Sunday, September 13, 2009

Justice in sight for man allegedly murdered by hitman wife hired after 25 years?

By Derrick Nunnally

[Philadephia]Inquirer Staff Writer

A quarter-century after Alan Bailey was shot to death in his Pottstown home, and 17 years since his body turned up in a Berks County forest, his widow was charged yesterday with helping her boyfriend commit the murder.

Jane A. Bailey, 53, admitted to police that she gave the accused gunman, Joey Small, the .357 Magnum used to kill Bailey in the summer of 1984, Montgomery County prosecutors said yesterday.

She confessed that to police in 1993, the year after Bailey's body was found in Colebrookdale Township, but said that the killing happened "because she could no longer stand Alan's physical abuse," according to an affidavit.

She also told police that Small had been buying methamphetamine from the Baileys.

Investigators at the time could not find Small or any other witnesses to corroborate the story.

"They did not have a great deal of information to go on," District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman said.

In fall 2007, Montgomery County detectives took a new look at the file and interviewed a witness who had been arrested by Philadelphia homicide investigators.

The new witness - whose name prosecutors withheld - said Small and Bailey were romantically involved for a year before the killing and cohabitated afterward.

She was arrested late Tuesday in Fayette County, where she has been jailed without bail. A warrant has been issued for Small, 55.

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