How Did I Miss This One, Darlings????????????

                                This all happened back in December of 1985,  girls!  I was around, but I must have had my mind on other things!!!!!!!  How do you like that?  First, Martha Moxley (I was around for that one, but at least have vague memories) and now Jo Ann Nichols.

                                  If this story has not turned up on "Investigation Discovery" yet, I can guarantee that shortly after what I am about to discuss, it will be.

                                   Jo Ann Nichols, a then popular first grade teacher, who lived in Poughkepsie, on, of all streets, Vassar Road, vanished mysteriously shortly before Christmas, in 1985.  Her husband, James L. Nichols, Jr. who worked for IBM, said she had either killed herself, or run off.  She had been suffering from depression, over the death of their only son, 25-year-old James Nichols III. He was killed, in May of 1982,  while riding on the hood of his Amphicar., in Sardis Lake, in Mississippi.  The death was ruled an accident.  But I wonder.

                                   When Jo Ann's car turned up, and it was discovered Mr. Nichols had been seeing another woman, suspicion wisely turned in his direction.  This guy, who was one cold fish, told the cops, rather coldly, "So, I got a girlfriend!"  Let's hope that girlfriend is still alive.

                                       Mr. Nichols died this past December, at 82, very close to the anniversary of his wife's disappearance.  Very apt, darlings!!!!!!!!!  Because, last Friday, when workers were cleaning out the debris that was the chaos of Mr. Nichols--who was something like the Collier brothers!!!!!!!!--life, they found, behind a false wall in the basement, in a barrel, the skeletal remains of Jo Ann Nichols, then 55 years of age.

                                        The cause of death was blunt force trauma.  The same old, same old. Hubby tired of wife, stepping out with some babe, and sees murder as the only solution. Even if he lost his temper, which I doubt, but concealing her body in a barrel, and locking it up behind a wall???????  Sounds premeditated to me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                           And shades of literature!   Remember "The Casket Of Amontillado," by Edgar Allan Poe?  Or "A Rose For Emily," by William Faulkner???????

                                            Nichols' life, up till his death, bore similarities to those tales.  Concealing his wife's corpse, and living with the knowledge of where it was in the house for over 25 years--pretty creepy, if you ask me.  He just went about his business, while one floor below......

                                              But what goes around comes around.  Mr. Nichols not only died alone, amid clutter and filth, there is something waiting for him on the Other Side.  It is not Jo Ann--though she deserves to give him a belt!--and it is not harps and white clouds!!!!!!!!!!!!  Something more sizzling, I think!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                               Both met in the South, and traveled North, because of Nichols' job prospects. Like all Southern women, she put on a good front, but plenty of people had her husband's number. There was just no way for the cops to prove it.  Which, if I had been James Nichols III, and survived, I would be asking them,"How could you be so STUPID????????"

                                                 Well, dolls, Jo Ann gets her justice today.  Too bad she did not flee, when she had the chance!!!!  Those who knew James Nichols was scum now have it confirmed; he is dead and can't harm anyone, and is probably turning over on a roasting spit, even as I write.  Good riddance to this creep!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                    But I cannot wait to see it on "Investigation Discovery!!!!!!!" Wonder which program will showcase it???????????????????

                                                  Today, Jo Ann gets the last word!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!