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Weapons, drugs seized from rooming house in Wilkes-Barre

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Injured Lions on the road to recovery

<p>PLAINS TWP. &#8212; Bobby Curley was an electrician and a darn good one.</p><p>When I lived across the street from Bobby and his mom, Mary, I asked him to do some re-wiring in my house. He did an excellent job and, in the process, I got to know Bobby.</p><p>He was a likable guy, always smiling and eager to help where he could. His mom, who died in February, was proud of her son, who looked a lot like her.</p><p>It&#8217;s always been difficult to understand what happened to Bobby.</p><p>Joann Curley, Bobby&#8217;s wife and killer, will serve out her maximum sentence of 20 years after the state parole board denied her eighth and final request for parole last week.</p><p>Joann Curley has admitted she poisoned Bobby with thallium, but has never expressed any remorse for her actions.</p><p>In about a year from now, Joann will walk out of prison and return to a free life. Her sentence will be over.</p><p>The other sentences in the case will never end.</p><p>Bobby will never walk the street again as a healthy, free man. On Sept. 27, 1991, Bobby was sentenced to death for being nothing more than a happy-go-lucky, hard-working, caring man.</p><p>Bobby&#8217;s mom, Mary, served her sentence of grief for 24 years after he died.</p><p>Susan Curley Grady, Bobby&#8217;s sister, and Dave Curley, his brother, are still living out their sentences. They each received a life sentence the day Bobby died and will never be released from the pain and anguish they have suffered.</p><p>Of all the sentences, Joann seems to have received the lightest one of all.</p><p>Joann Curley recently turned 52. She should have a lot of years ahead of her. Something seems very wrong with that. Even though she will have served the entire 20-year maximum sentence imposed in July 1997, with credit for time served, she could be released from prison on Dec. 12, 2016.</p><p>Bobby&#8217;s loved ones will never be released from their prisons of grief.</p><p>Joann pleaded guilty to third-degree murder, admitting she laced her husband&#8217;s iced tea with rat poison. She started poisoning him just two months after their August 1990 wedding. Her motive was Bobby&#8217;s life insurance policy, according to previous reports and court records.</p><p>The state parole board said it denied Joann&#8217;s parole because she expressed lack of remorse for the offense. Other reasons noted by the board included reports, evaluations and assessments that indicated her risk to the community, her refusal to accept responsibility for the offense and the negative recommendation made by the prosecuting attorney.</p><p>Bobby was poisoned with thallium &#8212; a colorless, odorless and tasteless metal.</p><p>Each time Joann went before the parole board, Bobby&#8217;s family was there to fight it. Each time, Bobby&#8217;s family won.</p><p>&#8220;Serving 20 years is not enough for what she did to Bobby,&#8221; Susan told me. &#8220;But it&#8217;s the best we can do.&#8221;</p><p>Sitting in her mother&#8217;s home last Friday, Susan talked about how her mother was a fighter. That&#8217;s why Mary, Susan and David fought to get legislation passed to help families of violent crime victims. Passed in June 2013, House Bill 492 allows victims of crimes, or their representatives, to testify before the state parole board prior to the board&#8217;s decision to release an offender from prison.</p><p>As Susan said, sitting face-to-face is a more effective way to get a family&#8217;s message across to parole board members. She said being there, rather than submitting a written text, allows board members to see and feel the emotion.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;re happy that others will find some relief,&#8221; Susan said.</p><p>Susan and David still struggle with what happened to their brother. Susan cringes when she talks about the pain Bobby was in &#8212; constantly &#8212; because of the poison running through his body. She will never understand how Joann could have done this and still, to this day, show no remorse.</p><p>Susan said before Joann was arrested and charged with Bobby&#8217;s murder, she would go to the Curley home for dinner. She would sit and break bread with the family, all the while knowing what she did.</p><p>&#8220;She tortured Bobby and watched him die,&#8221; Susan said. &#8220;She knew what she did, yet she would come to our home and eat with us. This is a sick person. To kill somebody and think nothing of it? To have dinner with his family?&#8221;</p><p>Susan said it took five years before investigators put the pieces of the puzzle together and charged Joann in 1996.</p><p>Susan said her mother would be pleased Joann must serve the maximum sentence. When Mary couldn&#8217;t travel to the parole board hearing, she had her message videotaped and played before the board.</p><p>&#8220;I ask you to please, please keep Joann Curley in prison for a while longer so that I can live in peace for another year,&#8221; Mary once said in a video. &#8220;She killed my son on purpose so she could get his insurance money. She killed my son because of greed. I had to watch my Bobby cry with pain that was so unbearable that I cried with him. I felt helpless then. Now all I can do is beg you to please, please keep Joann in jail until the last possible day the law allows.&#8221;</p><p>Joann will serve the maximum sentence, but Susan said true justice will never be served.</p><p>&#8220;Bobby can&#8217;t walk the streets; why should she be able to walk the streets?&#8221; Susan asked.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Bill O&#8217;Boyle </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/web1_Columnshot-1-19.jpg</photo0><caption0>Bill O&#8217;Boyle </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/web1_ttl092915infocuscurley-11.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Glen Grady stands with his arm around his wife, Susan Curley Grady, during a vigil for murdered loved ones last Friday in Plains. Susan holds two candles, one for her late mother, Mary Curley, and another for her brother, Bobby, who was murdered by his wife, Joanne, in 1991. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/web1_ttl092915infocuscurley-11.jpg</photo1><caption1>Glen Grady stands with his arm around his wife, Susan Curley Grady, during a vigil for murdered loved ones last Friday in Plains. Susan holds two candles, one for her late mother, Mary Curley, and another for her brother, Bobby, who was murdered by his wife, Joanne, in 1991. </caption1><photoCredit1>Amanda Hrycyna | For Times Leader </photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Bill O&#8217;Boyle</p><p>boboyle@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Bill O&#8217;Boyle at 570-991-6118 or on Twitter @TLBillOBoyle.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Joann Curley will eventually get out of prison but Bobby’s sentence will never end