Teh One Who Knocks
09-02-2015, 11:22 AM
BY Nina Golgowski , Andy Mai , Larry Mcshane - NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
http://i.imgur.com/VkH1wdXl.jpg
High-flying wrestling legend Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka got pinned one last time Tuesday — with a 32-year-old murder rap.
The Fiji-born WWE Hall of Famer was jailed on $100,000 bail in Lehigh, Pa. - a stunning fall from grace - in the 1983 death of girlfriend Nancy Argentino, 23, of Brooklyn.
“We never found justice in all this time, but it’s better late than never,” the victim’s sister, Lorraine Salome, 60, told the Daily News.
Prosecutors say Snuka fractured the slender Argentino’s skull during a day of abuse, then failed to call for help for at least 12 hours — and perhaps a full day.
Snuka was arrested four months before that for dragging Argentino by her hair down the hallway of an upstate New York hotel. In that incident near Syracuse, it took sheriff’s deputies and two dogs to get the wrestler under control.
“The next time the violence happened, it was too late,” Salome said at her Brooklyn home. “She was gone and everybody was in shock.”
The sister hopes the accused killer never gets a day’s rest.
"My sister was such a great girl,” Salome said. “She really didn't deserve to die.”
Of Snuka, she added: “Let him deal with his demons.”
Argentino was gasping for air, with yellow fluid oozing from her mouth and nose and her pupils dilated, before the Snuka dialed 911 from the George Washington Motor Lodge in Allentown, Pa., according to authorities.
Snuka, married with four children at the time of the killing, has long denied any wrongdoing. But the victim’s sisters pushed hard for criminal charges two years ago with Lehigh County District Attorney James Martin to reignite the long-dormant cold case.
“It’s about time that he pays for what he’s done,” another sister, Louise Argentino-Upham, told The News from her Florida home. “He just kinda waltzed out of it. He was a big star back then.”
An autopsy found Argentino, who stood 5-foot-7 and weighed 115 pounds, died of a skull fracture and brain injuries — and suffered from 39 contusions and abrasions all over her body, officials said.
Snuka — a 6-footer who weighed 250 pounds — claimed he discovered the dying Argentino in the motel after returning from a TV shoot. He was with two other wrestlers when paramedics and police arrived at Room 427 just before midnight.
The 72-year-old Snuka, the airborne master of his signature “Superfly Splash,” was arrested at his Waterford Township, N.J., home on charges of third-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter.
Snuka, who waged memorable scripted battles with “Rowdy” Roddy Piper and The Undertaker during a decades-long career, was traveling with Argentino when she died on May 11, 1983.
In his autobiography, Snuka insisted that Argentino slipped and fell while going to the bathroom on the side of a Pennsylvania road and suffered the fatal injury.
http://i.imgur.com/gIRUySql.jpg
“I didn’t hurt Nancy,” he claimed in “Superfly: The Jimmy Snuka Story.”
The book also detailed Snuka’s hard drinking, rampant drug use and womanizing.
But Lehigh County authorities said Snuka’s story changed, with the grappler giving “various explanations” about what happened prior to her death.
Snuka’s daughter, Tamina, followed in her dad’s footsteps and became a WWE wrestler.
"With a father like WWE Hall of Famer 'Superfly' Jimmy Snuka, Tamina’s knack for climbing the turnbuckle and punishing her opponents is a nod to the type of dazzling aerial offense her dad made famous," the 37-year-old diva's WWE bio reads.
"Thank you for Always Showing Me Love and Support and 4 teaching me to always #FlyHigh #HappyFathersDay," Tamina tweeted, along with a photo of her pops and her, on Father's Day 2013.
Jimmy Snuka, who is batting stomach cancer, lost a $500,000 wrongful death case to the Argentino family — but never paid a dime, said Lorraine Salome.
DA Martin personally contacted Argentino’s two sisters with word of the grand jury’s decision.
“I want to thank them for their patience during the time this case was being investigated,” he said.
A grand jury reached their decision after hearing testimony, or statements, from 20 witnesses and a Lehigh County detective who initially investigated the case.
http://i.imgur.com/VkH1wdXl.jpg
High-flying wrestling legend Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka got pinned one last time Tuesday — with a 32-year-old murder rap.
The Fiji-born WWE Hall of Famer was jailed on $100,000 bail in Lehigh, Pa. - a stunning fall from grace - in the 1983 death of girlfriend Nancy Argentino, 23, of Brooklyn.
“We never found justice in all this time, but it’s better late than never,” the victim’s sister, Lorraine Salome, 60, told the Daily News.
Prosecutors say Snuka fractured the slender Argentino’s skull during a day of abuse, then failed to call for help for at least 12 hours — and perhaps a full day.
Snuka was arrested four months before that for dragging Argentino by her hair down the hallway of an upstate New York hotel. In that incident near Syracuse, it took sheriff’s deputies and two dogs to get the wrestler under control.
“The next time the violence happened, it was too late,” Salome said at her Brooklyn home. “She was gone and everybody was in shock.”
The sister hopes the accused killer never gets a day’s rest.
"My sister was such a great girl,” Salome said. “She really didn't deserve to die.”
Of Snuka, she added: “Let him deal with his demons.”
Argentino was gasping for air, with yellow fluid oozing from her mouth and nose and her pupils dilated, before the Snuka dialed 911 from the George Washington Motor Lodge in Allentown, Pa., according to authorities.
Snuka, married with four children at the time of the killing, has long denied any wrongdoing. But the victim’s sisters pushed hard for criminal charges two years ago with Lehigh County District Attorney James Martin to reignite the long-dormant cold case.
“It’s about time that he pays for what he’s done,” another sister, Louise Argentino-Upham, told The News from her Florida home. “He just kinda waltzed out of it. He was a big star back then.”
An autopsy found Argentino, who stood 5-foot-7 and weighed 115 pounds, died of a skull fracture and brain injuries — and suffered from 39 contusions and abrasions all over her body, officials said.
Snuka — a 6-footer who weighed 250 pounds — claimed he discovered the dying Argentino in the motel after returning from a TV shoot. He was with two other wrestlers when paramedics and police arrived at Room 427 just before midnight.
The 72-year-old Snuka, the airborne master of his signature “Superfly Splash,” was arrested at his Waterford Township, N.J., home on charges of third-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter.
Snuka, who waged memorable scripted battles with “Rowdy” Roddy Piper and The Undertaker during a decades-long career, was traveling with Argentino when she died on May 11, 1983.
In his autobiography, Snuka insisted that Argentino slipped and fell while going to the bathroom on the side of a Pennsylvania road and suffered the fatal injury.
http://i.imgur.com/gIRUySql.jpg
“I didn’t hurt Nancy,” he claimed in “Superfly: The Jimmy Snuka Story.”
The book also detailed Snuka’s hard drinking, rampant drug use and womanizing.
But Lehigh County authorities said Snuka’s story changed, with the grappler giving “various explanations” about what happened prior to her death.
Snuka’s daughter, Tamina, followed in her dad’s footsteps and became a WWE wrestler.
"With a father like WWE Hall of Famer 'Superfly' Jimmy Snuka, Tamina’s knack for climbing the turnbuckle and punishing her opponents is a nod to the type of dazzling aerial offense her dad made famous," the 37-year-old diva's WWE bio reads.
"Thank you for Always Showing Me Love and Support and 4 teaching me to always #FlyHigh #HappyFathersDay," Tamina tweeted, along with a photo of her pops and her, on Father's Day 2013.
Jimmy Snuka, who is batting stomach cancer, lost a $500,000 wrongful death case to the Argentino family — but never paid a dime, said Lorraine Salome.
DA Martin personally contacted Argentino’s two sisters with word of the grand jury’s decision.
“I want to thank them for their patience during the time this case was being investigated,” he said.
A grand jury reached their decision after hearing testimony, or statements, from 20 witnesses and a Lehigh County detective who initially investigated the case.