Rich & Beautiful - a Texas Murder

In 1981 Farrah Fawcett did a made for TV movie called "Murder in Texas".  I remember watching it and loving every second of it!  Today's post will be about this murder mystery that still has folks talking in Houston over 40 years later.


This story has so many twists, turns and characters that it makes your head spin.  Forgive me - and feel free to correct me - should I overlook, skip or miss something.

Joan Robinson Hill was the only child of Ashton "Ash" Robinson, a very influential and rich Texas oil man and his socialite wife, Rhea Robinson.  Joan was beautiful, smart and quite the catch in the Houston social circuit.  She was an accomplished equestrian who often preferred the company of her horses to that of humans.  The fact that she was a very spoiled child is not in dispute.


At some point in the 1950's, Joan met John Robert Hill, a handsome plastic surgeon and they married in the late 1950's producing a son named Robert Ashton"Boot" Hill.

John Hill was certainly not born into Houston high society.  Or any other high society for that matter.  He had worked his way through college and then medical school.  He was, by all accounts, a very gifted and dedicated pianist.  Joan's father was never a fan of the man or the marriage and evidence would suggest that the feeling was mutual.


"On Tuesday, March 18, 1969, Joan Hill, a 38-year-old Houston, Texas, socialite, became violently ill for no readily apparent reason. Her husband, Dr. John Hill, at first indifferent, later drove her at a leisurely pace several miles to a hospital in which he had a financial interest, passing many other medical facilities on the way. When checked by admitting physicians, Joan's blood pressure was dangerously low, 60/40. Attempts to stabilize her failed and the next morning she died. The cause of death was uncertain. Some thought pancreatitis; others opted for hepatitis."

(Read more: John Hill Trial: 1971 - Motive: Failed Divorce, Outburst Leads To Mistrial, Retrial Unnecessary - Joan, Robinson, Kurth, and Death - JRank Articles http://law.jrank.org/pages/3212/John-Hill-Trial-1971.html#ixzz1gc2jv5pn)

Ash Robinson would have his daughter's body exhumed twice in order to have private autopsies performed at his expense.  A total of 3 autopsies were performed.  All of them with varying results and conjectures.


It is now believed by many in the medical field, that Joan may well have died from Toxic Shock Syndrome.  However, in 1969 with the medical professionals unable to agree with a final diagnosis and TSS not even a known condition, the death looked mighty suspicious to a wealthy and powerful father grieving over the loss of his only child.  Especially since Ash Robinson hadn't wanted his daughter to marry John Hill to begin with. Another red flag was the fact that John Hill had a mistress and wanted to divorce Joan so he could marry his mistress.  However, Dr. Hill was bound by a pre-nup which clearly stated that should they divorce - he gets whatever he brought into the marriage, but nothing more.  

All the classic signs for murder were there.  Husband who came from nothing but had grown to love the "good life" and would do anything not to give it up.  Wife who thought they could "work it out" and refused to give her husband a divorce so he could marry his mistress, Ann Kurth.  Ann had issued an ultimatum.  "Marry me or leave me alone".  And the icing on the cake?  If he divorced Joan - he got nothing.  If she died - he got everything.

When John and Joan Hill bought the house at 1561 Kirby Drive in Houston, it had its own checkered past (and future).  The Hill's bought the house in 1966 for $80,000 and Robert Hill spent an additional $100,000 just on creating a music room for his piano. 

It was not, and reportedly had never, been a "happy house".  The previous owner died from cancer in the very room where Joan lay dying from her mysterious illness.  The owners before them, had all been embroiled in messy divorces and/or depression with some reporting they were on the brink of suicide when they sold the house.  As for the Hill's, according to Robert, they were a happy couple until about a year after they moved into the house on Kirby Drive.  Their troubles began when John started his affair and ended with both of their deaths.  Both deaths either began or ended in this house.


Connie Hill, John Hill's wife at the time of his death, and his son with Joan continued to live in the house after John's death until the middle 1980's.  At that time, Connie Hill remarried and Robert left for college so they sold the home to an attorney.  As near as I can tell, it has been sold at least twice since then.  All times to attorneys.


Within weeks after Joan's death, Robert Hill married Ann Kurth and moved her into the house at Kirby Drive.


Ann would later testify at John's trial that one night in a drunken rage, he admitted to her that he had regularly injected Joan with her own urine killing her.  She testified that he also admitted to her that he had also killed both his father and brother.


If he did indeed kill her by injecting her with her own urine, it would certainly explain why none of the autopsies were conclusive.  It would also explain why no known foreign toxins were found to suggest a poison.  I'm sure in 2011, doctors would be able to detect and possibly suspect this method of poisoning, but in 1969, they could not.  Our urine is nothing more than natural toxins that our body is disposing of in order to prevent our being poisoned.  If you take those concentrated toxins and reintroduce them into your body, you are in effect being poisoned to death quite naturally by toxins that are not foreign and thereby undetectable.  At least in 1969 medical standards.  


Joan languished completely bedridden for nearly a week before she was finally brought to a hospital and died.  She had been exhibiting flu-like symptoms for a week prior to becoming bedridden.  During this time, she told her father and others who inquired about her health that her husband was taking excellent care of her.  He was taking daily urine samples for testing and was injecting her twice daily with a vitamin cocktail that should make her feel much better soon.  However, that was not the case.


Other sources state that Dr. Hill had taken feces samples from very sick patients and had put them into a petri dish creating a deadly bacteria which he then injected into pastries which he fed to his wife.  At the trial, Ann Kurth-Hill testified that one day when she was at the apartment which John kept for his "second life", she had seen 3 petri dishes  in the bathroom.  When she asked John about them, he brusquely informed her that it was "just an experiment that he was working on."


Ash Robinson dedicated his time and considerable resources and influences to the goal of proving Dr. Hill murdered Joan.  He made daily calls to the prosecutor's office, the attorney General's office, Congressman and noted physicians.  He had Joan's body exhumed on at least two occasions for private autopsies.  He had the house and occupants on Kirby Drive under surveillance and even had a private investigator digging into John's past and family.


He had a stroke of luck when Ann decided to come forward with John's alleged drunken confession.  After only 9 months of marriage, John Hill had unceremoniously dumped Ms. Kurth and she was not happy about it.  He was finally able to convince the prosecutors to charge John Hill with the murder of his daughter.


After months of badgering, intercessions from noted lawmakers and persistence on the part of Ash Robinson, the prosecutors dug around until they found a Texas law that allowed them to use the extremely rare charge of "murder by omission," in effect, killing someone by deliberate neglect.

The trial began in February, 1971 and lasted 11 days before a mistrial was declared.   Of course, Ann Kurth-Hill testified.  One of the Hill's neighbors, Vann Maxwell, also testified that shortly before Joan became ill, she had told Vann that she was intending to file for divorce. 


 John Hill had filed for divorce in December, 1968 but had withdrawn his petition when it came to light that he would not only risk losing everything in a contested divorce but also his reputation and personal medical practice might severely suffer if it became public knowledge that he had participated in an affair.  He instead elected to enact a "reconciliation" with his wife.

The Defense attorneys had thought it highly inappropriate that Ann Kurth-Hill was allowed to testify at the murder trial of her ex-husband.  However, the presiding Judge decided to allow it with the condition that he could stop her testimony at any time.  

The main thrust of Kurth's testimony was given over to a vivid account of an incident in which, she said, Hill had attempted to kill her. It came just one month into their marriage. They were out driving when, Kurth claimed, Hill deliberately smashed her side of the car into a bridge.

"What happened next?" asked Prosecutor McMaster.

"He pulled a syringe from his pocket and … tried to get it into me." Kurth said that she managed to knock the syringe from Hill's hand, but that he then produced another hypodermic needle.

"And what did he do with that one, if anything?" queried MeMaster.

Kurth, who several times had to be admonished by the judge for her overly theatrical presentation, crescendoed, "He tried to get that syringe into me!"

Here the prosecutor speculated. "Was he attempting to treat you? Or harm you? Do you know?"

"Yes, I knew." Kurth hesitated, as if unsure what to say next, then blurted out, "Because he told me how he had killed Joan with a needle."

Defense attorney Haynes leapt to his feet, demanding a mistrial on grounds that the defense had not been given an opportunity to prepare themselves against a direct accusation of murder. (This was the first that Haynes had heard of any syringes). Judge Hooey, plainly worried by this turn of events, at first denied the request but did order a recess. During the adjournment, however, Hooey had second thoughts. The tenuous legal precedent by which Kurth had been allowed to testify, and then her foolhardy outburst, convinced him that if he allowed the trial to continue there were clear and palpable grounds for appeal. Accordingly, 11 days into the hearing, he granted the mistrial.

Interestingly enough, the jurors, when polled afterward, indicated that they were inclined to believe John Hill innocent. Ann Kurth's story hadn't impressed them at all.

Read more: John Hill Trial: 1971 - Outburst Leads To Mistrial - Kurth, Judge, Hooey, and Haynes - JRank Articles http://law.jrank.org/pages/3210/John-Hill-Trial-1971-Outburst-Leads-Mistrial.html#ixzz1gcStIj84


The retrial was set and reset 3 times.  However, before the trial could begin, John Hill, now married for a third time to Connie (I can find no information as to her maiden name) was gunned down in the foyer of his house in what has always been believed to be a contract killing.  Of course, Ash Robinson was always the name that came up whenever anyone mentioned this.  Although no one ever officially linked Ash to the murder of John Hill, it should be noted that following this latest death in his family, Boot Hill cut all ties to Ash Robinson.  Rumor is rampant that Boot believed his grandfather had hired someone to murder John Hill.  Proof that these rumors were valid is the fact that in 1977 both Connie and Boot Hill brought a civil suit against Ash Robinson for the wrongful death of John Hill.


Ultimately, 3 people were arrested for the murder of John Hill.  Bobby Vandiver and girlfriend Marcia McKittrick admitted complicity, but claimed that they had been hired by a notorious Houston brothel madam, Lilla Paulus. When Vandiver was shot by police in an unrelated incident, McKittrick, promised a 10-year sentence, agreed to testify against Paulus. Additional testimony was provided by Paulus' own daughter. She told the court of overhearing her mother say, "Ash Robinson is looking for somebody to kill John Hill." Eventually Paulus was convicted and sentenced to 35 years imprisonment in 1975.

When the wrongful death civil suit was finally brought to trial after a nearly 10 year battle, Lilla Paulus' daughter declined to testify, leaving Marcia McKittrick as the main witness against Robinson. A polygraph examination indicated that she was being truthful in saying that Robinson had caused the death of John Hill. A similar test suggested that Robinson was being truthful when he said he hadn't. Given this welter of confusion, the jury acquitted Robinson of collusion in the death of his son-in-law, and the suit was quashed.

The movie that I watched back in the 1980's left no doubt in anyone's mind that John Hill had murdered his wife.  It further showed Ann Kurth as a victim in this story.  However, after researching the matter, I am of the conclusion that while John Hill may indeed have poisoned his wife, Ann Kurth was certainly no victim.

Did John Hill murder his wife or did he just seize an opportunity when it presented itself to him?  Perhaps John didn't murder his wife.  Perhaps she became sick with something that would lead to her death if left untreated and John simply elected not to get her medical treatment but to allow whatever ailment she had to consume her.  Then he is left a widow with their minor son to care for.  For a man desperate to get out of a marriage, this must have seemed to be a win-win situation for him.

As for the other players in this story, no one seems certain of Connie Hill's whereabouts but one thing is fairly obvious.  She apparently was a good person who believed in her husband's innocence and took care of Boot until he was an adult.

Robert Ashton "Boot" Hill supposedly went on to graduate law school becoming a criminal prosecutor.  Later he became Chief of Legislative Affairs for the Montgomery County State's Attorney's Office.

So is this story an unsolved mystery where the murderer gets away scott free, then the grieving father hires someone to murder him?  Or is this a case of a greedy doctor who wanted to marry his mistress without losing any of "his" worldly possessions and seizes upon an opportunity to become a widower when his wife contracts toxic shock syndrome?

Either way, it doesn't bode well for the character of Dr. John Hill.

My taste for gore

After my last post, a dear friend of mine e-mailed me. At the end of her e-mail she stated that I appeared to have a taste for gore. Partially true.

I do find unusual murders fascinating. I'm really not that big into serials killers. I was at one point but eventually they all appeared to be somewhat the same. Bad childhood, started out killing/torturing animals, blah, blah, blah. There really are just so many tales of childhood abuse or neglect that I can stomach. So I eventually tired of the whole serial killer thing.

Now, familial killing. That is my "new" kick. I don't mean the Melendez type of killing. They were just greedy spoiled brats. Nothing interesting there. You know the type. Greedy kids, wives, husbands, etc just want to do away with the parent or spouse just to get some money type of killings. Those bore me as well. Unless the perp is seriously out of this world crazy. Below are my favorite familial killers at the moment. A common thread in these murders is greed. Remember, I said I wasn't interested in greed killings unless the murderer was seriously nuts. Well, these are. So sit back and enjoy my "favorite killers of the moment".

Diane Downs. I have discussed her in my previous blog so you all know what fascinates me about this case.

Marie Hilley.
Aww, Marie. This woman was indeed out of her frigging mind. She was from Anniston, Alabama and she had always aspired to be rich, beautiful and refined. Unfortunately for Marie, she was born into a working class family who lived in a small town. Not much opera, ballet and high society exposure there. She was very attractive but that didn't help her much in her goal to be "upper class". She married a hard working man in 1951, had a daughter and then discovered insurance. She poisoned her husband with arsenic in 1975. A long hard death. An autopsy revealed symptoms consistent with hepatitis (whose symptoms closely match arsenic poisoning) and this was put on his death certificate as the cause of death.

When he died, she inherited a small policy. She spent it and much more within the course of a couple of years. She needed more so she insured her daughter and began to poison her. Unfortunately for Marie, the daughter didn't die. In 1979 while Marie was in jail for giving the insurance company hot checks for her daughter's insurance premiums, she was arrested for attempted murder. They dug up her husband and tested his remains and popped a murder charge on her for that. For some odd reason, the authorities allowed her to get bond and Marie took off. Marie remained a fugitive for over 3 years.

In her absence, they determined that both her mother and her mother-in-law had substantial levels of arsenic in their bodies when they died.

Marie moved to Florida using the name Robbi and met and married a well to do man named Holman, who by all accounts, was just the nicest guy in the world (you know what women like Marie do to these kinds of guys). They moved to New Hampshire after a couple of years. She worked in an office where she alienated several of the employees with her attitude and stories of how upper class she was. During this time, she told people she had an identical twin sister named Terri who lived in Texas.

When one co-worker in particular began to openly and publicly question the comments Marie would make at work about her "privileged life", Marie figured it was time for Robbie to disappear. So, in 1982 she told her husband that she needed to travel to Texas to visit her sister and to receive treatments for a disease she supposedly had. A few months later, "Terri" called to tell him Robbie had passed away and that Terri had donated her body to science so there would be no memorial.

On November 12 or 13, after changing her hair color and losing weight, she returned to New Hampshire and met John Homan, posing as Teri Martin, his “deceased” wife’s sister. She further went to the office where "Robbie" worked and met the suspicious employee. Rather than satisfying the employee's curiosity, it only made her more suspicious.

An obituary for Robbie Homan appeared in a New Hampshire newspaper. The co-worker contacted the police with her suspicions and when they attempted to check out the information contained in the obituary they were unable to verify any of the information it contained. A New Hampshire state police detective surmised that the woman living as Teri Martin was, in fact, Robbi Homan and had staged her death. That hunch paid off and shortly after police brought “Teri Martin” in for questioning, she confessed to being Audrey Marie Hilley. She was returned to Alabama to face trial.

She was quickly convicted and sentenced to life in prison for her husband’s murder and 20 years for attempting to kill her daughter.

She began serving her sentence in 1983 and was a quiet, model prisoner. This good behavior earned her several one-day passes from the prison, and she always arrived back on time.

In February 1987, however, Hilley escaped after she was given a three-day pass to visit her husband, John Homan, who had moved to Anniston to be near his wife. They spent a day at an Anniston motel and when Homan left for a few hours, she disappeared, leaving behind a note for Homan asking his forgiveness. Her escape prompted an inquiry into the prison system’s furlough policy.

This time, she did not stay missing very long. Four days after she vanished, Anniston police responding to a call about a suspicious person, went to a home and found her. She apparently had been crawling around in the woods, drenched by four days of frequent rain and numb from temperatures dropping to the low 30s. She had landed on the steps of a house within yards from the house where she had grown up. The very house she had struggled, connived and murdered to escape.

She was taken to a local hospital and underwent emergency treatment for hypothermia. While at the hospital she suffered a heart attack and died.

John Homan, her husband, was murdered in 1989. His time with Marie had depleted all of his resources and the man who once owned sailboats and houses in multiple states was reduced to working at the same motel where he and Marie had last stayed as a caretaker. An altercation occurred on his shift and when John stepped in to help, he was stabbed to death.

Robert O. Marshall

This man killed for greed and sex. In 1984, Rob Marshall was a successful business man with 3 perfect sons (one of whom later married Tracy Gold, the actress), a perfect and beautiful wife who all lived in a perfect and beautiful house in a perfect and beautiful suburb of Tom's River, NJ.

However, Rob wasn't as successful as he would lead everyone, his family included, to believe. He was heavily in debt and to top it off had a married neighbor on the side that he wanted to marry. Problem was, he had a wife who had never worked outside the home, 3 children and a heavy mortgage. He would be ruined if he went the divorce route. So, what is the alternative? Insure her to the hilt and then murder her. Life would be good. Or so he thought.

So he hired a former deputy sheriff from Louisiana and a couple of his thugs to "hijack" them at a lonely rest stop one night. They killed Mrs. Marshall and hit Rob on the head. This story is full of twists and turns and craziness by Rob. He attempts suicide and lands up in an asylum for a short time. He professes his undying love for his wife while her ashes sat collecting dust in the funeral parlor for over a year and a half. Also before he buried his wife, the boys came home from school one day to find their father's new, and much younger, flame (the married neighbor had dumped him) trying on their dead mother's clothes, furs and jewelry. When his "hitman" doesn't act quickly enough, he hires another one to kill the original hitman (this second man tips off the first who finally gets the job done). His sons are divided as to his guilt but ultimately, he is found guilty and given the death sentence. This death sentence has since been reduced to life in prison and the enormous insurance policy he had on his wife went to his sons who now will have nothing to do with him.

So, Rob Marshall sits in prison with a life sentence. Amazing story again of someone who just doesn't see that he did anything wrong.

Patricia Vann Radcliffe and Tom Allanson

I can't talk about this case without naming both parties because the situation is just too bizarre for me not to mention them both.

Patricia thought of herself as special. Her parents had always bailed her out and she'd never had to take responsibility for herself. Partly because of that, she felt that her husband ought to be able to give her anything she wanted. She needed constant attention—what some men might call high maintenance---and unqualified love. She first had married an army sergeant and stayed with him long enough to have three children, but got tired of him, so she left him in 1972 to find a better quality of life—what she felt she deserved. She met Tom Allanson, six years younger than her. She had her eye on someone else, but it looked like Tom could give her whatever she wanted.

Nothing she ever had was enough. She had to make things go her way and she did: through manipulation, poisoning, theft, lies, and deceit. Her presence was a constant danger to people who stood in her way: her brother a "suicide", her new in-laws shot dead, her grandparents-in-law nearly poisoned by arsenic, her employer severely overdosed, her daughter, who finally saw the awful truth about her mother, possibly poisoned. A narcissistic personality, without a shred of conscience, she systematically destroyed her own family.

Tom had money and as soon as he was divorced, he was quite insistent that Pat marry him. He later recalled that he was the one who pressured her, while she would say, "You don't want to marry me." Yet she could just as easily have been stoking the fire by making herself unobtainable.

In 1974, he married her dressed as Rhett Butler, while she played Scarlett, and gave her a heavily-mortgaged, 52-acre home in Zebulon, Georgia, that she referred to as Tara. They set about to raise Morgan horses, and even Jimmy Carter, then governor of Georgia, came to visit. Pat's ambitions of being the proper Southern belle were being realized—or so it seemed.

When Walter Allanson, Tom's father, disapproved of her and angrily tried to force Tom out of his life (and will), Pat filed complaints of sexual harassment against him, claiming that he had exposed himself to her. Tom grew alarmed over this, along with threats that he heard that his father was going to kill him, so he took out a restraining order. Yet his father was taking a defensive stand, believing that his own son was out to kill him. Someone had stolen a pistol and rifle from his home and he was convinced it was his son. The police searched Tom's home and came up empty-handed, yet the intense fear and anger continued to grow on both sides. With no form of communication taking place, it was the perfect set-up for a manipulative psychopath who wanted to get something for herself.

This back and forth paranoia goes on for some time with anonymous phone calls to Tom and also to his father telling them of potential threats to their lives by the other. Mysterious drive by shootings followed up with more anonymous "tips" until one day the trap is complete. The elder Allansons are murdered and Tom is accused of the killings.

Tom was soon arrested. Pat insists on directing the defense. When Pat told a number of lies to the attorney in an alleged attempt to provide Tom with an alibi, the situation became even more suspicious. Tom had his own story—also a lie—and it didn't match. He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. At the time of the murders, he and Pat had been married less than two months, and now Pat had the farm to herself. It wasn't long before she tried to talk Tom into a suicide pact, which he later felt sure was an attempt to get him to die so she would inherit everything.


Tom is convicted and sentenced to life. Pat was left alone, so then turns her attention to Tom's remaining family, ingratiating herself with his invalid grandparents. Her house and barns burned down, and she forged Tom's signature to get the insurance payments. When she's certain that the grandparents name her as a major beneficiary in their wills, she begins lacing their food with arsenic. But before she can kill them, she's caught - and does eight years for attempted murder.

Released and apparently reformed, she's hired as a practical nurse by a rich Atlanta couple, Mr. and Mrs. Crist. The aged pair soon sickens; the husband dies, and Pat is convicted of attempted murder and theft.

Once again, Pat was facing prison time. In a shrewd and controversial plea bargain, she agreed to seven charges, including theft, attempted murder, and posing as a registered nurse, with the proviso that she never be charged with the murder of Mr. Crist or investigated for the murder of Tom's parents. One again, she was sentenced to eight years.

There is never a shortage of news about Patricia Vann Radcliffe Taylor Allanson Taylor, Pat is 70 now, and scarcely the slender and lovely Southern Belle she once was. Several years ago, she was paroled from her second prison sentence--for pretending to be a "Registered Nurse," and poisoning and stealing from the elderly Crist couple.

Pat returned to McDonough, Georgia, to move in with her stepfather, Clifford,” The Colonel" Radcliffe and his new bride, Aggie whom he had married a few months after "Boppo" died. (Aggie was Pat's mother Boppo's younger sister.) Pat has a small doll shop nearby: "Pat's Pretty Playthings." Aggie passed away last year, and Pat's son, Ronnie, also died in 2004. Pat is battling Ronnie's widow over who will possess his remains.

Radcliffe is in his nineties and was hospitalized several times in 2005. When he is home, Pat cares for him and oversees his business affairs. Pat bears much ill will toward her granddaughter, Ashlynne, now in her twenties, and, of course toward her daughter, Susan, who was instrumental in Pat's most recent arrest. Susan lives on the West Coast, but occasionally gets ominous messages from Pat. Susan and Bill divorced many years ago, and Susan has happily remarried and is slowly putting her family back together.

The now-released Tom gives stunning suggestions of how Pat engineered the killing of his parents. I can see how he would feel totally manipulated by Pat but come on.........he's the one who pulled the trigger MORE than once and killed both of his parents. She may have pushed him to do it and she may have set the stage, but HE did the killing. He needs to accept responsibility for HIS actions as well as, blaming Pat. Personally, I'd be ashamed to admit that I was such a puss that someone could talk me into murdering my parents. Unbelievable.

UPDATE: As of February, 2008 the elderly Georgia woman who had twice been convicted of attempted murder in arsenic poisoning cases, stood before a Fayette County Magistrate on felony drug charges. According to Lt. Jody Thomas of the Fayette County Drug Task Force, Pat Taylor (as she is now known), 70, was arrested Tuesday and charged with doctor shopping for thousands of pain pills over the past year.

“We believe she may have received over 3,700 pills in less than a year,” said Thomas. Lt. Thomas said officials suspect Taylor was using the pain medication herself. He said normally the quantity of pain pills would indicate the suspect was selling narcotics, but that did not appear to be the case with Taylor.


Betty Broderick

This story is convoluted at best. Dan Broderick was not at all a sympathetic victim nor was his new much younger bride with whom he had carried on an affair for quite some time before he decided to divorce Betty. Linda was also his office assistant when their affair started.

Dan was by all accounts, vain, selfish, cold and verbally abusive to Betty. He belittled her at every opportunity during their marriage and once the divorce proceedings began he jumped at every opportunity to harass her and put her in her place.

On the other hand. Betty was a wild cat during the divorce. She did not take it well (at all) that most of their friends became his friends. Their 4 children seemed to want to spend more time with their father and his new wife than with her and she saw that as him brainwashing the kids and taking them away from her after having taken everything and everyone else.

It should also be said that Betty worked multiple jobs so that Dan could finish medical school and then when he decided later that he didn't want to be a doctor but a lawyer, Betty worked her butt off again to make sure he could finish law school while raising 4 children and being the social butterfly she was expected to be.

I can understand her feelings about Dan and Linda to an extent. Linda had in essence taken over Betty's life. Betty had been traded in for a new model and was expected to go away quietly and retire. Not Betty.

Dan gave Betty an allowance of $17,000 a month. That's a lot of money these days but back in 1984, it was a tremendous amount. She also lived in a multi-million dollar home and drove a top of the line car. But that wasn't going to work for her. She wanted her life back!

Whenever Betty would commit an act of harassment against either Dan or Linda (little things such as running a truck through the front of their house while they had a dinner party or stealing their door key off her daughters key chain so she could go inside their new home and destroy it) Dan would "fine" her by deducting the amount of money it cost him to repair or replace the things she destroyed out of her monthly check. This enraged Betty.

The last time Dan fined her, some reports state that Betty had a row with her children where they begged her to stop acting crazy and then told her they wanted to go live with Dan and Linda. This was enough for Betty. It was all she could take and that night, she went to their new house, broke in and killed them both as they lay sleeping in their bed.

To be fair, I honestly and fervently believe that Betty was raped by the courts in her divorce. Dan gave her $17,000 a month temporary support but he was raking in over $300,000 a month in a career that SHE had financed for him by working her butt off so he could concentrate on his law studies.

When it looks as if the money is rolling in and Betty can finally kick back and reap the rewards of her years of hard work, Dan starts a 6 year affair with is 20 something assistant and leaves Betty.

When the divorce was finalized, the court ultilized the "Epstein" credits that California courts use as a means of "debiting" the non-working spouse for loans and money given to them from the time of the divorce filing until the time of the divorce finalization. After the credits were subtracted from her settlement, Betty only received around $30,000 in a cash settlement BUT she was still responsible for HALF of the marital debts to that point.

Dan was the President of the Bar Association in San Diego and he most assuredly used every trick in the book and pulled every string he could find to make certain that Betty walked away with nothing and he accomplished that feat quite well.

For a woman who feels her life is utterly out of control and she has no one to help her and no place to turn, I can see that she might entertain the thought of murder. I probably might in her situation. However, I wouldn't actually do it. She did.

She, to this day, denies that she did anything wrong. Dan and Linda wouldn't leave her alone. Dan and Linda took her life away from her. Dan and Linda were poisoning her children's minds against her. blah, blah, blah. Fact of the matter is, she killed them. When she shot Dan he fell off the bed. As he crawled towards the phone she walked over, pulled the cord out of the wall and beat him in the head with it. I actually saw an in person interview once where Betty talked about this part and actually chuckled about beating him in the head with the phone. I think the situation could have been handled a bit differently.

All of the above examples are perfect examples of how these seriously flawed minds work. They, without exception, have no remorse for any of their actions. Everything they did, they had to do in order to have what they wanted. They seem to truly believe that it's not their fault that another human being just happened to get in their way. They appear to believe that each victim, in essence, caused their own murders simply by the fact that they stood between the murderer and what that murderer wanted.

It's intriguing to me, obviously.

But that's just me.
(Note: Much of the Patricia Allanson information above was originally found on the Ann Rule Website. My thanks to Ms. Rule)