Felix Pappalardi, a 43-year-old musician, was shot once in the neck and killed in his fifth-floor Manhattan apartment at 30 Waterside Plaza on April 17, 1983. The weapon was a derringer that he had given his wife, Gail Collins Pappalardi, a few months earlier. The shooting happened in the early morning after Pappalardi had returned from visiting his girlfriend; court testimony later said the couple had an open marriage and that his relationship with singer-songwriter Valerie Merians had become serious, which reportedly enraged his wife.

After the shooting, Collins first called her attorney and then emergency services. She told police the gun discharged accidentally. She was arrested and charged with second-degree murder. At trial she maintained the shooting was accidental, with her defense saying Pappalardi was teaching her to use the firearm when it went off. The jury acquitted her of second-degree murder and manslaughter but convicted her of criminally negligent homicide; she received a sentence of 16 months to 4 years and was released on parole on April 30, 1985.

Does anyone have additional details about the apartment, the derringer, or the timeline that night?