Everything She Ever Wanted (95 page)

They had scarcely seen each other for months and then she lost him at

Christmas time, 1988.
 
It had always been such a special time, with

jimmy's birthday the day after Christmas.
 
James Crist died of acute

renal failure in Piedmont Hospital two days after his eighty-eighth

birthday.
 
His memorial service was held on December 30 at the

Cathedral of Saint Philip, and his body was cremated.

On a Tuesday morning in March 1991, soon after

their conversation with the Crists, Don Stoop and Michelle Berry drove

south of Atlanta to the little village of McDonough to talk with Susan

and Bill Alford.
 
Although Susan had not left her name the first time

she called the D.A."s office, Bill had convinced her that they had to

come forward and they had called back.
 
The investigators hoped to

learn more about Pat Taylor and her daughter, Debbie.
 
They didn't know

what to expect.
 
Ex-spouses often called the authorities about each

other; daughters rarely reported their mothers.

Susan Alford was a pretty woman, Stoop noted, with thick dark hair and

intense brown eyes.
 
She was shy, but she seemed resolute, although it

was obviously painful for her to review her mother's and sister's

histories.
 
Bill Alford was more voluble, a natural salesman, a man who

laughed easily.

"As we got into the case, and as the facts emerged," Michelle Berry

recalled, "I had to remind Don that, no matter how outrageous Pat

Taylor's behavior had been, this was Susan's mother, and there had to

be feelings there that still hurt."

"Susan Alford laid it out-this incredible story," Stoop said.

"At first, I couldn't believe it.
 
But Susan obviously needed to tell

what she knew.
 
And she knew a lot.
 
At that time, however, even Susan

wasn't aware of all we had found out.
 
There had been so much secrecy

in that family."

The Alfords said that they had never doubted Pat and Debbie's

explanation for being let go by the Crists-not until Debbie's

vituperative phone call just before Christmas, 199O.."She was accusing

Susan of making them lose their jobs, and it didn't make sense," Bill

said.
 
"That's why I called the Crists.
 
And Mrs. Crist told me that

Debbie and Pat were fired because she had been drugged-and because they

stole her blind!"
 
Bill said that Mrs. Crist had been "very vivid"

about what should be done to Pat and Debbie.

"What did she say?"
 
Stoop asked.

"She said that they should be put in jail."

The Alfords were frank with Don and Michelle about the terrible summer

of 1990, the reasons behind their moving in with "Boppo and Papa," and

the Thanksgiving Day blowup.
 
The investigators exchanged looks as Bill

described the episode of the dolls' hair.
 
Pat Taylor was not going to

be your everyday suspect.

Asked to go back to the time Pat and Debbie were working for the

Crists, Susan described her grandmother's concern about their sudden

affluence.
 
Debbie had bought a new yellow truck for cash, and her

mother had bought Persian rugs, jewelry, and things for her dolls.
 
"My

grandmother worried; she didn't think my mom and Debbie could make that

much money as sitters.

"Your mother and sister are registered nurses?"
 
Michelle asked.

Susan shook her head.
 
"My mother and sister haven't even graduated

from high school.
 
My mother was trained to be kind of a nursing

assistant-more like a sitter-when she was in the halfway house.
 
. .

.

They came to visit us in Florence in 1985, and Debbie was flashing

money around.
 
I said, 'How much money do you and Mom make?
 
Boppo has

been asking me about it.
 
Is everything up-front?"

And Debbie said, 'Well, I don't know.
 
I'm kind of worried about it

myself."

"A doctor had asked her about her credentials," Susan went on.
 
"Mom

told Debbie to say she went to the University of Munich.
 
I asked

Debbie, 'Don't you think that's a little strange?"
 
and she said, 'I

don't know."

" It would have been strange.
 
When Debbie lived in Munich she was four

years old.
 
Susan handed Stoop and Berry a handwritten resume Debbie

had given her.
 
Her "accomplishments" certainly looked impressive.

Teacher-Elem.
 
Sc.-Riding Instructor-Equitation Nurse, Surgical Assist

Private Duty-(Geriatrics) Manager of Medical Office with Following

Duties: - Personal & office corresp.

- depositories ù records - bookkeeping ù collection Debbie described

herself as dependable, efficient, amiable, adabtable [sic], competant

[sic].

Traveled abroad extensively as a child with parents and exposed to many

cultures and ethnic groups.

Education: Universite of Munich, Germany (Bad Toltz), Degree in Nursing

Continuing Education-Refresher courses in French and Spanish Susan said

that Debbie was currently working in a doctor's office and seemed to be

doing well.
 
She and Pat had given diabetes shots in their

"sitters'jobs," and Debbie still gave vitamin shots to their

grandfather, Colonel Radcliffe.

Susan felt that her sister would not have planned any complicated

subterfuge, but that Debbie always went along with their mother.
 
She

explained that her sister had had a sad, hard life, that Debbie had

always yearned for something beyond the teenage marriage she felt

trapped in.

"Was your mother ever in the armed forces?"
 
Stoop asked.

Susan shook her head.
 
"Only as a dependent.
 
My grandfather is a

lieutenant colonel-retired-and my father was a sergeant."

"Do you know," Stoop asked suddenly, "if they targeted these people?

How did they come across these people who were dying or elderly?"

- payroll - billing - hired, trained, supervised a staff of S "They had

a good reputation-like Mrs. Mansfield's son, Lawrence, heard about

them from Sue and Hudden Jones.... Everyone just loved them."

Susan said that Debbie had been concerned early on that their mother

was simply taking what she wanted from her patients' rooms or homes.

"Debbie would deliberately set something in a certain position, and

lots of times it would disappear."
 
Later, Susan feared Debbie got into

the spirit of things with her mother.
 
"My grandmother said I was a

fool to think Debbie wasn't involved.

She said, 'Honey, you can bet that Debbie knows exactly what she's

doing."

" "What about jewelry?"
 
Stoop asked.
 
"Mrs. Crist said there was a

large quantity of jewelry missing."

"I know that Debbie and Mom felt justified taking some things.

Sometimes, they would say that they were given to them."

"What type of things are we talking about?"

"Small items.
 
jewelry.
 
Sterling.
 
Knickknacks.
 
My mother liked

antiquelooking things.
 
. . . Hatpins.
 
She gave me a pearl

necklace-more of a choker, and I believe it has two strands.
 
Then

there is a bracelet.
 
It has a big gold clasp on the pearls, and

they're gorgeous."

Stoop's ears perked up at that, but he didn't change his expression.

The pearl set sounded like the one Betty Crist had reported missing.

Susan said she had the set in her room and she could show them.
 
In

fact, her mother had given the family a number of beautiful pieces of

jewelry.
 
A gaudy 'made ring for Boppo.
 
A solid eighteen-karat gold

man's ring with a lapis stone to Papa for his seventy-fifth birthday.

Her mother kept a cedar chest full of miniature sterling pieces and

antique pillboxes for herself.

Stoop knew a lapis stone ring had disappeared from the Crists'.
 
"You

know anything about a Rolex watch?"
 
he asked.

"No.
 
My sister would have gotten that if there was one."

"Why do you say that Debbie would have gotten that?"
 
Stoop was

fascinated.

He knew that a Rolex was missing from the Crists', but Susan didn't.

He also knew that Debbie was the one who had signed for it at the

jewelers.
 
"My mother would have had no interest in a Rolex.
 
. . .

Debbie would have gotten a Rolex in a minute.
 
. . . Debbie had a

shoplifting problem in the past.
 
She justified what she did by the

stores' high prices.

She's a store detective's nightmare."

Susan had not seen a Rolex watch, however.

"The lapis ring?"
 
Michelle Berry asked carefully.
 
"Does your

grandfather still wear that?"

Susan nodded.
 
"And I think I have some video from his birthday party

where he's wearing it.
 
@y?"

It was apparent that Susan was vacillating between a certain sense of

relief that her suspicions could be validated and a wrenching awareness

of what her mother had done.
 
Her eyes often filled with tears, and she

cleared her throat frequently.

"Let's get back to the idea that Debbie and Pat-your mother were

registered nurses," Stoop said.
 
"Did they ever tell you that they

prescribed medicine or called in medications and picked them up?"

Susan shook her head.
 
"What they did tell me was that Mrs. Crist had

her medicine delivered to her home .
 
. . Debbie took one of Mrs.