Gail Collins, lyricist who killed Mountain bassist husband & penned for Cream, dead

Gail Collins, a lyricist for the bands Cream and Mountain who gained infamy in New York in 1983 when she shot and killed her rock star husband, Felix Pappalardi, has died in the Mexican village where she lived as a recluse, the Daily News has learned.
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Felix Pappalardi was a bassist and producer of Mountain.
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Her landlord found her dead on Dec. 6, 2013
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Her death is the coda to one of rock’s wildest crimes. Gail Collins spent two years in prison and disappeared after her 1985 parole.
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“She was one of the most brilliant people I have ever known, but she was also an opinionated jackass,” said her friend Diane Pearl. “She just needed to be the star.”

Gail Collins wrote the lyrics that Eric Clapton sang in “Strange Brew” for Cream’s “Disraeli Gears,” which Felix Pappalardi produced.
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And she became a creative force in Mountain, writing lyrics and painting album cover art.

On April 17, 1983, police found Pappalardi dead in bed at their Waterside Plaza apartment in Manhattan, shot through the neck with Collins’ Derringer.

Convicted of criminally negligent homicide, Collins spent two years in prison and disappeared after her 1985 parole.

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