Javier Ojst is an old-school wrestling enthusiast currently residing in El Salvador. After he comforted Argentino by bringing some chow and later setting wet towel compresses on her head, her status turned critical. Indeed, the champion grappler gained infamy by soaring like human ammo. Look of fear in them. Frank M. Dattilio was a forensic psychologist hired by the defense. Bronstad does remember, though, that someone claiming to be Snukas manager showed up to post bail, going on and on about how he needed to be able to wrestle the next night. However, by the next day, he apparently changed his story and claimed that. Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka (center) arrives with his wife Carole (right) for day four of his competency hearing at the Lehigh County Courthouse in Allentown on June 1, 2016. Even though he suffered from serious head trauma from his wrestling career and was perhaps suffering from dementia, he was still competent enough to hang himself after the murders. On September 1st, 2015: After a grand jurys recommendation, Martin proceeds to charge Snuka with third-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter. Charges were not immediately pressed at the time against Jimmy Snuka though the case was left officially open. In a moment that, with hindsight, should have been the crossroads where someone intervened to help Argentino, the assembled media largely failed her, refusing to take her story seriously enough to tell it properly. When I woke her up, I picked her up and said, Are you okay, honey? And Argentino apparently replied, Yeah, but its just my head, my bump.. She had a headache but no blood. His widow, Carol, claims that he died of CTE, not cancer. referring to a $500,000 wrongful death suit nancy's family won in 1985. Following the countys investigative grand jury findings, the WWE issued this statement, "WWE expresses its continued sympathy to the Argentino family for their loss. With Sam Fatu, Valerie Franzen, Jim Garfield, Chris Jericho. Dattilio told Judge Kelly L. Banach that tests show Snukas brain is shrinking, causing serious memory loss. I dont know what happened. Snuka told her to hurry up as she jumped across the grass onto the road she slipped and fell backwards and hit her head. This time he saw Argentino, naked, soon followed by Snuka, also naked. But her family thought they were more an item. Ill be right back as soon as I get done, as he kissed her, according to the 30-page criminal complaint. ", "I dont know how to reconcile this mans heroic feats inside our world, with the tragedy he likely played a role in outside of it, but I have always found wisdom and comfort in these simple words from Bruce Springsteen: Trust the art, not the artist." Finally, I just kept looking at her and trying to talk to her and she didnt even respond like when I left. This was to prove that he was lucid. I would never use full force. Also, to reinforce the aforementioned, Dr. Manish Fozdar, a Raleigh, North Carolina expert in Neuropsychiatry and forensic psychiatry, said, "There are no cause-effect relationships as Snukas defense attorney argued. At one point, I went with Vince McMahon Jr. to either a court or law office, I dont remember which because I was still in shock. Jimmy 'Superfly' Snuka wrestles on September 4, 1995 in New Hampshire. He filed for bankruptcy, and the family never got any restitution. Most documented cases have occurred in athletes of contact sports such as American football, ice hockey, rugby, boxing, and professional wrestling. And Tarzan likely never took steroids, boozed or binged on cocaine like The Superfly admitted he had. On May 10, Concussion Inc. published JUSTICE DENIED: The Untold Story of Nancy Argentino's Death in Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka's Motel Room.This short ebook sells for $2.99, with 100 percent of the royalties being donated by the Argentino family, in Nancy's memory, to the White Plains, New York-based My Sister's Place women's shelter and resource center. All of these defenses were given in Snukas autobiography, various interviews, and other sources such as what Snuka supposedly told the nurses in the ER and what they reportedly overheard him say. PWSTees.com Your favorite Pro Wrestling Stories, on a tee! The Salina City Court and several others in the surrounding area have been merged into a single district court location for the coronavirus pandemic, making it impossible to check the original court records, if they still exist. In terms of the Nancy situation, I asked him the question a couple of times. Most of the information was gathered from articles by The Morning Call, who, with several different writers, covered the Jimmy Snuka and Nancy Argentino case from when it was revived in 2013 to his hearings and until his passing in 2017. Jimmy Snuka and Nancy Argentino returned to the George Washington Motor Lodge hotel after a WWF taping at the Allentown, PA fairgrounds. [McMahon] states the victim actually guided Snuka from one area to another as Snuka has no conception of time, Procanyn wrote in his report. Snuka was previously ruled incompetent to stand trial in. [Argentino] was evidently beaten up and banged up and bruised upyou know, a couple of dozen bruises and cuts on her body, besides a fractured f*****g skull in a wrestlers hotel room that had just been previously arrested, in the f*****g same state I believe, about 6 months beforehand by eight cops and two police dogs for beating up the same girl!, Cornette continued, Even in Snukas book, he wrote that Vince [McMahon] came to represent him at the meeting, which everyone agrees on, but Vince was carrying a briefcase! "Dark Side Of The Ring"claimsthat Snuka initially admitted to several people that he either shoved or hit Argentino earlier that day. Snuka definitely says he saw Argentino hit the ground. When we got to the hotel right away I had to call because she wasnt feeling good, he said. Homicide charges against Snuka in the 1983 death of his girlfriend Nancy Argentino, 23, in a Whitehall Township motel, have been dismissed after Snuka was ruled incompetent to stand trial. It was 1983 and only days after Nancy Argentino was found barely breathing, oozing yellow fluid from her mouth and nose while laying almost lifeless, while holed up in Room 427 at the George Washington Motor Lodge in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Can we still appreciate the mans huge contributions to wrestling, knowing that it is possible that he had a hand in Nancy Argentinos death? That night I felt very strange. I didnt know him as a person, but hes a professional cohort. The WWE has also furloughed manyworkers amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. He adds, "Sometimes being trapped with my thoughts can be more painful than any injury Ive suffered in the ring. The fall didnt seem like anything serious. The cops just didnt give me the chance to explain. He instead told him that Snuka told one story, and it was perfectly consistent every time. It was devastating.. Obviously, there was enough there to arouse my suspicion but not enough to take it to trial., Mihalakis would later say, Just because she was beaten doesnt mean she was beaten to death.. Homicide charges against Snuka in the 1983 death of his girlfriend Nancy Argentino, 23, in a Whitehall. "You have a look and an attitude, I think,. At the funeral, I told her mother and father how sorry I was about her death. , which I obtained via the Argentino familys wrongful death lawsuit against Snuka, at least two officers on the scene witnessed Snuka resuming his attack on Argentino that same night. Picture made on Wednesday, October 7, 2015. That was until yesterday when Pennsylvania prosecutors publicly dropped a motherload of hard evidence citing inconsistent Snuka stories, conclusive forensic and revelatory autopsy reportsall pointing to classifying Argentinos death as a homicide, and suggesting that the killer was Superfly himself. -. It is a sobering tale filled with possible cover-ups and the needless death of a young woman. [Photo: Patriotpost.us]As told to The Daily Beast, Muchnick, while researching the incident, says that Detective Procanyn never told him that they didnt have enough evidence to indict Snuka. Foreman Grill: A $200m Mistake for Hulk Hogan! He didnt say anything to me. (In his notes from a phone interview conducted with Bronstad and Deputy Alex Romanenko four days after Argentino was killed, Detective Gerald Procanyn describes the initial call from the motel in Salina as an attempted rape, but based on Bronstads interview with me, that appears to reflect the managers mistaken assumpion more than anything else.). Investigating the mysterious story of Jimmy Snuka, whose girlfriend Nancy Argentino died in their motel room in 1983, and revealing her family's 30-year struggle for justice. Instead, Snuka just stared ahead. And despite the caked on foundation applied by the ambitious mortician on this day the grim sight haunted her pro wrestling beau to the core. However, by the next day, he apparently changed his story and claimed that Argentino fell down on her own when they made a bathroom roadside pitstop on their way into Allentown. Whats more, the 12-24 hour delay for Snuka to call for help contributed to the emergency staffers inability to resuscitate Argentino. I remember Vince McMahon being what Vince McMahon has always been very effusive. We tried to talk some sense into her but she went back on the road with him, Salome said. The same goes for a dismissed charge of issuing a bad check, mentioned on the same certificate. . In another version Snuka said he called authorities straightaway. Then, he along with his (since deceased) handler Buddy Rogers, beelined it to the exit vowing Ill come back for the church [service]., He never showed, Argentinos oldest sister Lorraine Salome told The Daily Beast. AEW and WWE Conspiracy: Are They Working Together? Muchnick considers that to be "a blatant lie." Senior Deputy District Attorney Craig Sheetz pointed to medical records showing that Snuka had an appointment with a concussion specialist on January 29, 2014. I think Vince Jr. picked me up from the hotel and took me there. In 1985: The Argentino family won a $500,000 wrongful-death civil lawsuit against Snuka but never received their money. Still, Judge Robert Steinberg, an assistant district attorney at the time, was there and remembered that McMahon did all the talking but was cooperative. After being pressed about the moment of impact Snuka told the cops he asked Argentino if she was okay and she was lucid. But according to newly uncovered police records, Vince McMahon himself may have played a larger role in the events that led to Argentinos later death. Eerily, Salome recalled feeling restless that night. I was devastated., Snuka continues, "That night ruined my life. Bronstad would add that Argentino complained of neck, head, back and hand injuries. Per a separate statement from Deputy Lawrence Witter, those were diagnosed as a bruised right thumb, contusion to the neck, possible fractured ribs and injury to the lower back., Snuka, in his ghostwritten memoir, brazenly claimed, We were drinking and having a good time when all of a sudden, the police burst into our room. He added, I dont know why they chose my room maybe mine was the first one they passed but they did. In point of fact, they were there because of a call from Thomas Donovan, the motels night manager. All I remember is he had a briefcase with him. In 1983, Nancy Argentinos family hired Richard Cushing, a New York attorney who had spent most of his career defending criminals, to take a second look. It was attended by WWE CEO Vince McMahon, the, reported in 2013. ). As it would later transpire, the paragraph contradicts the complete, , which I obtained as part of the same civil case appendix mentioned earlier. I could not understand why the district attorney could not see it., 30 years later, the case was still unsolved, but an opportunity for the case to be re-opened presented itself. Twenty-three year old Nancy Argentino found herself traveling the country with her new boyfriend, wrestling superstar Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka. ", Days after Snukas arrest, the WWE erased his Hall of Fame profile and all images and videos from its media sites. The Lehigh County district attorney's office has refused to allow the coroner to release her autopsy report over the past three. The latter made national headlines not so much because a married celebrity had been arrested for beating his girlfriend in a Salina, New York, motel room, but rather because Snuka fought off a cadre of deputies and police dogs from the Onondaga County Sheriffs Office in the process. They all felt that if any of the offerings made by Snukas attorney were accepted (particularly in view of the publicity) that it would appear they were being influenced into dropping the charges, he added. It was attended by WWE CEO Vince McMahon, the Allentown Morning Call reported in 2013. However, he accepted a plea deal that dropped all of those charges. I dont know what happened. An illustration of text ellipses. In fact, Snuka made appearances (though he barely spoke to anybody) at the Thanksgiving dinner hosted at Nancys mothers house in Brooklyn. Jimmy Snuka and the Death of Nancy Argentino. 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