It was devastating.. Snuka seemed to faintly recall how his knight dressed in a tailored suit saved the day while he was in a perpetual daze. I love women, he writes. The Lehigh County district attorney's office has refused to allow the coroner to release her autopsy report over the past three. But if he did this, this should have been settled a long time ago.". On September 1st, 2015: After a grand jurys recommendation, Martin proceeds to charge Snuka with third-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter. According to the Sheriffs Department file for the case, 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. If he does, hes responsible., On the matter, Jim Cornette lamented, "The word started getting around. I did not have a clear-cut case. Surrounded by family and his lawyer, former professional wrestler Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka, right, arrives at Lehigh County Courthouse in Allentown, Pa. on Friday, May, 13, 2016. In the same letter, Zemenz appears to imply that Sparkes was attempting to get the charges dropped extrajudicially, as he added that the officers felt that if any plea bargain, etc., was done[,] it more properly should come from the District Attorneys Office or the Courts. More pointedly, he stipulated, It was generally felt that this is turning into a publicity gimmick to benefit only Snuka, of which they want no part, citing the media coverage. Vince McMahon Jr. was not only present but was clandestinely trying to play Mr. Fixit. By. Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka wrestles September 4, 1995 in New Hampshire. Photo credits to The Morning Call. [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! I was stonewalled at every turn, Cushing said. On top of being, according to his then on-screen manager/real-life babysitter Buddy Rogers, Snuka was big money, and with McMahon in the process of plotting a national expansion for his regional promotion their initial trip to California was several weeks away McMahon. In August 2015: Carole, the third wife of Jimmy Snuka, says that he has stomach cancer. He was to re-examine the evidence after Argentinos death and try to persuade then-District Attorney William Platt that this was not an accident. Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka enters Lehigh County Court to argue he has the right to have a preliminary hearing in the 1983 murder of his girlfriend in a Whitehall Township motel. There is no record of what was talked about during the meeting. A nurse observed Snukas strange demeanor when he visited Argentinos room after she was admitted at Lehigh Valley Hospital Centers ER. Senior Deputy District Attorney Craig Sheetz pointed to medical records showing that Snuka had an appointment with a concussion specialist on January 29, 2014. Even the incident with Roddy Piper smashing a coconut on Snukas head was used! Me, personallyif you ask me, Do you think Jimmy did it? No. ", Days after Snukas arrest, the WWE erased his Hall of Fame profile and all images and videos from its media sites. Right from the get-go, the one constant with him was he kept saying, I want the truth. Snuka recalled the coke-induced bender at the hotel where he and his boys would party and crash. , 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. I was devastated, he wrote. My mother thought she was on the way.. Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka wrestles in a match on September 4, 1995 in New Hampshire. Yes, that Vince McMahon, then Snukas promoter as the owner of Titan Sports d/b/a the World Wrestling Federation, and now the chairman, CEO and owner of the WWFs successor, World Wrestling Entertainment. Despite the tumble they drove to the motel, despite reports that Snuka lacked a drivers license. Ive never heard of anything like it before., To the credit of the Sheriffs Office, it looks like they did everything they should have both in terms of doing right by Nancy Argentino, and trying to avoid a public spectacle. Look of fear in them. vice_videos:premiere. 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. Again, speculation has long run rampant about whether or not McMahon swooped in after her death with his briefcase to finagle Snuka out of trouble (which has never been proven, and McMahon has denied doing so through. Link your TV provider to stream full episodes and live TV. According to The Morning Call based out of Allentown, Pennsylvania, "She was rushed out of Snukas George Washington Motor Lodge motel room now the site of Home Depot along MacArthur Road and Route 22 on May 10, 1983. Oh my, she looks terrible, Jimmy Superfly Snuka was heard crowing as he wept and strung his hand through Nancy Argentinos dark and dead locks. 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. So why did they buy his constantly evolving story? Nancy called me at 2 in the morning saying, I have to get out of here, her sister recalled. , addressed from a lawyer identified as DNZ to colleague SRW (Steven R. Waxman, according to filings from the civil case), the lawyer recounts what he learned from his discussions with Platt while going over the prosecutors file, which he wasnt allowed to copy. She would sadly die at the young age of 23 in a Pennsylvania motel room. Yeah, there was some excitement. That said, the law librarian at the Fifth Judicial District told me that a Certificate of Conviction would be the document to trust over newspaper reports. The charges were dismissed in 2017 as Snuka . ", Dr. Paul Hoyer, a forensic pathologist for the Montgomery County coroners office, added, "Dementia can be a muddy diagnosis, as there is no clear-cut test to determine whether a person suffers from it." On January 28th, 2014: Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin announces that the Nancy Argentino case will go to a grand jury. , 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. The countys investigative grand jury found that Jimmy Snuka assaulted Nancy Argentino on May 10, 1983, then left her in a Whitehall Township motel room to die. After all, in his 1980s prime Jimmy Superfly Snuka was a masterful wrestling specimen tipping the scales in mass popularity and forcing all comers to instantly tap out. Per Donovans statement in the Onondaga County file, the guests in the adjacent room called the front desk because their neighbors were raising hell and a male was beating up a female in there., He called the room to no answer, walked over and heard the man inside say, Im sorry I hit you. Being a 61-year-old man in 1983, he then left and thought the problem was over. But after he heard some yelling, he looked outside to see Argentino wrapped in a bed sheet, saw her return to the room, heard more screaming and then looked outside his office again. Get an all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! In addition, Mihalikis absolutely did find, bruises, lacerations or other indications of a beating or prior injuries. Over two dozen, to be more specific, to the point that the report states that they could suggest mate abuse.. Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka arrives for day four of his competency hearing at the Lehigh County Courthouse in Allentown on June 1, 2016. Nancy Argentino died soon after that and despite evidence of a struggle, no one was ever charged. . Four months before Nancy Argentino died, Snuka was charged with assaulting her in a New York Howard Johnson motel. This speculation, though, is now overshadowed by evidence that McMahon may have helped facilitate the cycle of abuse that kept Nancy Argentino in Jimmy Snukas company, and potentially gave Superfly the opportunity to kill her. One event was a 2012 poker game in New York in which Snuka won $100,000 for charity, Scheetz said. The fall didnt seem like anything serious. In a contemporaneous memo, addressed from a lawyer identified as DNZ to colleague SRW (Steven R. Waxman, according to filings from the civil case), the lawyer recounts what he learned from his discussions with Platt while going over the prosecutors file, which he wasnt allowed to copy. They do not want a public apology and would not be a part of it, replied Lieutenant Paul Zemenz, the officers supervisor, in a letter sent back to Sparkes. Some outlets inexplicably found humor in it: The Associated Press wire story, for example, glosses over the underlying domestic violence, choosing to frame Snuka violently resisting arrest in joking terms like a pro wrestling match, using phrases such as the match was on and a nine-deputy tag-team. Local media wasnt much better, with a short Syracuse Post-Standard item running with the headline, Police, Dogs Win Round.. I think Vince Jr. picked me up from the hotel and took me there. He even remembered telling her, Ill see you later, honey. WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon speaks at a news conference announcing the WWE Network on January 8, 2014. Mick Foley spoke about Snuka, a man who inspired him to pursue a career in wrestling. More. We kind of expected it because there were so many ridiculous things going on with the defense. She went on to decry Snukas incompetency defense as "a total act. Picture made on Wednesday, October 7, 2015. 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. Argentino, from Brooklyn, New York, was Snukas mistress and traveled alongside him on the pro wrestling circuit whenever Snuka found himself in the Northeast. We slept together each time, but we also hung out., But while he admits his marriage to his wife, Sharon, was terrible and that he was unfaithful, he seems to misremember how he put a brutal beating on her months after Argentino died. Instead, her mother received the phone call that no mother wants to receive. Jimmy Snuka and Nancy Argentino returned to the George Washington Motor Lodge hotel after a WWF taping at the Allentown, PA fairgrounds. Create your free profile and get access to exclusive content. Author Irvin Muchnick's 1992 article about the incident (later collected in his 2007 book WRESTLING BABYLON) is the most authoritative account of what happened. They blew it up, brother.) copped a plea for harassment and got a conditional discharge. Snuka, having lost his physical green card in 2007, began the process to get a new one, which included a new criminal background check. We tried to talk some sense into her but she went back on the road with him, Salome said. When Argentino was killed, the WWF had been bringing its TV tapings to Allentown which borders Whitehall every three weeks for several years, making the company key to the local economy. He later told police he was misunderstood, and Argentino slipped and hit her head when they stopped along the highway to go to the bathroom. 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. (According to a letter in the Onondaga County file, he left the sentence up to Justice Herman Harding.). After the one hour meeting in the district attorneys law library, there are no records of Jimmy Snuka ever being questioned by police again. The Events of Nancy Argentino's Death. The original investigation went cold on June 1, 1983, after prosecutors met with Jimmy Snuka and World Wrestling Federations Vince McMahon in the district attorneys office law library. January 3rd, 2017: Judge Banach dismisses homicide charges against Jimmy Snuka. But Tarzan never faced a murder rap. 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. Snuka also has difficulty reading road signs. In the same interview, McMahon would, in Procanyns words, tell the detective that he did not ever see or hear of any problems between the victim and Snuka, in spite of the New York arrest having been national news. 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. After that meeting, investigators ruled Argentino's death an accident. As a result, the case was brought before a grand jury and Snuka was charged with murder in 2015. If you missed it, the immediate things you need to know are that Argentino died of complications from a skull fracture; that Snuka initially told a variety of stories that involved pushing her, only to change his tune claiming she slipped and fell at the side of the road after she died; that the coroner ruled it a homicide in a report that wasnt made public; and that the case mysteriously stalled out after just three weeks. Snuka was previously ruled incompetent to stand trial in. Muchnick is the author of Wrestling Babylon: Piledriving Tales of Drugs, Sex, Death, and Scandaland the 1992 book JUSTICE DENIED: The Untold Story of Nancy Argentinos Death in Jimmy Superfly Snukas Motel Room. I moved to the other side of the doorway and saw a woman on the bed against the north wall of the room lying down crying and huddled in a fetal position, added Bronstad, in his own affidavit. It is considered one of the most authoritative accounts of what happened to Nancy Argentino. When she came back, she told me she slipped on the way and hit her head. If I was guilty of anything, it was cheating on my wife, and that was it Nancy was a good girl. . Due to COVID-19 and current government mandated impacts on WWE and the media business generally, the Company went through an extensive evaluation of its operations over the past several weeks, a statement from the company reads. She would sadly die at the young age of 23 in a Pennsylvania motel room. In October 1983, Debbie Rogers, the wife of Snukas manager, Buddy, took photos and notes of injuries to Sharon as a result of her beating by Snuka and her hospitalization, according to a criminal complaint. When I got back to the hotel, I remember being very surprised that she was still in bed. 11:02, 2 Sep 2015; But the revelation that if we take Procanyns contemporaneous interview with Bronstad and Romanenko at face value Vince McMahon may have been one of these failures is something that, in 2020, casts her death in a different light. If Snuka wanted to donate some money to a local charity they would not be a part of it. Indeed, contemporaneous newspaper accounts all reported Snuka as pleading down to harassment, with some mentioning his one-year conditional discharge. The WWE has also furloughed manyworkers amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. As the docuseries points out, there was another passenger in the car with them who doesnt recall any fall. big money for everything he had planned. Jimmy Snuka, Argentino's boyfriend at the time, was investigated in the death but not charged or arrested until 2015. Perhaps in an effort to rewrite history, Snuka attempts to once again clear his name in his book about how the fatal bump on the head happened. (It would not be the first time that outrageous rumors have swirled aboutwrestling mogul McMahon.). However, the file for the investigation of her murder from Pennsylvanias Whitehall Township Bureau of Police which I obtained from the same lawsuit appendix that included the New York file points to one possible reason. Snukas wife, Carole Snuka, told the producers of Dark Side of the Ring that her husband told her that McMahon came into town with his briefcase and told him it was done.. The clear-cut forensics werent there, but the suspicion was there. Release Calendar Top 250 Movies Most Popular Movies Browse Movies by Genre Top Box Office Showtimes & Tickets Movie News India Movie Spotlight. Detective Procanyn at the time told Muchnick when quizzed about Snukas shaky defense that the evidence was inconclusive. 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. ). I didnt know him as a person, but hes a professional cohort. If Snuka wanted to donate some money to a local charity they would not be a part of it. Right on the concrete on the side of the road, she just slipped backwards., The 230-pound grappler scooped her up and according to his testimony slapped her across the face to get her to come to again. But Argentino remained unconscious. Jimmy 'Superfly' Snuka wrestles on September 4, 1995 in New Hampshire. Something went on, and something got covered up. We are hopeful that justice will prevail.. Three weeks after The Morning Call published the story recalling the death of Nancy Argentino and revealing an autopsy report and police interviews never seen by the public, Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin asked Chief Deputy District Attorney Charles Gallagher and Detective Gerry Procanyn "if theres anything to be gained by opening a grand jury investigation." So I thought, my God, I better try to call a doctor right away I called the front desk and told my girl is having a hard time breathing, just seems like she cant breathe at all, whatever you do, please hurry up.. Twenty-three year old Nancy Argentino found herself traveling the country with her new boyfriend, wrestling superstar Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka. If this is correct on their part, I do not know. I want the whole story. It was never one of those deals where We must put this in,' Chattman recalled. According to the complaint, the nurse described the hulkish beau as a tall man with a Hawaiian skirt who refused to go to the waiting room. Snuka also didnt help matters, with his memoir pointedly mentioning McMahons briefcase and dropping hints: Shortly after Nancys death, I was questioned by police and let go. After being informed of her ex-husbands murder charges, she told The Daily Beast, I have nothing further to offer.. However, the, for the investigation of her murder from Pennsylvanias Whitehall Township Bureau of Police which I obtained from the same lawsuit appendix that included the New York file points to one possible reason. I dont know if he gave Nancys family money or anything. Authorities even tossed the WWE Hall of Famers tell-all autobiography as the cherry on top of the mountain of facts. Its obvious if you go back and look at the facts of the case, something went on. The Lehigh County jury will . Most documented cases have occurred in athletes of contact sports such as American football, ice hockey, rugby, boxing, and professional wrestling. Now 72 years old and stricken with stomach cancer, the defamed brawler yesterday posted $100,000 bail after forfeiting his passport. Ultimately, this legal matter will be decided by our judicial system. When speaking to the Whitehall Police hours after Argentino died as the result of a skull fracture (four months after the New York motel room attack), McMahon backed up the claims around Snukas needing Argentino to be able to travel between live shows and taping venues. 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. There is nothing in the historical record to suggest that the autopsy report had never been committed to paper before the May 1984 visit with Platt. 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