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brilliant and colorful man in his late thirties. You couldn't do any
better in Atlanta than to have the Garlands represent you.
Father and son would be assisted by John Nuckolls, who now pleaded for
Tom's release while he awaited trial. Pat was there in the courtoom,
along with Margureitte and the colonel and old Paw Allanson. Nuckolls
argued that Tom had absolutely no record of violent behavior prior to
the crimes he stood accused of. And he was sorely needed at home.
"Your Honor," he pleaded. "There's a serious financial problem in
connection with that stable [Kentwood] due to a mortgage. The farm was
purchased five months ago. It was purchased on a down payment with a
balloon and that balloon is coming due, and they are fixing to lose
that farm because of the inability to meet the notes.
Even worse, Nuckolls pointed out, both Tom's wife and his grandmother
were in very poor physical condition, and his continued incarceration
wasn't helping. "Your Honor, I have two letters from doctors
concerning his [Tom's] wife's condition."
Nuckolls explained that Pat was suffering from pulmonary emboli, a
release of clots into the bloodstream that would ultimately pass into
her heart and lungs. "She has had open heart surgery and has an
umbrella valve implanted in the heart. Her condition is reported by
her doctors at Emory Hospital and her private physician, Dr. -William
J. Taylor, as undoubtedly terminal with a life expectancy of two years
or less."
Pat certainly appeared to be ill. Since the shootings, she had lost so
much weight that she looked like a skeleton. Her mother and her aunts
had tried everything they could to get her to eat; if she did eat, she
threw up. Her aunt Thelma made her special homemade soup, and Pat
couldn't even hold that down.
The defense had a number of prestigious character witnesses, including
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Colonel and Mrs. Radcliffe, standing by to vouch for Tom's
gentleness.
Nona and Paw wanted him out on bond too. If he were to be released,
his counsel assured the court that he would go straight to Kentwood and
stay there, leaving only to assist his defense team from time to
time.
William Weller, for the Fulton County District Attorney's Office,
quickly erased the picture of Tom Allanson as gentle, describing him as
"a mountain of a man" who was charged with "blowing his mother's heart
out." Although he had known Tom and his family for years, Judge
Wofford reluctantly agreed with the state that there would be no bond
and that Tom would remain in jail, but he set the earliest trial date
possible', the first Monday morning after Labor Day: September 9,
1974.
Tom's defense team had lost only the first round, but already Ed
Garland could sense trouble. Although she obviously hadn't the
foggiest grasp of the way the law worked, Pat Allanson clearly didn't
trust her husband's lawyers. She would not allow Tom to confer with
Garland unless she were present. She watched him like a hawk,
monitoring and editing his responses even as they emerged from his
mouth. She spoke for him whenever possible. Why was she so concerned
about what her husband might say? She was almost hysterical about
losing "her Tom.
Garland detected that Tom ached to talk to him alone, that the man had
a heavy load on his mind. There might well be extenuating
circumstances, something a top defense lawyer could build a case on,
but Pat seemed to be afraid to let Tom speak freely. In her zeal to
protect him, she became a defense lawyer's nightmare.
Worse, Ed Garland could see that Tom trusted his wife implicitly. The
man was addled by love, consumed by love; he would gladly die for
her.
Ed Garland sincerely hoped it would not come to that.
In less than a year, Pat had fallen in love with Tom, married him, they
had purchased Kentwood Morgan Farms, and now it was all gone.
She was far too ill to live in Kentwood alone, and she couldn't
'possibly do the chores or handle the horses by herself. What was the
use? They were probably going to lose Kentwood anyway.
Without Tom, she could never meet the balloon payments. When fall came
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