GAIL COLLINS
Name: Gail Collins Pappalardi
Gail Collins Pappalardi was the songwriting wife of the late Felix Pappalardi.
She contributed lyrics to many Mountain songs and co-wrote Cream's "World of
Pain" with Pappalardi and "Strange Brew" with Pappalardi and Eric Clapton. As
Gail Collins, her artwork appears on the album covers, "Mountain Climbing" and "Nantucket
Sleighride". On April 17, 1983 she used a two-shot derringer to shoot Pappalardi
once in the neck in their fifth-floor East Side Manhattan apartment. He was
pronounced dead at the scene and Gail was charged with second degree murder.
Prosecutors claimed that Felix Pappalardi's 11-month affair with the 27-year-old
Valerie Merians was the reason for the murder. At the age of 43, Gail Collins
Pappalardi was acquitted of second degree murder and manslaughter, but found
guilty of criminally negligent homicide. A judge sentenced her to 16 months to
four years in jail, and at the same time criticised the jury for its leniency
and Pappalardi's lawyers for their defense of her. Manhattan Supreme Court
Justice James Leff said that Pappalardi's lawyers used "shabby" tactics when
they claimed the medical examiner's report was wrong and that investigators had
stolen jewellery.
Gail Collins Pappalardi's defense was that the firearm had gone off accidentally
while Felix was giving her a bedside gun lesson.
Name: Gail Collins Pappalardi
Gail Collins Pappalardi was the songwriting wife of the late Felix Pappalardi.
She contributed lyrics to many Mountain songs and co-wrote Cream's "World of
Pain" with Pappalardi and "Strange Brew" with Pappalardi and Eric Clapton. As
Gail Collins, her artwork appears on the album covers, "Mountain Climbing" and "Nantucket
Sleighride". On April 17, 1983 she used a two-shot derringer to shoot Pappalardi
once in the neck in their fifth-floor East Side Manhattan apartment. He was
pronounced dead at the scene and Gail was charged with second degree murder.
Prosecutors claimed that Felix Pappalardi's 11-month affair with the 27-year-old
Valerie Merians was the reason for the murder. At the age of 43, Gail Collins
Pappalardi was acquitted of second degree murder and manslaughter, but found
guilty of criminally negligent homicide. A judge sentenced her to 16 months to
four years in jail, and at the same time criticised the jury for its leniency
and Pappalardi's lawyers for their defense of her. Manhattan Supreme Court
Justice James Leff said that Pappalardi's lawyers used "shabby" tactics when
they claimed the medical examiner's report was wrong and that investigators had
stolen jewellery.
Gail Collins Pappalardi's defense was that the firearm had gone off accidentally
while Felix was giving her a bedside gun lesson.