Quick Facts
Biography
Gail Delta Collins Pappalardi (February 2, 1941 - December 6, 2013) was an American songwriter and artist.
Biography
Pappalardi was the wife of Felix Pappalardi. She contributed lyrics to many Mountain songs and co-wrote Cream's "World of Pain" with Pappalardi and "Strange Brew" with Pappalardi and Eric Clapton. Both songs are included on the album Disraeli Gears. As Gail Collins, her artwork appears on the album covers, Climbing!, Nantucket Sleighride, Flowers of Evil, Mountain Live: The Road Goes Ever On, Twin Peaks and Avalanche.
On April 17, 1983, Felix Pappalardi was shot once in the neck in their fifth-floor East Side Manhattan apartment. He was pronounced dead at the scene and Collins Pappalardi was charged with second degree murder. Collins Pappalardi claimed that the killing was an accident. She was acquitted of second degree murder and manslaughter, but found guilty of criminally negligent homicide. On April 30, 1985, she was released on parole.
On December 6, 2013, Collins was found dead by her landlord in the Mexican village of Ajijic, Jalisco, a resort town with many American expatriate residents. She had been undergoing cancer treatments there. She was cremated.