Everything She Ever Wanted (57 page)

which a very bad typist and speller had typed what appeared to be a

confession.
 
Bob Tedford read the contents without speaking, and then

handed the pages to the old man in the bed.
 
"Did you write this?"

Paw scanned it, beginning to shake his head almost immediately.

Ap?il 19, 1976

My name is Walter Allanson, and I'm telling this to my granddaughter,

Tommy's wife, Pat Allanson, and she's doing it on the type-writer cause

I don't write so good anymore since I had the heart attack.
 
This is so

if I have a heart attack before Mama dies Tommy zwn't have to stay in

jail for what he didn't do.
 
If Mama dies first then I'll tell what I

did.
 
I told all this to pat, Tommy's wife, at the hospital.... I

thought I was going to die, and I knew nobbody would beleive Tommy if

he told em the truth.
 
Then I got better and Pat didn't say nothing, so

I didn't say nothing ... [but] I told her that ifyean didn't quit

Bothering Mama Id shoot her like I did Walter... Pat started to cry and

said I shoudn't talk like that.... I said it was the truth, but she

didn't beleive me....

The writer of the confession tended to ramble a good deal, hinting that

"Tommy" had known the truth all along but had agreed to protect his

grandfather and to tell no one.
 
He a so too several swipes at lawyers

in general, and Ed Garland in particular.

I neverfigured they'd be able to keep Tommy locked up.

But, of course, they had.

Little Carolyn and Walter Allanson were castigated on page after

page.

I told him he'd never give Tommy a chance, even when he was

4ittle....

Anyway, Walterjust laughed and said he'd clean up all this mess before

the week-end and then he'd take care of me and Mama.... She told me

Walter had said he'd kill her if he found she was helping Tommy, and he

was going to put us both in old folks home after he took care o

Tommy.... If Idivae of heard Walter when he threatened Mama, then he

wouldn't have even lived until the next tuesday.
 
Id a shot him tight

there....

The confession was, in its own way, a masterpiece, misspellings and

all.
 
Every question a sharp detective might have asked was covered.

The writer explained his motive for murder, how he was able to be away

from home without raising suspicions on the day Walter and Big Carolyn

Allanson had died, how frightened Pat and Nona had been, and then he

moved ahead to the actual incident.

I took care ofmama first, and then drove over to where Walter lived

...

went up the driveway.
 
I cut the phone wire with my pocket knife.
 
Then

Ijimmied the basement door open, and went upstairs to get waiters shot

gun and some shells.
 
I didn't know he'd bought that rifle or Id got it

too.
 
Yakes's Pistol wasn't there, so Ifigured Walter had it.
 
I went

back down into the basement, and cut the power off and went to

waitingfor Walter.

The writer had heard cars come home, people talking, Walter coming down

the basement stairs, and he realized, too late, that Tommy was there in

the basement too.

I didn't figure on Tommy being there.
 
He was telling his Daddy that he

just wanted to be left alone ... he said he warm't mad at nobody....

Tommy told his Daddy that Pat was at the Doctor...

The document painted Walter Allanson as a wicked man indeed; Tommy had

tried to leave-he had said what he'd come to say-but Walter wouldn't

let him go.
 
He told Tommy to wait in the basement while he calmed down

the women upstairs.

I was hoping Tommy would leave right then out the kitchen way, but he

was doing what he always done all his life.
 
He was waiting for Walter

to come and tell him it was O.K He always did what his daddy said, and

Walter knew he would.... Id already figured out that Walter was not

going to let Tommy leave there alive.
 
He was going to kill Tommy like

he was going to kill Mama and me.
 
. .

According to the long, rambling confession, Paw had somehow managed to

hoist himself up into the "hole" in his son's basement and hide there

before his grandson crawled up beside him.

I thought he was going to yell out when he found me in there.
 
I think

he was too scared.... Tommy said, "Let's get out of here, Paw-Daddy's

going to shoot us both.
 
. . .

But then they had both heard Walter talk to the policeman and refuse to

let the officer search the house, and it had all gone downhill from

there.
 
The writer said Walter had come back into the dark basement

again, right up to the hole, and shouted that he was going to kill Tom,

so he might as well come on out.

Then Walter hollered up for Carolyn to bring down the rifle, "I've got

him cornered-he ain't gonna get of here ever.

told you he was a coward.... He walked away from the hole, and that's

when I come up to the opening.
 
Big Carolyn come down the steps

hollering, "I'm going to kill him," and cut loose with the rifle, right

at where me and Tommy was.
 
I shot back and hit her and she fell.
 
I

stepped back to reload, and thats when Walter emptied the pistol in the

hole all around Tiommy.... Then I shot agian and hit Walter, but he

didn't fall right off like Carolyn did.
 
Tommy sta?fed saying, "oh my

God, oh My God, and I told him to get the hell out and get away, and he

kept falling over stuff and ran out the back door... (I didn't want to

kill big Carolyn or little Carolyn, I didn't want to kill nobody) but

Walter was mean and greedy and hateful ... so I had to get him first,

before he got Mama and me and milled us or put us away....

The writer of the confession seemed to know things that only someone

who had actually been in that basement could have known.

And every so often, he reminded whoever might read it that Tom was

innocent, that Pat was innocent and had tried only to protect Tom, Paw,

and Nona, and that it had been a matter of kill or be killed.

He even tossed in that Tommy had called him from the liquor store after

the shootings to say he was hitchhiking home to Zebulon.

Paw-at least the Paw in the confession-couldn't come forward to get

Tommy off the hook because he couldn't go to prison and leave his

wife.

He repeated this over and over.

MAMA DON'T YNOW WHAT I DID.
 
She might have a stroke if she did.

This is how it happened and how I did it....

All of his grandson's troubles and the knowledge that Tom was going to

prison for a crime he had not committed had worn the writer down.

That worried me and got my brain tired out, and probably made me have

the heart attack.
 
I didn't want Tommy to stay in prison, but I aint

going to prison for milling Walter, when I had to do it to keep him

from killing us or putting us away.
 
If I tell about it now, theyll

still lock me up, but I'm too old, and thatd kill Mama, so I can't do

it right now.
 
But I"M telling this now so that when I die at least

they'll beleive Tommy when he tells the truth.
 
After I"M dead Mama

will understand why i did what I did.

IM gonna sign this in front of a witness to put in a envelope to give

to my lawyers.
 
They can't open it til after I die.... That's all I got

to say.

Underneath that voluminous confession, someone had printed crookedly:

"Sworn to and subscribed before me this 16 day of April 1976.
 
Joyce

Tichenor, Notary Public."
 
There was no seal imprint, but there was

Tichenor's official stamp, and she had verified to investigators that

the stamp was indeed hers.
 
The printing was not.

Paw Allanson's signature was at the bottom.
 
It was his signature-he

was sure of it.
 
And the initials at the bottom of each page were his

too.
 
But he had absolutely no memory of writing or agreeing to any of

the contents.
 
He seemed dumbfoundedas well he might.
 
Harris

pressed.

Was there any truth in this confession?
 
In any part of it?
 
"No!"
 
Paw

snorted.

If Paw Allanson hadn't written the confession, who had?
 
The details

certainly sounded as if the author had been an eyewitness to the deadly

events of July 3, 1974.
 
But Paw?
 
He was a sturdy old man, but would

he have been capable of all the actions the confession described?

Tedford figured that was highly unlikely.
 
Paw was as puzzled as the

detectives were.
 
Of course, if he had died of an overdose, he would

not have been able to refute the confession.

If the D.A."s office believed that Paw was the real killer of his son

and daughter-in-law, then Tom would get a new trial and would quite

probably be freed.
 
And who, Tedford asked himself, had the most to

gain if such a thing came to pass?
 
Tom Allanson certainly.
 
Tom had

sent frequent letters to his grandparentsright up until May-urging them

to trust Pat.
 
But as far as any hands-on action, Tom couldn't have

poisoned Paw if he had wanted to; he was locked up tight in Jackson

Prison, and had been for months.

"Do you remember ever signing any papers for Pat?"
 
Tedford asked Paw

quietly.
 
"Anything at all?"

Paw scratched his head.
 
He explained that he and his wife had trusted

Pat; she had been good to them after Tommy went to prison.

"Did you ever go to a bank on Washington Road with Pat?"

Harris asked.

Paw strained to remember.
 
"Yeah, seems like I did.
 
Pat wanted me to

sign some papers-in front of a notary lady."
 
He could not remember