Kelley Cannon Unplugged
In the Scene's exclusive hour-and-a-half interview with Kelley Cannon, the wife of slain attorney Jim Cannon, Kelley disclosed a litany of unsavory stories about her dead husband—not exactly a good public relations move for a woman whose husband was strangled and stuffed into a closet. Especially when Jim's friends and family have fingered Kelley as the prime suspect. Jim's longtime friend and divorce attorney John Hollins Jr. paints Jim as nothing less than a saint.
Jim was the co-founder of Medical Reimbursements of America, a successful Franklin firm that collected delinquent hospital bills. But Kelley said Jim's “drinking had become so terrible, he couldn't even get up to go to work before 12 or 1.” When asked if she had any idea of who would've had motive to murder Jim, she provided a one-sentence answer: “Jim had a mantra, and his mantra was, 'If you want a friend, get a dog.' ”
In all of her candid talk about her husband's alleged affairs, heavy drinking and addiction to prescription drugs—mostly sedatives and painkillers—Kelley came off much like a woman scorned. Tales of her husband often came in the form of lengthy rants (which seemed quite well-rehearsed). So it comes as no surprise that we couldn't pack them all into today's paper.
One thing about Kelley did surprise us, however: The woman is pretty damn endearing. When she talks about her devotion to her children, she's entirely believable—sweet even. And when Kelley's attorney stopped by our offices yesterday afternoon, we were left with little question about how close Kelley actually was—and is—with her three children, who range in age from 1 to 9. Andrew Cate, who is representing Kelley in her custody battle, splayed a slew of family photos on the Scene's conference room table.
The pictures depicted a smiling Kelley cuddling up to seemingly happy children. Among others, there were photos of the woman with her kids and a fluffy pink Easter bunny—even a poster board photo collage one of Kelley's older sons created, displaying photos of him and his mother along with hand-written descriptions of experiences he'd shared with her.
When asked why she stayed with Jim, who she describes as nothing less as than a philandering, controlling, explosive man, Kelley offers one simple, if not cliché, explanation. She says she loved him with all her heart, and she stuck by his side for the sake of the kids. Here's what Kelley had to say about her home life with the kids and Jim, before he filed for divorce and acquired court orders to keep her away from the home:
“I had been the primary caretaker. I gave up medical school because I didn't want my patients to come before my children. I was in medical school when I met him, and he was just about to go in for bankruptcy and had just gone through a divorce, had no real job. Really, I supported us for probably the first three or four years in terms of health insurance, and he went through that bankruptcy and cried on my shoulder. He wouldn't go to that meeting with Clayton McWherter, I basically had to kick him out of the door to that. He asked me for counsel throughout the development of that business. But after the affair, he even lied to me after the affair.”
“You know, we never went out. I cooked supper every single night. We were a good family, except for his drinking.... So he was taking my pills [for my back injury], he was smoking pot and he was drinking—sneaking around me, drinking.”
“I stopped looking into whether or not he was having affairs because it wouldn’t matter to me anymore. I just didn’t care. I just wanted to be a mother and wife—that’s it.”
Comments
Why is there a photo of Laura Petry included in this blog?
Posted 07/09/2008 at 04:06:03 PMMs. Ulrich's excellent story on this case in last week's print edition of the Scene is unfortunately marred by this irresponsible post she has written. It's certainly appropriate to give Ms. Cannon's side of the story but it has to be done in context, even in a blog. To allow Ms Cannon to defame her late husband and accuse him of drug use, drunkenness and adultery without including a response from the late husband's lawyer or family is completely irresponsible. I have no idea if those charges are true or not. But I do know that a judge awarded full custody of the children to Mr. Cannon which, at the very least, casts substantial doubt on Ms. Cannon's allegations as well as her supposed devotion to her children.This post should be pulled until the reporter can do her job.
Posted 07/09/2008 at 04:34:45 PMLet me add that I have not read the print edition of this week's paper (which came out today) in which there is a more extensive report on the interview with Ms. Cannon. I presume that, unlike this blog posting, the print article includes comments from the other side.
Jim's longtime friend and divorce attorney John Hollins Jr. paints Jim as nothing less than a saint.
HW, guess you missed this sentence in Elizabeth's post.
Posted 07/09/2008 at 04:40:01 PMI don't think he missed the sentence at all. The sentence only helps affirm HW's point. Ms. Ulrich notes the wife's charges and then proceeds to elaborate on them. She notes the counter-claim by the husband's attorney but provides no supporting elaboration. As written, the blog story conveys the impression that attorney Hollins is merely doing what you expect an attorney to do and that Ms. Ulrich puts a lot more stock in what the wife says. While this may not have been what Ms. Ulrich intended, HW's point is utterly valid, and it's disappointing to see yet another reflexive rush to a Scene writer's defense (sounding, ironically, a little like what I'd expect from an attorney) rather than an honest acknowledgment of HW's point.
Posted 07/09/2008 at 10:45:44 PMI think the way Elizabeth wrote her story--and the post above--makes it clear that Kelley Canon is not exactly an unimpeachable source.
Posted 07/09/2008 at 11:18:20 PMThe way she wrote the print story, yes. The way she wrote the post above, not so much.
Posted 07/09/2008 at 11:52:28 PMBBB: i guess two people can read the same post and come to opposite conclusions. I would have titled this post Kelly Cannon Unhinged. She comes across as either batty or a complete fabricator.
Posted 07/10/2008 at 10:27:35 AMThe print story in this week's paper is excellent and, unlike this post, effectively uses Ms. Cannon's own words to paint her has a very troubled (and obvously lying) woman. Well done. But I stand by my comments that this post, read as a stand-alone story, is a defamatory, hatchet job on the dead husband and should not remain on the site.
Posted 07/10/2008 at 10:59:09 AMOne other point: since Ms. Cannon is described in the print story as a Harpeth Hall graduate and an MBA prom queen, why don't you tell us her maiden name, who her parents are, and when she graduated? How about a picture of the prom queen from the year book? Don't you people realize that's a big part of what makes this such a good story?
Who made you guys the referees of journalistic fairness? Do we have to add up the words on each side and make sure they're equal? That's ridiculous. We're not saying we think this woman's necessarily telling the truth. That's clear. We're just quoting her. Letting her talk because it's interesting--that's pretty much the point of all of this.
Posted 07/10/2008 at 11:56:54 AMHenry, Kelley Cannon called us at 2:30 on Monday and spoke for an hour and a half. After that, Elizabeth transcribed a 7000-word interview, worked the phones right away and wrote a damn good feature-length news story in a matter of hours--all to meet an early deadline.
If her story wasn't absolutely perfect--and I thought it came close--it might have had something to do with the fact that we don't have months and months to work on our stories.
We're not The Tennessean.
Posted 07/10/2008 at 12:15:19 PMFrom Ulrich's post: "One thing about Kelley did surprise us, however: The woman is pretty damn endearing. When she talks about her devotion to her children, she's entirely believable—sweet even."
Posted 07/10/2008 at 01:44:11 PMWoods writes in defense of Ulrich: "We're not saying we think this woman's necessarily telling the truth. That's clear."
I guess Jeff overlooked that part. But what can one expect from an Antioch graduate?
Ulrich's two printed stories were excellent. Her post, however, is indefensible and you all should quit trying.
But neither of you responded to my second point. Why didn't someone tell Ulrich to GET THE WOMAN'S MAIDEN NAME? THE YEAR SHE GRADUATED FROM HARPETH HALL? THE NAMES OF HER PARENTS? Even if there wasn't time to ask that earlier (but of course there was), you should do it now. Have Ulrich post a follow-up about Ms. Cannon's priviledged upbringing. You own this story; stay on it and do it right.
Henry is so right on this...
I bet if the new editor (or Matt or Jeff) were from Nashville, we'd know her maiden name
Posted 07/10/2008 at 05:13:44 PMHer maiden name is Sanders - her parents are Stan and Diane. He was a plastic surgeon, but I think he is retired and they are divorced.
All of the stories to date have talked about why everybody thinks it was her. It's fair that she get a story telling her side. They definitely told it with a grain of salt.
Posted 07/11/2008 at 11:04:42 AMOh, Henry Walker, you are such a prurient, smirky, smarmy pervert as usual. Clearly you want to see if you or any of your friends have the alleged murderess as a notch on your belt and get your gossip train rolling.
Posted 07/13/2008 at 10:46:27 AMLet's all hope that we, meaning the citizens of Nashville, can do a better job than the citizens of Selmer who sat in the jury box for the Mary Winkler Case and turned a blind eye to justice. Winkler shot her husband in cold blood, in the back while he was asleep, was obviously disturbed, and then made wild claims of abuse that no one else in the world had ever seen in any form. Sound familiar? All the evidence pointed to her being a cold blooded murderer, but they simply let her go free. Winkler got away with it and now may even get her kids back along with their trust fund. Maybe Mrs. Cannon will hide behind God like Mary Winkler did? I read both of these articles and as I went over Cannon's claims, all I could think about was how much it reminded me of Mary Winkler. If they let Cannon go because of God, her kids, or the mystery abuse, I am moving to another state where they convict murderers regardless of gender or faith.
I wonder if a man could get away with murder using the Winkler/Cannon method? Somehow I doubt it.
Posted 07/15/2008 at 12:43:12 PMAll of y'all need to get a life.
Posted 07/15/2008 at 08:56:56 PMAll I can say is hopefully all of the journalists in this blog put their pens down and stop and listen to yourselves.
What I hear, which must be fact, is that this woman (forget where she was raised or who raised her), stole latex gloves, her husband had an order of protection against her, he won legal custody of his children and now he's dead. DNA, videos of theft - and not all of the evidence has been revealed. Heaven help everyone who is involved to put egos aside and stop the fight over who's the better writer. This is about human lives (we're all the same)...this person was a father to three small children. They are the ones suffering and will carry this forever. I wish this human war would stop. And I wish that those who feel they are superior to others because of their zip code or place of business would come down from their self-created high opinion of themselves. Think about the children of our future for a minute-this place is getting way out of control! I truly can't believe what is happening to society.
Posted 07/16/2008 at 09:13:34 PMas an employee and friend of Jim Cannon, it doesnt matter what anywho writes or says. If you knew them you knew everything about this article come from a good dose of pills. Everyone loved Jim, it was hard not too. He was at work well before 9 and was a great father. As we morn, yall fight over the way this "article" sounds!
Posted 07/28/2008 at 08:09:12 PMas an employee and friend of Jim Cannon, it doesnt matter what anywho writes or says. If you knew them you knew everything about this article come from a good dose of pills. Everyone loved Jim, it was hard not too. He was at work well before 9 and was a great father. As we morn, yall fight over the way this "article" sounds!
Posted 07/28/2008 at 08:09:21 PMTo: In memory of Jim:
I could not agree with you more. She has worked up a really good almost believing article but just as you have said. Jim was all about his kids and he was well up at before 9 every morning and off to work because he had a company to run she was the one passed out asleep all day and always whacked out on pills. I still feel so much sadness and pain for you and his family and friends. I hope you all can move on someday and God bless you!
Posted 08/22/2008 at 02:14:51 PMP.S. I really do hope that justice is served and she spends the rest of her life in prison.
CBS 48 Hours Mystery is looking into this case. Michelle Feuer is the producer... feuerm@cbsnews.com
Posted 10/18/2008 at 12:40:22 AMTook you long enough.
Posted 10/18/2008 at 02:33:27 PMEveryone is looking from the common perspective. Has anyone ever thought about the perspective of the kids of Cannon? Or the family that has taken them in? The most interesting part is easily the story of the murder, but what about the disruption caused to the people around them? I am going to guess that the children were raised poorly, or without any sense of direction. what about the family that now has those children in their hands? They now have to raise a family on top of ruins? someone please consider the new life of Jim's sister and her husband and children.
Posted 11/03/2008 at 08:59:07 PM