Celebrity Death Thread

[Panoptes]

Sadly, I remembered it.

[Daytona John]

^Must have been before my time.

[Newbomb Turk]

[Newbomb Turk]

remember it ? I went to the theme park they had in Atlanta in 1976...........

[Panoptes]

Its all starting to make sense now

[Dr. Emmett.L.Brown]

WWE wrestler kills family...

Officials: Wrestler Strangled Wife, Suffocated Son, Hanged Self

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

• AP

Chris Benoit

Professional wrestler Chris Benoit strangled his wife and smothered his 7-year-old son, placing bibles at their sides, before hanging himself from a pulley in his weight room, authorities said Tuesday.
Police ruled the death a double homicide-suicide and are investigating whether steroids may have been a factor in the deaths.
Authorities said they found prescription anabolic steroids in the home among other legal prescriptions. Steroid abuse has been linked to depression, paranoia, and aggressive behavior or angry outbursts known as "roid rage."
"There was a lot of prescription medication that he had received from doctors with what we believed to be at this time legal prescriptions," said Lt. Tommy Pope of the Fayette County Sheriff's Department.

Police said that Nancy Benoit died of asphyxiation on Friday, said Fayette County District Attorney Scott Ballard. She was found in an upstairs family room with her legs and wrists bound and blood under her head, perhaps indicating a struggle, he said.


The Benoits' son, Daniel, died of asphyxiation sometime Saturday morning, Ballard said. He was found in his bed upstairs. Both mother and son had bibles placed at their sides.

Authorities found the pro wrestler dead in the basement, hanging from the pulley of a weight machine. He died sometime late Saturday or Sunday, Ballard said.
"In a community like this, it's bizarre just to have a murder suicide -- certainly involving the death of a 7-year-old child," Ballard said.
Nancy Benoit filed for a divorce in May 2003, saying their three-year union was irrevocably broken and alleging "cruel treatment." But she later dropped the complaint, as well as a request for a restraining order in which she charged that Benoit had threatened her and had broken furniture in their home.
In the divorce filing, she said Benoit made more than $500,000 a year as a professional wrestler and asked for permanent custody of Daniel and child support. In his response, Benoit sought joint custody.
"He was like the dad you always wanted to have," Bill Apter, a pro-wresting writer and friend of Benoit, told FOX News. "I just don't get this."
Apter called Benoit pensive and quiet, adding: "Chris Benoit was not the type of guy that you would profile to do anything of what is being alleged to have happened."

The World Wrestling Entertainment wrestler canceled a pay-per-view appearance at the "Vengeance" event in Houston because of "personal reasons" a day before the trio were found dead.
The bodies were found Monday afternoon in three separate rooms of the house, off a gravel road about two miles from the Whitewater Country Club.

Neighbors said the Benoits led a low-key lifestyle.
"We would see Chris walking in his yard from time to time. He wasn't rude, but he wasn't really outwardly warm," said Alaina Jones, who lives across the street.
Jimmy Baswell, who was Benoit's driver for more than five years, placed a white wreath at the Benoits' gate. "They always seemed like they were the happiest people," he said.
Whiteside said toxicology tests could take up to a week or longer to complete.
Text messages from the wrestler seem to have prompted the police to visit the home.
"The sheriff's department will only confirm that he sent one text message sometime around 4:30 a.m. Saturday, and I know that the WWE is saying that he sent several others, which is what prompted them to contact the sheriff's office to go do a welfare check at the house," Saeed Ahmed of the Journal-Constitution told FOX News.
World Wrestling Entertainment said on its Web site that it asked authorities to check on Benoit and his family after being alerted by friends who received "several curious text messages sent by Benoit early Sunday morning."
The WWE, based in Stamford, Conn., said it had been asked by authorities not to release further information on the deaths.
Benoit was born in Montreal. He was a former world heavyweight champion, Intercontinental champion and held several tag-team titles over his career. He was known by several names including "The Canadian Crippler."
"WWE extends its sincerest thoughts and prayers to the Benoit family's relatives and loved ones in this time of tragedy," the company said in a statement on its Web site.
Benoit had maintained a home in metro Atlanta from the time he wrestled for the defunct World Championship Wrestling. The Fayette County Tax Assessors Office lists the value of the house, situated on more than 8.5 acres, at nearly $900,000.
The WWE canceled its live "Monday Night RAW" card in Corpus Christi, Texas, and USA Network aired a three-hour tribute to Benoit in place of the scheduled wrestling telecast on June 25.
Benoit's wife managed several wrestlers and went by the stage name "Woman," The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
They met when her then-husband, Kevin Sullivan, drew up a script that had them involved in a relationship as part of an ongoing story line on World Championship Wrestling.
Sullivan spoke to FOXNews.com late Tuesday and expressed shock and sadness over the death of his ex-wife, who he married in 1985.
From his home in Tavernier, Fla., Sullivan said he had not spoken to his ex-wife since their split.
?It?s surreal,? said Sullivan, who did not have children with Nancy Benoit. ?She was a nice person. We just went our separate ways. She was nice and very loving and I?m sure she was a good mother.?
Sullivan said he did not know Benoit well outside the ring. ?I never associated with him, so I really don?t know his personality,? he said. ? ?[But] I?m sad for all three, especially the child.?
Benoit, who has two other children from a prior relationship, became a standout at an early age among wrestling prospects who trained in the dungeon basement of the house where fellow Canadians and professional wrestlers Owen and Bret Hart trained. Owen Hart was killed during a wrestling event in 1999.
"He was like a family member to me, and everyone in my family is taking it real hard," said Bret Hart, a five-time champion with the now-defunct World Wrestling Federation.
Blane Bachelor and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

[jaadam4]

WTF. How could he kill his own 7 year old son? That's horrible.

[CGVT]

Fuck that 'roided up asshole

[Newbomb Turk]

Benoit tragedy not the only one

Kevin Hench / FOXSports.com
Posted: 12 hours ago


Professional wrestling is fake.


The carnage it has left in its wake is not.

Add Chris Benoit to the long list of freakishly muscled carnival attractions for whom a pro wrestling career ended tragically.

Toxicology results are pending and Benoit may well have been battling deeper, more primal personal demons when he reportedly killed his wife and son before taking his own life, but only the most na?ve observer could ignore the overwhelming evidence that most wrestlers who look like Benoit have undergone countless cycles of chemical enhancement.

The prescription anabolic steroids found at Benoit's home have long been known to contribute to paranoia, depression and the violent outbursts we've come to know as "roid rage." Couple that with the near-compulsory painkillers a wrestler must take to do his job effectively after enduring countless body slams and you have a cocktail for massive, mind-altering mood swings.

The Benoit story is the latest and most tragic installment in an ongoing saga that the men who get rich promoting professional wrestling would prefer their fans didn't know too much about.


Vince McMahon wants you to think about the stars of today and tomorrow, not the cemetery of steroid-fueled bodies his "sport" has helped put in the ground. But on the grim occasion of the deaths of Nancy and Daniel and Chris Benoit, let's remember some of the other pro wrestlers who died before their time.

Ravishing Rick Rude — Died at 40 of an apparent heart attack in 1999, a bottle of prescription pills for his bad back at his side. The autopsy report said he died of "mixed medications." Rude was an admitted user of anabolic steroids.

Louis Mucciolo, a.k.a, Louie Spicolli — Died in 1998 at age 27 when he suffocated on his own vomit after ingesting massive amounts of Soma and alcohol. Investigators also found an empty vial of testosterone, pain pills and an anti-anxiety drug at the scene.

Brian Pillman — An admitted user of steroids, he died of a heart attack at age 35 in 1997 on the morning of WWF's In Your House: Badd Blood pay-per-view event.

Rick "the Renegade" Williams — Died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at age 33 after being released from his World Championship Wrestling contract in 1999.

"Mr. Perfect" Curt Hennig — Found dead of a cocaine overdose at age 44 in his motel room on April 10, 2003, the morning of a match. Hennig's father maintained that steroids and painkillers contributed to his death.

Rodney "Yokozuna" Anoa'i — Died of a heart attack in 2002 at 34.

Davey Boy Smith, "The British Bulldog" — Died of a heart attack at age 39 on May 17, 2002.
An autopsy report indicated that past steroid use had likely played a part in his death.

Michael "Road Warrior Hawk" Hegstrand — An admitted steroid user, he died of a heart attack at age 46 in 2003.

Michael Lockwood, "Crash Holly" — In 2003, at the age of 32, he choked to death on his own vomit after ingesting 90 painkiller pills.

Jerry Tuite, "The Wall" a.k.a. "Malice" — Died at age 36 in 2003 of an apparent heart attack in his hotel room.

Raymond "Hercules" Hernandez — Dead of heart failure in 2004 at age 47.

Ray "The Big Boss Man" Traylor — Found dead of a heart attack in 2004 at age 42.

Eddie Guerrero — After a long battle with painkillers, he was found dead of a heart attack by his nephew in his hotel room at age 38. The first person his nephew reportedly called was Guerrero's best friend, Chris Benoit.

Chris Candido — Died in 2005 at age 33 from a blood clot after breaking his tibia and fibula and dislocating his ankle in a pay-per-view event.

Owen Hart — Fell to his death at age 34 in 1999 when the rigging that was lowering him into the ring malfunctioned.

And then there's the story of the Von Erich wrestling family.

Wrestling patriarch Fritz Von Erich, nee Jack Adkisson, had five wrestling sons: Kevin, David, Kerry, Mike and Chris.

David died in a hotel room in Tokyo at the age of 25 in 1984 just as he was embarking on a three-week pro wrestling tour of Japan. The official cause of death was acute enteritis, severe inflammation of the intestines.

Three years later, Mike committed suicide by overdosing on the tranquilizer Placidyl at the age of 23. After David's death, Mike had suffered a series of setbacks including a serious shoulder injury that had left him severely depressed.

Devastated by the deaths of his older brothers and frustrated by his own limitations as a wrestler, the youngest and smallest brother, Chris, shot himself to death at the age of 21 in 1991.

Two years later, Kerry, who had battled a long addiction to painkillers, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the age of 33, leaving eldest brother Kevin as the only survivor of the sport that had defined his family.

And now Chris Benoit, his wife and son have been added to the long, unbearably sad list of victims claimed, in part, by the brutal chemical calculus that is professional wrestling.

There is no arguing that the physical capabilities of these massive men can provide awesome theater. When Hulk Hogan lifted the 500-pound Andre the Giant and dropped him to the canvas, it was legitimately hugely thrilling.

But keep in mind there is a price these impossibly engorged specimens are paying for your entertainment. And the price for many of them is their very lives.

[Coop]

The post mortem report is also very disturbing....neither his wife nor son died quickly..........

this world can be such a dark place........

[Chuck Cunningham]

Can't just be entirely steroid blamed, someone has to be quite screwed up to begin with to do something so horrible.

[Panoptes]

Heard on the radio this morning that his sons body was found to have needle marks. He was apparently being giving Human Growth Hormones to help his DWARFISM case.

Add all things up and you might better understand why a steroided huge man who felt his family was not living up to his expectations should go with him.

[Newbomb Turk]

I heard about the needles, but no one mentioned dwarfism.... I heard the kid was just a little smaller than normal

[Newbomb Turk]

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime_file/2007/06/27/2007-06-27_tiny_son_got_illegal_boosts.html

[DanO]

What a tragedy.

GO LIONS "07" !!!!!!!