Original subtitles

[Announcer] Here he is... Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka!

Man, there was only one Superfly.

A wild man, with the hair and the zebra trunks, and his body.

- He was a brilliant performer. - No one even comes close.

He had freakish athletic talent.

Going up on the top rope, flying off and

crashing into your opponent, I mean, that's awesome.

[Narrator] By 1983, Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka

takes the wrestling world by storm.

Everywhere was a sellout.

All the arenas, they were always packed.

Look around and see, you know,

this guys' gonna make you money.

But fans are unaware of the events surrounding the

violent death of his girlfriend, Nancy Argentino...

which raises disturbing questions about

who Jimmy really is.

Nancy was extremely into the relationship.

She was invested 100%.

She probably felt betrayed because this was the guy

she was in love with that was killing her.

I really don't know what really happened that night.

I mean, rumors just started to spread like fire.

"Jimmy did that." "Jimmy beat her up."

She died of a brain injury.

He didn't get arrested, wasn't detained.

We don't think we really received justice

from the authorities... They did nothing.

Keeping the case open,

but hoping that it would just go away.

30 years later, the case resurfaces with shocking

new information to challenge the legacy and innocence

of one of wrestling's greatest performers.

Part of our goal was to figure out who she was

because this isn't just Jimmy Snuka's story.

This is Nancy Argentino's story.

Let's find out what happened.

Was it really an accident?

Was it his intention to kill her?

♪

By the early 1980s,

the World Wrestling Federation explodes in popularity.

A key ingredient to its massive growth has been

in capitalizing on the star power of

its most charismatic performers.

But the man fans love more than anyone

the Superfly... Jimmy Snuka.

From the moment he joins the WWF,

audiences are entranced with his high-flying acrobatics

and wild man persona.

He is the embodiment of a real-life Tarzan.

His universal popularity led many to believe his star

would shine forever, but they were wrong.

[Announcer] From the Isle of Tonga,

weighing 225 pounds, the Tonga Kid.

My name is Tonga Kid. Real name is Sam Fatu.

To be honest, you know, I wasn't interested in wrestling.

I was this kid that was growing up in San Francisco,

got into a lot of trouble.

I did six months in juvie for hitting a bus driver so,

you know, I thought, oh, shit, you know, I'm really gonna

get my ass whooped now from my parents, right.

And, my mom's brothers are Afa and Sika.

So, they send me to Afa and Sika and they said,

"Alright, this is what we need to do with you.

You're gonna become a professional wrestler."

I was 16 years old. You're talking a young kid

who's just started in the wrestling world,

got thrown out there to the wolves.

Somebody has to protect me,

and that was the Superfly Jimmy Snuka.

[Announcer] From the Fiji Islands...

Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka!

Jimmy Snuka was a professional wrestler

from the island of Fiji. He could do it all.

Could have been Hulk Hogan.

Could have just, you know, kept his head on.

Kept cool. Ha.

I'm Don Muraco. Sunset Beach, Hawai'i.

Started wrestling in 1970 and, unofficially,

retired about 1988.

Jimmy, he spent a lot of time in Hawai'i.

He grew up almost homeless.

Where he slept, I have no idea, you know.

He had, basically, no home.

I think that's why he latched on to professional wrestling

'cause it gave him a place,

it gave him an identity, it gave him a family.

Being accepted by the crowd, being accepted by people...

and being a hero, and being somebody...

meant the world to him.

[Sam] Every time Jimmy went in the ring,

he kneeled down and people don't know why he'd do that.

Some people, they kneel down when you pray, right.

Jimmy kneels down and he does it to respect his fans.

That's why Jimmy did it.

In the early 1980s,

Snuka enters the World Wrestling Federation.

Owner, Vince McMahon,

recognizes his star power potential and

soon makes Snuka his number one attraction.

Snuka was the most popular performer in WWE at that time.

Bob Backlund was the champion.

They had some other stars, but Snuka was on fire.

I'm Irv Muchnick.

I'm the nephew of Sam Muchnick,

who is the legendary National Wrestling Alliance promoter.

I would say 35 years I've been obsessed with

the pro wrestling phenomenon.

With Snuka, you know,

they brought him in originally, he was a heel.

They quickly figured out that they had to convert him

into a babyface because he was just too popular and,

Buddy Rogers became his manager,

and he did the switch.

We feel that we've got what it takes to win.

It all came together in New York.

He was money. He was their biggest star.

Snuka was at the peak of his drawing power.

Jimmy also fully embraces the grueling lifestyle

of a wrestler on the road.

We go to clubs every night and party every day.

It's a lot, man, you know, it was tough.

Go to the matches, go to sleep, work out.

Repeat, repeat.

[Sam] Being on the road by yourself can be

very damn boring sometimes, you know.

I think it's good to have somebody on the road to travel,

you know, with you on the road sometimes, you know.

And, and Jimmy had his girlfriend on the road.

I don't remember her name right off the bat, but yeah.

[Off-screen] Are you talking about Nancy?

Yes. Yes, I'm talking about her. Yeah.

My name is Lorraine Salome.

I'm the older sister of the late Nancy Argentino.

My younger sister and I always say that Nancy was

the favourite because she never gave my mother a hard time.

Nancy was a very intelligent girl.

She had a lot of friends because people were drawn to her.

She was a hard worker.

You know, she always had a job.

And, she took great pride in her clothes,

and her makeup, and her hair.

She always wanted to look good.

Nancy was very innocent.

Even though we lived in a big city,

she lived a sheltered life.

That changes when Nancy is introduced to the world of

professional wrestling at Madison Square Garden,

the premier venue for the WWF.

Nancy had a childhood friend named Ellen

that they grew up together.

Ellen was engaged to a wrestler named Johnny Rodz

so, Nancy got into the habit of going with Ellen to go to

Madison Square Garden to see the wrestling matches.

Afterwards, she'd go backstage and they'd wait for Johnny,

and then, she met Superfly Snuka.

You know, she really liked him and,

it seemed to be a somewhat serious relationship right away.

At the beginning, we were all like,

"Oh, yeah, that's great. Nancy's happy,"

and we didn't really understand him that much.

He was really strange because we tried to make him

feel comfortable, but he would sit in the corner and

he wouldn't talk to anybody except,

occasionally, to Nancy. So, he was--

he isolated himself.

She told my mother that she was in love with him and,

she took care of him when they were on the road because

Buddy Rogers didn't really want to travel with him anymore,

like, drive him from place to place.

Buddy Rogers' role extended far beyond

an in-ring manager for Jimmy.

He would also become his handler and chaperone on the road.

And he said Jimmy was a sweet guy,

but he was hooked on cocaine and other junk,

and he was totally uncontrollable.

And, it reached a point where Rogers told Vince McMahon

he couldn't be in the car with Snuka anymore because

he would snort cocaine brazenly while they were driving.

[Lorraine] So, they talked to my sister Nancy,

and all of a sudden, that was her job.

She would map out the places. She'd drive the car.

She'd make sure Snuka got to the matches on time.

She was his girlfriend, but she also had a job to do.

My mother liked him, even though he wasn't,

like, super friendly.

And, I always got the feeling that my stepfather, Ralph,

had his doubts about him.

As Jimmy and Nancy's relationship grows,

her family begins to see the cracks

hiding behind Jimmy's quiet facade.

It was not that many times that I met him.

I'm Louise. I'm Nancy's sister.

I grew up with her. We were close.

The whole family was close.

My parents were away on a weekend,

and I came home and they were there,

and they had brought home Chinese food.

And, I sat down to eat with them,

and I was just my bubbly self, just yacking and...

chatting, and said, "Oh, how are you?" Blah, blah, blah.

And, he didn't like how I was acting and

he just looked over me and he put his hand,

like, up to my throat...

And he said, "I could..."

and then he gave me that wrestling face...

I backed up, and I said, "Wow."

And I looked at my sister, I said,

"I don't want to eat," and I went upstairs.

And then when she came upstairs,

I got her in the bathroom and I said,

"Nancy, you need to get rid of him."

And she was all apologetic, like,

she looked kind of like timid,

not what I was used to seeing in her.

And, she said, "Oh, no, no, no, no.

He's just tired. He's been working hard. It's okay."

He felt bad that he treated me that way so,

he said, "Here, here, I want to give you something,"

and I looked, and in my hand, were, like, cocaine -

I think it was cocaine. And, Nancy was upset.

She just said, "Don't do that. Don't do that.

She doesn't need that."

And, I think I gave it back to him and I said,

"No, no, no. Keep it,"

and I just said goodbye to him.

And, I thought, wow, that's like a real

change in her personality, all of a sudden.

♪

[Narrator] Despite her family's deep concern,

22-year-old Nancy Argentino is now constantly

on the road with her boyfriend...

wrestling superstar Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka.

I didn't have a relationship with her because Jimmy was

very protective with that, especially when it

comes around all these crazy, shark wrestlers,

you know what I mean?

I don't think anybody had a relationship with her,

you know, because they knew who Jimmy was,

you know, they knew who she was with.

[Off-screen] So, did you ever meet Nancy?

[Don] I met her, yeah.

She didn't seem to really... like me.

Holy mackerel! Nailed him right on the head!

And Muraco went down heavy.

Maybe it was because he and I were arch enemies.

Or maybe it was because she knew I was friends with his,

his wife, Sharon.

I think Nancy told me, and I said, "What are you, crazy?"

I said, "He's married." She said,

"Well, he's not with his wife. He's separated."

How could he be with anyone else if he was with Nancy?

It never crossed our mind because

they were always together.

Jimmy and his wife Sharon are still living together

with their four children in North Carolina.

Time on the road has allowed him to live two separate lives,

but his secrets can't stay hidden forever.

My name's Kevin Amerman. I'm a journalist.

I work for The Morning Call.

It's a newspaper in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

So, it's January 1983. Jimmy Snuka is at a

Howard Johnson in Salina, New York.

He's there with Nancy Argentino.

Apparently, other guests are calling the front desk saying,

"It sounds like a man is beating a woman."

I was in my apartment sleeping and I got a phone call

at 2 o'clock in the morning from Nancy.

She was screaming into the phone,

"Lorraine, you have to help me! I have to get out of here!"

I said, "What's wrong?" She said,

"He's chasing me," and then the phone went dead.

[Kevin] So, police respond.

Police claim that Jimmy Snuka has Nancy Argentino

by the hair and he's dragging her across the wall and

across the floor by her hair.

So, police attempt to intervene, and they're met with

almost super-human strength by Jimmy Snuka,

and he starts resisting arrest and manhandling the police.

There were also police dogs who responded.

While he's fighting the police he's also

apparently fighting the dogs as well.

It was unbelievable.

[Lorraine] I didn't know what to do because I didn't know

where she went. So, I waited.

And finally, early in the morning,

she called me back.

I said, "Nancy, what happened last night?"

And she just said, "Oh, nothing.

Just a big misunderstanding."

Arrested on charges of assault and harassment,

Snuka is able to avoid jail time with help from Nancy.

Right here is a copy of Nancy's affidavit,

signed by her.

I'm Adam Clarke.

I'm a journalist who wrote the 30-year anniversary story

about Jimmy Snuka and Nancy Argentino.

"One of the charges pending against Jimmy S. Snuka

is that of assault in the third degree.

This charge is set to be as a result of an assault

upon me by Jimmy Snuka.

I wish to state that he never struck me or

intentionally harmed me in any way on

January 18, 1983 nor at any other time in the past."

You know, she really was in love with Jimmy Snuka.

So, after Jimmy Snuka was charged,

he ended up pleading guilty to a minor charge of harassment,

and then, donates $1500 to a local

Ronald McDonald House and, you know,

he basically walked away.

♪

Then she just went back on the road with him.

They were counting on Nancy at that point to get him places

because nobody wanted to deal with him.

He was unpredictable. He was high a lot.

So, they really put everything on my sister

to make sure that he got to the next match.

Back on the WWF circuit, Jimmy and Nancy traveled

from town to town across the northeast.

So, one of their regular stops was Ag Hall in Allentown.

Every three weeks, the WWF shot syndicated television

in Allentown for their A Show,

which was called Championship Wrestling.

The WWF was important to Allentown.

It had an economic impact.

It wasn't uncommon to see Andre the Giant hanging out

somewhere at a bar or, see a big star hanging out

at the George Washington Motor Lodge.

At that exact moment in May, I believe, of 1983,

they were shooting some of the big angles in

his feud with Don Muraco.

[Don] Oh, we had the strap matches,

chain matches, and cage matches.

And it was looking good.

The snowball was just starting to roll.

In the early hours of May 10, 1983

Jimmy and Nancy arrive in Allentown to tape

an episode of Championship Wrestling.

Jimmy Snuka leaves the George Washington

Motor Lodge and goes to film wrestling.

He films a couple sessions, comes back to the motel,

and then leaves again.

Leaves in the afternoon and he comes back about 9 pm.

Jimmy heads to his room where Nancy has been all day.

Just a few hours later, the motel's other occupants

are awoken by a disturbance outside.

What woke me up was the sirens.

My room was not far from Jimmy's room.

There was an ambulance that had been

sitting outside of Snuka's room.

I said, "What's going on over there?"

I can see the police cars and the ambulance,

and roped off in some yellow tape.

And Snuka leaning up against the cop car.

Jimmy looked pretty scared.

It was bad. It was very bad.

On the night of May 10, 1983

emergency responders ive at the George Washington

Motor Lodge in Allentown, Pennsylvania

where Jimmy Snuka and his girlfriend, Nancy Argentino,

have been staying with several other wrestlers.

It was between 11:30 and quarter to 12 that we had

gotten called to an unconscious female.

My name is Shirley Reeve, and I was a paramedic in 1983.

We drove up to the scene and,

the room door was open.

Jimmy was standing there along with the detectives.

She was in bed, covered up with a sheet,

and examined her...

Her pupils were fixed and dilated and that's

more indication of a head injury.

And I'm like, well, she's in bed,

like, not on the floor, not outside.

He was just, like, just touching the feet and

I had to, basically, drag things out of him,

and he just said that they must have wrestled a little bit

too much the night before when he pushed her over and

she had hit her head.

You know, she came inside, they went to bed,

he went to his wrestling match the next morning,

came back...

and she was still conscious, but I guess was

becoming a little bit lethargic or sleepy.

So, he just said, "Well, you know,

I'm gonna go to my match and I'll come back and

check on you later on." So, when he came back

later on, then she wasn't responding.

She was having difficulty breathing and that's when

he called the ambulance.

I did do an intubation, put an airway in.

Started a line, we gave her some drugs,

and just took her in.

While Snuka's at the hospital and

they're trying to revive Nancy, he's starting to tell

person after person what happened.

And at that point in time, when police interviewed

all these witnesses in the ER, they all say that Snuka

mentioned some sort of conflict,

either shoving, striking, that somehow,

he physically pushed or struck Nancy and

she fell down and hit her head.

I was in my room, dead sleep, and it was

about 3:30, 4 o'clock in the morning and the phone rings.

I pick it up and they say,

"This is the Lehigh Valley Hospital.

Can I speak to Caroline Argentino?"

So, I get up and I go in my mother's room and I wake her up.

I said, "Ma, the hospital's on the phone."

And, she comes to my bed and I hear her say,

"Is she gonna be alright?"

And then I hear her say, "Dead? Dead?"

♪

So, Jimmy, he got on the phone and,

as far as I can recall, he started, like,

blubbering, and saying that, "Oh, it was an accident!

It was an accident! She fell and hit her head."

She hung up the phone, she went and told my father.

And then, my sister Lorraine.

It was like we were all walking around like zombies

because we were in shock. We just couldn't believe it.

We never thought that it would end up like that.

♪

And then, we just called all the family members and

all of our friends.

And I cried on the phone with them,

and we were all in shock.

In the early morning hours, Snuka returns to the

motor lodge and is questioned by police.

He introduces yet another conflicting account of events.

[Adam] The next morning, police come to the hotel to

interview Jimmy Snuka, and they start

asking him about what happened.

And this is critical because at this point in time,

Snuka has already told multiple people at the hospital

that he had some involvement in her fall.

He says that they stopped alongside the road

when they were coming to Allentown

'cause Nancy had to go to the bathroom.

He says, she gets out, has a lot of trucks driving by,

so he hollers at her, "Come on, hurry up."

And, as she's trying to come back, she slips.

She hits her head on the side of the road...

and that, that's what caused the injuries.

By now, the news of Nancy's death has made its way to

WWF headquarters, and Snuka's boss,

Vince McMahon.

I got on the phone and

got a hold of Vince Jr. Vince says,

"Have you heard anything about Snuka and his girlfriend?"

I said, "As a matter of fact..."

Here I am with Lieutenant so-and-so,

and I put him on the phone to Vince.

McMahon informs police that Snuka will continue to

cooperate with the investigation,

and his star performer is released without charge.

Well, Nancy's funeral was so disturbing.

Traditional Italian funerals in those days,

you were laid out for three days,

and then you had a mass, and then you were buried.

The second day, Buddy Rogers walks in with Snuka,

and he's wearing flip flops and these really,

really short, shorts. And, some kind of tank top.

Buddy Rogers was leading him around, pretty much.

Then he went over to the coffin and he started

crying on the coffin and touching her.

And, my father had to pull him off the coffin.

I asked my mother, "Did he say anything to you?

Did he say how sorry he was?"

And she said, "No. He said, 'She looks terrible.'"

Now, that was a pretty weird thing to say.

You know, of course, she looks terrible. She's dead.

The undertaker came over to my stepfather and he said,

"You know, I have to tell you this is disturbing

because we had a hard time getting her to look good

because she had a huge bruise around her neck,

and she had multiple cuts and abrasions all over her body."

Then, I think, you know, my stepfather knew that

something was terribly wrong about the way she died.

♪

♪

[Narrator] The tragic death of 22-year-old Nancy Argentino

seems to have done little to slow the career

of Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka.

In the summer of 1983,

and just a few weeks after her passing,

Snuka is back, continuing his storyline

with adversary Don Muraco.

[Announcer] "When Snuka flies, Muraco dies!"

Sure. Selfishly, I was worried, yeah.

[Announcer] Snuka, with Muraco! Ripping his shirt--

[Don] Just out of my own selfish motivation.

You know, I didn't want to lose my golden goose...

'cause, there was a lot of money down the road to be made.

Their feud culminates in a legendary cage match at

Madison Square Garden, which becomes a

career-defining moment for the Superfly.

People were lining up all over the country to see this match.

We just set the place on fire.

[Announcer] Snuka is busted wide open!

[Don] Holy hell. Jimmy was such a star and people wanted

to see him jump off the top cage on me, and splash me.

I'll never forget that night 'cause I was there

when he came off of the cage. I mean, whoo!

[Announcer] Superfly perched 15-feet high.

Oh, my god! Oh!

It just rocked New York.

Jimmy, he tried things that people never tried before.

He was a high flyer.

He probably spent more time off the mat than on the mat.

I'm Carole Snuka.

I was married to Jimmy Snuka.

I was with Jimmy for 20-something years.

Sometimes, every now and then,

somebody would make a comment and

said something about, "I know what you did, Jimmy.

I'm gonna be waiting for ya."

Fans congregating outside the stage exit and

Snuka comes out, and there's a woman who yells to Snuka...

"Hey, Snuka, you goddamn ...murderer.

When are you gonna kill another girl?"

He always said to me, "I know what I did.

Let the other people think what they want, okay.

If they want to think I did that, that's them.

That's in their mind. That's not my mind.

I know what I did, in my mind,

and my God knows, and that's all I have to worry about.

They want to talk, they want to do that,

that's fine. Doesn't bother me."

While Snuka's career in the WWF is reaching new heights,

authorities in Allentown continue their investigation.

The challenge that they faced in trying to prosecute

this case was, they had a dead body.

They had a woman who clearly had injuries.

But, they had no other witnesses,

they had no confession.

The fact that somebody just tells different stories is

certainly not enough evidence

to charge anybody with a crime.

My name is Frederick Conjour.

I was the Police Chief in Whitehall Township,

Pennsylvania in 1983.

The Lieutenant in charge of the investigation,

I never had any reason to doubt that he wouldn't

do the best he could to investigate the case and,

and I... think he did.

♪

Although they didn't drive Snuka around to try to find

the place where Nancy had supposedly fallen,

they did go to the trouble of sending two Whitehall officers

100 miles from Allentown to the family house

in Flatbush, Brooklyn.

Detective Procanyn sat in my living room,

sitting there, saying, you know,

"We're sorry, but we're gonna rule this as an accident,

that she fell by the side of the road."

At that time, also, Snuka's promoter kept calling the house.

My mother got on the phone and I heard him say to her,

"Mrs. Argentino, I'm so sorry for your loss.

Do you think like $25,000 would help you?"

At that time, my mother knew what was going on.

She said, "Do you think that my daughter's life

is worth $25,000?" And hung up.

Unable to bring criminal charges against Snuka,

Nancy's family pursues him in a wrongful death lawsuit,

arguing his behavior was negligent on the day she died.

He let her go to sleep.

And he went off to his matches.

He didn't come back for like 8 hours later.

And by then, she was pretty much-- she was dead.

The Argentino family won a $500,000 default judgement

against Snuka, who didn't show up.

And his lawyers then did a filing with the court.

Snuka hadn't paid them.

The family never collected a dime of that

half-a-million-dollar judgement.

Jimmy's family and Jimmy...

didn't do anything about it. They never went.

They never showed up. They didn't do anything.

I don't know who advised him on that,

but I feel it was the wrong decision.

I think it should have been handled right then and there.

My mother just gave up. She threw in the towel.

You know, she had a very hard time dealing with it.

Very hard.

We all were so disgusted with the whole thing,

we just had to get on with our lives.

[Irvin] His drug problems got worse at that point,

and then he became unreliable altogether and

WWF, slash, WWE, had no use for him.

And, I think the half-life of Jimmy Snuka's career and

his decline owes to guilt over exactly what happened

with Nancy Argentino is pure speculation,

but it couldn't have helped.

And so, he did the descent of the wrestler and went to

the AWA, went to, finally, the indie circuit.

And, finally, you know, the autograph shows where

you're not doing anything except signing your name for people

who remember you when.

As the years pass, Nancy's story is

nearly forgotten by everyone except her family.

Then, in 2011, interest in solving her mysterious death

was suddenly renewed.

[Lorraine] I was sitting in my apartment, in 2014,

and I get a call from Adam from The Morning Call,

and she said, "Oh, hi.

We're doing an article about the 30-year cold case death

of your sister, Nancy Argentino."

It clearly was a mystery there,

and it seemed that there was a story that was really

ripe for us to dive into and figure out...

One, what the hell happened?

And two, what can we bring to light that nobody's

ever seen before and that nobody's talking about?

In 2013, I was working for The Morning Call.

My editor was a big wrestling fan,

and he just thought it would be something interesting to

revisit on the 30th anniversary of it.

One of the first things I did in my reporting was

try to find the autopsy report.

So, I called over to the Whitehall Township

Police Department to try to get the files.

I called the coroner's office. He said he wasn't allowed to

turn it over 'cause the case was still technically open.

So, really, it was up to us to find another way

to go get that document.

And then, we came across the wrongful death lawsuit.

Within that lawsuit, there was tons of information.

That's where things really picked up.

Unlike the files from the criminal case,

the documents contained within the family's lawsuit

are unsealed. Surprisingly, it includes Nancy's

never-before-released autopsy report.

This is the autopsy report that nobody

had seen publicly until our story came out.

It says, "The pattern of her injuries is consistent with

a moving head striking a stationary object.

It is not consistent with a single, simple fall

in view of the other injuries that she has -

scalp, facial, and bodily bruises and abrasions."

It says that, "the magnitude of the injuries may even be

suggestive of 'mate' abuse."

The last sentence of this document is really the

bombshell that came out of the autopsy report,

and it says, "I believe that the case should be

investigated as a homicide until proven otherwise,"

and it's signed by Dr. Mihalakis.

♪

30 years after Nancy Argentino's mysterious death,

a newly discovered autopsy report suggesting a

potential homicide, raises questions about

the 1983 police investigation.

[Off-screen] Mihalakis says here, "I personally checked the

clothing that Miss Argentino was wearing at the time of

her injury and found no evidence of dirt or tears

in the fabric."

[Frederick] That's the first time I've seen that report,

but I could tell ya, if I were a defense attorney...

I'd say, "Well, of course they didn't have any dirt or

anything because he took her back to the hotel room.

She laid down in bed.

Then she was put in the ambulance."

And we're back to, it was investigated... [laughs]

as best as it could be investigated, I guess.

So... you know, did everything that was conceivably possible.

♪

[Adam] So, as I'm working on this story, of course,

Jimmy Snuka has no clue that there's a reporter

in Allentown, Pennsylvania who's investigating this case.

And, while we're working on the story,

his book comes out.

Published in December 2012,

Snuka's autobiography marks the first time

he publicly addresses the events in Allentown...

as well as the meeting he had with McMahon

and local authorities.

So, these are the original police documents.

It is the most complete record that anyone has ever seen.

So, this is the only record we have of that final meeting.

Unlike all of the other interviews that

were done in this case...

there is no detailed transcript of what was said over an hour.

And we do know that after that meeting,

the case effectively went cold.

The police interviews stopped.

There was nothing else in that file.

Vince McMahon would have great reason to defend Jimmy Snuka.

Let's say, at the time, he is charged with murder in 1983.

That would be a terrible thing for the WWF.

[Adam] Vince McMahon is a business man and,

no matter what business you're running,

if one of your top employees is being investigated for murder,

that's bad for business.

[Carole] Jimmy talked to me a lot about Vince.

He called him "Brother Vinny".

And, Jimmy felt very close to Vince and he trusted him 100%.

He didn't read or write English.

He didn't understand it. You know, with his contracts,

with everything, he trusted the people.

He actually said to me one time,

people would come to him before a match and he'd say,

"Vince said sign this or you won't get paid after the show."

He would sign papers and he had no idea what they said.

And, I've tried to find out what happened in that room

back in '83... And, nobody knows.

Jimmy said to me, Vince came down with his briefcase

and said to him, "It's over. Don't worry about. It's done."

And he thought it was done.

I haven't a clue. I mean, I don't see that, that makes,

makes any difference. Ah...

I would only say, there wasn't anything

significantly said or done, so that's why

there's no record of it.

The meeting with McMahon and law enforcement isn't the

only section of the book to stir controversy,

but also, the way he portrays his relationship with Nancy.

Right. Because he couldn't do a book and not-- I said to him,

"Are you sure you want to put that in there?"

And he said, "Definitely." He said, "That's my book.

That's my life. It's gotta be in there."

[Louise] And in there, he talks about,

"Oh, yeah, Nancy was a nice girl,

but Nancy ruined his life."

When we read that, we were like,

"Nancy ruined his life?"

When I got to the part about my sister, I was furious.

He kind of insinuated she was a once-in-awhile girlfriend.

Oh, and he denied that he ever hurt her,

he never touched her. Why would he do that?

So, he totally denied that...

he ever laid a hand on her.

[Adam] So, the version that Jimmy Snuka tells in his book

is very similar to what he told in 1983,

but it's not exactly the same.

And that was one issue over the years,

as he talked about this in radio interviews and...

and other accounts, it was always just

slightly different with some of the details.

She got out and went to go use the bathroom.

Pulled over to the side, and I guess after she got done

she came back over like a stream that was there.

Uh-huh.

She jumped and slipped, and banged her head.

For decades, Snuka has maintained Nancy's injuries

occurred on route to Allentown...

with no mention of any other passengers in the car.

Yes, I was. I was there at the

George Washington hotel in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Yeah. We drove to Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Me, Jimmy, and her.

We jumped into the car and drove there.

[Sam] Yeah.

[Sam] Oh, it was fun. I was in the backseat.

We had the albums going,

and Jimmy had some nice, beautiful cologne on.

He always loves cologne and smells good,

and we just talked and chatted it all up.

You know, going to Allentown, Pennsylvania. Yeah.

Soon as we arrived there in Allentown,

Jimmy and Nancy went their way, their room.

And, I went my way to my room.

And, that's when all that stuff took place when...

when the lady got... when Nancy got...

when Nancy got killed that night.

I... I don't really know what Jimmy told the police.

And so, she walked outside the car and she fell while

No, no, I don't remember that story.

[Frederick] Not that I recall that I actually...

No, I... No, I-

Uh-oh. Said he was in the car? No. [laughs]

When you ask me about that, you know, I...

somehow, I, I had heard that.

But I mean, if you pinned me down and said,

"What day, time, who was this person...?"

But, there was never any, any...

contradiction to Snuka's story.

[Sam] Yeah, we're talking 30 years, 30 years ago.

[Carole] So, I did talk to Sam Fatu and I think that

might be confused because he's never told me that.

But, you know, the wrestlers, they're not lying.

It's just, they don't remember the whole thing.

♪

After the autopsy report is uncovered,

the Lehigh County Attorney's Office responds to

intense public pressure and announces Nancy Argentino's

death is being officially reinvestigated.

The main difference in how the District Attorney's Office

handled the case in 1983, versus how the

District Attorney's Office handled the case in 2013 was,

the District Attorney's Office in 2013, ultimately,

put it to the people:

"We are going to put this in front of a grand jury."

Sure enough, the grand jury thinks there

should be charges filed in this case.

Jimmy Snuka should be charged with murder.

On September 1, 2015 Jimmy Snuka is arrested and

charged with 3rd Degree Murder.

He's now 72 years old, and only a month earlier had

announced he was suffering from stomach cancer.

There's a few articles that we saved over the years,

this being one of them.

It's really happening, after all these years.

Better late than never.

When I started working on this,

I never thought that just a couple years later,

this story - my story -

would become a headline everywhere.

It was one of the biggest stars in the history of

professional wrestling being arrested and being charged

with murder because of a story in the local newspaper.

That just doesn't happen, and it was surreal then,

and it's still surreal now.

[Carole] Jimmy's health during the trial was really bad.

He didn't understand anything at that point.

He had too much brain damage.

Honestly, I think it was a blessing because when he went

through the courts, he didn't know what it was about.

And I think if he had known what it was about,

it would have been devastating to him.

They had a series of hearings and,

all of a sudden, Snuka's lawyer said,

"He has brain damage because he took so many blows to

the head, so he is not capable of standing trial."

His attorney had argued that his dementia was so bad that

he didn't even realize what was going on.

And, the judge basically ruled that he was unfit to

stand trial, and specifically,

she felt that he was mentally unfit to stand trial.

For Nancy's family, seeing Snuka confronted with his

past in a court room is the only justice they'll ever get.

Everybody was talking about it.

They knew what he did.

So, we were happy that he got

somewhat of punishment for Nancy's death, so...

It hurted me bad because I know what type of person he is.

I can't see Jimmy hurting anyone.

That's, that's just what I believe.

The family, you know, was-- still felt slighted.

Somebody lost a daughter.

There certainly, you know, had to be sad and hurt.

The one shame about this case is that there was

no true final resolution. The event occurs in 1983.

We go 30 years before charges are filed.

Charges are filed, but then a judge rules that

Jimmy Snuka is incompetent to stand trial.

So, he never gets to fully clear his name.

The Argentinos never get to fully get a prosecution.

There was no final resolution on the case,

and that's why people continue to debate it.

Ten days after the ruling on January 15, 2015,

Snuka succumbs to his cancer and dies.

It was devastating for me. It was sad.

I was pretty depressed, you know. You lost a...

♪

Lost a good man, a good person, you know.

To today, I'm still angry about it.

I'm angry that the man passed and I'm angry

what people say about him, you know.

It's sad. All the way around, it was sad.

On both parties. I loved Jimmy a lot.

There's no doubt that Jimmy Snuka was

a great professional wrestler,

one of the biggest stars of his time...

A talented wrestler, well respected for his craft.

But, at the same time, you can't overlook his personal life.

You can't overlook what happened with Nancy.

You can't overlook the violence that's been

brought up over the years.

So, it's a complicated legacy and it's a legacy

that will always be clouded by his personal life.

There is no more separation of the ring

and outside of the ring.

What happens outside of the ring is just as influential

these days as what happens in the ring.

Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka stands as one of the most

iconic professional wrestlers in history.

A daredevil acrobat far ahead of his time,

but his legacy will never escape the events in Allentown.

For Nancy's family, her memory lives on,

while justice remains out of reach.

Lorraine and I really want to share the story because

we don't feel like we've gotten justice.

We feel like Nancy just keeps calling out to us

in some way or another to seek justice.

[Carole] There's no closure for anybody.

You know, no closure.

I've never met Nancy or anyone in her family.

I feel really bad for them. They lost their daughter.

Okay, something should have been done.

I think letting it go for 32 years caused a lot of damage.

I think too often stories of domestic violence,

and especially when they involve powerful men,

center around the men.

And the women are reduced to just the victim and

you don't know anything about them except this is

the person who was attacked by someone.

This is the person who was the victim.

As you can see, she was filled with life.

And she had so much hope for her future.

She was 19 here.

And she died when she was 23.

Her life was just cut down too briefly.

[Louise] That's a great picture of her.

♪