Domestic violence is a two-way street. Yes, the big stories we hear are men beating women, but it does happen the other way. It isn’t as common, but it does happen. We don’t hear so many instances because the traditional values of a man are not to be so vulnerable and to be protective of their partner and/or families. When the tradition is broken and the man’s ego is fractured, you can have no one to talk to, especially when you’re in the limelight. After you’ve had enough of the torture and torment from your partner, and you try to leave, they might not allow you to. This week The Beat Marches On to 12th April 1983, when Felix Pappalardi is killed by his wife.
You may not have heard of Felix Pappalardi, but you certainly know his work. He was significant in the psychedelic rock scene of the late 1960s, especially with the rock trio Cream. Pappalardi was the producer of their breakthrough album Disraeli Gears. He co-wrote the breakthrough single Strange Brew and album track World of Pain with his future wife, Gail Collins.
While working with Cream’s US record label, Atlantic Records, Pappalardi found himself working on projects with guitarist Leslie West and in 1969 they formed the band Mountain with keyboardist Steve Knight and drummer N.D. Smart with Felix playing bass.
The band took their name from West’s solo album, which all four members contributed on anyway, it was recorded before they agreed to be in a band permanently. Before long they ended up on the bill for Woodstock. They didn’t feature on the concert film but they did feature on the live album. The Woodstock performance was released in 1972 as a live album and the recording of the song Long Red has become one of the most sampled in history, being used in mostly rap albums and at last count sampled over 700 times, most famously on Jay-Z’s 99 Problems.
In 1970 they released their most successful song Mississippi Queen, a classic rock staple to this day. The song is known for its iconic cowbell intro (long before (Don’t Fear) The Reaper by Blue Oyster Cult) with new drummer Corky Laing replacing N.D. Smart. It could be argued as the song that bridges heavy rock into heavy metal, with its thunderous riff and blistering guitar solo.
The band carried on for a couple of years, never reaching the heights of their breakout then broke up. There wasn’t any animosity between the members and reformed regularly over the following years. To keep the Cream link, bassist Jack Bruce joined West and Laing to form the trio West, Bruce, and Laing, post-Mountain. Pappalardi went back to the studio.
Throughout this time, Gail who helped Felix write the Cream songs had been in the picture. The couple had got married and to start with the couple seemed happy. When the normal rock n roll excesses came into play, the troubles started. Bandmates were starting to notice, quite early on in their journey.
The rest of the band had noticed that when the couple indulged in drugs or alcohol, often the end result would be an argument. Most of the time ending up in a physical altercation. Gail was a bigger person than Pappalardi, and often she would be the aggressor.
Both admitted it was an open relationship, but they would end up coming back into each other’s arms. Pappalardi also had an affinity for guns which wouldn’t be recommended when you’re sober let alone higher than the clouds.
When West visited the couple in their apartment he found his bass player shooting at the walls after hearing buzzing sounds. Felix wasn’t going crazy, Leslie could hear the buzzing too. It turned out that Gail had a dispute with some building work that had been done and refused to pay. The builders took revenge by planting Hornet nests in the walls.
By 1983, the open relationship had come to haunt Gail, as Felix had found someone else. Valerie Merians who was the daughter of a successful club owner in Woodstock, and according to some reports may have been the couple’s housekeeper. She had formed a relationship with Pappalardi and wanted to settle down. There was even talk of them running away to Australia.
We don’t know what exactly happened that night, all we have is testimony from Gail, which as you will read was sketchy at best. The facts of the incident are Felix Pappalardi was shot by Gail. He was found on his bed, in his underwear with a single gunshot in the neck. The bullet hit the carotid artery which is what killed him. We also know that Gail was very high, on 40 tablets of Percodan, a type of painkiller.
Collins did call the emergency services admitting that she shot Pappalardi, but not before calling her lawyer first. If you were concerned about the well-being of your husband after he’s been shot, surely you would call the emergency services first? We know this because the police recovered the phone records as evidence.
When the police arrived at the apartment they found the body as she stated on the bed and the Wedding certificate ripped up from off the wall. Gail claimed that it was ripped by accident when Felix was clearing some old papers, but it’s not known for sure how or when it was destroyed.
The police statement recorded that Felix was teaching Gail how to shoot, and the gun accidentally went off however, this was disputed by the wife of Laing who claimed that she was threatened by Collins with the same gun and went to a shooting range regularly.
The story was on the front pages of the New York tabloids for a few days after, turning the whole ordeal into a soap opera dragging both names through the mud.
After the investigation, Gail was arrested for the murder of Felix Pappalardi and went to trial. Her testimony in court was different to what she said to the police, stating that a cat had jumped on her and scared her, and as she was holding the gun at the time it went off and the bullet ended up hitting Felix in the neck. This was the first mention of a cat in the whole ordeal.
Although the band members knew the excuse was a lie, it convinced the jury enough to take sympathy for Gail. She was convicted of Criminally Negligent Homicide or Gross Negligence Manslaughter as it’s known in the UK, which meant she was guilty but didn’t serve any extra time after the trial.
The members of the band were angry about the result. According to some people who were in court throughout, the only people who believed Gail’s story were the jury. The judge was even upset by the decision.
After the trial, Gail disappeared. She didn’t keep in contact with anyone in the band, not that they were her biggest fans. There were rumours that she was a waitress on a river tour in New York but not been confirmed. No one knows if Collins is alive or dead. There was a report that she died in Mexico, in 2013 but it was never confirmed.
The Beat Marches On is a music blog written by Jimmy Whitehead. Jimmy has been blogging for eight years specialising in Sports (especially American Football). If you want to follow Jimmy on Twitter: @Jimmy_W1987
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The websites used for research were:
Mountain’s Felix Pappalardi: dugs, guns, and a tragic death | Louder
The Tragic Death Of Felix Pappalardi
The tragic ending of Mountain’s Felix Pappalardi
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