Royal Phillips - Ugly Duckling: A True Life Story of Beauty, Manipulation and Murder

UGLY DUCKLING

A True Life Story of Beauty,
Manipulation and Murder

By Royal Phillips

Copyright 2014 Royal Phillips
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 1500625205
ISBN 13: 9781500625207

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.
(Galatians 6:7-8)

For Pam

AUTHORS NOTE

I didnt write this book. It wrote itself. These are my actual diary entries as I have recorded my family and life since the 1960s. I have always been the documentarian in my family. I want my offspring to learn from the truths in our lives. Especially to break out of dysfunctional backgrounds that were previously held secret. I considered Pam to be one of my own since she was born but we really bonded in 1969 when she was 11 years old. I took her under my wing. I kept all of Pams letters, emails, and faxes throughout the years. I have albums of family photos captured by us. This is an in depth look at Pams life and how she developed economically and socially. I share this, now, so you may gleam some benefit and understanding of how environment impacts society. Having been a childbirth educator for 36 years, I have devoted myself to the care and love of the newborn as well as educating the parents. The family unit is so very precious. I quote Karl Menninger Whats done to children, they will do to society. With the ever-reaching tentacles of the Internet, we can know more truths and honor the family. We can learn from our heritage.

The truth will then set us free.

PROLOGUE

1949-CHICAGO

Truthfully, I was terrified of my mother. When I was 9 years old I was violently awakened from my sleep by late night screams in our Chicago house on the hill. My mother was drunk again. She was yelling at my soon-to-be sister-in-law, Lois, who slept in the guest room. Mother shouted whore and slut as she beat on Lois who was lying defenselessly in bed. I struggled to pull mother off of Lois. Later that day, my big brother, Frank, took his enraged fists to our mother, landing her in the Woodlawn Hospital with broken ribs. Frank had a horrible temper and didnt stand for mistreatment of his fiance.

Our petite alcoholic mother had a history of being drunk on the floor passed out for days, but then she would sober up and become a controlling tyrant. It was no wonder that there was such a turnover in the house staff. My nannies lasted three to six months. Only Vinson, our chauffeur and butler, stayed for 15 years. She was devoted to her own beauty and had massages and facial lifts and ate lethicin and wheat germ in the 1940s and 1950s. Every day she would lay under two sunlamps to stay tan in the Chicago winters. I was also frightened by my handsome six-foot tall father, who would often grab an ax and break through her locked doors when drunk. We were very good customers of the door company.

I loved Lois like a big sister, which made my mother very jealous. I often wondered how Lois ever put up with our familys drunken debaucheries. She was very unemotional and could keep her cool under wild circumstances. Once when Frank was crazy and yelling, she simply picked up her drink and silently threw it in his face.

Family at Palm Springs 1961

Lois at Christmas

OPENING my diary..

APRIL 14, 1957

Daddy didnt drive fast enough. I was so excited! We drove down from Chicago to Monette, Missouri to see my first niece. I adore my first blond nephew. He is such a cute baby. They named him Franklin Mervyn Phillips, Junior, but my mother calls him Putzie. She says it is some kind of German term of endearment. I think it is stupid. On this soggy spring morning, Pamela Ann Phillips had been born to beautiful fair haired Aunt Lois and my big brother Frank. I cant believe that at seventeen I am an aunt for the second time. Frank had just been transferred to Aurora, Missouri by Griffiths. When we went into the little hospital, there sat Lois, not a hair out of place, painting her nails pink. She didnt even look like she had just had a baby. She couldnt wait to smoke a cigarette!

Pam was in the nursery down the hall. Definitely a Phillips baby with creamy skin, a tiny upturned nose and blond fuzz for hair. Pamela looked very much like her big brother. I fell in love with her right then and there. Daddy and Mother drank toasts at dinner that night while I cringed with fear that they would get bombed. Why cant my family behave themselves? I hate the scenes they make. And I hate that my mother makes her grandchildren call her MUTZIE. Another one of those dumb German nicknames. She says she doesnt want to sound old. Have another face-lift, Mutzie!

Mothers Cadillac 1957

Lois with new baby 1957

_____

OCTOBER 19, 1957

Daddy, I cant believe what is happening. I graduated from high school in June. Boarded a Lufthansa flight from Chicago to Germany to live with a family for the summer. Returning to the USA in September, I had two weeks to pack my trunks for the University of New Mexico. I was forced by my mother to join a sorority. My father wrote me secretly to pledge any house I desired. Then he dropped dead of a heart attack. I flew back to Chicago where my inebriated mother buried him in the wrong cemetery. He had a Masonic funeral and she had forgotten that only she as a Catholic could be buried in a Catholic sacred mausoleum. I am stunned.

What is our life going to be like now?

My handsome father

Palm Springs news 1961

_____

AUGUST 1, 1962

After a blind date and a very short courtship, I marry Rodney Putz. We elope to Las Vegas. I knew Mutzie wouldnt like him. She didnt.

Becoming a Royal Putz in Las Vegas

LIFE IS NOT WHAT YOU EXPECTED

no air conditioning in the
tiny turquoise Karman Ghia accelerating
towards that eloping Las Vegas
wedding on August 1st, 1962
you watch shimmering cactus
transplant on liquid asphalt
and youre asking him if he
is scared and he says, NO
but you can feel your heart
thumping to the radio beat
of How Much Is That Doggie In The Window?