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like a horse," according to Jake Dailey, Walter's old friend. But
almost everything else Tom did aggravated his father.
Tom's only emotional support came from his grandparentsPaw and Nona.
And when he found out that his father had done nothing about his
divorce papers, he went to another attorney, who filed for his
divorce.
His father was furious. Still working for Ralston Purina selling feed,
and shoeing horses in a second job, Tom contributed as much as he felt
he could to his family, but not enough, in his father's estimation.
Just before Thanksgiving, 1973, Walter ordered Tom to move out of his
house. After saying he would not take sides in his son's dispute with
his estranged wife, it was apparent that he had done just that. Tom's
parents declared Little Carolyn the injured party and rallied around
her.
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Fortunately-or so it seemed at the time-Tom had had somewhere to go.
He had known and worked for the Radcliffes for several years, but until
recently he had known their married daughter, Pat, only slightly. Now
she was unmarried, and he had been pleasantly surprised when she let
him know that she was interested in him. They had begun to date. Tom
liked her whole family. The Radcliffes approved of him, probably more
so because they felt the need for some kind of stability in Pat's
life.
Tom wasn't literally single, but he was the next best thing to it.
When his father and mother ordered him out, the Radcliffes said Tom
could stay at their place temporarily. He could sleep on the sofa in
their den. It was, allegedly, an arrangement of convenience. Of
course it was a smoke screen. Pat had declared her intention to marry
Tom Allanson six months earlier, long before he had any idea of even
dating her. She had dedicated herself to seducing him and captivating
him and he had been a sitting duck. For all his headlong rushes into
marriage, Tom was essentially naive. Pat was six years older than he
was, had grown children and a twenty-year marriage behind her, but she
knew how to cajole and steer a man over the jumps of any emotional
obstacle course she devised.
"I guess you could call her an aggressive/assertive woman," Tom said
many years later. "She was very much aggressive in that she knew what
she wanted and she'd go after it. In a way, I kind of admired that in
a person."
Tom had been just about the lonesomest man in Atlanta when Pat decided
she wanted him. By his own admission, he was virtually "starving" for
affection. "Pat was so cool about the way she did things that you
didn't know what was happening to you," he remembered. "You were in
quicksand really before you realized you'd got your feet wet. Because
of the way she did. I'm just saying . so nice, so gentle, so calm,
and so innocent. And then this little piece went here, this little
piece went here, and this one went here, and everything-and then all of
a sudden you were not in control.
And she turned it a little bit tighter, a little bit tighter.
. . . You didn't feel it as it was turning, but then- And I never knew
what hit me."
During their courtship, Pat displayed an absolute devotion to his
needs, and Tom reveled in it.
On New Year's Eve, 1973, Tom and Little Carolyn Allanson's custody and
support hearing was on the court docket. Tom was shocked to find that
his parents not only were not going to testify for him, they took the
stand on behalf of his wife. They never mentioned Carolyn's accident
that wrecked their vehicle, but Walter hinted on the witness stand that
Tom sometimes drank too much. In fact, Tom neither drank nor smoked.
He listened incredulously as his own blood relatives convinced a judge
that he was at fault, and that he should pay what he considered
excessive and impossible support and alimony to his nearly ex-wife.
Later that night, Tom stormed over to Norman Berry Road to confront his
wife and parents. He was no angel; he could be a real hothead when he
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felt he had been injured. Walter later claimed that Tom had "cussed [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]