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not so generous with his money and goodwill when it came to his wife, Sue. Early on, as he was trying to get ahead in the business world, Barbara said Bill “would dictate to [Sue] what to wear, where she had to go with him. To me, he treated her somewhat like she had to do what he said.”
    â€œBill was a very controlling individual,” Barbara said. “And when they started out, they didn’t have any money, like the rest of us. . . . They had a child right away. He couldn’t get any help from his family because they weren’t in any position to help him.”
    Later, after he and his businesses started earning money, she said, “[Bill] would make it a point that it was his money . . . and he would make a point of saying that it wasn’t [Sue’s], because she didn’t work for it.”
    Sue “went along for many years, and privately I said to myself, ‘I don’t know how she’s doing this....’ It was unacceptable to me, because she was a lovely, lovely person. She would go out of her way for anyone, and he turned into a person that I didn’t even know anymore.”
    Barbara said she saw Bill change over time—changes that she blamed largely on his escalating alcohol consumption.
    â€œHe had a good heart. There was no doubt about that,” she said. “He really was good, but I think alcohol interfered with his life.”
    Patrick agreed that his brother “drank more than he should have, but there were times where we all [did that].” He noted that he and Bill always walked home from the bar when they imbibed, and he said he never witnessed any abusive behavior.
    â€œI don’t know that he was an out-and-outright alcoholic,” he said. “I do know that he was always of sound mind, because he would be up the next morning—no matter how late we were—and we’d be running down the beach.”
    Kim viewed the failure of her parents’ marriage differently, saying they had not spent enough time connecting with each other over the years, so it went bad after Bill “retired” and started working at home.
    â€œThey were at home all the time, driving each other crazy,” she said. “They had lost communication skills.”
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    A few months after meeting Bill, Nanette moved into Balboa Coves, and Bill called his cousin to tell her about the pretty new woman in his life.
    â€œI am dating this lady, with two small children,” he said. “She’s wonderful. She’s very bright, and I enjoy talking to her. She has a couple degrees.”
    â€œGood for you,” Barbara said. “I’m glad you found someone.”
    To Barbara, Bill sounded sure that the relationship was going to work. “He was very confident that this was meant to happen, how well they gelled together,” she recalled. “He was very happy—very happy with her.”
    Patrick didn’t see it quite that way. To him, it seemed that Bill was happy to have met Nanette, whom Bill described as “a sweetheart and a dolly,” but he never mentioned anything to his brother about her being intelligent. It was more along the lines of “she’s a good piece,” as in piece of ass.
    â€œI think what Bill wanted . . . he wanted a good-looking chick on the arm,” Patrick said. “I don’t know if he thought she wasn’t worthy to be called his wife,” but that was the kind of thing that would have come out of Bill’s mouth. “He was a very proud guy.”
    Patrick wasn’t all that impressed with Nanette. During one visit, Bill asked Nanette to cook his brother some fried eggs, and “she looked at him like he was stupid,” Patrick recalled. Once she made the eggs, he said, “they were terrible. They were runny. She wasn’t a housewife. She was someone who could show a man a lot of fun if he was interested in her.”
    Bill’s brother also