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Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Jerome Cady -- I Did It. I Did It. I Did It

Cady (born in West Virginia in 1904) worked for several Los Angeles daily newspapers prior to becoming one of the top screenwriters at 20th Century-Fox.  His screen credits include Guadalcanal Diary (1943), The Purple Heart (1944), Forever Amber (1947), and the classic James Stewart film Call Northside 777 (1948).  On November 8, 1948, less than one week after suffering a severe heart attack, Cady 44, was entertaining some friends aboard his yacht, the Harp, moored in Avalon Bay off Santa Catalina Island in California.  According to witnesses, Cady entered the cruiser's galley, poured sleeping pills into his hand, and gulped them down with a glass of water.  As the dying screenwriter writhed in agony on his bunk, he kept moaning, "I did it.  I did it.  I did it."  Shortly before dying Cady instructed a friend to call his wife and tell her he had just committed suicide.

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