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ren teers « r anna sint il premier sCemmatta TIM from [A from 8 brief second marriage, ““7hercilessly ridiculed. He ever foughi back. Sometimes he made | ~ Farming town @. He was restless and could not / Fetain & job. Ne worked briefly as a chef and a meat cutter. He took a vocational course to become a Rebicopter mechanic. Primarily, he lived off his wife's earnings and frequent handouts from his in-laws. Neighbors say Patricis did not Want to work after their child, Melissa. was born in October PGES. Bur she Kad ae choice, and she was murdered her first week back at work. @ He grew up modestly, but he developed a tasie for money. After Patricia’s. death, he ecoffected as much as $356,000 in Hfe insurance, and he began, spending. it, He bought @ used 1982 Glesimo- bie 92 to replace his aging Pontiac and his dead wife's broken-down Ford Pinto. He bought a big. black Yamaha motorcycle. He built & rage ext to his home ifn Haware, Ohio, about 20 miles north of Celambus. He dressed better and lived like he wanted to enjoy life. @ At the same time. he seemed prepared for his oven end. When his wife died. Matix paid $200 fora double plot at nearby Chesire cemetery. He bought & double, marble headstone, Al the top is the name Matix. At the right, io says: Patricia M., 1953-1983. At the left, it says: Wiliam RB. 1851. The resi cis | blank, ready for the end of bis Slory. Not buried there Now, both are dead, but no one fs buried there. Wiliam will be buried near his family’s home in New Madison, Ohic: ; . Patricia's body was removed isst August at the request of her ents. ané reburled sear their ome in Russeliton, Pa. Matix agreed to the move, but made one stipulation: Patricia was not to be buried in a cemetery affillated with the Roman Catholic | . Charch. Bp_hased ihe @atholic church. iller’y eyes. beurayed Ae AS @ teen-aper, he suffered * from a. serious stutter and was fun of himsel!, adopting ithe rale of glass clown. He kept within himself any anger and frustration he might have fet. And then, aear the end, he embarked crime, @ secret Hfe that was hidden from everyone but Michael Platt — and George Buchanich, who ‘somehow sensed the evil possibilities furking within Wil Harms Matix. Most people called him Bi, although bis oldest friends in New Madison had another nickname for him. “We called Him Willie because he stuttered a lot in school and if was Uke a joke." seid Doriel Studebaker. his best friend in New Madison. “You know, Wah-wah- wah- willie,” Matix "ved in a small, rented farmhouse on the outskirts of en. His mother moved there alter divorcing his alcholic father ang remarrying. Otherwise, everything seemed pretty normal. Matix earned pock- et money by collecting eggs at « Bearby chicken farm: he. drove around with The guys; they fook in } @ Movie when they could afford it. But he left town as soon as possible, joining the Marines right after Bigh schoo! graduation. — He served seven years in the Marines and Army. He cured his stutter, met his future wife, and ot Michael Platt. Patricia's parents felt very un- easy about Matix, but they agreed ie the marriage, “She seemed fo fove him very tsuch,” said. Anna Buchanich, Pe on & life of violent 4 { lab assistant at Riverside _dst_Hosp/tal. kept to. themselves. Bui evil, in-laws recall tricia’s mother. "What could we Gov She was our baby." ¢ enue After the marriage In 1976, the couple moved to Columbus and then Delaware, a farm-oriented ‘community of about 19.000 peo- ple. They and a large. black, mixed-treed dog named Ben dived in @ modest house on a wooded one-acre jot, Patricia's parents gave them the 34.000 down payment and bought them furniture and @ pew heater end other things. But the couple sill had money woes. Matin, trained asa cook and buicher {n the service, meandered i from. job to job. “He seemed restless," said Rev. David Culver, the couple's pastor ai the Calvary Baptist Caurch in Delaware. “He was the kind of gay who couldn't stay setied in one vocation.” _ Feiricia’s parents helped, giving her hundreds of dotiars. Eventually, she took s job a5 a ethod- She Uked her work, bat Patri- clas iriends also have deen quoted (es saying that Matix developed an _ insatiable appetite for money, and that the couple fought — and briefly separated ~~ over financial disagreements. ; Sandy Leake, a next-door ogigh- bor in Delaware, sald the Matinxes ahe re- Joembered one casual conversation in which Matlx said he and Patricia were having prbdlems and were being helped by the church. | Culver, the Baptist pastor, said the Matixes never sought profes- sional counseling but might have received solace through their in- creasingly active role in church affairs. He sald Willam Matix had helped the congregation Sulld 4 aew church. a He sald Patricia Matix, raised as a Catholle, had “accepted Christ.” - She eventually brought igia the ifald-rer husband. “Welther Culver nor ‘wise can explain Matix's enmity for the Catholic church. Culver theorizes thet Matix, with the passion of the ‘gewly converted, adopted and exaggerated some of the historical fo namfliede hetwaae the tue @TRUs... f