(Use code PWS for a nice surprise). Argentino fell down on her own when they made a bathroom roadside pitstop on their way into Allentown. Detective Procanyn was a former Whitehall detective on the scene at the motel when Argentino was rushed to the hospital in 1983. Cynthia Porter, an officer in training, recalled in her affidavit that she could hear Argentino repeatedly cry No, no, dont do that! from outside the room right before Sergeant Peter Bronstad showed up as backup. due to Snukas apparent mental incompetence mere days before his 2017 death from stomach cancer. Citizenship and Immigration Services in 2017 after his death, which actually contradicts those reports. 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., It stated that the furlough of some employees is expected to be temporary in nature.. PHOTO GALLERY: The strange story of Jimmy 'Superfly' Snuka and Nancy Argentino. 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. [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. (Reached by email, spokespeople for WWE didnt respond to a request for comment on the discovery of McMahons involvement in the New York case.). In May of 1983, Nancy died as the result of serious head trauma. Because of his failing health, however, a judge ruled him mentally unfit to stand trial. Months later, on May 10, 1983, Argentino and Snuka traveled to Allentown, Pennsylvania to tape an episode of championship wrestling. On September 1st, 2015: After a grand jurys recommendation, Martin proceeds to charge Snuka with third-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter. Snuka seemed to faintly recall how his knight dressed in a tailored suit saved the day while he was in a perpetual daze. 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. Snuka died 10days after the ruling. Argentino died in May 1983 of traumatic brain injuries consistent with a moving head striking a stationary object. without a live audience. Pro Wrestling Stories - Your daily source of nostalgia and a peek behind the curtain wall of wrestlings past! Photo credits to The Morning Call. Argentino, from Brooklyn, New York, was Snukas mistress and traveled alongside him on the pro wrestling circuit whenever Snuka found himself in the Northeast. 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. December 2nd, 2016: Snukas defense attorney says hes in a Florida hospice, and doctors have determined that he only has six months to live. Today, I bring you the 9th edition of a series looking at the TV show Dark Side of the Ring. And his story never wavered. Jimmy Snuka, Argentino's boyfriend at the time, was investigated in the death but not charged or arrested until 2015. He mentioned that this was a far cry from the Snuka that truly used to leap off cages and turnbuckles. Speculation has long swirled around McMahons involvement in the murder investigation, specifically his presence during Snukas last police interview, the contents of which unlike every other interview summary in the Whitehall file are notoriously not described in the report at all (a fact that then-Chief Frederic Conjour wrote off as nothing in the VICE documentary). 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.. 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. It wasn't long before she caught the eyes of the wrestlers. I got one handcuff on the hand he had the female by the hair with[,] which was his right hand[,] and after several seconds of struggling with him[,] he released his grasp on the female, explained Bronstad in his affidavit. As it would later transpire, the paragraph contradicts the complete, , which I obtained as part of the same civil case appendix mentioned earlier. In 1985: The Argentino family won a $500,000 wrongful-death civil lawsuit against Snuka but never received their money. He adds, "Sometimes being trapped with my thoughts can be more painful than any injury Ive suffered in the ring. The Hall of Famer was arrested on Tuesday in connection with Nancy Argentino's death in 1983. 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.". Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka found Nancy Argentino gasping for air inside a motel room here in May 1983. A Pennsylvania grand jury will reopen and investigate the 31-year-old death of Nancy Argentino, who was then the girlfriend of WWE Hall of Famer Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka. Some additional context is needed here to truly understand where both Snuka and McMahon stood at the time. This helps us provide free content for you to enjoy! 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. Indeed, at the hospital, Argentino signed a release form to share her medical records with the Sheriffs Department. At this point, he began to yell that if she wants to leave[,] go ahead. I dont think its Chris Benoit. 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. The variety of stories (were not claiming theyre true or false) about what he did with Nancy Argentino or how she got injured could fill this whole page. This has been very hard on me and very hard on my family I never hit Nancy or threatened her. Argentino swore in a deposition after the alleged assault that Snuka never hit her or intentionally harmed her. WWE ECW Relaunch | Where Did It All Go Wrong? 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. Instead, Snuka just stared ahead. 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. I never wanted to harm her. If this is correct on their part, I do not know. The 1983 death of Nancy Argentino has become one the most infamous chapters in pro wrestling history. 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. 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. ", "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." The manager would quickly reply that the much larger figure one which amounts to almost $66,000 with inflation wasnt an issue. What else could I possibly say? However, it is known that Argentino died . I didnt push [Jimmy] at all. My mother thought she was on the way.. One of the then-WWF's biggest stars, Jimmy Snuka, was present at the Allentown, Pennsylvania motel where Argentino suffered the traumatic brain injuries that ended her life after just 23 years. [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. Documentary. As the docuseries points out, there was another passenger in the car with them who doesnt recall any fall. I love women, he writes. It is a deterioration of brain tissue and function and was discovered in 2004 at the Allegheny County medical examiners office after performing an autopsy on former Pittsburgh Steelers player, Iron Mike Webster. 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. Citizenship and Immigration Services in 2017 after his death, which actually contradicts those reports. Trying to prove that Jimmy Snuka was mentally and physically capable of standing trial, the prosecutors showed fliers from charity events that Snuka attended during times the psychologist said he showed signs of dementia. Dark Side Of The Ring S02E05 Jimmy Snuka and the Death of Nancy Argentino. Four months before Nancy Argentino died, Snuka was charged with assaulting her in a New York Howard Johnson motel. He can be contacted by e-mail at jojst1@gmail.com. I dont think you erase him from memory, Chattman said. 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. He even remembered telling her, Ill see you later, honey. 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. She later dropped charges and claimed he didnt hurt her. Snuka was previously ruled incompetent to stand trial in. It was a very worrisome case. All in all, there were at least a few entities that failed Nancy Argentino in 1983: The motel clerk who let things escalate in January by not calling the police earlier; the majority of the media coverage of her initial beating at Snukas hands, which minimized her suffering to present a somehow breezier narrative of a wrestler fighting off police dogs; and the district attorneys office who, in spite of having multiple strong witnesses confirming the abuse even after Argentino recanted, basically waved Snukas actions aside to avoid risk to his green card. Investigating the mysterious story of Jimmy Snuka, whose girlfriend Nancy Argentino died in . If I was guilty of anything, it was cheating on my wife, and that was it Nancy was a good girl. Ive never heard of anything like it before.. Though the records check from the Sheriffs Office matched the four known charges, the Certificate of Conviction from the court says he pled guilty to Assault 3rd while being sentenced to his one-year conditional discharge. I love the smell of the ladies. Dr. Mihalikis did not find any bruises, lacerations or other indications of a beating or prior injuries. They made it to the motel and after Argentino requested to lie down, Snuka left to go to the Allentown Fairgrounds to perform. 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. The same goes for a dismissed charge of issuing a bad check, mentioned on the same certificate. All day Snuka claims that he returned to the hotel between TV shoots to check on Argentino. 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