From Creede to Eternity – Charles Cochran Moudy O’Reilly
December 7, 2019
A few years ago I started researching the tree of a close friend of mine, Larry Chiri. I figured I’d just fill in a few generations for him and his mom Pat. I also wanted to see what I could find out about Larry’s father Charles, who killed himself when Larry was 3. Pat told me that shortly after Charles died, she learned he wasn’t who he had told her he was and still had many unanswered questions.
I soon began uncovering things about Charles that his wife and friends never knew as I picked up the trail where they had left off, piecing together his secret life from clippings, documents and letters. This intelligent, sensitive, and talented man was more complicated and tormented than he allowed people to see, and probably would admit even to himself. He was a bold spirit who started life teeming with potential and initiative, a rising star, excelling at what he loved to do.
When I discovered he was a Pearl Harbor survivor, something his family and friends never knew, I realized this could be the catalyst in what he became and a contributing factor of his ultimate act. I wanted to tell his story so that his family could appreciate the good in him and glimpse his demons to provide context to what happened, and perhaps some healing.
Here is the fascinating and tragic story I uncovered.
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