Forysth denied parole for 1979 murder

Jerry Forsyth will remain in prison. The Montana Board of Pardons and Parole denied a parole request by the convicted Kalispell murderer during a hearing Friday, May 31. Forsyth will not be eligible for parole for another five years.

Forsyth was sentenced in June 1986 to 110 years in prison after he was convicted of planning and killing his wife Karen (Kienas) Forsyth at the Skyline Bowling Alley. Forsyth planned the crime with his friend Douglas Richards to make it appear to be a burglary gone bad.

Family members who attended the hearing said Forysth, 66, showed no remorse and refused to admit his crime.

On Dec. 12, 1979, officers arrived at the bowling alley at about 2:30 a.m., they were met at the door by Richards, who worked for the Forsyths. Jerry Forsyth was laying on the floor semi-unconscious, and his wife was found dead of a single gunshot to the head. A handgun that had not been fired lay at her feet.

Forsyth told officers he and his wife were closing the bowling alley for the night when someone barged through the front door and knocked him out. Richards told officers he was in the basement when he heard a popping sound. When he went upstairs, Richards said, he found Forsyth unconscious and his wife dead, and Richards called the police.

Richards’ story changed about a month later after he was arrested on a charge of sexual intercourse with a girl under the age of 16. After he was granted immunity in the murder case, Richards recanted his original story and implicated Forsyth.

At the first of Forsyth’s three trials, Richards testified that Forsyth had told him he no longer loved his wife and was having an affair with another woman. He said Forsyth didn’t want a divorce because his wife held an interest in the bowling alley business and wanted to kill his wife.

Richards told Forsyth he would kill his wife for $40,000 to $50,000. In a first try, Richards acquired Seconal and phenobarbitrol, but the attempt failed because the drugs weren’t strong enough. Richards then suggested staging an armed robbery, and Forsyth acquired a .22-caliber snub-nosed revolver.

On the night of the murder, Richards, an alcoholic, drank all night from a bottle hidden in the basement. Forsyth shot his wife with the .22 and then put his dead wife’s fingerprints on a 9 millimeter handgun he left at her side. Richards said he hid the .22 and money from the counter in a locker in the basement.

Forsyth was convicted in April 1980, but the verdict was overturned by the Montana Supreme Court on a technicality — Flathead County District Court Judge Robert Sykes had neglected to define homicide for the jury. But the high court did not dismiss the charges because it believed sufficient evidence had been presented at trial.

A second trial was held in Polson because of the local publicity, but it ended with a hung jury in December 1982. Several jurors later complained about prejudicial comments made by the bailiff.

The third trial took place back in Kalispell in October 1985. Bailiffs were brought in from Shelby for the trial.

Ted Lympus, the Flathead County attorney at the time, produced two new witnesses — family friends of Richards who claimed Richards had talked about plans to murder Karen Forsyth several months before she was killed.