Felix Pappalardi

Birth Name:

Felix A. Pappalardi

Birth Date:

December 30, 1939

Birth Place:

New York, New York

Death Date:

April 17, 1983

Place of Death:

30 Waterside Plaza, 28th Street, New York, New York

Age:

Cause of Death:

Homicide - gunshot wound

Cemetery Name:

Woodlawn Cemetery

Claim to Fame:

Music

Felix Pappalardi was once a big name. Born in The Bronx on Dec. 30, 1939, and classically trained, he’d been a regular among the Greenwich Village folk crowd in the mid-’60s, first as an arranger for singer-songwriters like Tom Paxton and Fred Neil and then producing albums for Joan Baez and the Youngbloods, among others. His big moment came in 1967 when Cream - the rising British blues-rock trio featuring Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker - hired him to produce their second album. Disraeli Gears catapulted Cream onto rock’s A-list and with it Pappalardi. He also produced their Wheels of Fire and Goodbye albums. After his work with Cream he formed the group Mountain and quickly rose to the top with a performance at Woodstock followed by the hit song Mississippi Queen. His career ended very suddenly with a single bullet to the neck when his wife, Gail Collins, shot him dead in the bedroom of their New York City apartment.

And the rest of the story …

When police arrived at their fifth floor apartment at 30 Waterside Plaza on 28th Street in New York they found Felix on the bed with a single gunshot wound to the neck. Refusing to answer all questions, Gail Collins was taken into custody and charged with second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon. And while she was later only found guilty of the lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide, the trial judge was so disgusted with the verdict he lectured the jury before sentencing Gail Collins to the maximum of four years allowed by law.

Years later it slowly came out that Gail Collins was a volatile, horrible person. Ask Corky Laing remembers, “When Mountain started out, Felix and Gail were a brilliant, creative team. But Gail got in big trouble with drugs. Gradually, people in the business who knew them knew she was a witch. She was very talented, very smart, but evil. Gail claimed she loved Felix, but they were always fighting. Felix was not a big guy, and Gail would beat the shit out of him.”

Upon release Gail Collins left for the West Coast eventually settling in the Mexican village of Ajijic, Jalisco where she was found dead by her landlord. Alone.

Cemetery Information:

Final Resting Place:

Woodlawn Cemetery

4199 Webster Avenue

The Bronx, New York, 10470

USA

North America

Map:

Grave Location:

Plot Cliff, Section 164

Grave Location Description

Located near Jazz Corner with Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Lionel Hampton and others, park at the intersection of Knollwood Avenue, Robin Avenue and Lawn Avenue. Walk along Lawn Avenue and count 33 spaces and you will find the final resting place of Felix Pappalardi.