As those in the center of the true crime/wrestling fan Venn diagram will likely be aware, VICE TVs pro wrestling documentary series, Dark Side of the Ring, recently explored the May 11, 1983, death of Nancy Argentino, the then-girlfriend of then-top WWF (now WWE) star Superfly Jimmy Snuka. 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.. The Lehigh County jury will . If Snuka wanted to donate some money to a local charity they would not be a part of it. Indeed, the champion grappler gained infamy by soaring like human ammo. I did not have a clear-cut case. But its a touchy subject. 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). 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. It was attended by WWE CEO Vince McMahon, the, reported in 2013. 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,, from the company reads. The Death of Nancy Argentino (Podcast Episode 2019) photos, including production stills, premiere photos and other event photos, publicity photos, behind-the-scenes, and more. Vince McMahon Jr. was not only present but was clandestinely trying to play Mr. Fixit. I think we stopped drinking after thatshe did at least, according to Snuka. In 2017, Jon Chattman, author of Superfly: The Jimmy Snuka Story, was interviewed by Pro Wrestling Illustrated Senior Writer Al Castle for the PWI Podcast. 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. , 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. [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! If you bring up pro wrestling to someone from the Northeast whose fandom peaked around this time, theyll inevitably: 1) gush about Superfly being their favorite; and 2) reminisce about imitating him by jumping off their bed or dresser. PHOTO GALLERY: The strange story of Jimmy 'Superfly' Snuka and Nancy Argentino. Nancy was Italian, 5 feet 7 inches tall, 115 pounds with dark, curly hair and brown eyes. The episode shineda renewed light about the mysterious death. Mick Foley spoke about Snuka, a man who inspired him to pursue a career in wrestling. 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 stru. This post may contain affiliate links, which means we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. He allegedly said she became lethargic and then unresponsive. He didnt say anything to me. Me, personallyif you ask me, Do you think Jimmy did it? No. Kyle Dunning. [Photo Courtesy of The Daily Beast] Nancy Argentino was just 23 when she died in 1983 after being rushed to a hospital with a serious head injury. On that night Snuka claims he was just drinking a lot of booze. He later noted he had been smoking some pot too. Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka and girlfriend Nancy Argentino in an undated photo. 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. 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. He communicated to her that Snuka was now a free man. (According to a letter in the Onondaga County file, he left the sentence up to Justice Herman Harding.). The investigators had help. Other sources have been linked where applicable. Oh, and hed donate $1,500 his alleged purse for his return to Syracuse that same day to Sheriff John Dillons favorite charity, the Ronald McDonald House. But there were clear signs that her sisters love affair was rocky. With regards to the actual events witnessed and lived by deputies at the Howard Johnson Motor Lodge, although the newspaper articles accurately describe the melee between Snuka and the Sheriffs Department, the deputies had much more to say than the papers reported. He called the video of a May 2015 wrestling match the prosecution had shown from a Rhode Island gymnasium fake, pointing out how slowly and carefully Snuka climbed the ropes before falling onto the other wrestlers chest. Pro Wrestling Stories - Your daily source of nostalgia and a peek behind the curtain wall of wrestlings past! 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. Track back 30 years to the documented interview with Detective Gerald Procanyn of the Whitehall Police Department at the hotel. , 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. So why did they buy his constantly evolving story? The cops just didnt give me the chance to explain. There is no record of what was talked about during the meeting. During one of the hearings, prosecutors noted Snuka did not begin complaining of head trauma until after he learned he was under investigation. The stakes were high. June 1st, 2016: Almost six months after being tried for third-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter, Judge Kelly L. Banach determined that Jimmy Snuka was not mentally fit to assist his defense. Accident is accident brudda., To the responding police officer, according to the complaint, Snuka said they were fooling around outside [sic] room door when he pushed her and she fell striking her head. That same night Snuka told a paramedic that the couple got carried away in horseplay. She would sadly die at the young age of 23 in a Pennsylvania motel room. The docuseries noted that police documents prove that the meeting took place and lastedan hour but there are no notes to indicate what was discussed duringthat meeting. He has also been published on Slam Wrestling and in G-FAN Magazine. Argentino was dating World Wrestling Entertainment wrestling star James Reiher Snuka known professionally as Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka when she died under suspicious circumstances in 1983. https://prowrestlingstories.com/pro-wrestling-stories/life-death-chris-benoit/, All of these wrestlers in the WWE have head trauma, they cant avoid it, its part of their job, Hamilton stated. All royalties from Irvin Muchnicks 1992 book JUSTICE DENIED: The Untold Story of Nancy Argentinos Death in Jimmy Superfly Snukas Motel Room are donated to organizations fighting domestic violence. However, as of this publication, you can find images and videos of him restored on wwe.com. Adding to the controversy was that Snuka was married to another woman whom he had children with at the time of his relationship with Argentino. However, their dream relationship quickly turned to horror. "You have a look and an attitude, I think,. He instead told him that Snuka told one story, and it was perfectly consistent every time. The fall didnt seem like anything serious. And his story never wavered. . The WWE has also furloughed manyworkers amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The male was forcing the female back towards room #1 while the female was yelling for help., After seeing this, Donovan finally called the Sheriffs Department. I dont think you erase him from memory, Chattman said. Foreman Grill: A $200m Mistake for Hulk Hogan! Snuka died 10days after the ruling. Check out his weekly wrestling history podcast, Between The Sheets, on all major podcast platforms, and subscribe to his Substack at BabyfacevHeel.com. 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. Argentino fell down on her own when they made a bathroom roadside pitstop on their way into Allentown. 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. She had a headache but no blood. 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. 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. The findings showed that she had more than two dozen cuts and bruises a possible sign of mate abuse on her head, ear, chin, arms, hands, back, buttocks, legs, and feet. Snuka told her to hurry up as she jumped across the grass onto the road she slipped and fell backwards and hit her head. In his 2012 memoir Superfly: The Jimmy Snuka Story the pro wrestler claims he showed respect to Argentinos parents. Other than Snukas constantly shifting story of what happened, the autopsy report, and even his 2012 autobiography helped put pressure on authorities to delve into the case once more. In 1985, they won a $500K, wrongful death lawsuit against Snuka but he contended he was broke and never paid it, the, 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. David Bixenspan is a freelance reporter who lives in Brooklyn. Hours later, paramedics responded to their motel room where Argentino was found unresponsive. This episode looks at the mysterious death of Nancy Argentino, a young woman who Jimmy Snuka dated in the early 80's at the height of his wrestling popularity. Her sisters, Louise Argentino and Lorraine Salome, tell me that they believe that this was the first time Snuka had gotten violent, meaning that Argentinos resolve wouldnt necessarily be worn down yet. The same goes for a dismissed charge of issuing a bad check, mentioned on the same certificate. 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. As the docuseries points out, there was another passenger in the car with them who doesnt recall any fall. In 1985, Nancy Argentinos family won a $500,000 judgment against the Superfly in a federal wrongful-death civil lawsuit; but after filing for bankruptcy the retired wrestler reportedly failed to fork over any restitution. ", Days after Snukas arrest, the WWE erased his Hall of Fame profile and all images and videos from its media sites. He believed that there was enough to take it to a grand jury as a murder case, but William Platt thought otherwise. According to, the Sheriffs Department file for the case. Its possible like Snuka concedes that Argentino was fine with the philandering. The clear-cut forensics werent there, but the suspicion was there. Argentino swore in a deposition after the alleged assault that Snuka never hit her or intentionally harmed her. There is no question in my mind that the missing narrative piece coming out of the indictment is the role that officers of the court in Pennsylvania themselves played, Muchnick told The Daily Beast. 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. 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. And in his book Snuka, besides fearing needles (even though the word fear, he vows, is not part of my vocabulary) boasts his respect of women. These changing stories and the official manner of death werent known publicly until 2013, when the, discovered the autopsy report and a Snuka police interview transcript both previously unavailable due to the case still being open in court records from the Argentino familys later wrongful death lawsuit against Superfly. That, and other provable incidents of domestic abuse. ", Argentinos oldest sister, Lorraine Salome, remembers differently. In. Today, I bring you the 9th edition of a series looking at the TV show Dark Side of the Ring. It also chillingly recontextualizes something that, according to Muchnicks reporting, McMahon told the Argentino familys initial attorney, Richard Cushing, in 1983. At one point Argentino hopped over a stream before she lost her footing. It is considered one of the most authoritative accounts of what happened to Nancy Argentino. She ended up driving him to wrestling matches and planning his schedule, which, in turn, may have put Argentino in harm's way. "Dark Side of the Ring" looks into the death of Nancy Argentino, and questions if it wasswept under the rug for thesake of Jimmy Snuka's career. Current contact information for Platt couldnt be located, while the Lehigh County District Attorneys Office didnt respond to an email about the discovery, beyond saying that they were forwarding it to current DA Jim Martin. He was suffering from stomach cancer and other ailments. PHOTO GALLERY: The strange story of Jimmy 'Superfly' Snuka and Nancy Argentino. New information has surfaced regarding the death of Nancy Argentino. He testified that Snuka is a shell of a man whose brain is damaged beyond repair from years of wrestling and who was suffering from dementia that is worsening by the month.. And the way its in the book is the way it was told to me.. At this point, he began to yell that if she wants to leave[,] go ahead. The excerpts of the interview were provided by WrestlingInc.com. Eyes blood shot. 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. Reality is seemingly more complicated: Sparkes, Snukas lawyer, had suggested not just a deal based on the donation and a public apology, but a public apology at the next local WWF event, at the Onondaga County War Memorial on April 7th, where he would leave tickets for the officers involved. When we got to the hotel right away I had to call because she wasnt feeling good, he said. Without more details, its still uncertain whether Snuka really copped a plea for assaulting Argentino (since there were still witnesses), or received a reduced charge for hitting Bronstad. It was obvious. 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. Other doctors in 2010 said they also noticed developing signs of dementia. The George Washington Motor Lodge as seen on April 6, 1993. I enjoy them. Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka arrives for day four of his competency hearing at the Lehigh County Courthouse in Allentown on June 1, 2016. According to the autopsy, Argentino was declared dead hours later at Lehigh Valley Hospital and died of traumatic brain injuries consistent with a moving head striking a stationary object. Coverage of the latest true crime stories and famous cases explained, as well as the best TV shows, movies and podcasts in the genre. Ive never heard of anything like it before.. Some outlets inexplicably found humor in it: , 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, running with the headline, Police, Dogs Win Round.. He abandoned the 28-year-old woman who had crash trauma and drowned. 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. Lorraine reveals that Nancy's childhood friend Ellen was engaged to Johnny Rodz, a legendary journeyman wrestler and trainer, and this was how she was introduced to the world of wrestling. In the wake of Argentinos death, one of Snukas confidants came to his aid. June 21st, 2016: Prosecutors ask Judge Banach to force Snuka to undergo mental health treatment. As the episode showed, Snukas drug use had escalated so much by 1983 that his 22-year-old mistress, Argentino, also became his pseudo-manager as nobody else wanted to deal with his alleged reckless behavior. They definitely do not want any tickets reserved for them for the April 7th wrestling match and would not attend. "Superfly" Jimmy Snuka had an explosive career even after the death of Nancy Argentino in 1983 until his past caught up with him 30 years later. Dr. Mihalikis did not find any bruises, lacerations or other indications of a beating or prior injuries. 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. 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. Bronstad would add that Argentino complained of neck, head, back and hand injuries. 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