Murder in Massachusetts

The Skull Ring

Bennington, Vermont

Patricia Olsen grew up in Bennington, Vermont. A family member told me she was no different than any other kid. Being the youngest among all girls, Patricia was of course playing catch up all the time. When she saw that one of her sisters had graduated early from high school under an accelerated program, she wanted to do the same thing. So, at 15 years old, she went to her mother and said she wanted to graduate early.

Patricia's mother, however, said the only way she'd "approve it" was if Patricia agreed to go to college after graduation.

"Yes," Patricia told her mother. "I'll do that."

But as soon as she graduated a year later, Patricia decided to put college off for a year. During that time, she met James Robinson, a local kid.

"James was the only boyfriend Patricia ever had," claimed a family member.

Forgoing college, Patricia chose instead to marry James a year later, soon after she turned eighteen. But it didn't last long. In 1989, after having two kids, Christopher and Amanda Robinson, Patricia divorced James, later telling police he was "abusive."

A year after the divorce, Patricia started commuting to Pittsfield, working as a comptroller for Lenco, an armored truck company. Getting away from the town she grew up in, if only to work, was important to Patricia. Although Bennington housed some 15,000 people, Pittsfield was much larger (45,000). The two towns were 25 miles apart from each other on the interstate, but worlds apart. Pittsfield offered Patricia a fresh start. Different people. A new scene. Since high school, she had dated one man, became a housewife and mother, and never really had a chance to have a life beyond small-town Bennington. Now she was single, effectively the first time, fully prepared to take on life in a more social atmosphere. The kids ended up staying with their father in Bennington. Patricia didn't abandon them, she and a family member later said, but was suffering badly from Crohn's and felt she couldn't work and handle the children at the same time.

By then, Neil had been in the sign-making business for about five years. He had been doing business with Lenco when he bumped into Patricia one day and, after she "openly flirted" with him, they started talking.

"I used to pay him," Patricia told police later, "when he got done lettering."

Neil did the work, Patricia cut him a check.

Unbeknownst to her, Neil was secretly in love.

Then in March 1993, Neil got up the nerve to approach Patricia with an offer. "I need to talk to you," he said one afternoon after she handed him his check.

"Oh," Patricia remarked. "About what?"

Neil didn't say. Instead, he invited her to his house in Lanesborough that night.

Intrigued and, admittedly having a "crush" on Neil herself, Patricia agreed to have dinner with him.

"I fell in love with you the first time I saw you," Neil said after Patricia walked in.

She was stunned.

But there was more.

"You know," Neil continued, "we're always busy while at work." He said in that setting he never had the opportunity to express how he felt. Yet things were different now. He had to speak out. Patricia was all he thought about. "This may sound strange," Neil said at some point after dinner, "but I want you to move in with me."

Patricia was speechless.

Neil walked over to a desk in his living room. "I have something for you," he said, opening the drawer.

Later, Patricia explained the rest of the night to police: "He said he was going to give me a 'get out of this relationship free card,' so if I did move in with him and things didn't work out, I could just leave. He opened his desk drawer and he gave me this stupid plastic skull ring because he said it was all he had for rings."

An otherwise shy and ascetic guy, Neil then popped the question, handing Patricia the toy ring.

When Patricia left Neil's house, she called a friend and explained what happened.

"You're insane," said her friend after Patricia admitted she was thinking about moving in. "You don't even know this guy."

Patricia never "even thought about it," she claimed. She moved in the following Monday.