By Susan Vela
The Cincinnati Enquirer

She smoked. She drank too much. She bummed cab rides off her friends. But those who knew Patricia "Patsy" Pollitt think she deserved better than to be slain - allegedly at the hands of her son.

David Pollitt, 20, is accused of killing his mother Friday in their small, cramped apartment above the Fraternal Order of Eagles bar at Glenway and Beech avenues in Price Hill.

Cincinnati Police have charged him with murder. Mr. Pollitt, who has a conviction for drug possession, remains at Hamilton County Justice Center, where his bond is set at $500,000.

Police said the force of Mr. Pollitt's blows killed Mrs. Pollitt, 61, who once told friends at Club Embassy, a neighborhood bar, that her son was threatening to kill her.

"He was different, not normal," said Bobby Levy, a Delhi Township resident who sat at the bar on Saturday. "(But) that old lady didn't deserve that. To take out your own mom ... That's sick."

Sgt. Lisa Thomas said the suspect told police that "he had a bad day. He just came home and started hitting her. She didn't provoke him."

After the beating, he went downstairs and told bar patrons that he thought his mother was dead, according to police. They called 911.

Sgt. Thomas said that Mr. Pollitt punched his mother in the head and abdomen. It is the abdominal punches that most likely caused her death, she said.

Everyone at the bar knew of the Pollitts' troubled relationship. Many tended to favor Mrs. Pollitt, who was living on monthly disability checks. They knew that her son often begged for money. So they did what they could to help - buy her a coat, run errands for her, pay for her cab rides home. When her checks arrived, Mrs. Pollitt tended to be generous in return, buying her friends rounds of drinks.

Arriest Fischer, who tends bar at Club Embassy, talked to Mrs. Pollitt almost daily. Her son was always with her. She would order a beer. He would get an orange juice.

"A lot of them felt sorry for her," Mrs. Fischer said. "He kept her so broke all the time. He hounded her to death (and) treated her terribly."

Three weeks ago, Mrs. Pollitt told Mrs. Fischer that she was scared for her life. Mr. Pollitt, who was not known to have a job, had been threatening to kill her.

Mrs. Fischer advised her to call the police or a women's shelter. The next day, they came in together again. Mrs. Pollitt begged Mrs. Fischer not to tell anyone what she knew.

"He was threatening to kill her. She was so afraid. You could tell she was scared to death of him," Mrs. Fischer said. "He never needs to be out on the street again. I hope he spends the rest of his life" in jail.

Mrs. Pollitt's neighbors knew of her fractious relationship with her son. The Quinn family lived nearby on Beech Avenue for about 20 years - just as long as the Pollitts lived in their apartment.

Bill and Sheri Quinn, the parents of two daughters, said that David Pollitt always kept to himself. But he was known to be unhappy with his living arrangements, once joking that he'd be willing to steal a car because it could lead to a jail stay, where he'd get "a roof over his head and three square meals a day," Mrs. Quinn said.

Mr. Quinn ran into Mrs. Pollitt earlier this week. She wanted to know where her son was, because he had been gone for a couple of days.

The Quinns didn't think any more of the Pollitts until police cars appeared on their street Friday night and they saw police leading Mr. Pollitt away in handcuffs.

"She might have confronted him. That's the only thing I can think of," Mrs. Quinn said.

The killing is one more reason the Quinn girls play indoors on the weekend. Their parents say the neighborhood has deteriorated over the years. But others seem undaunted.

Paul Jordan, 57, has lived on Beech Avenue for almost 30 years. Blind since birth, he knows every crack in the sidewalk, the meaning of every sound of a bus.

Ignoring his son's urgings, he refuses to move. His intransigence was not dented by Friday's homicide, Cincinnati's 56th in 2002.

"It was a family situation," he said.

E-mail svela@enquirer.com