Collateral Damage?
I make no apologies for the mind-numbingly stupid actions of Ed Patterson. He was set for life at the age of eighteen, yet it was not enough. I ache for his parents, Jim and Pam. They were there for us like no others when we lost our son. Now they have lost their’s.
In hindsight, the clues were there, but nobody connected the dots.
Perhaps an inability/unwillingness to see the signs combined with poor accounting security. It sounds like Ed didn’t have any skin in the game so he was willing to lose the whole thing by mingling the drug business with the family business.
One of the very worst things you can do for your kids is give them money.