Eerily, Salome recalled feeling restless that night. Snukas attorney, Robert J. Kirwan, argued that the fliers and videos did not prove anything about Snukas competency. Procanyn, meanwhile, was no longer available at a phone number that he had been giving out last year; neither the Lehigh Valley DAs office (where he worked more recently) nor the reporter who covered his retirement had updated contacts. Even though their decision-making is impaired, there isnt a loss as far as I can tell of the sense of right and wrong., I loved Jimmy Snuka as a fan. . What else could I possibly say.. Died? Her defiled face was on display in an open casket during a wake at a funeral parlor in her hometown of Flatbush, Brooklyn. The former was from Dr. Isidore Mihalakis autopsy report in 1983, which also urged, "this case should be investigated as a homicide until proven otherwise. An illustration of text ellipses. 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. The excerpts of the interview were provided by WrestlingInc.com. I think Vince Jr. picked me up from the hotel and took me there. The Events of Nancy Argentino's Death. In the end, I paid a fine and the charges were dropped., It was after that party that Argentinos family tried to convince her to kick Snuka to the curb. 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. In addition, Mihalikis absolutely, 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., 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. 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. The case remains open to this day. At this point, he began to yell that if she wants to leave[,] go ahead. ", Deputy Lehigh County coroner Wayne Snyder later said, Upon viewing the body and speaking to the pathologist, I immediately suspected foul play and so notified the district attorney.. Hamilton mentioned the case of Chris Benoit in 2007 who reportedly killed his wife and son. WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon speaks at a news conference announcing the WWE Network on January 8, 2014. Citizenship and Immigration Services in 2017 after his death, which actually contradicts those reports. David Bixenspan is a freelance reporter who lives in Brooklyn. A definitive diagnosis can only be performed during an autopsy by analyzing a persons brain under a microscope after death. Chattman said that while the criminal charges left a blemish on Snukas legacy, he does not think they should define it. But it appears Snukas big mouth or fuzzy memory caught up to him. Argentino died in May 1983 of traumatic brain injuries consistent with a moving head striking a stationary object. The case seemed all but forgotten by the general public until interest was renewed in 2013, when the Morning Call did an anniversary story on Argentinos death. We are hopeful that justice will prevail.. Most documented cases have occurred in athletes of contact sports such as American football, ice hockey, rugby, boxing, and professional wrestling. It adds, Given the uncertainty of the situation, the Company also identified headcount reductions and made the decision to furlough a portion of its workforce effective immediately.. 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. With Sam Fatu, Valerie Franzen, Jim Garfield, Chris Jericho. But its a touchy subject. Talk moves to Nancy Argentino the person, with Lorraine talking about despite living in a big city that she led a sheltered life and was a very hard worker. The Argentinos have provided high-resolution copies of all four pages to me: It contains some information that wasnt reported in the 1980s, but its importance becomes more clear in light of the paragraph that discusses Argentinos autopsy. An autopsy report obtained by Morning Call journalists at that time showed that the medical examiner wrote that they believe that the case should be investigated as a homicide until proven otherwise, the Morning Call reported in 2015. Check out his weekly wrestling history podcast, Between The Sheets, on all major podcast platforms, and subscribe to his Substack at BabyfacevHeel.com. As she did, I moved in front of the doorway and the male ran towards me and struck me in the chest area with his left forearm and pushed me against the wall. WWE has not responded to Oxygen.coms request for comment. In real time, though, all her sisters knew was that she went from calling late at night in a panic, saying Snuka was chasing her, to saying the next morning that nothing had happened beyond a misunderstanding. Indeed, the champion grappler gained infamy by soaring like human ammo. I would never hurt any of them.. 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. There was enough to take it before a grand jury in 1983. Finally, Dr. Mihalikis did not find any unusual amounts of dirt, gravel or other substances on Ms. Argentinos clothing. 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. And Tarzan likely never took steroids, boozed or binged on cocaine like The Superfly admitted he had. All this is recorded in the police accounts. That was a blatant lie, said Muchnick. My mother thought she was on the way.. In August 2015: Carole, the third wife of Jimmy Snuka, says that he has stomach cancer. Per Donovans statement in the, 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., The Onondaga County Sheriffs Office file doesnt contain any trace of an explanation as to why Argentino changed her mind. Snuka was previously ruled incompetent to stand trial in. Snuka, having lost his physical green card in 2007, began the process to get a new one, which included a new criminal background check. It is considered one of the most authoritative accounts of what happened to Nancy Argentino. I was devastated, he wrote. Feel free to discuss this on the Pro Wrestling Stories Facebook and Twitter pages. If I was guilty of anything, it was cheating on my wife, and that was it Nancy was a good girl. Only after Nancy was killed did we learn that he was married and it was a total shock that he was living this double life, Argentinos sister Lorraine Salome added. In a single sentence summary from the same phone interview between Bronstad and Romanenko referenced above, Procanyn wrote, Vince McMahon tried to talk her out of making the complaint against Snuka (emphasis mine). I enjoy them. Mick Foley spoke about Snuka, a man who inspired him to pursue a career in wrestling. Snuka alleged that s The manager would quickly reply that the much larger figure one which amounts to almost $66,000 with inflation wasnt an issue. Snuka, a married man, had returned from a World Wrestling Federation taping at the Allentown Fairgrounds to find Argentino gasping for air and oozing yellow fluid from her mouth and nose.". While there has always been debate about what exactly happened to Nancy Argentino on May 10, 1983, some basic facts have been confirmed. 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. 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. Robert Kirwin, defense attorney of Jimmy Snuka, called Snukas wife Carole with the news and said that she wept with joy and wanted to know if it was truly over. According to a criminal complaint, there are photos and notes of these injuries taken by Debbie Rogers, the wife of Snukas manager at the time, the legendary Nature Boy Buddy Rogers. Indeed, contemporaneous newspaper accounts all reported Snuka as pleading down to harassment, with some mentioning his one-year conditional discharge. (According to a letter in the Onondaga County file, he left the sentence up to Justice Herman Harding.). She would sadly die at the young age of 23 in a Pennsylvania motel room. In 1983, Nancy Argentino -- girlfriend of eventual WWE Hall of Fame wrestler Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka -- died mysteriously in a motel room outside Allentown, Pennsylvania. It should also be noted that Snuka allegedly regularly abused his wife Sharon physically and sent her to the hospital five months after Argentinos death. Even on the WWF side, the reaction was incredulous: What [Snuka] wants to do in Syracuse is very unusual, said ring announcer and office staffer Howard Finkel, credited as a company spokesman by the Post-Standard. Track back 30 years to the documented interview with Detective Gerald Procanyn of the Whitehall Police Department at the hotel. At around 4 a.m. trucks were approaching Argentino, who had found a bush to squat and pee. , obtained from U.S. But there were clear signs that her sisters love affair was rocky. In May of 1983, Nancy died as the result of serious head trauma. They definitely do not want any tickets reserved for them for the April 7th wrestling match and would not attend. Specifically, those other incidents of domestic abuse were that of Snuka hospitalizing his then-wife Sharon in September 1983 (no charges filed, but testified to by both Sharon and then-neighbor Debbie Rogers); and Snukas January 18, 1983 arrest for beating Argentino. Instead, Snuka just stared ahead. Media Manager Streamline your workflow with our best-in-class digital asset management system . The paramedic wrote that Snuka said they may have wrestled too much last night and as a result Argentino hit her head on the concrete last night., That lovers quarrel line was repeated to an ER doctor who learned that Snuka and Argentino were fooling around and then he pushed her, she fell striking the back of head she lost consciousness and he picked her up by the upper arms and she came to.. Nancy was Italian, 5 feet 7 inches tall, 115 pounds with dark, curly hair and brown eyes. 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