Patricia Allanson | Murderpedia, the encyclopedia of murderers

Patricia Taylor ALLANSON

A.K.A.: "The Deadly Magnolia"

Classification: Murderer?

Characteristics: Financial gain

Number of victims: 1 - 3

Date of murders: 1974 / 1991

Date of birth: August 22, 1937

Victims profile: Walter and his wife Carolyn (her parent's in law) / James Crist Sr.

Method of murder: Shooting / Poisoning

Location: Zebulon/Atlanta, Georgia, USA

Status: Never convicted of murder. Different sentences of 8 years

information

Everything She Ever Wanted: Patricia Allanson (1991)

Ann Rule

Patricia Vann Taylor Allanson was born in 1937. She was adored by her aunts and especially by her grandmother. She was a beautiful child with big green eyes and blondish hair. She was quick and clever and grew up to be a beautiful teenager. Pat was spoiled by her mother, Margureitte and stepfather, Colonel Clifford Radcliffe. growing up to be an Army brat. She had a younger step-brother, Kent, whom she loved to bully and tease without mercy.

But there was a darker side to Pat. If she didn't get her way, she would throw a tantrum. If that didn't work, she manipulated her way. She learned how to charm both men and women -- especially if they had something she wanted.

Pat married at the very young age of fifteen. Her new husband was Gil Taylor, a hopeful young Army sergeant, and Pat embarked on a military life. Soon she had three children, Susan, Debbie and Ronnie, but she discovered that she didn't want all of the hard work that involved being a mother. And the lifestyle in the military was not her dreams of having a fine home and raising horses. So Pat did what she always did -- appeal to her parents for help.

Soon enough, Pat was living near or with her parents, having her mother help her out with the children, and Gil was often off on his deployments alone. The marriage started falling apart, and in 1971 they divorced.

In 1973, Pat met Tom Allanson, a tall, strong handsome man, son of a wealthy lawyer, who was just as passionately interested in horses as she was. He was six years younger than her. Although she had her eye on someone else, it looked like Tom could give her everything she ever wanted. Unfortunately, Tom was married and in the process of an ugly divorce from a woman known as Little Carolyn. However, the biggest problem for Pat was Tom's parents, Walter and Big Carolyn Allanson. They didn't approve of Pat. They were gravely disappointed in Tom and viewed divorce as not being an option. They sided with Little Carolyn, and the relationship between Tom and his family deteriorated. There were accusations flying between both sides along with some pretty dreadful threats.

Life started to look up for Tom and Pat. They purchased a heavily-mortgaged, 52-acre farm in Zebulon, Georgia, and started their dream of raising and showing horses together. In May 1974 they were married in a "Gone With The Wind" style ceremony. He was dressed as Rhett Butler and she as Scarlett O'Hara. It appeared that things were going to work out but........

The feud between Tom and his father over Pat escalated to the point that his father angrily tried to force Tom out of his life. To get even, Pat filed a complaint 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. His father on the other hand believed 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. The intense fear and anger continued to grow on both sides. With no communication taking place, it was the perfect set-up for a manipulative psychopath who wanted to get everything for herself.

On July 29, 1974, while taking a trip in their car, Walter and his wife, Carolyn, were shot at by someone. They survived the inexplicable attack and felt sure that Tom had been behind it. The situation between father and son grew more paranoid until August 3. On that day, Tom dropped Pat off at the doctor and then walked over to see his mother when he was sure his father would not be home. Pat had told him that someone had been calling their house all night long and said nothing. She felt sure it was Walter, so Tom felt it was time to try to straighten things out. Otherwise, he thought his father might try to shoot him off his horse in the parade that weekend. His mother was not home but Tom felt she would be returning shortly, so to avoid the possibility of running into Walter, he went to the basement to wait for his mother to return.

After receiving a call from an unknown woman informing him that Tom was at his home, Walter returned home. The electricity was off, so he went into the basement to look around. He found the switch box had been tampered with. He attempted to call the police, but the phone line had been cut. He went to a neighbor's home to use the phone to get the police out there. When they arrived, Walter said he'd take care of the situation himself, so they left. He returned to the basement and started shooting randomly. Carolyn was home by that time. He called up to her that he had Tom cornered and needed the gun he'd just purchased, so she grabbed it to bring it to him.

When the police officers arrived once again in response to an emergency call, they found Carolyn Allanson sitting upright on the basement steps, shot dead. Through the basement window, they could see Walter laying on the ground. He'd been shot numerous times. The police immediately suspected Tom. He'd been seen there, and a man matching his description had been seen running from the crime scene.

Tom was soon arrested. 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 with Pat's story. 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.

Pat began working on Tom's wealthy grandparents until they finally named her in their will as the primary beneficiary. Her house and barns burned down, and she forged Tom's signature to get the insurance payments. She feed arsenic laced food to Tom's grandparents. However, when they grew ill she was caught and ended up in prison for eight years.

When she got out, she started her scheming again. This time, she persuaded a wealthy couple from Atlanta, Mr. and Mrs. James Crist, to hire her as a nurse. It wasn't long before they, also, got sick and Mr. Crist died.

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

Patricia Taylor Allanson, the Deadly Magnolia, was released from prison in 1999.

In February 2008, Patricia Taylor Allanson, age 70, was arrested and charged with doctor shopping for thousands of pain pills over the past year. It is believed she may have received over 3,700 pills in less than a year. Her bond was set at $22,500 for three felony counts of unauthorized distribution.

This Southern Belle just can't seem to help herself. On second thought, she has done nothing but help herself to get everything she ever wanted no matter the cost.

MisteryCrimescene.com

Killing Through Others

By Katherine Ramsland - Trutv.com

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.

He 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. Ann Rule indicates that she had quite another scheme at work that would eventually involve murder.

When Walter Allanson, Tom's father, disapproved of her and angrily tried to force Tom out of his life, 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.

On July 29, 1974, Walter and his wife, Carolyn, were ambushed. As they took a trip in their car, someone began to shoot at them. They survived the inexplicable attack and felt sure that Tom had orchestrated it, although he was far away on that day. The situation between father and son grew more paranoid until August 3.

On that day, Tom dropped Pat off at the doctor and then walked over to see his mother when he was sure his father would not be home. Pat had told him that someone had been calling their house all night long and then had just breathed. She felt sure it was Walter, so Tom felt it was time to try to straighten things out. Otherwise, he thought his father might try to shoot him off his horse in the parade that weekend. His mother was not home, although he expected her, so to avoid the possibility of running into Walter, he checked the basement door, found it unlocked, and went to sit inside and wait.

To his surprise, Walter came home—it was later determined that he'd received a call from an unknown woman telling him that Tom was at his house---and began to rant and rave over Tom's presence.

The electricity was off, so he went into the basement to look around, found the switch box tampered with, and then went out to call the police. But the phone line had been cut, so he used a neighbor's phone to get the police out there. They arrived, but Walter said he'd take care of the situation himself, so they left. He then went back into the basement and started shooting randomly.

Carolyn was home by that time and he called up to her that he had Tom cornered. He needed the gun he'd just purchased, so she grabbed it to bring it to him. Tom later claimed that he panicked, certain that his father would kill him. He could not imagine how he had gotten into such a situation.

When officers arrived once again in response to an emergency call, they found Carolyn Allanson sitting upright on the basement steps, shot dead. Through the basement window, they could see numerous sprays of blood. Not far away inside, Walter lay on the ground. He'd been shot numerous times—it was later determined that there were 20 separate entrance wounds---and the police immediately suspected Tom. He'd been seen there, and a man matching his description had run from the crime scene.

Tom was soon arrested. 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.

Pat was left alone, so she began working on Tom's wealthy grandparents until they finally named her in their will as the primary beneficiary. Her house and barns burned down, and she forged Tom's signature to get the insurance payments. Then she laced food with arsenic to feed to Tom's grandparents. However, when they grew ill she was caught and ended up in prison for eight years.

Once she got out, she started up again with her scheming. She persuaded a wealthy couple from Atlanta, Mr. and Mrs. James Crist, to hire her as a nurse. It wasn't long before they, too, got sick and the husband died.

In the meantime, Tom had served 15 and a half years and gotten out on parole. Investigators on the Crist case arranged to see him to find out what had happened the day he had shot his parents. It was their belief that Pat had not only choreographed the entire episode by fanning the flames of paranoia between father and son and then by sending them into a head-on confrontation, but also that she had fully expected Tom to die. The investigators believed Pat had hired someone to ambush Walter and Carolyn and to cut their phone lines, but they couldn't prove anything. Tom's story might solve the riddle.

As they spoke with him, a new piece of information came out: after shooting his parents in self-defense---afraid they meant to trap and kill him---he had run to find Pat and she had told him to find his own way home—60 miles away. He had done so without question. Both of them had denied seeing each other that morning, and even as he protected Pat, it wasn't long before he had wondered if he and his father had both been set up.

Pat was a liar, Tom told the investigators. "Pat was a headstrong, manipulative type person that would do anything to get what she wanted—and you do not know she was doing it." He had given her everything: his money, his power of attorney, his home, and his heart, and she had taken full advantage. The tragedy of his life would never have happened, he believed, if he hadn't married Pat.

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.

In an update on her Web site, Rule writes that Patricia Allanson has been free from prison since 1999 and lives with her stepfather and his new wife.

While it seems evident that Pat was among those women who set other people up to kill, some women do the killing and then deflect the blame to others.

Patricia Allanson always thought of herself as special. Her parents took any responsibility away from her and thus Patricia was convinced that a husband had to give her anything she ever dreamed of.

Patricia found this with her first husband, an army seargeant and had three children with him. Obviously he was not giving enough so she headed for six year younger Tom Allanson, who seemed able to offer her what she meant to deserve.

They started their honeymoon dressed like Scarlett and Rhett Butler on their heavily mortgaged 52-acre home “Tara” in Zebulon (GA). They raised Morgan horses and Patricia´s “Scarlett dreams” seemed to come true.

It was only two months after their marriage that Patricia talked her husband into a paranoia that his father, Walter Allanson, wanted to kill him. Walter Allanson made no secret about being against his daughter-in-law.

When a pistol and a rifle were stolen from Walter Allanson´s home, his father on the other hand believed that his son planned to kill him.

Police searched Tom´s home - without result.

On June 29, 1974 Walter and his wife Carolyn took a ride with their car, when someone shot at them. Despite Tom was far away, they were convinced that her son had organized the attack.

When Tom wanted to discuss the escalating situation on July 3, he went to his parents home and found nobody at home. He went to the basement to wait for his mother´s return. To his surprise his father came home, who had received an anonymous call by a woman, that Tom would be in the house. After some struggle Walter called the police but sent them away when they arrived. When his wife Carolyn came home, Walter demanded her to bring him the gun, he recently bought.

When police officers arrived once again after another emergency call, they found Carolyn and Walter shot numerous times.

Tom was soon arrested as prime suspect and Patricia tried to get him out by telling lies. Also Tom told lies and so he was convicted and sentenced to life.

Soon after Patricia tried to convince Tom into a suicide pact, he later thought, this was her attempt to get rid of him and inherit everything.

Patricia now had the farm for herself, two months after their marriage only. When the farm and barns burned down, Patricia forged Tom´s signature to get the insurance payments.

She then worked on Tom´s wealthy grandparents, who made her primary beneficiary in their will. Patricia fed them arsenic with their meals and when they grew ill, she was arrested and convicted to eight years in prison.

After her release she did not hesitate to persuade a wealthy couple from Atlanta, Mr. and Mrs. Christ, to hire her as nurse. Mr. Christ survived only a short period.

Meantime police had quested Tom again, who was free on parole after serving 15 years in prison. They found Patricia Allanson to be a manipulative liar who obviously choreographed Tom´s parents homicide.

In a controversial plea bargain Patricia Allanson agreed to seven charges, including theft, attempted murder and posing as registered nurse for not being charged with the murder of Mr. Christ or the murders of Tom´s parents.

Patricia Allanson went to prison for another eight years and allegedly lives with her stepfather and his new wife since her release 1999.

The Deadly Magnolia: Patricia Allanson

By Kim Cantrell - KimKantrell.hubpages.com

Right out of the starting gate, Mary Linda Patricia Vann didn't have much of a chance of not becoming a teenage mother. Her maternal family had special talent from bringing children into the world; the fact they didn't (as we say in the South) have a pot to piss was of little regard.

It was really no surprise when Pat found herself knocked-up and unwed at fifteen. Marrying the teenage baby daddy was a useless endeavor and, with three children in tow, had returned home to the home of her mother and stepfather.

While many young mothers would have been defeated after a failed marriage, not Pat. She had big dreams. Big, big dreams. All she needed was to find and marry a wealthy man to achieve them.

After a couple of relationships that didn't pan out, Pat met Tom Allanson, a handsome young man from a wealthy Georgia family. His father was prominent Georgia attorney Walter Allanson.

Pat cared little that Tom was six years her junior or married with a young child, her only focus was the money and she was determined to tie herself to it.

While Pat turned women against her with her high maintenance attitude, she had a way of wrapping men around her little finger and Tom was no exception. As soon as his divorce was final, he proposed to Pat and although she played coy with "You don't want to marry me" a few times, she ultimately agreed.

She was finally living the dream.

Scarlett and Rhett

Pat had always related to Scarlett O'Hara, the protagonist from Margaret Mitchell's 1936 novel Gone With The Wind. Scarlett was a woman who knew what she wanted and wouldn't stop until she got, without stopping to think of anyone other than herself and just how many, past and future, would describe Pat. The only difference between Scarlett and Pat was the former was fiction. Pat, unfortunately, was not.

So it's not much of a surprise that Pat's new marriage would begin on a Gone With The Wind theme wedding, complete with southern belle style bridesmaid dresses and parasols. Pat was dressed as Scarlett and Tom completed the scene in his Rhett Butler attire.

When the ceremony was complete, the couple made their escape in a horse-drawn carriage.

It was definitely a wedding event to remember.

Not So Wedded Bliss

What might have been obvious to others appeared not to be so to Pat. Independently, Tom wasn't wealthy; it was his parents who held the purse strings. And try as she may, Walter and Carolyn Allanson refused to accept their son's divorce; much less his remarriage to some floozy with an over-inflated sense of self-worth. What Tom had done to their family was a disgrace.

Tom didn't care. He was crazy about Pat and determined to give her everything she ever wanted. So the couple soon purchased a Zebulon, Georgia, 52-acre farm with a beautiful gorgeous home that Pat named Tara and set about their life raising Morgan horses. The heavily mortgaged estate was quite the attraction, even earning a visit from then Georgia governor Jimmy Carter.

It may have appeared to many that the Allanson wealth was following the son, but the monthly debt-to-income ratio said otherwise.

A Woman On A Vengeance

Walter and Carolyn were so disgusted with their son that they had cut him from their lives and their will. Instead, they had made provisions for their grandchild and Tom's first wife in the event of their deaths.

Pat was furious. Nobody, especially not Tom's parents, were going to stand in her way of getting the money she saw as rightfully hers.

One day Tom came home to find a disheveled Pat on the porch. When he asked what happened, Pat told a pitiful tale of visiting his father's office in the name of helping the family to reconcile their differences. Instead, Walter had exposed himself to her while making sexually lewd remarks.

Tom was outraged and was intent on confronting his father. Pat, however, insisted that he not; she agreed to a restraining order instead. Soon thereafter, Pat told Tom she'd heard rumors that Walter intended to kill Tom.

Alternatively, Walter told friends that he believed Tom was planning his murder. A pistol and rifle had recently been stolen from his home and he believed it was his son who had done so. Police searched the junior Allanson's home but were unable to locate the stolen weapons.

As communication among the Allansons became not existant, the tensions rose to all time high.

It was the perfect setting for a narcissistic sociopathic woman to make her next move.

The Murder of Walter and Carolyn

Anonymous phone calls to both Allanson homes filled with violent threats were unrelenting. Then on the evening of June 29, 1974, as Walter and Carolyn drove along a country road, they suddenly found themselves being fired upon. Terrified, the couple notified police who searched the area to no avail. But the Allansons were sure they knew who was responsible.

On the night of July 3, 1974, while the residents of the small Georgia town were celebrating Independence Day with picnics and fireworks, under the cover of darkness, Walter and Carolyn were viciously gunned down in the basement of their home.

Just before the brutal murder, Walter had received a call from an anonymous woman claiming that Tom had been seen entering the basement of his parents home. Walter rushed home and went straight to the basement where he called for Tom to come out and face him. When he received no response, he began firing a gun wildly around the basement while yelling to Carolyn to call the police.

When police arrived, the found the body of Walter Allanson on the basement floor and Carolyn was in slumped sitting position on the stairs.

The killer had fled the scene.

Of Homicide and Suicide

It was no secret that Tom and his parents had long been at odds, so Tom was investigator's first and prime suspect.

Tom is arrested and charged with murder. Pat immediately retains the services of a local attorney to represent Tom, but soon finds herself at odds with the hired gun when she insists on directing Tom's defense.

Defending Tom was no easy task. Tom insisted on one story while Pat insisted on another. Tom's attorney was frustrated beyond words.

As Tom awaited trial, his bride of only two months visited as often as allowed. During one of those visits, she presented Tom with a Bible - one of only a few books inmates were allowed to have from "the outside." But what jail personnel didn't know is that it was a tool being used by Pat to instigate a suicide pact.

Every chance she got, Patricia begged the man she loved to join her in suicide so they would not be separated - ever. Tom considered it, often thought about it, but simply could not bring himself to carry it out.

It goes without saying that Pat too did not commit suicide.

Townspeople weren't surprised when Tom Allanson was found guilty of his parents' murder and was sentenced to two life sentences, to run concurrent (two sentences at the time of only one).

Pat cried her crocodile tears and put on quite a show when Tom was escorted to prison. But the reality was, she now had all she ever wanted - just for her.

Next!

Kentwood Farms, the named given to the property upon which Tara sat, was still heavily mortgage and the indebtedness owed mostly to Tom's paternal grandparents who were lovingly referred to as Papaw and Nona.

With Walter and Carolyn gone and their grandson in prison, the elder Allansons were a prime target for a gold-digging murderer.

Doing her best Southern belle hostess act, Pat moved the elderly couple into her home and insisted she be their sole care provided. In declining health and no other family nearby to help them, the couple was thankful for Pat's generosity.

Soon Pat had convinced the Allansons that she and Tom (despite his status as a prison inmate) should be the sole heirs of the estate and the couple updated their wills in which they disinherited their daughter, Jean Boggs.

Living with Pat, Nona's health deteriorated rapidly. Although she had been sickly for some while, she'd never been bedridden as she was during her stay at Tara.Papaw was heartbroken. His health was deteriorating, his wife too was in poor health, in a short time he'd lost a son and daughter-in-law and his grandson was in prison. His daughter was angry and not speaking with him, other than to berate Pat - the one person who seemed to care about something more than his money.

Jean, however, finally broke through. After notifying the authorities of her suspicions, followed by tests which showed Nona and Papaw both had arsenic in their systems, and surprise testimony from Pat's daughter, Susan, claiming she saw her mother put arsenic in the elderly couple's food and drink, Pat finally faced consequences for her actions. She was sentenced to time in prison.

A New Start As Pat Taylor

As the American justice is prone to do, Pat was released after a relatively short period of time; the narcissistic murderess unleashed on a society unaware of the evil slinking among them.

In searching for employment, Pat convinced a prominent Atlanta, Georgia, couple, Mr. and Mrs. Jimmy Crist, Sr. to hire her and her daughter, Debbie, as home and caregivers. Mr. Crist survived only a short time after Pat began working for them. The Crist family believed that Pat neglected Jimmy and poisoned his wife, Betty Crist. But what was known for certain was that the mother-and-daughter team stolen money and valuables from the couple and lied about her status as a Registered Nurse.

In June 1991, Pat plead guilty to the charges and was served to another stint of 8 years in prison.

Tom Speaks Out

Prison gives a man a lot of time to think. And during his time in prison, he'd come to realize several things: Pat wasn't who she seemed to be, she had used him to orchestrate the murder of his parents, and would do anything for riches. Money was the only thing and herself the only person Pat had ever truly loved.

After being released from prison, having served 15 years, Tom again found himself a desired interview subject by police. This time, however, they weren't interested in accusing him, they wanted to know more about evil, manipulative woman he'd called wife.

Pat Allanson couldn't pull the puppet strings on Tom anymore.

Afterward

Pat was released from prison in 1999. She went to live with her stepfather and his new wife (Marguerite, Pat's mother had died by this time). There she opened a doll shop she named Pat's Pretty Play Things. (Pretty creepy, huh?)

In 2008, Pat was charged with doctor shopping and fraudentently obtaining over 3700 painkillers in less than a year. She was officially charge on three counts of unauthorized distribution. She entered a plea agreement with a sentence of probation only.

How much more will the lady now known as Pat Taylor get by with before she kills someone else? It may be an extremely rude thing to say, but since Pat is now in her 70s, hopefully she'll die before she kills someone else.

Tom Allanson has used his experience in prison to create a men’s post-release program: Set Free After-Care. Each year he provides a multitude of services, including housing, for men recently released from prison. His mission to is to provide a more smooth transition from prison to society living in hopes that fewer inmates will return to crime and ultimately prison.

Pat's only son passed away in 2004. It was said she engaged in a heated battle with his widow over his remains. Why she believed she was entitled to an opinion escapes most, and the outcome of the disagreement is publicly unknown.

Tom Allanson standing in front of housing built for his men's post-prison program.