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00:00Here he is, Jimmy Superfly Snuka!
00:06Man, there was only one Superfly.
00:09A wild man with the hair and the zebra trunks in his body.
00:13He was a brilliant performer.
00:16He had freakish athletic talent.
00:20Going up on the top rope, flying off and crashing into your opponent.
00:24I mean, that's awesome.
00:25By 1983, Jimmy Superfly Snuka takes the wrestling world by storm.
00:31Everywhere was a sellout. All the arenas, they were always packed.
00:35Look around and see, you know, this guy's gonna make you money.
00:38But fans are unaware of the events surrounding the violent death of his girlfriend, Nancy Argentino.
00:45Which raises disturbing questions about who Jimmy really is.
00:49Nancy was extremely into the relationship. She was invested 100%.
00:53She probably felt betrayed because this was the guy she was in love with that was killing her.
00:58I really don't know what really happened that night.
01:02I mean, rumors just started to spread like fire.
01:05Jimmy did that. Jimmy beat her up.
01:07She died of brain injury.
01:09He didn't get arrested. Wasn't detained.
01:13We don't think we really received justice from the authorities.
01:16They did nothing. Keeping the case open, but hoping that it would just go away.
01:21Thirty years later, the case resurfaces with shocking new information
01:26to challenge the legacy and innocence of one of wrestling's greatest performers.
01:32Part of our goal was to figure out who she was.
01:35This isn't just Jimmy Snuka's story. This is Nancy Argentino's story.
01:38Let's find out what happened. Was it really an accident?
01:42Was it his intention to kill her?
01:52By the early 1980s, the World Wrestling Federation explodes in popularity.
01:58A key ingredient to its massive growth has been in capitalizing on the star power of its most charismatic performers.
02:06But the man fans love more than anyone is the superfly, Jimmy Snuka.
02:13From the moment he joins the WWF, audiences are entranced with his high-flying acrobatics and wildman persona.
02:22He is the embodiment of a real-life Tarzan.
02:25His universal popularity led many to believe his star would shine forever.
02:31But they were wrong.
02:35From the Isle of Tonga, weighing 225 pounds, the Tonga Kid.
02:44My name is Tonga Kid. Real name is Sam Patu.
02:48To be honest, you know, I wasn't interested in wrestling.
02:51I was this kid that was growing up in San Francisco, got into a lot of trouble.
02:56I did six months in juvie for hitting the bus driver.
02:59So, you know, I thought, oh, shit, you know, I'm really gonna get my ass whooped now from my parents,
03:04right?
03:05And my mom's brothers are Alpha and Sika.
03:09So, they sent me the Alpha and Sika, and they said, all right, this is what we need to do
03:14with you.
03:15You're gonna become a professional wrestler.
03:17I was 16 years old.
03:19You're talking a young kid that just started in the wrestling world.
03:23Got thrown out there to the wolves.
03:25Somebody has to protect me.
03:27And that was the superfly, Jimmy Snuka.
03:30From the Fiji Islands, Jimmy Superfly Sanuka!
03:38Jimmy Snuka was a professional wrestler from the island of Fiji.
03:43He could do it all.
03:44Could have been Hulk Hogan.
03:46Could have just, you know, kept his head on, kept cool.
03:52I'm down in Morocco, Sunset Beach, Hawaii.
03:54Started wrestling in 1970 and unofficially retired about 1988.
04:02Jimmy, he spent a lot of time in Hawaii.
04:05He, um, grew up almost homeless.
04:07Where he slept, I have no idea, you know.
04:09He had basically no home.
04:12I think that's why he latched on to professional wrestling.
04:15Because it gave him a place.
04:17It gave him an identity.
04:19It gave him a family.
04:20Being accepted by crowd.
04:22Being accepted by people.
04:24Being a hero.
04:26Being somebody.
04:27Meant the world to him.
04:30Every time Jimmy went in the ring, he kneeled down.
04:33And people don't know why he'd do that.
04:36It's almost like people kneel down when you pray, right?
04:39Jimmy kneels down and he does it to respect his fans.
04:44That's why Jimmy did it.
04:46In the early 1980s, Snuka enters the World Wrestling Federation.
04:51Owner Vince McMahon recognizes his star power potential
04:54and soon makes Snuka his number one attraction.
04:59Snuka was the most popular performer in WWE at that time.
05:03Bob Backlund was the champion.
05:05They had some other stars.
05:06But Snuka was on fire.
05:08I'm Irv Muchnick.
05:10I'm the nephew of Sam Muchnick,
05:12who is the legendary National Wrestling Alliance promoter.
05:15I would say 35 years I've been obsessed
05:19with the pro wrestling phenomenon with Snuka.
05:23You know, they brought him in originally.
05:25He was a heel.
05:26They quickly figured out that they had to convert him
05:29into a babyface because he was just too popular.
05:32And Buddy Rogers became his manager
05:35and he did the switch.
05:36We feel that we've got what it takes to win.
05:39It all came together in New York.
05:42He was money.
05:43He was their biggest star.
05:44Snuka was at the peak of his drawing power.
05:47Jimmy also fully embraces the grueling lifestyle
05:51of a wrestler on the road.
05:53We go to clubs every night, party every day.
05:57It's a lot, man.
05:58You know, it was tough.
06:00Go to the matches, go to sleep, work up, repeat, repeat.
06:06Being on a road by yourself can be very damn boring sometime,
06:09you know?
06:09I think it's good to have somebody on the road to travel,
06:12you know, with you on the road sometime, you know?
06:14And Jimmy had his girlfriend on the road.
06:18I don't remember her name right off the back, but yeah.
06:20Are you talking about Nancy?
06:22Yes.
06:23Yes, I'm talking about her.
06:25Yeah.
06:26My name is Lorraine Salome.
06:28I'm the older sister of the late Nancy Argentino.
06:32My younger sister and I always say that Nancy was the favorite
06:35because she never gave my mother a hard time.
06:38Nancy was a very intelligent girl.
06:41She had a lot of friends because people were drawn to her.
06:44She was a hard worker.
06:45You know, she always had a job and she took great pride in her clothes
06:50and her makeup and her hair.
06:51She always wanted to look good.
06:53Nancy was very innocent.
06:55Even though we lived in a big city, she lived a sheltered life.
06:59That changes when Nancy is introduced to the world of professional wrestling
07:03at Madison Square Garden, the premier venue for the WWF.
07:08Nancy had a childhood friend named Ellen that they grew up together.
07:12Ellen was engaged to a wrestler named Johnny Rods.
07:16So Nancy got into the habit of going with Ellen to go to Madison Square Garden
07:21to see the wrestling matches.
07:23Afterwards, she'd go backstage and they'd wait for Johnny
07:26and then she met Superfly Snooker.
07:30You know, she really liked him and it seemed to be a somewhat serious relationship right away.
07:36At the beginning, we were all like, oh yeah, that's great. Nancy's happy.
07:40And we didn't really understand him that much.
07:43He was really strange because we tried to make him feel comfortable,
07:47but he would sit in the corner and he wouldn't talk to anybody
07:50except occasionally to Nancy.
07:52So he isolated himself.
07:55She told my mother that she was in love with him
07:58and she took care of him when they were on the road
08:01because Buddy Rogers didn't really want to travel with him anymore,
08:04like drive him from place to place.
08:06Buddy Rogers' role extended far beyond an in-ring manager for Jimmy.
08:11He would also become his handler and chaperone on the road.
08:16He said Jimmy was a sweet guy, but he was hooked on cocaine and other junk
08:23and he was totally uncontrollable.
08:26And it reached a point where Rogers told Vince McMahon
08:30he couldn't be in the car with Snooker anymore
08:32because he would snort cocaine brazenly while they were driving.
08:37So they talked to my sister Nancy and all of a sudden that was her job.
08:43She would map out the places, she'd drive the car,
08:47she'd make sure Snooker got to the matches on time.
08:50She was his girlfriend, but she also had a job to do.
08:54My mother liked him, even though he wasn't, like, super friendly.
08:58And I always got the feeling that my stepfather Ralph had his doubts about him.
09:06As Jimmy and Nancy's relationship grows,
09:09her family begins to see the cracks hiding behind Jimmy's quiet facade.
09:14It was not that many times that I met him.
09:17I'm Louise. I'm Nancy's sister. I grew up with her.
09:21We were close. The whole family was close.
09:23My parents were away on a weekend and I came home and they were there
09:28and they had brought home Chinese food and I sat down to eat with them.
09:33And I was just my bubbly self, just yakking and chatting and saying,
09:38Oh, how are you? Blah, blah, blah.
09:41And he didn't like how I was acting and he just looked over me
09:46and he put his hand, like, up to my throat.
09:51And he said, I could.
09:54And then he gave me that wrestling face.
09:58I backed up and I said, Wow.
10:03And I looked at my sister. I said, I don't want to eat.
10:06And I went upstairs.
10:09And then when she came upstairs,
10:12I got her in the bathroom and I said, Nancy, you need to get rid of him.
10:16And she was all apologetic.
10:18Like she looked kind of like timid.
10:20Not what I was just seeing in her.
10:22And she said, Oh, no, no, no, no.
10:24He's just tired. He's been working hard.
10:26It's okay.
10:28He felt bad that he treated me that way.
10:30So he said, Here, here, I want to give you something.
10:34And I looked and in my hand were like cocaine.
10:36I think it was cocaine.
10:38And Nancy was upset.
10:40She just said, Don't do that.
10:42Don't do that.
10:43She doesn't need that.
10:45And I think I gave it back to him.
10:47And I said, No, no, no.
10:48Keep it.
10:48And I just said goodbye to him.
10:50And I thought, Wow, that's like a real change in her personality all of a sudden.
11:03Despite her family's deep concern, 22-year-old Nancy Argentino is now constantly on the road with her boyfriend.
11:12Wrestling superstar, Jimmy Superfly Snuka.
11:16I didn't have a relationship with her because Jimmy was very protective with that.
11:20Especially when it comes around all these crazy shark wrestlers.
11:23You know what I mean?
11:25I don't think anybody had a relationship with her.
11:27You know?
11:27Because they knew who Jimmy was.
11:29You know?
11:29They knew who she was with.
11:31So did you ever meet Nancy?
11:32I met her, yeah.
11:33She didn't seem to really like me.
11:42Maybe it's because he and I were arch enemies.
11:45Or maybe it's because she knew I was friends with his wife, Sharon.
11:49At any point in time, did you know that he was married?
11:52I think Nancy told me and I said, What are you crazy?
11:55I said, He's married.
11:57She said, Well, he's not with his wife.
11:59He's separated.
12:01How could he be with anyone else if he was with Nancy?
12:03It never crossed our mind because they were always together.
12:07Jimmy and his wife, Sharon, are still living together with their four children in North Carolina.
12:12Time on the road has allowed him to live two separate lives.
12:15But his secrets can't stay hidden forever.
12:19My name's Kevin Ammerman.
12:21I'm a journalist.
12:22I work for The Morning Call.
12:23It's a newspaper in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
12:25So it's January 1983.
12:28Jimmy Snuka is at Howard Johnson in Salina, New York.
12:31He's there with Nancy Argentinian.
12:34Apparently, other guests are calling the front desk saying, It sounds like a man is beating a woman.
12:41I was in my apartment sleeping and I got a phone call at 2 o'clock in the morning from
12:46Nancy.
12:47She was screaming into the phone, Lorraine, you have to help me. I have to get out of here.
12:52I said, What's wrong? She said, He's chasing me.
12:55And then the phone went dead.
12:58So police respond.
13:00Police claim that Jimmy Snuka has Nancy Argentinian by the hair.
13:05And he's dragging her across the wall and across the floor by her hair.
13:10So police attempt to intervene.
13:13And they're met with almost superhuman strength by Jimmy Snuka.
13:16And he starts resisting arrest and manhandling the police.
13:20There were also police dogs who responded.
13:24While he's fighting the police, he's also apparently fighting the dogs as well.
13:27It was unbelievable.
13:29I didn't know what to do because I didn't know where she went.
13:32So I waited.
13:34And finally, early in the morning, she called me back.
13:37I said, Nancy, what happened last night?
13:40And she just said, Oh, nothing. Just a big misunderstanding.
13:45Arrested on charges of assault and harassment, Snuka is able to avoid jail time
13:50with help from Nancy.
13:52Right here is a copy of Nancy's affidavit signed by her.
13:57I'm Adam Clark.
13:59I'm a journalist who wrote the 30-year anniversary story about Jimmy Snuka and Nancy Argentino.
14:05One of the charges pending against Jimmy S. Snuka is that of assault in the third degree.
14:10This charge is said to be as a result of an assault upon me by Jimmy Snuka.
14:15I wish to state that he never struck me or intentionally harmed me in any way on January 18, 1983,
14:21nor at any other time in the past.
14:24You know, she really was in love with Jimmy Snuka.
14:29So after Jimmy Snuka was charged, he ended up pleading guilty to a minor charge of harassment,
14:35and then donates $1,500 to a local Ronald McDonald house.
14:39And, you know, he basically walked away.
14:43Then she just went back on the road with him.
14:46They were counting on Nancy at that point to get him places because nobody wanted to deal with him.
14:51He was unpredictable.
14:52He was high a lot.
14:55So they really put everything on my sister to make sure that he got to the next match.
15:02Back on the WWF circuit, Jimmy and Nancy traveled from town to town across the Northeast.
15:07So one of their regular stops was Egg Hall in Allentown.
15:12Every three weeks, the WWF shot syndicated television in Allentown for their A-show,
15:18which was called Championship Wrestling.
15:20The WWF was important to Allentown.
15:23It had an economic impact.
15:25It wasn't uncommon to see Andre the Giant hanging out somewhere at a bar
15:28or see a big star hanging out at the George Washington Motor Watch.
15:32At that exact moment in May, I believe, of 1983,
15:36they were shooting some of the big angles in his feud with Don Morocco.
15:42Oh, we had the strap matches, chain matches, and cage matches.
15:47And it was looking good.
15:49Snowball was just starting to roll.
15:51In the early hours of May 10, 1983,
15:55Jimmy and Nancy arrive in Allentown to tape an episode of Championship Wrestling.
16:00Jimmy Snuka leaves the George Washington Motor Lodge and goes to film wrestling.
16:05He films a couple sessions, comes back to the motel, and then leaves again.
16:11He leaves in the afternoon, and he comes back about 9 p.m.
16:16Jimmy heads to his room where Nancy has been all day.
16:19Just a few hours later, the motel's other occupants are awoken by a disturbance outside.
16:26What woke me up was the sirens.
16:28My room was not far from Jimmy's room.
16:31There was an ambulance that had been sitting outside, a Snuka's room.
16:35I said, what's going on over there?
16:37I can see the police cars and the ambulance and roped off into some yellow tape.
16:42And Snuka leaning up against the cop car.
16:45Jimmy looked pretty scared.
16:48It was bad. It was very bad.
16:56On the night of May 10, 1983, emergency responders arrive at the George Washington Motor Lodge in Allentown, Pennsylvania,
17:04where Jimmy Snuka and his girlfriend, Nancy Argentino, have been staying with several other wrestlers.
17:11It was between 11.30 and quarter 12 that we had gotten called to an unconscious female.
17:17My name is Shirley Reeve, and I was a paramedic in 1983.
17:21We drove up to the scene, and the room door was open.
17:26Jimmy was standing there along with the detectives.
17:29She was in bed, covered up with a sheet, and examined her.
17:34Her pupils were fixed and dilated, and that's more indication of a head injury.
17:40And I'm like, well, she's in bed, not on the floor, not outside.
17:45He was just touching the feet, and I had to basically drag things out of him.
17:50And he just said that they must have wrestled a little bit too much the night before when he pushed
17:54her over,
17:54and she had hit her head.
17:56She came inside. They went to bed.
17:59He went to his wrestling match the next morning, came back.
18:02She was still conscious, but I guess was becoming a little bit lethargic or sleepy.
18:07So he just said, well, you know, I'm going to go to my match.
18:09I'll come back and check on you later on.
18:11So when he came back later on, then she wasn't responding.
18:15She was having difficulty breathing, and that's what he called the ambulance.
18:20I did do an intubation, put an airway in.
18:22He started the line. We gave her some drugs and just took her in.
18:27While Snuka's at the hospital and they're trying to revive Nancy,
18:31he's starting to tell person after person what happened.
18:35And at that point in time, when police interview all of these witnesses in the ER,
18:39they all say that Snuka mentioned some sort of conflict, either shoving, striking,
18:45that somehow he physically pushed or struck Nancy, and she fell down and hit her head.
18:51I was in my room, dead sleep.
18:54It was about 3.30, 4 o'clock in the morning, and the phone rings.
18:58I pick it up, and they say, this is the Lehigh Valley Hospital.
19:01Can I speak to Caroline Argentino?
19:03So I get up, and I go into my mother's room, and I wake her up.
19:06I said, Ma, the hospital's on the phone.
19:08And she comes to my bed, and I hear her say, is she going to be all right?
19:14And then I hear her say, dead? Dead?
19:21So, Jimmy, he got on the phone, and as far as I can recall,
19:25he started, like, blubbering and saying that, oh, it was an accident.
19:30It was an accident. She fell and hit her head.
19:33She hung up the phone.
19:35She went and told my father, and then my sister Lorraine.
19:39It was like we were all walking around like zombies because we were in shock.
19:43We just couldn't believe it.
19:44We never thought that it would end up like that.
19:49And then we just called all the family members and all of our friends,
19:53and I cried on the phone with them, and we were all in shock.
19:58In the early morning hours, Snooker returns to the motor lodge and is questioned by police.
20:04He introduces yet another conflicting account of events.
20:07The next morning, police come to the hotel to interview Jimmy Snooker,
20:11and they start asking him about what happened.
20:13And this is critical because at this point in time,
20:15Snooker has already told multiple people at the hospital that he had some involvement in her fall.
20:21He says that they stopped alongside the road when they were coming to Allentown.
20:24Nancy had to go to the bathroom.
20:25He says she gets out.
20:27There's a lot of trucks driving by, so he hollers at her, come on, hurry up.
20:30And as she's trying to come back, she slips.
20:33She hits her head on the side of the road.
20:36And that's what caused the injuries.
20:39By now, the news of Nancy's death has made its way to WWF headquarters and Snooker's boss, Vince McMahon.
20:47I got on the phone and caught a hold of Vince Jr.
20:53Vince says, have you heard anything about Snooker and his girlfriend?
20:57I said, as a matter of fact, here I am with Lieutenant so-and-so.
21:02And I put him on the phone to Vince.
21:04McMahon informs police that Snooker will continue to cooperate with the investigation,
21:09and his star performer is released without charge.
21:15At what point did you guys as a family start to feel like maybe this isn't an accident?
21:22Well, Nancy's funeral was so disturbing.
21:26Traditional Italian funerals in those days, you were laid out for three days,
21:30and then you had a mass, and then you were buried.
21:32The second day, Buddy Rogers walks in with Snooker,
21:35and he's wearing flip-flops and these really, really short shorts and some kind of tank top.
21:43Buddy Rogers was leading him around, pretty much.
21:48Then he went over to the coffin, and he started crying on the coffin and touching her,
21:53and my father had to pull him off the coffin.
21:57I asked my mother, did he say anything to you? Did he say how sorry he was?
22:01And she said, no. He said, she looks terrible.
22:06Now that was a pretty weird thing to say.
22:09You know, of course she looks terrible. She's dead.
22:12The undertaker came over to my stepfather, and he said, you know, I have to tell you,
22:17this is disturbing because we had a hard time getting her to look good
22:22because she had a huge bruise around her neck, and she had multiple cuts and abrasions all over her body.
22:30Then, I think, you know, my stepfather knew that something was terribly wrong about the way she died.
22:44The tragic death of 22-year-old Nancy Argentino seems to have done little to slow the career of Jimmy
22:51Superfly Snuka.
22:52Look what I got next to me.
22:54In the summer of 1983, and just a few weeks after her passing, Snuka is back, continuing his storyline with
23:01adversary Don Morocco.
23:03When Snuka flies, Morocco dies.
23:06Nice.
23:07So was there, like, a part of you that was thinking, like, something might happen to Jimmy?
23:24Sure.
23:24There was a lot of money down the road to be made.
23:28Their feud culminates in a legendary cage match at Madison Square Garden,
23:33which becomes a career-defining moment for the Superfly.
23:37People were lining up all over the country to see this match.
23:41Listen to the crowd.
23:42We just set the place on fire.
23:45Look at him, busted wide open.
23:46Holy hell.
23:47Jimmy was such a star, and people wanted to see him jump off the top cage on me and splash
23:53me.
23:54And I'll never forget that night, because I was there when he came off of the cage.
24:00I mean...
24:01Woo!
24:03Superfly parched 15 feet high!
24:08Oh, my God!
24:10They just rocked New York.
24:13Jimmy, he tried things that people never tried before.
24:16He was a high-flyer.
24:18He probably spent more time off the mat than on the mat.
24:21I'm Carol Snuka.
24:23I was married to Jimmy Snuka.
24:26I was with Jimmy for 20-some years.
24:30Sometimes, every now and then, somebody would make a comment and said something about,
24:34I know what you did, Jimmy. I'm going to be waiting for you.
24:38Fans congregating outside the stage exit, and Snuka comes out and there's a woman who yells to Snuka,
24:45Hey, Snuka, you goddamn fucking murderer. When are you going to kill another girl?
24:50He's always said to me, I know what I did. Let the other people think what they want, okay?
24:54If they want to think I did that, that's them. That's in their mind. That's not my mind.
24:59I know what I did in my mind, and my God knows, and that's all I have to worry about.
25:05They want to talk. They want to do that. That's fine. Doesn't bother me.
25:10While Snuka's career in the WWF is reaching new heights, authorities in Allentown continue their investigation.
25:17The challenge that they faced in trying to prosecute this case was they had a dead body.
25:22They had a woman who clearly had injuries, but they had no other witnesses. They had no confession.
25:30The fact that somebody just tells different stories is certainly not enough evidence to charge anybody with a crime.
25:39My name is Frederick Conjure. I was the police chief in Whitehall Township, Pennsylvania, in 1983.
25:46The lieutenant in charge of the investigation, I never had any reason to doubt that he wouldn't do the best
25:53he could to investigate the case, and I think he did.
25:59Although they didn't drive Snuka around to try to find the place where Nancy had supposedly fallen,
26:05they did go to the trouble of sending two Whitehall officers 100 miles from Allentown to the family house in
26:12Flatbush, Brooklyn.
26:15Detective Prokannon sat in my living room, sitting there saying, you know, we're sorry, but we're going to rule this
26:21as an accident that she fell by the side of the road.
26:25At that time also, Snuka's promoter kept calling the house.
26:29My mother got on the phone, and I heard him say to her, Mrs. Argentino, I'm so sorry for your
26:34loss.
26:35Do you think, like, $25,000 would help you?
26:39At that time, my mother knew what was going on.
26:41She said, do you think that my daughter's life is worth $25,000?
26:47And hung up.
26:49Unable to bring criminal charges against Snuka, Nancy's family pursues him in a wrongful death lawsuit, arguing his behavior was
26:58negligent on the day she died.
27:00He let her go to sleep, and he went off to his matches.
27:05He didn't come back for, like, eight hours later.
27:07And by then, she was pretty much, she was dead.
27:11The Argentino family won a $500,000 default judgment against Snuka, who didn't show up.
27:19And his lawyers then did a filing with the court.
27:23Snuka hadn't paid them.
27:25The family never collected a dime of that half-a-million-dollar judgment.
27:29Jimmy's family and Jimmy didn't do anything about it.
27:33They never went.
27:34They never showed up.
27:35They didn't do anything.
27:36I don't know who advised him on that, but I feel it was the wrong decision.
27:41I think it should have been handled right then and there.
27:45My mother just gave up.
27:46She threw in the towel.
27:47You know, she had a very hard time dealing with it.
27:50Very hard.
27:50We all were so disgusted with the whole thing.
27:53We just had to get on with our lives.
27:57His drug problems got worse at that point.
28:00And then he became unreliable altogether, and WWF slash WWE had no use for him.
28:06And I think the half-life of Jimmy Snuka's career and his decline owes to guilt over exactly what happened
28:15with Nancy Argentino
28:16is pure speculation, but it couldn't have helped.
28:20And so he did the descent of the wrestler and went to the AWA, went to finally the indie circuit,
28:28and finally, you know, the autograph shows.
28:30You're not doing anything except signing your name for people who remember you when.
28:37As the years passed, Nancy's story is nearly forgotten by everyone except her family.
28:42Then in 2011, interest in solving her mysterious death was suddenly renewed.
28:48I was sitting in my apartment in 2014, and I get a call from Adam from The Morning Call, and
28:55he said,
28:55Oh, um, hi, we're doing an article about the 30-year cold case death of your sister Nancy Argentino.
29:02It clearly was a mystery there, and it seemed that there was a story that was really ripe for us
29:07to dive into
29:08and figure out, one, what the hell happened, and two, what can we bring to light that nobody's ever seen
29:13before
29:14and that nobody's talking about?
29:16In 2013, I was working for The Morning Call.
29:18My editor was a big wrestling fan, and he just thought it would be something interesting to revisit on the
29:2430th anniversary of it.
29:25One of the first things I did in my reporting was try to find the autopsy report.
29:29So I called over to the Whitehall Township Police Department to try to get the files.
29:33I called the coroner's office.
29:35He said he wasn't allowed to turn it over because the case was still technically open.
29:39So really, it was up to us to find another way to go get that document.
29:43And then we came across the wrongful death lawsuit.
29:48Within that lawsuit, there was tons of information.
29:51That's where things really picked up.
29:53Unlike the files from the criminal case, the documents contained within the family's lawsuit are unsealed.
30:00Surprisingly, it includes Nancy's never-before-released autopsy report.
30:06This is the autopsy report that nobody had seen publicly until the live story came out.
30:13It says the pattern of her injuries is consistent with a moving head striking a stationary object.
30:18It is not consistent with a single simple fall in view of the other injuries that she has.
30:23Scalp, facial, and bodily bruises and abrasions.
30:26It says that the magnitude of the injuries may even be suggestive of meat abuse.
30:31The last sentence of this document is really the bombshell that came out of the autopsy report.
30:35And it says, I believe that the case should be investigated as a homicide until proven otherwise.
30:40And it's signed by Dr. Mahalikas.
30:4930 years after Nancy Argentino's mysterious death, a newly discovered autopsy report suggesting a potential homicide raises questions about the
31:001983 police investigation.
31:04Mahalikas says here, I personally checked the clothing that Ms. Argentino was wearing at the time of her injury and
31:09found no evidence of dirt or tears in the fabric.
31:12It's the first time I've seen that report.
31:14But I could tell you, if I were a defense attorney, I'd say, well, of course she didn't have any
31:21dirt or anything because he took her back to the hotel room.
31:25She laid down in bed, then she was put in the ambulance.
31:27Well, this was brought up in the case years and years later.
31:31I believe the case should be investigated as a homicide until proven otherwise.
31:35And we're back to it was investigated as best as it could be investigated, I guess.
31:41So, you know, did everything that was conceivably possible.
31:47So as I'm working on this story, of course, Jimmy Snuka has no clue that there's a reporter in Allentown,
31:51Pennsylvania, who's investigating this case.
31:53And while we're working on the story, his book comes out.
31:56Published in December 2012, Snuka's autobiography marks the first time he publicly addresses the events in Allentown, as well as
32:06the meeting he had with McMahon and local authorities.
32:10So these are the original police documents.
32:12It is the most complete record that anyone has ever seen.
32:17So this is the only record we have of that final meeting.
32:22Unlike all of the other interviews that were done in this case, there is no detailed transcript of what was
32:28said over an hour.
32:30And we do know that after that meeting, the case effectively went cold.
32:33The police interviews stopped.
32:35There was nothing else in that file.
32:37Vince McMahon would have great reason to defend Jimmy Snuka.
32:41Let's say at the time he is charged with murder in 1983.
32:44That would be a terrible thing for the WWF.
32:46Vince McMahon is a businessman.
32:48And no matter what business you're running, if one of your top employees is being investigated for murder, that's bad
32:54for business.
32:55Jimmy talked to me a lot about Vince.
32:57He called him Brother Vinny.
32:59And Jimmy felt very close to Vince, and he trusted him 100%.
33:02He didn't read or write English.
33:04He didn't understand it.
33:06You know, with his contracts, with everything, he trusted the people.
33:09He actually said to me one time, people would come to him before a match, and he'd say, Vince said
33:14sign this, or you won't get paid after the show.
33:17He would sign papers, and he had no idea what they said.
33:21And I've tried to find out what happened in that room back in 83, and nobody knows.
33:28Jimmy said to me, Vince came down with his briefcase and said to him, it's over, don't worry about it,
33:35it's done.
33:35And he thought it was done.
33:37There's no transcript of the meeting.
33:38It's the only interview there's no transcript of.
33:41And then, seemingly, the investigation stops there.
33:43And there's been a lot of, like, speculation on what could have happened in that meeting.
33:47I haven't a clue.
33:48I mean, I don't see that that makes any difference.
33:52I would only say there wasn't anything significantly said or done, so that's why there's no record of it.
33:58The meeting with McMahon and law enforcement isn't the only section of the book to stir controversy,
34:04but also the way he portrays his relationship with Nancy.
34:08And, obviously, he covered the situation with Nancy in there as well.
34:12Right, because he couldn't do a book and not.
34:14I had said to him, are you sure you want to put that in there?
34:17And he said, definitely.
34:18He said, that's my book.
34:19It's my life.
34:21It's got to be in there.
34:23And in there, he talks about, oh, yeah, Nancy was a nice girl, but Nancy ruined his life.
34:28And when we read that, we were like, Nancy ruined his life?
34:32When I got to the part about my sister, I was furious.
34:35He kind of insinuated she was a once in a while girlfriend.
34:38Oh, and he denied that he ever hurt her.
34:41He never touched her.
34:42Why would he do that?
34:43So he totally denied that he ever laid a hand on her.
34:49So the version that Jimmy Snuka tells in his book is very similar to what he told in 1983,
34:53but it's not exactly the same.
34:55And that was one issue over the years as he talked about this in some radio interviews
34:58and other accounts.
35:00It was always just slightly different with some of the details.
35:04She got out and went to use the bathroom, pulled over to the side.
35:08I guess after she got done, she came back over like a stream that was there.
35:13She jumped and slipped and banged her head.
35:17For decades, Snuka has maintained Nancy's injuries occurred en route to Allentown,
35:22with no mention of any other passengers in the car.
35:26I understand that, you know, you were at the George Washington Hotel on May 10, 1983.
35:33Yes, I was. I was there at the George Washington Hotel in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
35:39Yep.
35:39We drove to Allentown, Pennsylvania, me, Jimmy, and her.
35:43We jumped into the car and drove there.
35:46Okay, so you and Jimmy and Nancy drove together to Allentown.
35:50Yep.
35:50And what do you remember from that ride all over?
35:52Oh, it was fun.
35:54I was in the back seat.
35:55We had the Elvis going, and Jimmy had some nice beautiful cologne on.
35:59He always loves cologne.
36:00It smells good.
36:01And we just talked and chopped it all up, you know, going to Allentown, Pennsylvania.
36:06Yep.
36:07As soon as we arrived there to Allentown, Jimmy and Nancy went their way, their room,
36:11and I went my way to my room, and that's when all that stuff took place when Nancy got killed
36:21that night.
36:22Do you recollect what kind of his story was, that he had told about what had happened with Nancy?
36:28I don't really know what Jimmy told the police.
36:31Yeah, it was basically that they were driving, coming into Allentown, and she had to use the restroom.
36:36And so she walked outside the car, and she fell while she was using the bathroom outside the car.
36:42Do you remember that story at all?
36:44No.
36:44No, I don't remember that story.
36:48Did you ever have any personal interactions with Snooker yourself, or not?
36:52Not that I recall that I actually...
36:56No, I...
36:57No, I...
36:59Well, here's the thing.
37:00The only reason I'm mentioning that is because the person that was just in this house before you...
37:05Uh-oh.
37:06Um...
37:06Said he was in the car?
37:07Said he was in the car.
37:09No way.
37:09So...
37:10And he's never told his story before.
37:12And so...
37:13So had you ever heard that there could have been a third person in the car?
37:17When you asked me about that, you know, I...
37:21Somehow, I had heard that.
37:24But I mean, if you pinned me down and said, what day, time, who was this person?
37:29And...
37:30But...
37:31There was never any...
37:33Any...
37:34Contradiction to Snooker's story.
37:39Yeah, we're talking 30 years...
37:4130 years ago.
37:42So I did talk to Sam Fatou, and I think that might be confused because he's never told me that.
37:48But, you know, the Rastlers, they're not lying.
37:51It's just they don't remember the whole thing.
37:59After the autopsy report is uncovered, the Lehigh County Attorney's Office responds to intense public pressure
38:06and announces Nancy Argentino's death is being officially reinvestigated.
38:12The main difference in how the District Attorney's Office handled the case in 1983 versus how the District Attorney's Office
38:18handled the case in 2013 was.
38:21The District Attorney's Office in 2013 ultimately put it to the people.
38:25We are going to put this in front of a grand jury.
38:28Sure enough, the grand jury thinks there should be charges filed in this case.
38:32Jimmy Snooker should be charged with murder.
38:35On September 1st, 2015, Jimmy Snooker is arrested and charged with third-degree murder.
38:42He's now 72 years old, and only a month earlier had announced he was suffering from stomach cancer.
38:49There's a few articles that we saved over the years, this being one of them.
38:54It's really happening. After all these years, better late than never.
38:58When I started working on this, I never thought that just a couple years later, this story, my story, would
39:05become a headline everywhere.
39:07It was one of the biggest stars in the history of professional wrestling, being arrested and being charged with murder
39:12because of a story in the local newspaper.
39:14That just doesn't happen, and it was surreal then, and it's still surreal now.
39:18Jimmy's health during the trial was really bad. He didn't understand anything at that point.
39:23He had too much brain damage. Honestly, I think it was a blessing because when he went through the courts,
39:30he didn't know what it was about.
39:32And I think if he had known what it was about, it would have been devastating to him.
39:36They had a series of hearings, and all of a sudden, Snooker's lawyer said,
39:42he has brain damage because he took so many blows to the head. So he is not capable of standing
39:48trial.
39:48His attorney had argued that his dementia was so bad that he didn't even realize what was going on.
39:55And the judge basically ruled that he was unfit to stand trial, and specifically, she felt that he was mentally
40:00unfit to stand trial.
40:02For Nancy's family, seeing Snooker confronted with his past in a courtroom is the only justice they'll ever get.
40:11Everybody was talking about it. They knew what he did. So we were happy that he got somewhat of punishment
40:20for Nancy's death.
40:23It hurted me bad because I know what type of person he is. I can't see Jimmy hurting anyone. That's
40:31what I believe.
40:32The family, you know, was still felt dislighted. Somebody lost a daughter. They're certainly, you know, had to be saddened
40:42or hurt.
40:43The one shame about this case is that there was no true final resolution. The event occurs in 1983.
40:52We go 30 years before charges are filed. Charges are filed. But then a judge rules that Jimmy Snooker is
40:59incompetent to stand trial.
41:01So he never gets to fully clear his name. The Argentinos never get to fully get a prosecution. There was
41:09no final resolution on the case. And that's why people continue to debate it.
41:14Ten days after the ruling on January 15, 2015, Snooker succumbs to his cancer and dies.
41:23It was devastating for me. It was sad. I was pretty depressed. You know, he'd lost a...
41:33Lost a good man, a good person, you know. Until today, I'm still angry about it. I'm angry that the
41:41man passed and I'm angry what people say about him, you know.
41:46It's sad. All the way around, it was sad. On both parties. I loved the Jimmy a lot.
41:53There's no doubt that Jimmy Snooker was a great professional wrestler, one of the biggest stars of his time.
41:58A talented wrestler, well-respected for his craft. But at the same time, you can't overlook his personal life.
42:05You can't overlook what happened with Nancy. You can't overlook the violence that's been brought up over the years.
42:10So it's a complicated legacy and it's a legacy that will always be clouded by his personal life.
42:15There is no more separation of the ring and outside of the ring.
42:19What happens outside of the ring is just as influential these days as what happens in the ring.
42:25Jimmy Superfly Snooker stands as one of the most iconic professional wrestlers in history.
42:31A daredevil acrobat far ahead of his time. But his legacy will never escape the events in Allentown.
42:37For Nancy's family, her memory lives on while justice remains out of reach.
42:46Lorraine and I really want to share this story because we don't feel like we've gotten justice.
42:54We feel like Nancy just keeps calling out to us in some way or another to seek justice.
43:02There's no closure for anybody, you know, no closure. I've never met Nancy or anyone in her family.
43:07I feel really bad for them. They lost their daughter.
43:11Okay, something should have been done.
43:14I think letting it go for 32 years caused a lot of damage.
43:19I think too often stories of domestic violence, and especially when they involve powerful men, center around the men.
43:26And the women are reduced to just the victim. And you don't know anything about them except this is the
43:31person who was attacked by someone.
43:33This is the person who was the victim.
43:36As you can see, she was filled with life. And she had so much hope for her future.
43:41She was 19 here, and she died when she was 23.
43:46Her life was just cut down too briefly.
43:50It's a great picture of her.
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