Felix Vail bragged about killing wife, friend says

Felix Vail admitted killing his first wife, said a friend whose half-sister would later become Vail's wife.

The Clarion-Ledger tracked down Bruce Biedebach in California after learning of his relationship with Vail.

The 72-year-old man said he met Vail in the late 1960s in San Diego. At the time, Biedebach said he was a student at San Diego State University.

He said his twin brother, Brian, now deceased, was close with Vail. His half-sister, Carolyn, later married the Mississippi native.

During a party then at a beach home in Mission Beach, California, Biedebach recalled a group of guys taking psychedelic drugs and bragging about things they had done that no one else had.

When it came Vail's turn, he told the group he had killed someone, Biedebach recalled.

"He told us he drowned his wife," he said. "He said he held her underwater."

They never bothered to contact authorities because they didn't believe Vail was telling the truth, he said. "We were sort of incredulous."

Biedebach recalled Vail's arrest in 1970 by California authorities after his 8-year-old son, Bill, told police he was hungry and tired of using the drugs his father gave him.

Bill also told officers he overheard his father admitting to killing his mother, Mary.

Vail received a six-month jail sentence after pleading guilty to a lesser charge of LSD possession, but Louisiana authorities never prosecuted him.

After that arrest, Vail "told us his son had just ratted on him," Biedebach recalled. "I remember him raising hell and being pissed off at his son."

Contact Jerry Mitchell at jmitchell@jackson.gannett.com or (601) 961-7064. Follow @jmitchellnews on Twitter.