Remember Jimmy Snuka? He was a fairly popular wrestler in the WWF back in the 90s and 80s, though I think the highlight of his own career was when Roddy Piper (RIP) bashed him in the head with a coconut during an interview.
Anyway, Snuka has just been charged with third-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter at the ripe old age of 72. This actually relates to the death of his girlfriend Nancy Argentino in a Penssylvania motel back in May 1983 – more than 32 years ago.
At the time of Nancy’s death, Snuka had told at least five people (including police) that he’d shoved Nancy earlier in the day, causing her to fall and hit her head. He later told police that they’d misunderstood him, and what he’d said was that she’d slipped and hit her head when they stopped on the motorway for her to take a leak.
The cause of her death was “undetermined craniocerebral injuries” and the coroner’s report explained she’d suffered “traumatic brain injuries consistent with a moving head striking a stationary object.” She was also covered in cuts and bruises.
In 1985, Nancy’s family won a $500,00 wrongful death case against Snuka by default, but he never paid up because he claimed he was broke and couldn’t afford a legal defence.
For years and years a lack of evidence meant Snuka went unpunished, and even wrote in his 2012 autobiography:
Many terrible things have been written about me hurting Nancy and being responsible for her death, but they are not true. This has been very hard on me and very hard on my family. To this day, I get nasty notes and threats. It hurts. I never hit Nancy or threatened her.
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I guess he must have thought he’d gotten away with it after three decades of freedom following the incident, but the case was reopened and Snuka has now been arraigned and sent to prison on $100,000 bail.
All in all, not a great few months for ex-WWE/WWF wrestlers. First Roddy Piper dies, then Hulk Hogan gets outed as a massive racist, now we find out Jimmy Snuka is a bit of a murderer. What next? Is someone going to slaughter their entire family? Oh wait…
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Just another reason why we’ll never ask a pro wrestler if wrestling is fake, like these dipshit interviewers did.