGHTENED, AND I BET, YOU WILL DO MORE FOR YOUR SAFETY AT SCHOOL WITH LOVE, THAN, ALL THE EXTRA SECURITY, THE SECURITY, THE CAMERAS, THE HEAT PACKING TEACHERS, AND GUN CONTROL . . . GO TO THE HEART OF THE ISSUE, AND THAT IS GIVE, LOVE, FRIENDSHIP, INCLUSION, CARING, SHARING, AND BRING SOMEONE INTO YOUR SOCIAL CIRCLE! MY MOTHER USED TO TEACH, JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL, AND SHE SAID, THAT NEW KIDS IN THE SCHOOL, ARE ALWAYS, INCLUDED IN THE DRUGGIES CIRCLE, BECAUSE, THEY WANT TO SELL THEM DRUGS, NOT SO IN THE ATHLETES, OR CHEERLEADERS . . . WELL, WHO DO YOU THINK, THEY GUN DOWN, FOR TREATING THEM LIKE SHIT? THE GUNMAN, OR KID, SAID, HE SLIPPED THE KIDS, WHO WERE NICE TO HIM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
DISCUSSION GROUPS . . . WHAT WILL REALLY, CHANGE, THE THREAT OF GUN VIOLENCE IN YOUR SCHOOLS?
YOU!
IF NOT YOU, WHO?
BE THE CHANGE, YOU WANT TO SEE, IN THE WORLD!
LOVE YOUR PASSION!
DIRECT IT WHERE IT WILL DO THE MOST GOOD!
KISSES, HUGS, LOVES!
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