M. Gessen

Alan asked for tissues.

And a few seconds later, led by his defense attorney, he was talking about money.

about paying off the security guards at the hospital in Harare to bring in equipment and, as he claimed, quote, rebuild the whole neonatal unit.

He said that he installed oxygen tanks and humidifiers and changed the lighting to make it more diffused and covered the incubators and installed speakers in the incubators to play Chopin and Debussy.

The defense seemed to be trying to show that Alan was a devoted father, but also, more important, that he was used to solving his problems by bribing people.

So this was Alan's defense, that he bribed his way through life, and that all he ever wanted was to bribe someone to get Priscilla deported, but not to have her killed.

Only he didn't think it would cost so much money.

Quote, Well, my first thought was that I didn't have $100,000.

In fact, he had no money at all.

He was in debt.

But he couldn't say this to David because he had to project success.

Instead, after talking about the bulletproof vest factory and after coffee, Allen asked David about a cheaper way to get rid of her.

What did he think that would be, his defense attorney asked.

Quote, I think it's the Immigration Customs Enforcement who actually take people and physically remove them from the United States.

Meaning, he thought that instead of bribing some highly placed official to deport Priscilla through the immigration court system, Allen would be bribing ICE officers to remove her from the country physically.

This was long before just this sort of thing.

Masked ICE officers physically grabbing people, shoving them into unmarked vans, and having them transported to third countries was in the news all the time.

Rather, Allen testified, he got the idea from movies.

What about throwing the words definite and permanent around?

Here, Allen offered a whole linguistic analysis.