Gail Collins Pappalardi was the songwriting wife of the late Felix Pappalardi. She had contributed lyrics to many Mountain songs and co-wrote Cream's "World of Pain" with Felix and "Strange Brew" with Felix and Eric Clapton. Felix Pappalardi was born in the Bronx on December 20, 1939. ... Mountain is an American rock band mainly active in the early 1970s. ... Cream (also The Cream) was a seminal 1960s British rock band which featured guitarist Eric Clapton, bassist Jack Bruce, and drummer Ginger Baker. ... Eric Patrick Clapton CBE (born March 30, 1945), nicknamed Slowhand, is a Grammy Award winning English guitarist, singer and composer, who became one of the most respected and influential musicians of the rock-era, garnering an unprecedented three inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. ...

On April 17, 1983 she used a two-shot .38 Special derringer to shoot Felix 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. April 17 is the 107th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (108th in leap years). ... 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... . ... The term derringer is a genericized misspelling of the last name of Henry Deringer, a famous maker of small pocket pistols in the 1800s. ... The neck is the part of the body on many limbed vertebrates that distinguishes the head from the torso or trunk. ... A hardwood floor (parquetry) is a popular feature in many houses. ... East Side is the name of the following places in the United States of America: East Side Township, Minnesota East Side, Pennsylvania You may also be looking for: Manhattans Lower East Side or Upper East Side Oklahoma Citys Eastside The Eastside, the eastern suburbs of Seattle The film... The Borough of Manhattan, highlighted in yellow, lies between the East River and the Hudson River. ... Borj-e Sefid apartments in Tehran, Iran An apartment (or flat in Britain and other Commonwealth countries) is a self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building. ... Murder is both a legal and a moral term, that are not always coincident. ...

Prosecutors claimed that Felix Pappalardi's 11 month affair with the attractive 27 year old blonde 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 4 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 jewelry. An affair is a euphemism for a situation where two people are involved in an illicit sexual, romantic and/or passionate attachment, usually for a limited duration. ... One of the worlds most famous blondes Marilyn Monroe, who was in fact a natural brunette Blond (feminine, blonde) is a hair colour found in certain mammals characterised by low levels of the dark pigment eumelanin and higher levels of the pale pigment phæomelanin, in common with red or... In the criminal law, criminal negligence is one of the three general classes of mens rea (Latin for guilty mind) element required to constitute a conventional as opposed to strict liability offence. ... Homicide is the killing of another human being by one or more others. ... A judge or justice is an official who presides over a court. ... A jury is a sworn body of persons convened to render a rational, impartial verdict and a finding of fact on a legal question officially submitted to them, or to set a penalty or judgment in a jury trial of a court of law. ... A coroner is the presiding officer of a special court to investigate deaths that occur under unusual circumstances where conventional criminal proceedings are not immediately called for. ... Jewelry (the American spelling; spelled jewellery in Commonwealth English) consists of ornamental devices worn by persons, typically made with gems and precious metals. ...

Gail Collins Pappalardi's defense was that the firearm had gone off accidentally while Felix was giving her a bedside gun lesson.

External links

• Felix Pappalardi home page