Police Conclude Man Killed Wife, Took Own Life

A retired World War II fighter pilot fatally stabbed his wife in the chest before taking his own life late Sunday night, authorities determined Tuesday.

Detectives are still trying to piece together why Lawrence “Ed” McCarthy, 77, would stab his wife of 56 years before killing himself. Meanwhile, neighbors and loved ones speculate that the husband’s recent failing health might have prompted his actions.

“Everything was fine until his hip replacement surgery,” said his son Mark McCarthy, 37, of Camarillo.

The elder McCarthy, known around the neighborhood as an athletic man, was regularly seen jogging, working out in his garage and in-line skating on occasion. But aches and pains in his joints, culminating in hip replacement surgery in May, forced a man who served on one of the Air Force’s first jet aerobatic teams to finally slow down.

McCarthy suffered complications from the surgery and experienced a series of adverse reactions to medications prescribed after hospitalization, relatives said.

Bradley Eden, 59, said he, too, had noticed the change in his usually upbeat neighbor.

“His attitude was always excellent until our last conversation,” Eden said. “He was upset. He had always experienced such good health until now.”

McCarthy had also been having trouble sleeping, friends said.

“He was always saying, ‘Well, last night I had maybe an hour and a half, maybe two hours of sleep,” said Harry Parker, 79, next-door neighbor and 31-year friend to the McCarthys.

Pat McCarthy, 72, appeared to be in good health, though she also reported struggling with insomnia, relatives said. Neighbors said their most vivid memory of Pat McCarthy was of her tending her rose garden.

In a prepared statement, the McCarthy children added, “We understand our parents were sleeping only one hour per night, and even the simplest tasks were becoming more difficult. We all loved our parents beyond words and we do not blame them for this tragedy.”

It was an unfortunate end to a love story that started more than half a century ago.

Patricia was only 12 when she first laid eyes on the strapping 17-year-old living down the street in her Detroit neighborhood.

Five years later, the pair married, starting a union that would span 56 years and produce 10 sons. To support his family, McCarthy began a career as a military pilot.

He was 22--and recovering from appendicitis in a military hospital--when he heard a radio call that all able-bodied men should report to their units. The date was June 6, 1944--D-Day. “I had a sense of what was about to happen and I wasn’t about to miss it,” McCarthy said in a 1994 interview with The Times.

He managed to get an early release from his military doctors, and a few hours later he was at the controls of his P-51 Mustang fighter over the English Channel headed toward Normandy.

Nearly 6,600 American soldiers died in the first 24 hours of the attack. But McCarthy, a member of the 328th Fighter Squadron known as the Blue Nosed Bastards of Bodney, escaped unscathed.

He retired 24 years later from the U.S. Air Force as Lt. Col. McCarthy, but rarely spoke to his family about his wartime experiences, said his son, Mark.

“That just was not his style,” McCarthy said. “He just said we did what we had to do. He enjoyed flying jets and would tell you all about that. But he didn’t go too much into the business of war.”

At home, Pat McCarthy took on her own battles, struggling to raise 10 young boys. She handled the challenge with grit and grace, Mark McCarthy said.

“My dad was a fighter pilot,” he said, “and my mom was a saint.”

Parker said he remembered 31 years ago when he and his wife were considering buying the home next door to the McCarthy’s two-story house on Dwight Avenue.

“I asked the real estate agent about the neighbors,” Parker said. “And he said, ‘Well, he’s a retired military man and he has mmmm boys.’ I said, ‘What? He has how many?’ He mumbled again before he told me they had 10 boys.”

Parker decided to move in anyway, “with my fingers crossed,” he said.

“They turned out to be the best family to live next to,” Parker said. “We borrowed tools, a cup of flour, an egg here and there. And their boys were always the best behaved.”

Neighbors remembered how, at the couple’s 50th wedding anniversary party in Camarillo, the boys teasingly called their father, who stood about 5 feet 4, “Big Ed.” By all accounts, his troop of boys towered over the World War II veteran.

But the happy times had faded in recent months. The couple found themselves grappling with the kind of health problems that made even the gardening they so enjoyed a difficult task.

Neighbors said Ed McCarthy had been trying to replant grass in his frontyard, but was frustrated with his slow progress. “I offered to help,” Eden said. “He just thanked me for my offer, and that was all. We never talked any more about it.”

Sheriff’s authorities declined to give details on how the deaths occurred. But a coroner’s official said Ed McCarthy fatally stabbed his childhood sweetheart in the chest, carefully covered her body with a blanket and then took his life.

Mark McCarthy declined to talk about his father’s final actions, commenting only on their years of devotion to each other.

“Both my parents loved each other very much. We are a very close family, and we are just very thankful for all they gave us.”