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Jimmy Snuka to be charged with murder


Callum1993

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Look, if they had evidence that she was murdered, and that Snuka was responsible, he'd have been arrested and convicted, simple as that.

 

 

Yes, because we live in a perfect world where corruption is something you only see in mafia movies, and everyone gets convicted when there's evidence; and on the flip-side, nobody ever gets convicted when there's not enough evidence. 

 

Your being-an-anal-argumentative-tosser gimmick is getting boring now, David - try something else. You've been doing this one for ages now & it's shit. 

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That last bit is bollocks mate. He quite possibly killed a woman 32 years ago and her family have suffered for that long, never received a penny after he was found guilty in a wrongful death suit over 30 years ago. It's not a waste, nuts to him being a cancer patient, he was also a massive cokehead who is possibly a murderer, but hey ho, he's lived his life! Stop talking shite.

Great response to some utter nonsense. Two thumbs up.

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That last bit is bollocks mate. He quite possibly killed a woman 32 years ago and her family have suffered for that long, never received a penny after he was found guilty in a wrongful death suit over 30 years ago. It's not a waste, nuts to him being a cancer patient, he was also a massive cokehead who is possibly a murderer, but hey ho, he's lived his life! Stop talking shite.

He was told to give them a large sum of money in 1995 but didn't because he was skint. Has he got more money now? Why isn't he just being made to pay that? Money doesn't make losing a family member any better. It really doesn't

 

Justice should have been fought for 30 years ago, he has lived all that time a free man which is wrong. Following this up now isn't going to give him the proper punishment he would have deserved.

 

He is 72 now. He isn't going to go to some rough prison, it'll be more like a paid retirement home that has to cover his medical bills (which are likely to be very high.) He is already being given special treatment because of his age and health. He is going to be an expensive man to lock away.

 

I understand the family wanting a guilty verdict. They already see him as guilty so it would be nice to have a court agree. That doesn't change the fact it should have been dealt with at the time. Waiting til now just seems pretty fucking stupid to me

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So there should be an age limit on who gets chucked in the clink? Aye he's 70 odd now love, and he's got the big C, think of the taxpayers, not your dead daughter/sister, should of had him long ago, nevermind dear. Them believing he did it is a meagre consolation prize as opposed to justice via a guilty verdict. The family have been fighting 30 years and the reasons for the issues in his apprehension have been discussed elsewhere in here.

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I did wonder how he managed to post his $100k bail if he was dead broke, but I'm guessing he got the money from a bondsman.

 

And even if his prison care is expensive, it's not going to be cushy. It's still fucking prison. And the type of prison you go to for murder, which is what he will be convicted of if found guilty. I don't think they send you to minimum security white collar prison for that.

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He's been Hoganed now:
 
http://whatculture.com/wwe/wwe-suspends-jimmy-snukas-legends-contract-and-removes-him-from-website.php
 

Jimmy Snuka’s non-wrestling ‘legends’ contract has been suspended and we are currently removing his images from our media platforms pending the outcome of this case.

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You can't deny it is physically impossible to give him the appropriate punishment now. I went through something similar as a child and if the bloke wasn't found guilty for 32 years it wouldn't have consolidated me in anyway to have him found guilty in his deathbed

 

Consoled. You're not a payday loan.

 

I think you're seriously underestimating exactly how much closure this could give to his family if he is found guilty, especially as it's something they've been actively pushing for.

He may not be able to serve a full sentence, however there is a very real chance that if he's found guilty he's going to die in prison and have his legacy ruined.

 

Also the argument for how much time has passed is just stupid.Time and age doesn't lessen the severity of the crime.

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That last bit is bollocks mate. He quite possibly killed a woman 32 years ago and her family have suffered for that long, never received a penny after he was found guilty in a wrongful death suit over 30 years ago. It's not a waste, nuts to him being a cancer patient, he was also a massive cokehead who is possibly a murderer, but hey ho, he's lived his life! Stop talking shite.

He was told to give them a large sum of money in 1995 but didn't because he was skint. Has he got more money now? Why isn't he just being made to pay that? Money doesn't make losing a family member any better. It really doesn't

 

Justice should have been fought for 30 years ago, he has lived all that time a free man which is wrong. Following this up now isn't going to give him the proper punishment he would have deserved.

 

He is 72 now. He isn't going to go to some rough prison, it'll be more like a paid retirement home that has to cover his medical bills (which are likely to be very high.) He is already being given special treatment because of his age and health. He is going to be an expensive man to lock away.

 

I understand the family wanting a guilty verdict. They already see him as guilty so it would be nice to have a court agree. That doesn't change the fact it should have been dealt with at the time. Waiting til now just seems pretty fucking stupid to me

 

You clearly don't understand the facts of the case or you'd know why they "waited" until now.

 

Plus, it was 1985 when he claimed he was broke, on the heels of the most successful run of his career in a nationally-expanding company. By 1989 he was back in that company, and has worked for them since. But still "broke", eh?

 

I don't care if he's catatonic, if he killed that woman he deserves to spend the rest of his life - however long that may be - in prison. Also, he's as carny as fuck - his cancer has gone and he was certainly compos mentis enough to write a book two years ago.

 

Before you comment again, please read this week's Observer - you might just change your mind.

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Wrestling Observer Newsletter

            PO Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228 ISSN10839593 September 7, 2015

             

            After 32 years, in a shocking move, the Lehigh County (Pennsylvania) Grand Jury indicted pro wrestling legend Jimmy Snuka on charges of third degree murder and involuntary manslaughter in the death of mistress Nancy Argentino.

            The indictment is a victory of sorts in a three-decade long quest by the Argentino family to get what they considered justice after her death.

            “It’s been a long time coming,” said Louise Argentino-Upham, Nancy’s sister who had been one of the key people keeping the story alive. “She was only 23 and she really didn’t deserve what happened to her. They did the right thing by gathering all the evidence now and arresting him. Somehow it all got muddled back then.”

            Argentino passed away in the early morning of May 11, 1983, of injuries suffered when her head hit a stationary object.

            Snuka, 72, turned himself in to authorities on 9/1 after receiving word of his indictment and was arraigned in Lehigh County, and sent to county jail, where he was being held on $100,000 bond. Snuka posted ten percent of that figure as bond and was released later that day.

            Snuka was in a wheelchair and hooked up to a feeding tube when he surrendered to authorities, accompanied to five relatives, including both his current wife, Carole, who he married in 2004, and his prior wife, Sharon Georgi, who testified before the Grand Jury that she was beaten by him in 1983, just a few months after the death of Argentino. It was Georgi who posted bond for Snuka.

            “He is not in good shape physically or mentally,” said William Moore, his attorney, to the Allentown Morning Call. “I’m not sure he realized what was going on. I’m not sure what his cognitive abilities are.”

            Few expected charges to be filed against Snuka in the investigation, given the time frame and that the original investigation was largely dropped shortly after Argentino’s death with no charges filed.

            Over the years, there had been media stories, including by Jeff Savage in 1992 and Irv Muchnick in 1999. Muchnick, the nephew of former NWA President Sam Muchnick, who was the most powerful man in the pro wrestling industry from the 50s throughout he mid-70s, later wrote a 2007 book “Wrestling Babylon” with a chapter on the Snuka story. On the 30th anniversary of the incident in 2013, with help from the Argentino family, he wrote the ebook “Justice Denied: The Untold Story of Nancy Argentino’s Death in Jimmy Superfly Snuka’s Motel Room.”

            At the same time, in a story based on the 30th anniversary of her death, theAllentown Morning Call, wrote an in-depth front page feature opening up the case, including an autopsy report from forensic pathologist Isidore Mihalakis who wrote in his report in 1983 that the injuries suffered by Argentino were consistent with being hit with a stationary object, and that the case should be investigated as a homicide until proven otherwise.

            This resulted in District Attorney James B. Martin of Lehigh County saying he would take a fresh look at the case. A Grand Jury investigation was opened in early 2014. Then, after one year, it was extended another six months.

            Martin said that they are not pursuing first degree murder charges as he didn’t think they could meet the burden of proof necessary for a conviction. That would entail proving Snuka’s actions were willful and premeditated. Third degree would be a murder without prior intent.

            What is weird about the involuntary manslaughter charge is that in Pennsylvania, there is a statute of limitations on that charge that would have been up decades ago.

            Third degree murder carries up to 40 years in prison. Pennsylvania law defines third degree murder as a killing caused by neither an intentional murder (which would be first degree) nor doing the commission of another felony (which would be second degree).

            Martin also thanked the Argentino family for their patience regarding the case, saying it was the family contacting him in 2013 which led to him ordering the new investigation.

            Snuka was subpoenaed by the Grand Jury but never took the stand, refusing to testify in the case.

            Detective Gerald Procanyn, who was involved in the original investigation that never charged Snuka with any crime in 1983, was involved in the investigation. The Grand Jury completed its investigation and recommended a charge of criminal homicide against Snuka on 7/17 .

            Martin held a press conference, and noted bail was granted to Snuka because he was recently diagnosed with stomach cancer and didn’t want taxpayers to be burdened with his medical bills if he was in jail before the trial.

            Snuka underwent surgery last month to remove his lymph nodes and part of his stomach due to cancer. The doctors believed that they had removed all the cancer and that he would make a full recovery.

            Martin said that the Grand Jury came to the decision to charge Snuka due to additional witnesses coming forward and Snuka’s own inconsistent statements about the incident to various people he spoke with after the incident happened, as well as in later years in the media and in his autobiography.

            Martin noted this was the oldest case ever to result in charges filed ever in Lehigh County.

            Moore, who said he would not represent Snuka at the trial, may have given a hint for his defense, saying that whoever is the lawyer would focus on whether Snuka is mentally competent to stand trial. He said in his recovery from surgery, it has left him in need of daily care, and that he is also suffering from partial dementia from decades of head injuries.

            “He’s suffered a number of concussions with all the antics he’s done. I don’t see it ever getting better.”

            “His faculties are so compromised you wouldn’t know what he’s saying. He doesn’t understand a simple conversation. You put him up against a sharp prosecutor, asking, `remember 30 years ago when you said this,’ (and) he has no recollection.”

            Muchnick said that in his own 1992 reporting on the case that Procanyn told him that Snuka had told one consistent story, that Argentino slipped and hit her head in a fall after they stopped their car and she got out to urinate on the side of the road.

            However, documents later came out that showed Snuka had told several parties, including the police themselves, as many as five different descriptions of how Argentino fell, shortly after her death. Those who testified before the Grand Jury that had spoken with Snuka on the night of the accident gave very different accounts.

            Among the stories involved Snuka pushing her either during horseplay or a lovers’ quarrel. There were marks of abuse on Argentino besides the head injury, including more than two dozen cuts and bruises, on her head, ear, chin, arms, hands, back, buttocks, legs and feet.

            At least five different people were told by Snuka, including the responding police officer, that he shoved Argentino earlier that day, causing her to fall and hit her head. But he later claimed those people misunderstood him, and told the story that he has since told consistently, including in his autobiography, that was the same story as Procanyan claimed.

            There was no bramble or dirt on Argentino’s body or clothing that would be consistent with a fall on the side of the road. The police never brought Snuka to the scene of where he claimed the fall took place on the side of the road to gather evidence to back up that version of the story.

            The grand jury heard or read testimony from 20 witnesses and observed 37 exhibits regarding Argentino’s death, including the paramedic, emergency room and autopsy reports from the day of her death, as well as written statements made at the time from the medical and hospital personnel who attended to Argentino. They also heard testimony of paramedic emergency room professionals who recalled what Snuka said to them that evening.

            The Grand Jury concluded that the evidence indicated that Snuka repeatedly assaulted Argentino on May 10, 1983, and then allowed her to lie in bed at the George Washington Motor Lodge without obtaining the necessary medical attention that could have possibly saved her. They believe the combination of his assault and failure to get medical attention results in her death via homicide.

            The key testimony was from Mihalakis, who conducted the autopsy. Mihalakis said that Argentino died from craniocerebral injuries, the pattern consistent of a moving head striking a stationary object, but the injuries are not consistent with a singular fall because of all the scalp, facial and bodily bruises and abrasions. He wrote the night of her death that “The multiplicity and magnitude of the injuries may even be suggestive of `mate’ abuse.”

            He also wrote, “I personally checked the clothing that Ms. Argentino was wearing at the time of her injury, that is the slip and fall on the berm of the road, and find no evidence of dirt or tears on the fabric. They were subsequently submitted for evaluation. The hair and scalp were also examined at the time of the autopsy and no gravel or any other similar dirt particles were noted.”

            Lehigh County Coroner Scott Grim also affirmed that after reviewing police interviews of many officers and medical personnel, as well as the statements given by Snuka, and testimony the Grand Jury heard, that he believed Argentino’s death was a homicide.

            Snuka was one of the most popular wrestlers in the world in 1983 at the time the incident took place. With Bruno Sammartino having retired in 1981 and Hulk Hogan not arriving until 1984, it was Snuka who had surpassed champion Bob Backlund as the WWF’s biggest and most popular star of that period. Snuka had been a major star in a number of circuits, most notably in Oregon, Texas, Georgia and the Carolinas for years. He was mostly a high flying babyface, before being brought in as a heel managed by Lou Albano to face Backlund in a series of title matches. Because the WWF had less in the way of high flying than other promotions, Snuka, a powerful heavy steroid using bodybuilder who had won contests in that sport in the past both before and during his wrestling career, with his majestic splashes off the top rope, got over stronger than any title challenger of the era. Before long, he was starting to get cheered. Once, in Philadelphia, in a rarity at that time, the crowd booed the hell out of Backlund and manager Arnold Skaaland, and cheered the normally hated Albano, during a title defense against Snuka.

            It was an easy and obvious decision to turn Snuka. A storyline was created where Buddy Rogers, who hosted the Rogers Corner talk show segment on WWF syndicated shows, investigated and found out that Albano had been robbing him blind and Snuka wasn’t making anywhere near the money he should have been. The scenario played out weekly until Snuka started to understand and the crowd wanted him to turn well before he did.

            Albano finally turned on Snuka and had Ray Stevens piledrive him on the floor. Snuka was then managed by Rogers, although that was short-lived and Rogers suffered a dressing room fall, sued the promotion, and was never seen again. Snuka became a huge favorite with high-profile programs with the likes of Stevens and Don Muraco.

            His most notable moment was at the October 17, 1983, Madison Square Garden show, in a cage match, where Muraco retained the Intercontinental title. After them match, Snuka came off the top of the cage with a Superfly splash. While Snuka had done the move in cage matches before in a number of promotions, because it was in Madison Square Garden and was promoted heavily after the fact in WWE’s history, it became one of the most remembered moments in pro wrestling history. When Roddy Piper was brought in a few months later, it was Snuka who he shot his most famous angle with and had a program that was among the best drawing non-championship programs in company history.

            Argentino, who traveled the WWF circuit with Snuka, was injured either as the two were traveling to Allentown for a television taping, or in the hotel, after they had checked in for a show on May 10, 1983, at the Allentown Agricultural Hall.

            Snuka said that the two of them overslept that day, and he arrived late, after 1 p.m., for a full day of interviews. He came back to check on her after interviews but before the live show, and said she was in bed and not feeling well.

            “I left the Fairgrounds at 6 o’clock (after doing interviews),” he said to Procanyan at the motel in a taped interview the morning after Argentino’s death. “I came back here and looked at her, and she just looked like she was sleeping, breathing and everything. So I got a towel, soaked it in the ice and put it over her head. She was not up. She was laying down in bed. She did not complain. She just had a big lump on her head. It was swelled. There was no blood. She had marks on her back from me trying to help her when she fell. So right fro there, I thought maybe she was tired, just laying there and breathing. So I had to go back to work on TV now. This was about ten minutes to eight when I left to go because I was on the second tape (hour of taping). She was okay when I left her. She was laying down and I kept putting the towel ono her head and she just kept mumbling around. She didn’t talk tome. She mumbled so I kept wetting the towel and putting it on her head.”

            When asked why he didn’t call a doctor, he said, “Well, she wasn’t even answering me so I just looked at her and said, well, she’s resting there. So I said I have to go to work and I’ll be right back.”

            After the taping, when he returned to his motel room, he found Argentino gasping for air and oozing yellow fluid from her mouth and nose. She was pronounced dead at Lehigh Valley Hospital a few hours later, with the cause of death being traumatic brain injuries.

            Snuka, whose legal name was James Reiher at the time, but he had since changed his name to Jimmy Snuka, was never charged. The investigation of the Argentino death went cold on June 1, 1983, after an interview with Whitehall police with both Snuka and the current Vince McMahon. Snuka, in his autobiography, said that McMahon came with a briefcase to the interview.

            The world was very different at that time. Even though Snuka was very popular, the mainstream media rarely touched pro wrestling, feeling any dealing with it was beneath their dignity. The death of Argentino got no national news coverage, a little bit of local coverage in the Allentown area, and maybe one small newspaper story at the time in the New York market. In most other major WWF markets, the story wasn’t even covered.

            In those days, celebrities had a much easier time getting off on things. Cash talked when it came to both avoiding negative publicity and legal problems.

            Most fans were not even aware of it. At the May 23, 1983, show in Madison Square Garden, Snuka was cheered wildly in his match against Afa the Wild Samoan. But there was a vehement contingent of fans, mostly Puerto Ricans, and especially women, who did scream at him for being a killer. But by the next show in June, nothing of the sort happened.

            There was far more coverage for an incident in Syracuse, NY, on January 18, 1983, a little less than four months earlier, where police were called to the motel the two were staying at. A nude Snuka started fighting police before being subdued.

            Also testifying in the case was Ruth Rogers, the wife of the deceased Buddy Rogers. They also saw photographs that depicted Snuka assaulting then-wife Sharon Snuka (now Sharon Georgi) in October 1983 that led to her being hospitalized. Sharon Georgi also testified to being assaulted by Jimmy Snuka and to what Jimmy told her about Argentino’s death.

            Shirley Reeve, a paramedic, who had notes from that evening, said she and her crew arrived at Room 427 of the first floor of the George Washington Motor Lodge in Whitehall Township, shortly before midnight after Snuka had come back to the room after the tapings. When they arrived, the room door was open and police officer Alfred Rhoads, Snuka and two other wrestlers (Don Muraco and Harry “Mr. Fuji” Fujiwara) were there with Argentino, who was lying on her back on the bed, unconscious, with no clothes and a sheet over her. Her breathing was weak, and at times she stopped breathing. Reeve believed she had suffered a head injury and attended to her. She was put on a backboard and rushed to the hospital.

            Dr. Joseph Fassl, the emergency room physician, testified they did everything they could to revive Argentino, but she never regained consciousness and was pronounced dead at 1:50 a.m.

            Reeve and Fassl both said they had questioned Snuka about her extensive injuries. Both said that Snuka told them he struck her and she fell, hitting her head on concrete. Two of the attending nurses testified they were told by Snuka that he and Argentino had an argument and he admitted that he hit her and she fell back, hitting her head. Precise accounts of those conversations were recorded by police in interviews at the time.

            Given that evidence, it is now virtually amazing that no charges were ever pressed at the time and the case was quickly dropped.

            Mihalakis testified about her skull fracture and injuries to the head, as well as 39 different contusions and abrasions on her arms, forearms, back, buttocks, legs and feet. He suggested the injuries were from “mate” abuse and that the abuse took place 12 to 24 hours before her death. She said the delay in contacting emergency medical professionals complicated any attempts to provide any extraordinary procedures that may have saved her life.

            Snuka told a chaplain at the hospital after Argentino’s death that it happened on the highway traveling to the motel, but told the story the injuries came when he shoved her and she fell backwards, hitting her head on concrete. When speaking to Procanyn, he told him that she was injured due to a fall on the highway, but did not say he struck or shoved her, and instead stated that she slipped while getting out to urinate.

            Rhoads, who arrived at the room first, said Snuka told him that he and Argentino were fooling around when he pushed her and she fell, striking her head. Reeve said Snuka told her that he and Argentino must have wrestled a little too much the previous night, and she hit her head on the concrete. Fassl said Snuka told him that they were fooling around, he pushed her and she fell, striking the back of her head. Snuka told him she lost consciousness and he picked her up by the arms and she came to. Snuka said they went into the room and went to sleep and the next day they were fooling around again and gave her a light slap on the face. Then they went back to sleep and he got up around Noon after oversleeping, and left to go to work.

            Susan St. Clair, a nurse working in the emergency room, said she tried to talk to Snuka but he just stood in one spot and stared at Argentino and he said that they got into town late the night before, both were tried, they got into an argument, he pushed her and she fell back and hit her head.

            Carol McBride, who also worked in the emergency room, said Snuka smelled of alcohol, and she asked him what happened, and he said that they came to town the previous night, had an argument, were pushing each other and he pushed her and she fell, hitting her head.

            Barbara Smith Derickson, the chaplain, said Snuka told her they stopped on the road to go to the bathroom, and they started clowning around, he shoved her and she fell backwards on her back and hit her head on the concrete and was out for a minute or two, and he slapped her face a few times to bring her out of it. When they arrived at the motel, Argentino said she had a headache and wanted to go to bed. Snuka went to the diner to get some food and brought it back. He said she passed out in the room and hit her head on the side of the chair or the bed. He said she was breathing okay when he left to go to work and when he came back to the room yellow stuff was coming out of her nose and mouth and he called for help.

            They also noted Snuka gave different accounts in his autobiography and in two radio interviews in 2013 talking about Argentino’s death to promote the autobiography.

            In the autobiography, he said that he was driving in his Lincoln Continental with her from a show in Connecticut to the tapings in Allentown, and that they were both drinking beer and she asked to stop the car so she could pee on the side of the road.

            “When she came back, she told me she slipped on the way and hit her head. I didn’t see it happen, but I remember she told me she was jumping over a little river or stream that was there and she slipped. She seemed okay, and when I asked her if she was feeling alright, she said, `Yes.’ I didn’t see any blood anywhere, so neither of us were concerned and we kept driving to Allentown.”

            He said after they arrived at the motel, she went to lie down and rest and he went out to hang around with several of the wrestlers and when he got back in the room that night, she was sleeping and he went to bed.

            Peter Bronstad, a former Captain in the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Department testified about the Syracuse incident at the Howard Johnson Motor Lodge.

            He testified that they had received a call at 1:40 a.m. by a clerk working the front desk that a guy was dragging a naked female down the hallway. Two officers arrived and he said they saw Snuka dragging a naked Argentino, who was covered by a blanket, down the hallway by the hair. She was screaming that she wanted to get away. He said the officers reported Snuka dragged her by the hair into their room, and she was yelling and crying for Snuka to let her go while he yelled at the deputies to go away. The deputies, seeing the size of Snuka, called for backup.

            Bronstad was part of the backup, with several more deputies and a canine unit. They attempted to get Snuka to open the door. When he didn’t Bronstad said he ordered the deputies to take down the door and arrest Snuka since Argentino was still crying for help. After a struggle with a number of officers and police dogs, they arrested Snuka and handcuffed him while Argentino was in the corner of the room, crying in pain.

            It took eight deputies and two dogs to get Snuka under control. He was taken in and booked on charges of obstruction of governmental administration, resisting arrest and counts of assault related to both Argentino and the deputies. Argentino was hospitalized at that point with injuries to her head, back and scalp from being dragged by the hair. Snuka plea bargained down to reduced charges and paid a fine that was donated to charity, and apologized.

            At the time, the view among wrestling fans who did know about the Syracuse incident is that it got Snuka over even stronger, because the news reports talked about how Snuka was able to fight off eight officers and two police dogs before finally being subdued. At the time fans wanted their wrestlers to be real-life badasses, and if anything, this made Snuka even more popular, as it legitimized his “Fijian wildman” persona. In stories about the incident in the Syracuse market, fans reacted to Snuka like his wrestling character, saying that he used to be a bad guy but, with his babyface turn, he had changed.

            Today, either of those incidents would have likely gotten him fired and given the company significant negative publicity. Instead, he remained one of the top babyface’s in the company and was not even suspended for either incident. In that era, wrestlers were often in trouble and, like with other sports and entertainment stars, the incidents were often covered up and part of the protocol was to clean up the mess of the stars. That still existed even into the early 2000s, but it is far harder to cover things up today.

            Debbie Rogers, the widow of Buddy Rogers, talked about an incident where she claimed Snuka beat then-wife Sharon in October, 1983. At the time the Rogers’ and Snuka’s were neighbors in Haddonfield, NJ. Rogers kept notes about the incident and photos of the injuries to Sharon, who had to be hospitalized.

            Sharon Georgi, then Sharon Snuka, corroborated Rogers’ story. She said there were a series of beatings in the fall of 1983 that resulted in her being hospitalized and both Rogers and Georgi talked about his use of alcohol and drugs in 1983.

           Argentino worked as a dental assistant in Brooklyn and became a fan of Snuka. Snuka was married at the time to Sharon, and had four children who were living in North Carolina, before they later moved to New Jersey. Son James Jr. was 11 at the time, who later wrestled as Jimmy Snuka Jr., Sim Snuka, Deuce and Deuce Shade during a career from 2000 to 2009. Daughter Sarona, who now works in WWE as Tamina Snuka, was five at the time.

            The Argentino family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Snuka, and won a default judgment of $500,000 in 1985. Snuka never paid, claiming he was broke. Snuka remained a top star in WWF through 1985, where issues with drugs and a problem on an overseas tour that cost the company sizeable money to get him out of, largely ended his tenure with the company.

            He came back from 1989 to 1991 but with far less of a push in a lower card role, and worked occasional WWF matches over the next few years, and worked independents regularly into his late 60s. He worked a few WWE matches in 1992 and 1993. After that point, he was brought back four times as a legend on PPV shows, at the 1996 Survivor Series, a 2005 PPV show, a 2007 PPV show where he and Sgt. Slaughter faced Snuka’s son Deuce & Domino (Cliff Compton), a cameo in the 2008 Royal Rumble, and his final in-ring appearance for the company at the 2009 WrestleMania.

            On that show, Snuka was one of the three legends (along with Ricky Steamboat and Roddy Piper) from the first WrestleMania who would face Chris Jericho, in succession, in a match that led to Jericho being hit with a knockout punch by Mickey Rourke.

            He continued wrestling on indies through 2011, but he needed surgery which led to him being out for a long time, and came back for a few matches in 2013, at the age of 70, but has worked little if at all in the ring since that summer.

            Some media outlets claimed a sensationalized story that his own autobiography caused his indictment. It is true that what Snuka said in his 2012 autobiography may have helped add a layer to stories written, but it was really the 30th anniversary of the case that led to the local newspaper doing the story that uncovered details of the autopsy report and some of the interviews, which suggested that the handling of the original investigation was negligent.

            Whether there is enough evidence for a conviction is a very different situation.

            “Many terrible things have been written about me hurting Nancy and being responsible for her death, but they are not true,” Snuka wrote in his autobiography. “This has been very hard on me and very hard on my family. To this day, I get nasty notes and threats. It hurts. I never hit Nancy or threatened her.”

            The WWE released a short statement after the indictment, but did not answer questions regarding Snuka and his current position in the WWE Hall of Fame.

            “WWE expresses its continued sympathy to the Argentino family for their loss. Ultimately, this legal matter will be decided by our judicial system.”

            ***************************************************************

            Snuka Murder Indictment Asks Some of the Right Questions -- Also Begs a Few Big Ones

 

            by Irvin Muchnick

             

            The indictment of Jimmy Snuka in the Nancy Argentino death finally -- as in after 32 years, finally-- brings the criminal justice system of Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, into some alignment with reality.

            Whether Snuka is guilty of third degree murder and involuntary manslaughter is for a trial to determine. But no one in charge of law enforcement should ever have been making the preposterous argument that there wasn’t a triable case here. Now, to the relief of everyone not stubbornly planted in an alternate universe, no one is.

            Though the case against Snuka was circumstantial, the defendant incriminated himself by heaping lies about this mysterious incident atop a disturbing and substantial record of violence against women. Nancy’s injuries were anything but incidental and accidental. And there was no semblance of a third-party assailant or a claim of one -- only Jimmy and her in Room 427 of the Whitehall’s George Washington Motor Lodge prior to May 1983 syndicated TV tapings in Allentown for the then-WWF.

            One of the byproducts of three-plus decades of justice denied is that what we wind up with a grotesque spectacle at the back end: in this instance, deciding the fate of a 72-year man with cancer who banks on sympathy wherever he can find it, as well as on the selective memories of those easily mesmerized by celebrity, wealth, and power. I could find myself persuaded by either side of the argument as to whether a prison term for such a broken figure, with such a broken legacy, meaningfully meets the definition of Justice with a capital J.

            As a journalist, I am content to declare victory with the process that was the county’s Seventh Investigating Grand Jury. District Attorney James Martin tackled the Snuka-Argentino scenario -- pro wrestling’s answer to Ted Kennedy and Mary Jo Kopechne at Chappaquiddick Bridge -- way too late, but at least he got it right.

            Where I would like to turn the public’s attention next is to remaining questions that the grand jury artfully dodged: What is the accountability of local public officials, including some of the very ones participating in Tuesday’s press conference to explain the presentment of the charges?

            DA Martin’s predecessor in 1983, William Platt, is now a senior judge. Snuka’s autobiography goes to the trouble of highlighting that Vince McMahon carried a briefcase into a climactic meeting with Platt and others. They decided not to prosecute. Yet they never officially closed the case, either -- which meant that the records of their “open police investigation”could remain sealed from the prying eyes of, first, me in 1992 and, then, the Allentown Morning Call’s Adam Clark and Kevin Amerman on the 30th anniversary in 2013.

            An even more malodorous specimen of the smell test is Gerald Procanyn, who is still working as an investigator in the DA’s office.

            In 1983 he was a Whitehall police detective. In 1992, as chief of detectives, he told me one untruth after another in Snuka’s favor. The core lie -- demolished by my reporting and later the Morning Call’s, and ultimately exposed in devastating detail in the indictment attachments -- was that Snuka was consistent in maintaining that Nancy had slipped, fallen, and hit her head during an impromptu roadside urination. Procanyn’s serial lies, which in turn covered those of his eternal “person of interest,” were as gratuitous as they were outrageous.

            But the 2015 prosecution proceeds by pretending that only the defendant’s happened.

            From wrestling fans, the most frequently asked questions of me are “Did McMahon actively cover this up? and “Will evidence along these lines be introduced? The continued presence of Procanyn as a face for the prosecution suggests that the answer to the latter is “No.”

            On June 16, 2008, in the course of a long email complaining about my reporting on the Chris Benoit double murder-suicide, WWE lawyer Jerry McDevitt wrote, “[Y]our insinuation that Mr. McMahon in some unspecified way kept the authorities from charging Jimmy Snuka for murder in 1983 is an odious lie.”

            What I wrote was that McMahon sped back to Allentown and, in the observation of an investigator at the time (whom I named, by the way), served as Snuka’s “mouthpiece” during the wrestler’s interrogation -- while Snuka, essentially, worked his naive jungle-boy gimmick.

            I also quoted Richard Cushing, the Argentino family’s first attorney, saying this: “The D.A. seemed like a nice enough person who wanted to do nothing. There was fear, I think, on two counts: fear of the amount of money the World Wrestling Federation had, and fear of the size of these people.”

             

            Irvin Muchnick’s 1992 story on Snuka and Argentina -- commissioned but never published by New York’s Village Voice -- was first published online years later, and then as a chapter in the 2007 book Wrestling Babylon. The 2013 ebook Justice Denied: The Untold Story of Nancy Argentino’s Death in Jimmy “Superfly Snuka’s Motel Room, annotates the original article and benefits a women’s shelter in Nancy’s memory. You can order the ebook for $2.99 on Amazon Kindle ( http://amzn.com/B00CPTP6VM) or a PDF copy by email (send $2.99 via PayPal to  nancyargentino@gmail.com).

 

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