Snuka seemed to faintly recall how his knight dressed in a tailored suit saved the day while he was in a perpetual daze. Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka visits "The Opie & Anthony Show" at SiriusXM studios on January 9, 2013 in New York City. The Hall of Famer was arrested on Tuesday in connection with Nancy Argentino's death in 1983. (It would not be the first time that outrageous rumors have swirled aboutwrestling mogul McMahon.). On that night Snuka claims he was just drinking a lot of booze. He later noted he had been smoking some pot too. In 1985, Nancy Argentino's 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. More. It was a. Jimmy 'Superfly' Snuka arrives for the second day of a competency hearing at the Lehigh County Courthouse on Wednesday, May18, 2016. 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. Check out his weekly wrestling history podcast, Between The Sheets, on all major podcast platforms, and subscribe to his Substack at BabyfacevHeel.com. Then they get to the motel and napped. The excerpts of the interview were provided by WrestlingInc.com. Nancy Argentino died soon after that and despite evidence of a struggle, no one was ever charged. 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.. PHOTO GALLERY: The strange story of Jimmy Superfly Snuka and Nancy Argentino. In the commotion Argentino managed to call her sister Salome. She said, "Justice suffers after 30 years because everything decays.". It became clear pretty soon that [Platt] had no intention of presenting the evidence that I amassed. But Tarzan never faced a murder rap. Vince McMahon Jr. was not only present but was clandestinely trying to play Mr. Fixit. However, it is known that Argentino died . 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. Nancy Argentino, seen in a family photo, was a 23-year-old from Brooklyn, N . Citizenship and Immigration Services in 2017 after his death, which actually contradicts those reports. Ultimately, this legal matter will be decided by our judicial system. Her defiled face was on display in an open casket during a wake at a funeral parlor in her hometown of Flatbush, Brooklyn. However, as of this publication, you can find images and videos of him restored on wwe.com. 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. I was stonewalled at every turn, Cushing said. Get all your true crime news from Oxygen. Picture made on Wednesday, October 7, 2015. 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. [McMahon] states the victim actually guided Snuka from one area to another as Snuka has no conception of time, Procanyn wrote in his report. Detective Procanyn at the time told Muchnick when quizzed about Snukas shaky defense that the evidence was inconclusive. Three months before Argentino was pronounced dead she was screaming bloody murder while Snuka was pulling her hair and dragging her naked body through the corridors of a Howard Johnson hotel in Salina, New York. ", Argentinos oldest sister, Lorraine Salome, remembers differently. Documentary. Shawn Michaels And Diesel Good Friends, Better Enemies, Monday Night SmackDown! Dattilio testified Snuka was unable to recall many of the debilitating injuries that led to his head trauma but did recount the shocking incident mentioned above, which he says left him dizzy and disoriented. And in the ring Snuka remained true to his native island roots by swearing off wrestlings regalia of boots, opting to go barefoot instead; as well as donning a distinct headband and leopard-printed garb as odes to his on-screen idol Tarzan. He did not express his apologies or sympathies., Snuka remembers it differently. She was staying in a motel room with Jimmy Snuka in Whitehall Township, Pennsylvania. The case went cold for 30 years. Instead he said Snuka told one story and it was perfectly consistent every time. 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. In 1985, they won a $500K wrongful death lawsuit against Snuka but he contended he was broke and never paid it, the Morning Call reported. According to, the Sheriffs Department file for the case. 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. Eerily, Salome recalled feeling restless that night. He argued Snukas head trauma had progressed to the point where he couldnt understand what was happening in a courtroom and commented that his private doctors detected memory impairment in him as early as 2010 and that Snuka might develop CTE in the future. He didnt say anything to me. (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. The man responsible for the original autopsy, Dr. Isidore Mihalakis, in 1983 commented to The Morning Call about the investigation. An icon used to represent a menu that can be toggled by interacting with this icon. An illustration of text ellipses. President Donald Trump appointed him to an advisory group dedicated to reopening the country during the coronavirus pandemic, allwhile WWE has continued running its weekly live wrestling Florida has deemed WWE an essential business without a live audience. She ended up driving him to wrestling matches and planning his schedule, which, in turn, may have put Argentino in harm's way. A follow-up interview with Snuka was conducted by investigatorson June 1. AEW and WWE Conspiracy: Are They Working Together? Then there were Snukas shifting renditions of what led to Argentinos demise. The Salina City Court and several others in the surrounding area have been merged into a single district court location for the, pandemic, making it impossible to check the original court records, if they still exist. I just look at the whole thing as a shame because theres a loss of human life there.. What? The writer was onto the flimsy slip-and-fall storylines Snuka had peddled to police and prosecutors. If Snuka wanted to donate some money to a local charity they would not be a part of it. In August 2015: Carole, the third wife of Jimmy Snuka, says that he has stomach cancer. Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka arrives for day four of his competency hearing at the Lehigh County Courthouse in Allentown on June 1, 2016. Even the incident with Roddy Piper smashing a coconut on Snukas head was used! The case remains open to this day. 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." Kennedy only got a two-month suspended sentence for leaving the scene of an accident after causing injury, but caused irreperable damage to any presidential ambitions that he may have had. Four months before Nancy Argentino died, Snuka was charged with assaulting her in a New York Howard Johnson motel. 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. The Lehigh County jury will . The District Attorneys office is arguably a different story. 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. "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. 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. The charges were dismissed in 2017 as Snuka . Picture made on Wednesday, October 7, 2015. In his autobiography, Superfly The Jimmy Snuka Story, written by Jon Chattman, he says that after coming back from the TV tapings, he was surprised to find her still sleeping, and thats when he called for help. 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. Snuka does not understand whats going on in court and does not even remember his attorneys name. ", After Snuka was charged with third-degree murder, Jim Cornette questioned, "Why doesnt someone really start investigating more about why nothing got done for 30 years when there was all of this evidence and conflicting stories? They made it to the motel and after Argentino requested to lie down, Snuka left to go to the Allentown Fairgrounds to perform. Charges were not immediately pressed at the time against Jimmy Snuka though the case was left officially open. I would never use full force. Snuka died 10days after the ruling. The couple were even hatching plans to purchase a New Jersey townhouse together. 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. There was enough to take it before a grand jury in 1983. The stakes were high. And his story never wavered. Complicating matters is Snukas alien file, obtained from U.S. Snuka definitely says he saw Argentino hit the ground. After the one hour meeting in the district attorneys law library, there are no records of Jimmy Snuka ever being questioned by police again. I dont think you erase him from memory, Chattman said. Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka (third from left) arrives with his wife Carole (right) for day four of his competency hearing at the Lehigh County Courthouse in Allentown on June 1, 2016. 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. Because of his failing health, however, a judge ruled him mentally unfit to stand trial. According to the contemporaneous newspaper reports, Snuka who gave an exclusive, ramblingly vague account of what happened to the Toronto Star (The hotel manager just got a little excited. Some additional context is needed here to truly understand where both Snuka and McMahon stood at the time. 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. 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 needed big money for everything he had planned. Dementia is defined legally as being unable to understand whats going on. He abandoned the 28-year-old woman who had crash trauma and drowned. 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. If that was The Superfly Splash, it was the geriatric version, Kirwan said. Images. I dont know what happened. 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. I was devastated., Snuka continues, "That night ruined my life. To this day, nearly four decades later, the death of Nancy Argentino remains unsolved. PHOTO GALLERY: The strange story of Jimmy 'Superfly' Snuka and Nancy Argentino. And of course, as noted earlier, Mihalikis ruled the death a homicide, not an accident. 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. 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. 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. He didnt say anything to me. The trouble is the brawler allegedly inflicted multiple beatdowns on his wife. 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. June 21st, 2016: Prosecutors ask Judge Banach to force Snuka to undergo mental health treatment. 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. How a Volcano Forced Big Changes, Jim Johnston The Man Behind Legendary WWE Theme Songs, Bruno Sammartino and Vince McMahons Venomous 25-Year Feud, Marty Jannetty His Turbulent Life After The Rockers, Bret Hart and Tom Magee: Finding Wrestlings Holy Grail, Wrestler Nanjo Singh and His Wifes Brutal Murder. During the hearings to determine whether Jimmy Snuka was mentally competent to stand trial, his defense attorney Robert Kirwin said that Snuka suffered from brain trauma so severe that he had developed CTE and, subsequently, dementia. Remembers it differently the Allentown Fairgrounds to perform as of this publication you... Muchnick when quizzed about Snukas shaky defense that the evidence that i amassed him on! 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