The Murder of Felix Pappalardi

By Martin Rots


     Felix Pappalardi is not a household name.  If you were a fan of Cream or Mountain, you are familiar with Felix's work.  He produced Cream's Disraeli Gears, Wheels of Fire, and Goodbye.  He played bass, wrote and produced for Mountain.  In his career as a producer he worked with the Youngbloods, Jesse Colin Young, Jack Bruce and Hot Tuna among others.  With his wife, Gail, he wrote Strange Brew recorded by Cream on Disraeli Gears in 1967.
     Cream left a vacuum when they broke up in November 1968 and Pappalardi knew it.  He had recently produced Leslie West's first solo effort titled, Mountain.  With the portly West on guitar and Pappalardi on bass, they formed Mountain with N.D. Smart on drums and Steve Knight on keyboards.  They played their fourth gig at Woodstock in August, 1969.  The band released Climbing, which featured their only hit, Mississippi Queen.  Climbing was followed by Nantucket Sleighride, which produced no singles and was only a moderate success.
     After Mountain, Pappalardi returned to producing, but his career was waning by the end of the seventies.   In 1977 he produced Jesse Colin Young's, Love on the Wing.  In 1978 he produced the Dead Boys and Hot Tuna's, Double Dose.  There was little that followed.  He and Gail continued to live comfortably from the royalties of his earlier work.  The eighties were fast approaching and Pappalardi was becoming an anachronism.
     By the spring 1983, the Pappalardi's were living in a comfortable apartment on Manhattan's Lower East Side.  Royalties provided a living while Felix hoped and waited for something to happen.  In spite of his record of successes, he was considered passé and little came his way.  
     Felix was having an affair with an aspiring singer, 27 year old Valerie Merians.  Initially hoping he could help her career, they had been lovers for almost a year.  He knew he was playing with fire, because his wife, Gail, was a jealous woman.  To make matters worse, he had bought her a gun, a .38 caliber derringer she carried everywhere.  She once pulled it on drummer Corky Laing's wife, Frances, for sitting in a car and talking to Felix.  At 41, Gail wasn't about to tolerate a younger rival.
     In the early morning hours of April 17, 1983, Felix and Gail began to argue in their bedroom.  The situation quickly turned ugly and she pulled the derringer he had bought her from her purse.  Raising the gun, she fired and shot Pappalardi in the throat.  Around 6:00 in the morning, Gail called the police and her lawyer, but evidently made no effort to get help for Felix who was lying on the bed in his underwear, bleeding out.  When the police arrived, it was too late, Felix Pappalardi was dead.
     Gail Pappalardi was arrested and charged with second degree murder and criminal possession of a handgun.  Her defense was that the gun had gone off accidently while Felix was showing her how to use it.  Neighbors testified the couple had been heard arguing just before the shot was fired.  Plea bargaining reduced her charges to criminally negligent homicide.  She was sentenced to no less than sixteen months or more than four years.  Gail Pappalardi was released from prison in April 1985 and dropped out of sight.

To learn more:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Pappalardi

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_(band)

http://www.pappalardi.com/Articles.html

http://www.pappalardi.com/Articles3.html

http://www.pappalardi.com/

Posted by Martin Rots at 8/14/2009 12:00 AM
Categories: Dead Poet's Society
Tags: 1968 Hot Tuna Climbing Nantucket Sleighride Mountain Jesse Colin Young Wheels of Fire Steve Knight Corky Laing Double Dose Felix Pappalardi Leslie West Mississippi Queen Goodbye Dead Boys Love on the Wing Cream Disraeli Gears Jack Bruce Frances Laing Woodstock Valerie Merians 1967 derringer Strange Brew Youngbloods
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