Killer grandmother in UES murder-suicide left 7-page note detailing cancer suffering, child abuse accusations: sources
A suicide note penned by the terminally ill grandmother who gunned down her daughter-in-law and then herself on an Upper East Side street provides shocking new insight into her troubled mind, law-enforcement sources revealed Monday.
The 7-page note found in Kathleen Leigh’s pocket after the horrifying murder-suicide last week detailed her suffering from cancer and bad blood with victim Marisa Galloway, 45, whom she fatally shot twice in front of a baby, sources said.
Leigh, 65, ranted that Galloway tried to alienate her 4-year-old daughter from Leigh’s son, the girl’s father, sources said, describing the contents of the letter, which was scrawled with the words “For Police.”
She also wrote that no one believed her and her son’s contentions that Galloway abused the child — an accusation twice found to be unfounded by city child’s services investigators.
The 4-year-old girl was the subject of a long-running and bitter custody dispute between Galloway, a special education teacher, and Leigh’s son that included allegations of abuse by both sides.
Leigh had frequently complained to neighbors in the East 79th Street building where she lived the last three years with her son that Galloway abused the child.
Beyond being unsupported by two Administration for Children’s Services investigations, the accusation didn’t square with the portrait from friends and neighbors of Galloway as a loving, doting mother bedeviled by a tumultuous past relationship with her ex.
The girl is now in Leigh’s son’s custody as the NYPD continues to investigate the murder-suicide, sources said.
She was also with her dad when her grandmother executed Galloway along a tree-lined street just a half block from Gracie Mansion just before 9 a.m. on Friday, according to sources.
Here is the latest on Kathleen Leigh, the woman who shot and killed her ex-daughter-in-law on the Upper East Side:
- Killer grandmother in UES murder-suicide left 7-page note detailing cancer suffering, child abuse accusations: sources
- GoFundMe launched for kids of NYC mom gunned down by terminally ill ex-mother-in-law
- Retired probation officer had mysterious note in her pocket when she killed ex-daughter-in-law, herself on posh UES street: sources
- Retired probation officer fatally shoots former daughter-in-law, then herself on posh UES street
Leigh was a former adult probation officer from Chicago who worked for 17 years before retiring in 2014, Cook County officials said. Police believe she acted alone in the killing and have no evidence that her son knew anything about his mother’s cold-blooded plan, according to sources.
In normal circumstances when one parent dies, “the other parent becomes de facto sole custody” — but this case is tragically unique, said family law and domestic violence lawyer Valentina Shaknes.
“We would need to know if the grandmother was acting on her own,” she noted.
The docket for the prolonged custody suit — launched in 2021 — shows a judge’s order entered on Monday morning, the contents of which were not public. Shaknes said the filing was likely an emergency temporary order for custody.
“If the judge had any concerns for safety, then the child would not be with the father right now,” she told The Post.
Galloway’s family could ultimately have standing for at least some custody of her child under special circumstances, and after a trial, Shaknes said.
That legal threshold of unique circumstances is tragically most likely met “when the mom is murdered in cold blood,” Shaknes said.
Galloway’s other child — a 1-year-old girl whose father was a sperm donor, according to sources — was in a nearby car when Leigh twice shot Galloway moments after the mom of two had loaded the baby into a parked white Honda Civic, police said.
The girl is now with her maternal grandparents, Galloway’s parents, in New Jersey, sources said.
Galloway’s brother answered the door at the family home Sunday as his parents sat behind him. He told a Post reporter “We don’t have any comment” in a polite and sad tone before closing the door.
The Post couldn’t reach Leigh’s son for comment. His attorneys didn’t return repeated requests for comment.
— Additional reporting by Kevin Sheehan
