As for his wife's death, she ran a light/stop into the path of the truck that killed her and then Joe spent decades vilifying the innocent truck driver with innuendo about being intoxicated and saying the accident was the truck drivers fault.
I firmly believe that Joe's first wife, Neilia, was so depressed and hurt over Joe's cheating and lying that she packed up the kids in the car with the intention of killing herself and them.
Maybe, maybe not. Accidents do happen in the world. It’s not always like the movies.