Prime Crime: Solved Murders - Deathbed Confessions: John Kelley

Episode Date: October 5, 2022

The estranged adult children of Geraldine Kelley long suspected foul play in their father’s death. Though she had told them that John Kelley had died in a road accident, Geri revealed on her deathbe...d in 2004 that she’d shot him in the head and kept his body in a storage facility freezer for years. This episode originally aired on Deathbed Confessions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:01 Listeners, we're back this week with another great Spotify original from Parcast. This time it's a riveting episode from the podcast series, Deathbed Confessions. After years of believing their father had perished in a road accident, the Kellys received a shocking admission from their mother's deathbed. Enjoy this episode on Jerry and John Kelly. And be sure to follow Deathbed Confessions free on Spotify to hear more. We'll be back next week with an all-new episode of Saul. murders.
Starting point is 00:00:35 In early November 2004, a woman lies dying. Her name is Geraldine Kelly, Jerry for short. She's spending her last days at home, a two-bedroom apartment and a red brick building in the Somerville suburb of Boston, Massachusetts. Jerry is 54 years old, and she's in the final stages of breast cancer. She got the diagnosis two years earlier. It's a frightening word, cancer, but somehow, when the doctors told her, it was almost as if, well, not that she'd been expecting it, but she had been expecting something. Karma, you might call it, or payback.
Starting point is 00:01:23 The doctors talked about treatment and therapies, but right from the start, Jerry knew that the cancer was going to kill her. And she was okay with that. Now that her mother is dead, she is no one. who is dependent on her anymore. Her two kids, Sherry Ann and John Paul, are all grown up in their mid-30s. They have their own lives now. And besides, they've both made it patently clear
Starting point is 00:01:48 they want nothing to do with her. They walked out of her life pretty much as soon as they were of age. Sherry Ann must have been 19, John Paul, 18, couldn't wait. It was the fighting that drove them away, the constant fighting between Jerry and her husband John, the kid's father.
Starting point is 00:02:08 We don't know if Sherry Ann or John Paul ever witnessed physical violence between their parents, but they saw enough abuse on both sides to make them want to get away from that toxic relationship. That was back in the late 80s. Years went by without either side reaching out. The phone never rang. And Jerry was too proud to make the first move herself. And then finally, Sherry Ann got in touch. This was in 1997.
Starting point is 00:02:41 Sherry Ann hadn't spoken to either of her parents for pretty much 10 years. It was now that Jerry dropped the bombshell. Dad was dead. He had died in a road accident. It was worse than that even. Their mom had let five years go by without telling them. What kind of mother does that? Sherry Ann and John Paul could hardly believe it.
Starting point is 00:03:08 Their father's dead, and for five years she'd doesn't think to tell them, doesn't even invite them to the funeral? Naturally, Sherry Ann wanted to know where her father was buried. Her mother answered vaguely, Nevada. When she'd asked where in Nevada, her mom tried to close down the conversation. Nobody needs to know, she'd said. Sherry Ann persisted, but this only unleashed a torrent of abuse from her mother. But what really hurt was when her mother asked why Sherryan even cared where her father
Starting point is 00:03:40 was buried. He'd never cared about her, never given a damn about either of his kids. But Sherry Ann knew that wasn't true. Okay, when he was off on one of his benders, maybe he didn't care about anything other than where his next drink was coming from. But he wasn't always like that. Sherry Ann remembers times when he tried to be a good dad to them. She's sure she does. That must have been one of the last times she'd spoken to her mother. Then, if she's... few days ago, seven years later, she gets a call out of the blue with the news that Jerry's got cancer. There's something her mother needs to tell her before she dies. At the moment of death, people often have an overwhelming need to get their biggest secrets off their chests. From murder,
Starting point is 00:04:35 fake identities, illicit affairs, and even top government cover-ups, this show dives deep into the world's most explosive deathbed confessions. This is the story of Geraldine DeMarzio Kelly and her husband John. It's about high school sweethearts who turn into the bitterest of enemies. It's about a man who disappears and no one goes looking for him. It's about questions that are never asked, lies that are never challenged. And a truth so outrageous, it's almost unbelievable.
Starting point is 00:05:11 It's about the violence that tears a family apart. It's about children who discover their mother's darkest secret and their father's last resting place. I'm a Stefania Higman, and this is Deathbed Confessions. Pay off your home, travel for life, drive a Ferrari. In celebration of the world premiere of the Monopoly Big Board Buckslot Machine by Aristocrat Gaming, Yamava Resort and Casino at San Manuel is giving one person a $1.6 million dream package. The biggest prize in Yamaba's history.
Starting point is 00:05:55 Club Serrano members can earn daily instant prizes and secure a spot in the finale May 29. Night. Don't pass go and own it all. Only at Yamava, celebrating its 40th anniversary. UN. Details at Yamava.com must be 21-20. Please gamble responsibly. Monopoly is a trademark of Hasbro. Hasbro is not a sponsor of this promotion. Who can say what draws two people together? For John Kelly and Jerry DeMarzio, both students at Somerville High School in the mid to late 1960s, it seems it has a lot to do with height, or lack of it. Jerry is just five foot two in her bare feet. And at 5'6, John is only a few inches taller himself.
Starting point is 00:06:33 She just looks silly next to one of those big, hulking football players. And he hates it when he's the one who has to stand on his toes to kiss. So it seems natural somehow that they should end up pairing off. Though maybe it would have been better for everyone if they had never met. In the beginning, at least, they are there for each other, through thick and thin. For instance, Jerry sticks by John when he drops out of high school after his first. his mother dies. Maybe that's when the heavy drinking starts.
Starting point is 00:07:07 Because according to his childhood friend Tom McCann, John can really knock them back. Not that the booze agrees with John. He's like a terrier when he's had a few, picking fights and throwing himself into barroom brawls. Given his size, it seems like a death wish. But he's handy with his fists. His buddy Tom can personally vouch for that.
Starting point is 00:07:30 He's felt the brunt of them himself. when some remark or other has set John off at the end of the evening. See, John is one of those Jekyll and Hyde drunks. A nice enough guy when sober, but mean as hell after a few beers. Tom doesn't know where it comes from. All that rage his friend is harboring. One thing he will say, he's never seen John lay a finger on Jerry. Maybe John doesn't dare.
Starting point is 00:07:58 Tom McCann certainly wouldn't like to get on Jerry's wrong side. She was tough. She wouldn't back down from nothing, he will later observe. But for all her hardest nails exterior, Jerry continues to stick by John through all the scrapes he gets himself into. And John sticks around when Jerry gets pregnant. The baby is born in August, 1968. A girl, Sherry Ann. Pretty soon, she's pregnant again.
Starting point is 00:08:28 This time, it's a boy. John Paul, born a year. later. John and Jerry are married on August 11th, 1969. She's 19. He's 20. There's never been anyone else for either of them, and there never will be. Marriage marks a turning point in John's life. He has a family now, mouths to feed. It's time to start taking his responsibility seriously. He needs a job. Somerville in the late 60s and early 70s is not a great place to be a high school dropout. The Ford Motor Company used to be the biggest employer, but the plant shut down production in 1958. The effect on the local economy was devastating. So John does what a lot of young men in his
Starting point is 00:09:19 position might do. He joins the Army. It turns out to be a smart move, because John learns a trade in the military. He becomes a skilled auto mechanic. Of course, it can't be easy for Jerry, a young army wife, left on her own to look after the little ones, while John's away on active duty. Maybe it's now that the resentment starts to build. After John gets out of the army in the 70s, he rents premises and starts his own business, a car repair shop,
Starting point is 00:09:51 but his hard drinking habits and the fighting that goes with him haven't improved. He's working long hours to put food on the table for his growing family. It's only natural he wants to let loose every night. now and then. That's not the way Jerry sees it. She gives him hell for rolling in drunk at all hours. Jerry even holds it against him that he spends so long at work. She says he always leaves it to her to deal with the kids when they're acting out. So he stays away more and more, because he knows he's only going to get grief when he comes home. But, for now at least, Jerry and John don't let their
Starting point is 00:10:27 resentments overwhelm them. Yes, there are fights. Stand-up rows that leave the kids, young as they are, quaking with fear. It's like they're playing a dangerous game. Seeing how far they can push each other, how close to the brink they can take it, before the relationship breaks. The thing is, they always make up, and when they aren't bickering, they make a great team.
Starting point is 00:10:52 Plus, Jerry's got plans. A way of bringing in an income that will give them a decent roof over their heads and leave her free to look after the kids. As a side benefit, she'll also be able to keep a closer eye on John. She's seen an ad for a live-in couple to manage an apartment block in Somerville. They apply and get the job. A new career begins for both of them.
Starting point is 00:11:21 We don't know the details for certain, but between 1975 and 1986, Jerry and John Kelly worked together managing two apartment buildings in the Somerville area. John's the caretaker handyman. good at fixing things but not so good with people. So he leaves all that to Jerry and just gets on with doing what he's told by the boss, which is Jerry, of course. Professionally, the John Jerry partnership seems to work,
Starting point is 00:11:48 on the surface at least. But by 1981, the tension has reached an all-time high. John's old rage has not gone away. One day, it breaks out with sudden, horrific violence. The floorboards creep. The walls, they moan. The house seems vacant, but you're not alone. This October, Parcast invites you to celebrate the spookiness of the Halloween season
Starting point is 00:12:24 with all new episodes of haunted places. From an infamous murder farm in Indiana to the ghostly tombs and palaces of ancient Egypt, visit the world's most haunted destinations, and find out what happens when a soul leaves the body, but doesn't leave the grounds. Enjoy new episodes of haunted places all month long, free, and only on Spotify. The Kelly's are guests at a family wedding. The party is being held in the courtyard of a housing complex for the elderly.
Starting point is 00:12:59 An incongruous setting for what happens next. According to John's old friend Tom McCann, he's been drinking heavily that day. And as usual, when he drinks, his mood turns nasty. We don't know the cause of the fight, or even if John started it. it may have stemmed from a long-standing feud with other members of his extended family. Whatever sparked the violence, John is in the thick of it. The bride and groom must have looked on in horror as their guests jumped to their feet and piled on, throwing punches, smashing glasses, and breaking furniture.
Starting point is 00:13:38 Someone calls the police. According to allegations, the officers who arrive on the scene use excessive force to break up the fight. As the situation comes under control, many of the participants are left. nursing minor injuries like black eyes or broken noses. One man, however, doesn't get up from the floor. Edward Gordiniere, John Kelly's brother-in-law, is rushed to Somerville Hospital, where he lies in a coma,
Starting point is 00:14:07 suffering from massive internal injuries, including kidney failure. He undergoes three operations, but the doctors are unable to save him. About a month after the fight, Edward Gordinié dies. According to Tom McCann, John admits assaulting Gordinié. He, punched his lights out, Tom quotes John as saying,
Starting point is 00:14:34 but John insists he wasn't responsible for his death. Though Tom claims he was worried he would end up taking the blame. Maybe it's just a sign of John's paranoia, or maybe he really did have something to hide. Witnesses will later claim that police brutality played a part. If so, the conduct of the attention. officers is never investigated. No one is ever indicted for Edward Gordiniere's death.
Starting point is 00:15:02 The question of who landed the fatal blow proves impossible to answer. What we do know is that in September 1982, John Kelly is summoned to appear before a Middlesex grand jury on a charge of assault and battery against another guest at the wedding, Michael Coughlin.
Starting point is 00:15:21 John is also charged with disorderly conduct. It's almost a whole year later in August 1983 when all charges against John Kelly are dismissed. He has his defense attorney, Odin Anderson, to think. Anderson points out that the foreman of the jury is a police officer. The same foreman is on record as saying that he can relate to police being called to break up fights. Given the allegations of police brutality at the wedding, there's a clear indication of bias.
Starting point is 00:15:52 Although John is no longer facing legal prosecution, there will always be those who whisper that he only got off on a technicality. It can't have been an easy time these last two years waiting for his name to be cleared. And if the law didn't blame him for Edward Gordiniere's death, there might have been some in the family who did. John's older sister Margaret will claim the feud played a part in John and Jerry's decision to get away from the family. The idea of making a fresh start somewhere takes root. But it isn't until 1986,
Starting point is 00:16:28 five years after the wedding brawl, that they finally leave Massachusetts behind and move out west to California. The kids are 16 and 17, not a great age to be uprooted from your friends. To make matters more difficult, the Kelly's move around California taking a series of jobs together managing buildings.
Starting point is 00:16:47 The transient lifestyle no doubt puts an extra strain on the family in their relationship. They are cut off from their extended family, living and working closely together all the time. It's like a pressure cooker for marital strife. Eventually, in 1988, Sherry Ann and John Paul, now young adults, decide that they've had enough of their parents' constant fighting. The two siblings leave home, wherever home is right now, and their parents' life. It's not unheard of for 18- and 19-year-olds to push for more in.
Starting point is 00:17:24 independence, but to cut off ties so completely, and with both mom and dad, that's very unusual. There's nothing John and Jerry can do. They shrug their shoulders and move on. It's around this time that the couple settle in the beach resort of Ventura. Located on the California coast between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, Ventura must have felt like the perfect place for a new beginning. geographically, it's about as far as you can get on the same continent from Massachusetts. There's an emotional distance too, between here and all the troubles of their past. Strolling out a long venture appear as the sun sets over the Pacific, it's hard not to feel hopeful about the future.
Starting point is 00:18:13 With its warm sand, breaking surf, and historic mission, the town has a thriving tourist economy. There's no shortage of hotels, and motels, which for the Kelly's means employment. They land jobs as a live-in management team for the Victoria Motel, a low-cost, no-frills establishment just off Highway 101. The Victoria boasts 36 bedrooms and a great view of the freeway. And for a hard-working couple like Jerry and John,
Starting point is 00:18:45 it doesn't present any challenges they can't overcome. Richard Tan, the man who hires them, describes their working relationship as follows. She was the boss. She told him what to do. John is the quiet one. He keeps his head down and gets on with his work, fixing the plumbing, sorting out electrical problems,
Starting point is 00:19:04 and touching up the paint mark. He hardly ever speaks to anyone, whether it's a guest or one of his co-workers. He might occasionally wait for the motel's owners, Valerie and Don Kiyunke, but he rarely stops for a chat. It's Jerry who does all the talking. She doesn't take any nonsense from anyone.
Starting point is 00:19:25 especially guests who step out of line. And when a group of high school students want to throw a party at the motel on prom night, she firmly turns them down. Overall, the Kiyunkees remember her as hardworking, a good manager. She runs a tight ship. With the greater stability that the new position provides,
Starting point is 00:19:47 Jerry starts to feel more settled. And to fill the void left by her children, she welcomes a string of pets into her and John's home. She seems to have a fondness for big dogs. Rottweilers and Dobermans, for example. Maybe they make her feel safe, providing her with the huge physical presence and strength that she lacks on her own. Or maybe they signify dominance.
Starting point is 00:20:11 These days, she's sporting tattoos. She also acquires a boa constrictor, which she likes to wear draped around her shoulders while she's doing the gardening in front of the motel. According to hotel owner, Valerie Kjunke, potential guests would see the tiny but intense, illuminating figure and keep driving. It's almost as if Jerry was deliberately trying to put people off from staying at the Victoria.
Starting point is 00:20:37 The constant fighting with her husband can't have helped either. The last thing guests want to see on a relaxing vacation is an angry, unhappy couple ripping into each other all the time. As for John, he withdraws more and more into himself, but despite his efforts to live a quiet at life, it seems that he hasn't entirely shaken off his hard drinking ways. Records in the Ventura County Superior Court show that in 1989, he is convicted of driving under the influence. But these days, John is a solitary drinker. Despite his fondness for bars and booze, he doesn't make any new drinking buddies. He has no friends in Ventura, and he has cut off
Starting point is 00:21:21 all contact with the old crowd back in Somerville. His oldest friend, Tom McCann, we'll never hear from him again. Perhaps that explains how a man can go missing without anyone wondering where he is. We cannot say with any certainty exactly when John Kelly dies, there is no contemporary death certificate to refer to,
Starting point is 00:21:48 no medical report of an illness or accident. At the time of his disappearance, there is no official record of his death at all. No undertaker is called to prepare his body for burial. There is no funeral to attend, no period of mourning, and as his daughter Sherry Ann will discover, no grave at which to lay flowers. One day, he literally drops out of his wife's life.
Starting point is 00:22:20 It's early in 1992 when Jerry explains her husband's sudden absence to their employers. The Kunkays, she says John has been called back to Massachusetts on family business. A couple of days later, her story takes on a fatal twist. She now tells them that he's dead, after being run down by a motorist as he crossed the street. The Kiyunkees will later be asked by journalists how she seemed when she tells them the snooze, and they will naturally reply that she seemed upset.
Starting point is 00:22:53 But they also recall an incidents which will take on a sinister significance in view of later developments. One day, not long after she told them about John's death, Jerry tells her bosses that she has to leave work for a while. I got to run because my storage unit just called and said there's something leaking from my unit. Those are the words Valerie Kuenke remembers her saying.
Starting point is 00:23:19 Whatever the crisis at the storage unit is, Jerry sorts it out. She's back at work in no time. And despite her husband's death, she holds it together and gets on with managing the motel. In fact, for the next six years, she runs the Victoria on her own. She doesn't have John to boss around anymore, but pretty soon it's like he was never there. And if Jerry misses him, she never lets on.
Starting point is 00:23:47 It seems strange now. As we read through the various newspaper reports of this bizarre case, how many different stories Geraldine Kelly tells of her husband's death? In one version, he's in Boston on his own. when he's killed, walking in the snow on the sidewalk when a drunk driver veered off the road and ran him over. In another version, she and John are together when he gets hit. She tells someone else he's killed in Ventura, outside a jack in the box. In yet another version of the story, Jerry says that John was killed in a car crash in Nevada. Fortunately for Jerry, the people she
Starting point is 00:24:25 tells her differing accounts to don't seem to compare notes. Everybody takes her at her word. and nobody has enough of a connection with John to probe more deeply. The Nevada version is the one she sticks with when Sherry Ann gets back in touch sometime in 1997, five years or so after John's disappearance. She tells her kids that their father was killed in a car accident in Las Vegas. Understandably, they have questions. So much so that Jerry complains that Sherry Ann is pestering her for details. It seems an odd word to use about a daughter trying to find out how her father died and where he is buried.
Starting point is 00:25:07 So it's hardly surprising that the mother-daughter relationship breaks down again. But at no time does it occur to Sherry Ann or her brother that their mother's evasiveness might conceal a shocking secret. By 1998, Jerry has been to the Victoria for 10 years. For most of them, she's been running the place on her own, protected by her attack dogs, keeping people at bay with her heart exterior and pet snake. It's business as usual, until she gets the news that her own mother is sick. She figures maybe it's time to move back to Somerville.
Starting point is 00:25:44 There's nothing to keep her in California anymore. Well, maybe there is something. Something that's going to make the move to the East Coast a logistical nightmare. In October 1998, Jerry contacts Allied van lines removal firm and hires driver Mart Atkins to transport her belongings. He clears out her apartment at the Victoria Motel. Then, he stops off at Jerry's storage unit to pick up the things she keeps there,
Starting point is 00:26:16 including a freezer. It's locked up and sealed with duct tape. If he thinks there's anything odd and being asked to move a locked and taped up freezer across America, Mark keeps it to himself. There's something about the client on this job that discourages questions. And by the looks of it, it's just an old freezer that she's never got round to throwing out. Some people are like that. Horders.
Starting point is 00:26:44 He takes most of the boxes and furniture to Jerry's new apartment on Cypress Street in Somerville. There's no room for the freezer, and the lady doesn't seem to want it in the house anyway. She's rented a unit at Planet Self Storage on Medford Street, so that's where Atkins heads. Six years from now, Mart Atkins will be asked if he remembers the time. he moved Geraldine Kelly from Ventura to Somerville. He'll be asked if he noticed anything odd about the freezer she had him take from one storage unit to another. An unpleasant smell, perhaps? By the time he's asked those questions, he'll know what was in the freezer he moved
Starting point is 00:27:24 all those years ago. But at the time, it was just another job. Yes, he does remember it, and no, he didn't smell anything off. It must have been strong duct tape is all he can think. That move was 12 years ago. In November 2004, Geraldine Kelly's mother is long gone, and she can feel her own death approaching. She knows she doesn't have long left for this world. She can hear the traffic noises from the main road as she lies motionless in her sickbed.
Starting point is 00:28:03 People rushing from one place to the next in their busy, carefree lives. Breaks, screech, horns hoot, engines rev, the occasional cop-s-iron, layers out. Her pulse beats a little faster, like it always does when she hears that sound. Maybe they've come for her at last. Let them come. She's not going anywhere. It's probably just the morphine making her delirious. The pain's really stepped up a gear now, so she's using it more and more, though she tries not to. She's got to keep a clear head as much as she can. She's just
Starting point is 00:28:41 got to hold on a little longer until Sherry Ann gets here. When Sherry Ann sees her mother, she can't believe how tiny she looks. Of course, she's always been small, but despite her petite frame, her mother has always cast a long shadow. She had that wiry strength that could heave mattresses single-handed. She didn't need anybody's help, and wouldn't have accepted it if she was. feud offered. Always a bundle of fierce, angry energy. Until now, that is. Now, she looks not just tiny, but frail. Her body barely makes an impression on the bed. But there's still a glint of fire in her eyes, the temper that could flare up over nothing, unleashing a string of profanities.
Starting point is 00:29:36 If Sherry Ann expects to see contrition in her mother's expression, she's disappointed. It's clear Geraldine Kelly doesn't want or need her daughter's forgiveness for anything. But the urgency she had heard in her mother's voice over the phone is reflected in her gaze. Her mother's eyes lock onto hers, unflinching, unafraid, even as death approaches. And in some part of her, Sherryan knows what the other woman is going to say. She feels it. She's finally going to get the answer to her question. question about where her father's body is laid to rest. Jerry hands her daughter the key to a storage unit and tells her that's where she'll find her father. She also tells her daughter that
Starting point is 00:30:28 John Kelly did not die in a road accident in Las Vegas, or Boston, or Ventura, or anywhere else. No. He died because she killed him. We can only imagine the horror Sherry Ann feels as she hears her mother's confession. And the questions that must have been reeling through her head. Why? What happened? What made her do it? What possible motive did she have?
Starting point is 00:31:02 Her mother has never responded well to questioning, and Sherry Ann senses her bristle now. Jerry's expression grows steely, a glimmer of her old fierceness returning to her eyes. All she will say is that her husband was abused. towards her, and she finally snapped. Other than this, the details of her deathbed confession have never been made public. We simply don't know if she revealed anything about where or how she killed him, under what circumstances, and how she got his body into that first storage unit in Ventura.
Starting point is 00:31:41 Soon after she unburdens herself, Jerry dies. For Sherry Ann, it's a lot to take in. her mother's revelations add to the confusion of mixed emotions she's feeling over her death. She's just not sure what to believe. The story of domestic abuse, for example, she herself had witnessed her parents biting. That was what drove her and John Paul away.
Starting point is 00:32:10 And she knows her father had a violent temper on him when he had been drinking. But, as everyone who knew the couple always said, Geraldine Kelly could hold her own. She was the dominant one in the relationship. Not John. What Sherry Ann does know is that her mother has lied to her in the past, so it's possible she was lying about this too.
Starting point is 00:32:32 Also, she can't help thinking if the death had occurred in self-defense as a result of domestic violence, then why not come clean about it at the time? She consults her brother and together they decide to contact the Somerville police, handing over the keys their mother gave Sherryan. From the moment the police open up the unit at Planet Self-Storage, There are telltale signs. Officers notice a distinct musty smell, coming from the freezer. The smell gets even worse when they break the seal on the unplugged freezer and release the padlock.
Starting point is 00:33:10 The one that's been keeping the lid on Geraldine Kelly's secret for over 10 years. The police recover two securely taped up garbage bags from inside the freezer. And sure enough, inside the bags, they find human remains. Middle Sex District Attorney Martha Cokely will later describe them as essentially mummified. A preliminary examination identifies the remains as belonging to an adult male of around 5 foot 6, weighing approximately 135 pounds. That's certainly consistent with John Kelly's physical description, but the real giveaway is his tattoos. John had three of them.
Starting point is 00:33:52 A panther on the right shoulder, a cupid doll on the right arm, and a picture of a skull on the left arm. An autopsy gives the cause of death as a gunshot wound to the back of the head. Two 38 caliber bullets are recovered from the brain. A later police search uncovers a 38 handgun at Jerry's apartment. It looks a lot like she shot him twice in the back of the head. At first sight, that does not seem consistent with the explanation Jerry gave her daughter, that she'd been acting in self-defense.
Starting point is 00:34:24 Neither does the level of concealment involved in chopping up his body and stashing the parts in a freezer. Of course, we cannot say for sure what went on behind closed doors. We know that John Kelly was prone to violence when drunk. We know from the driving under the influence charge that he was still drinking while the couple were living in Ventura. We also know that he had few, if any, friends at the time, no one to vent his anger on, except his wife.
Starting point is 00:34:54 So maybe Geraldine Kelly was telling the truth. Maybe their arguments did turn violent, with John the physically stronger of the two. No one saw it happen, but then again, there was no one there to see if it did. We only have Geraldine Kelly's word. When the details of John's death finally come to light, his character and personality become the subject of newspaper articles and speculation. Not all of it's sympathetic. His part in the brawl that led to Edward Gordiniere's death is rehashed. At first, without the crucial detail that he was cleared of all charges.
Starting point is 00:35:35 He is presented as a violent man with a troubled past, on the run from a manslaughter charge, but the truth is that he left Somerville only after he had cleared his name. On a much lesser charge than Gordinier's death, and before a grand jury, no less. It's true that he had become a strange from his wider family. But whatever had driven him away, the rift seems to have been healed by his death. In response to the negative press coverage, some of his close relatives release a statement. We, the siblings of John Kelly and the Gordinié family, would like all involved to know that John Kelly was loved by his family. So maybe John Kelly's tragedy was that he turned his back on the people who loved him
Starting point is 00:36:20 and threw in his lot with a woman who grew to hate him. Though, if the two bullets in the back of his head are any indication, his biggest mistake was turning his back on her too. Next week on Deathbed Confessions. We dive deep into the mystery surrounding the disappearance and presumed death of Teamster boss Jimmy Hoffa. Since 1975, the FBI has searched for any sign of the notoriously corrupt Union man, but no trace of him has ever been found. They assumed it was a mob hit of some kind, but could never find evidence to back it up.
Starting point is 00:37:06 For decades, it seemed that the question, who got Hoffa, would never be answered. But all that changes in 1999, when Hoffa's old right-hand man, Frank Sheeran, begins talking to an investigator on his deathbed. Deathbed Confessions is a Spotify original from Parcast, produced in partnership with Noiser, executive produced by Max Cutler, Drew Cole, and Pascal Hughes. Developed by Julian Boreau for Parcast. Series produced by Addison Nugent. Written by Roger Morris. Sound supervisor Tom Pink.
Starting point is 00:37:45 Edited by Rob Plummer. Music by Oliver Baines and Dory McCauley. Sound design by Matias Torresole. Mixmaster by Kean Ryan Morgan.

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