Lethal Embrace by Michael Benson

Author:Michael Benson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2014-12-24T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 30

Paul’s World, According to Lee Ann

At some point Lee Ann’s lawyer, Bruce Barket, asked Lee Ann to write down what she thought was Paul’s legal history, time spent in jail, laws that she knew he had broken, things like that.

Lee Ann’s writing was not as prolific as Christopher’s, but it was no doubt better informed. In at least one case it corrected and clarified stories of which Paul’s stepson had—one might suspect—only partial knowledge.

She wrote in an attractive feminine hand, with perfect parochial penmanship on a wide-ruled sheet of loose leaf: “(I think) 1986-87, Paul was in prison (Sing Sing/Attica) for 6 or 8 years. He took a plea.”

Both of the prisons Lee Ann mentioned were maximum-security facilities where law and order placed only its most dangerous criminals. Attica State was far upstate, south of Lake Ontario, between Buffalo and Rochester. Sing Sing was the nickname of the prison in Ossining, New York, in Westchester County, not far from the Hudson River, only twenty or so miles north of New York City’s northernmost borough, the Bronx.

Lee Ann continued, “I was told he used to set up drug deals, then rob them. This particular time it happened to be an undercover officer. His mother told me he held a gun to the officer’s head while the officer was pleading for his life.”

According to Lee Ann, the undercover policeman with Paul’s gun pressed to his head was wired, and the entire incident was recorded. Lee Ann wrote that Paul’s mother had heard the tape and was appalled and haunted by it.

“She told me she heard the tape of the officer crying and begging Paul not to kill him,” Lee Ann wrote.

Lee Ann then listed all of the crimes she could remember Paul committing, or had heard of Paul committing, either through Paul’s bragging or some other source. She wrote that, “in ’99 I started dating Paul. He had a bookie business. Sports.”

Up until this time, investigators into Paul’s background had noticed a pattern: Paul seemed to be a sadist, who enjoyed scaring the shit out of people, whether it be hurling verbal threats or holding a gun to someone’s head. But, and it was a big but, he didn’t seem like he had a penchant for actual violence. That changed with Lee Ann’s next statement.

“On the last night of Paul’s parole (from the armed-robbery charges), we all went out to celebrate. Paul got into a bar fight,” she said. “Paul ended up hurting a guy, but there were so many people around, no one realized he even did it.”

Paul had learned a lesson in prison, according to Lee Ann. Instead of stealing the money from the guys who were selling pot, it was much easier just to sell the pot. However, Paul lacked the patience to sell small amounts of pot to users.

The former football star had long exhibited a pumped-up sense of entitlement. He thought big. He wanted to make mega bucks all at once. That meant making a huge pot buy and then selling slices of that pie to distributors.

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