Spencer Reid had first met Patti Cohen when he was at the FBI Academy. She was a guest speaker at the class and talked about being a spy. He listened with fascination as she talked about she and her first husband were spies looking for Nazi War Criminals. When he got his job at the FBI, she had lived a couple of doors down from him. She often came over to his apartment and talked to him. Prior to him going to the FBI academy, Patti's husband David died after a long illness.
"She was very helpful to me." said Spencer Reid as he talked about knowing Patti Cohen. She had told him an interesting story that he didn't share with the others. She had a name that she went by Patti Price with a New York City Address. There was a person named Patti Price who lived at this address but she had been deceased for many many decades.
What other people didn't know was that she and her second husband also did spying for Israel. They were both master of disguise. For their children, it was a game.
August 1983
Patti went with her two daughters to Memphis where they attended Mrs. Weinstein's funeral. She was 85 years old. She had talked to her a couple of days before she died. It had been nearly 10 years since she last went to the synagogue in Memphis. There were some in the synagogue who knew Patti and knew that she'd spent several years in a reform school. For the most part, they were in her age group.
Patti's children had heard a lot about Mrs. Weinstein. She had never hid her past from her children. She was concerned that they would be judgmental of her but they weren't. Had she been 16 years old instead of 12, they might not be so understanding.
They had met her a couple of times and had been to Memphis a couple of times. She never took them to Jenkinsville. Her daughters expressed a desire to see Jenkinsville this trip.
Jenkinsville 1983
When Patti had visited back in 1973, there was a new Holiday Inn built. Now there were a couple of hotels and a McDonalds and Burger King. The road had been widen.
The first stop that they went to was Jenkinsville cemetery. Several graves of the parents of Patti's classmates were in the cemetery. Patti was surprised to see a grave of Bill Morris, 1930-1982. He was a classmate of her. The real shocker was when Patti saw the grave of her friend Edna who had died in 1976. Her shock turned to sadness.
She had seen Ruth's grave and saw the her sister Delores had died a couple of years later. She didn't keep in touch with Delores once Ruth died.
Patti drove around the downtown area which had expanded somewhat. There were several restaurants, bontiques, and other shops. The place near the downtown area which used to be her father's grocery store was now a strip mall.
As they walked around the downtown area, Patti wondered if anyone would recognize her. The last time she visited someone did recognize her and reported her to police. Patti didn't see anyone familiar.
The town had grown quite a bit in the last 10 years. She and her daughters had lunch at an Italian restaurant and then left to go back to Memphis. No one talked to them nor were they stopped by police. She didn't recognize anyone that she passed walking down the street.
Even so, she kept the Driver's License for Patti Price. She never knew when she might need it.
Hotch in his mind reflection on how tough it must have been to lose 3 sons to war. One was killed in the 1967 war, another in the 1973 war and the third son died in Lebanon in 1983, almost ten year to to the day that her second son died. He was 24 years old.
Patti had two daughters, Debbie and Monica. Debbie was born in 1952 and Monica who was the youngest was born in 1962. From the two daughters Patti had 4 grandchildren.
After the funeral at the synagogue, people spoke about Patti's life. Many talked about her generous heart and how she gave money to those in need. An official from the Israeli Defense Forces spoke about her founding a group which helped families whose loved ones had died in the wars. She also attended many many military funerals. She had lost 3 sons in war.
Martha thought about telling the story of she, Ruth and her mother going to Germany to find Anton's grave. She decided not to as it was the past and had no relevance to now. There were very few people at the funeral who knew about this chapter in their mother's life. Hotch knew about it but he wasn't one to gossip or tell others. He had accidentally read her file thinking that it was a BAU file. It had been left on his desk.
When he left to go to lunch, the file was gone and nothing was said.
Patti had kept on a piece of paper the address of Anton and when they went to Germany, she found the general area where he lived but it had changed. The same town was now a bustling city.
There was a cemetery across the street from the general address which had been neglected for many years. They had been told that it hadn't be used in decades. Most of those buried there were SS officers who had died in the war. Then they found Anton's grave. It seemed odd that he was buried in an SS cemetery.
While being in reformed school, Patti realized that Anton really didn't love her, but was more interested in trying to escape. She was 12 years old and he was in his early 20's She had a crush on him He could have easily taken advantage of her but he didn't although he used her to try to make his escape.
After she was arrested, the rumor mill had it that she'd had sex with Anton. She denied it. Even so she was forced to go through a demeaning gynecological exam which proved that she was a virgin. Thankfully a woman had done the exam but the whole thing was just terrible.
It wasn't discussed and even though their mother's husbands knew about it, they made sure it was hidden and not easy to access until one knew about it. Surprisingly the press hadn't caught up to it as this was the internet age. The fact that Patti was born in Memphis not Jenkinsville made the difference.
