Jimmy Snuka – ‘Superfly’ of wrestling fame – charged in 1980s slaying of Nancy Argentino
James Snuka, who rose to fame in the 1980s as professional wrestler Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka, was charged Tuesday with third-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter in the 1983 slaying of Nancy Argentino, his then-girlfriend and mistress.
Snuka, 72, was booked in Lehigh County Jail in Pennsylvania and released on $500,000 bond, according to Lehigh District Attorney James Martin.
Messages left at Snuka’s New Jersey home went unreturned Tuesday evening.
Lingering questions about what happened to Argentino, Snuka’s 23-year-old paramour at the time of her death, have long dogged the Fiji-born wrestler famous for his acrobatics.
In May 1983, Snuka was an up-and-coming superstar in the fledgling World Wrestling Federation, now called the WWE, which in those days taped matches in Allentown, Pennsylvania, for television broadcast.
According to Martin, Snuka, then 39 and with a wife and four kids in North Carolina, was staying in an Allentown-area motel with Argentino,
On the night of May 10, paramedics responding to a 911 call at the George Washington Motor Lodge arrived to discover Argentino unresponsive. They were called there by Snuka.
“(Argentino) was unconscious, and her breathing was intermittent and shallow,” Martin said in a statement. “Her pupils were dilated and didn’t move, indications of a head injury, (and) a monitor showed Argentino had a fast heart rate, which indicated head injury and shock.”
Just a few hours later, she was pronounced dead, leaving only one person to know what happened.
The autopsy report said that Argentino had a skull fracture and died of craniocerebral injuries, something for which Snuka offered different explanations at different times.
According to Martin, Snuka told investigators that they were “fooling around” outside the motel room when she fell, or that she had hit her head on concrete while the two were wrestling or that she had slipped and hit her head as the couple was “clowning around” on the side of the highway during a bathroom break.
Despite his evolving story, it was enough to keep authorities at bay; the family won a wrongful death civil suit against Snuka in 1985, but authorities never charged him.
The family was discouraged. “The evidence was there,” Louise Argentino, Nancy’s younger sister, told CNN. “But it got muddled … (because Snuka) was big star at the time.”
So they gave up trying. “It was just too much,” Argentino said. “It was too painful,” she said, especially for their mother.
Former wrestler Jimmy ‘Superfly’ Snuka pleads not guilty in 1983 death
Former professional wrestler James “Superfly” Snuka pleaded not guilty Monday to charges of third-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter in connection with the death of his former girlfriend, the Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, District Attorney’s Office said.
In September, Snuka was charged with killing Nancy Argentino, his girlfriend, more than 30 years ago. On May 10, 1983, paramedics responded to a call placed by Snuka to an Allentown, Pennsylvania, hotel and found Argentino, 23, unresponsive.
Lehigh District Attorney James Martin said Snuka told investigators different stories about what happened the night Argentino died. They ranged from Argentino falling as they were “fooling around” outside the hotel room, to Argentino slipping and hitting her head as the two were “clowning around” by the side of a highway. While Argentino’s family won a wrongful death lawsuit against Argentino in 1985, authorities didn’t charge him in the death.
Jimmy Snuka charged with the 1983 death of Nancy Argentino.
Snuka’s career continued to prosper, and he eventually ended a well-lauded career as a member of the World Wrestling Entertainment Hall of Fame. A new turn in the case came as Snuka published his 2012 memoir, “Superfly: The Jimmy Snuka Story.” Argentino’s family contacted Martin, who instructed his team to examine the book. Excerpts were presented to a grand jury, which eventually decided to press charges against Snuka.
In a statement released when the charges were announced, Martin wrote, “(The grand jury heard) excerpts from Snuka’s autobiography in which he talked about his frequent use of alcohol, steroids and cocaine and wrote ‘… in 1983, my personal life started getting a little crazy.’ ”
The former wrestler was booked at the time of the charges in the Lehigh County Jail and released on a $500,000 bond, Martin said.
In the wrestling spotlight
For the next 30 years, as his girlfriend’s case remained cold, Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka enjoyed the career of a celebrity, retiring from the sport as an exalted legend, even becoming a member of the WWE Hall of Fame.
“His aerial abilities and charisma made him one of the most popular Superstars to ever set foot in the ring – and jump high above it,” reads Snuka’s bio on WWE’s website.
But it was one of the trappings of fame that ultimately led to Snuka being charged with murder: his autobiography.
“Many terrible things have been written about me hurting Nancy and being responsible for her death, but they are not true,” wrote Snuka in 2012’s “Superfly: The Jimmy Snuka Story.”
“This has been very hard on me and very hard on my family (…) I will say this about the whole thing, brudda – that night ruined my life. To this day, that is how I feel.”
For Louise and eldest sister Lorraine Argentino, 30 years after they lost Nancy, Snuka presenting himself as if he were the victim was the tipping point.
“We had given up,” Louise said, “but my sister and I got so upset when Snuka’s book came out, that’s when we called the DA.”
Martin directed his team to take another look, talked to new witnesses and even introduced new evidence: Snuka’s book.
“(The grand jury heard) excerpts from Snuka’s autobiography in which he talked about his frequent use of alcohol, steroids and cocaine and wrote “… in 1983, my personal life started getting a little crazy.”
“Based on all the evidence that was presented to the grand jury,” wrote Martin, “members concluded: ‘It is our determination that the weight of the evidence clearly indicates that James Snuka repeatedly assaulted Nancy Argentino on May 10, 1983, and then allowed her to lie in their bed at the George Washington Motor Lodge without obtaining the necessary medical attention’ and that “his assaultive acts and his failure to act to obtain medical attention resulted in her death.’ “
A judge dropped all charges Tuesday against WWE Hall of Fame wrestler Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka, who was charged with third-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter in the death of his former girlfriend Nancy Argentino in 1983.
Lehigh County (Pennsylvania) Judge Kelly Banach determined that Snuka was incompetent to stand trial based on medical records and testimony provided by his defense attorney, Robert Kirwan II.
Snuka, 74, has been diagnosed with dementia and showed signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, according to Kirwan. He went into home hospice care in October and was moved to in-hospital hospice care at Broward Medical North near his home in Florida on December 17.
Kirwan filed a petition in February in which he asked the judge to rule Snuka incompetent to stand trial. The court held a four-day competency hearing in June, and the judge let six months pass in order to see whether his condition improved or worsened.
At an unscheduled hearing Tuesday, Banach ordered all charges against Snuka dismissed. “The court is satisfied that the defendant remains incompetent and the Court is satisfied that the defendant will not regain competence and it would be unjust to resume the prosecution,” the court order said.
Snuka was charged in September 2015, 32 years after Argentino’s death. She was found unresponsive in a room at the George Washington Motor Lodge in Allentown, Pennsylvania, on May 10, 1983. Snuka called the paramedics, but once they arrived, he was gone. Argentino was pronounced dead a few hours later.
Snuka’s version of what happened that night varied, according to Lehigh County District Attorney James Martin. He claimed that Argentino fell as they were “fooling around” outside the hotel room and that she slipped and hit her head as the two were “clowning around” by the side of a highway.
In light of the judge’s actions Tuesday, “we are considering our options and will decide at the appropriate time what action we will take,” Leigh County District Attorney Executive Aide Megan Wieand said.
Argentino’s family won a wrongful death lawsuit against Snuka in 1985, but authorities didn’t charge him in the death. It wasn’t until his 2012 memoir, “Superfly: The Jimmy Snuka Story,” was published that Argentino’s family contacted Martin and asked his team to examine the book. Excerpts were presented to a grand jury, which decided to press charges.
“I was convinced that there was zero chance (the district attorney’s office) would be successful from the beginning,” Kirwan said. “We were very confident that this would never result in anything other than dismissal.”
Snuka was famous for his “Superfly Splash,” a wrestling move in which he would stand on the ring’s top rope and vault off to land face-down on an opponent who lay prone on the ring floor.
Chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, has become a concern for many athletes in contact sports. It is an Alzheimer’s-like neurodegenerative disease associated with repeated hits to the head. Nearly 100 former professional football players have been diagnosed with CTE, as well as former WWE wrestlers Jon Rechner, aka Balls Mahoney, and Brian Knighton, aka Axl Rotten.
Snuka also suffered from a bout of stomach cancer before he was charged in 2015. He was diagnosed in July 2014, and he had intensive surgery in which three-quarters of his stomach, some lymph nodes and part of his large intestine were removed, according to Kirwan.
During the competency hearing, a doctor testified that anesthesia can worsen a person’s dementia, causing their symptoms to be more noticeable and advance at an alarming rate, Kirwan said.
CTE cannot be diagnosed without a postmortem examination of a person’s brain, but the defense argued that Snuka exhibits signs of the disease based on outward symptoms and a series of MRIs taken over the course of two years.
Snuka is one of 50 former wrestlers named as plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the WWE, filed in July, for long-term brain damage they contend was incurred during their careers with the company.
Jimmy ‘Superfly’ Snuka dies
Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka, the wrestler known for his high-flying leap off the ring’s top rope that flattened his opponents, died on Sunday. He was 73.
Actor and former wrestler Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson announced Snuka’s death on behalf of his family. The World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. also confirmed Snuka’s death on its website on Sunday.
Snuka’s family did not immediately release his cause of death.
“Snuka is regarded by many as the pioneer of high-flying offense because of his Superfly Splash from the top turnbuckle,” the WWE statement said.
The signature move, in which Snuka vaulted off the rope and landed face-down on his opponent who lay prone on the floor, helped catapult the Fiji-born Snuka to 1980s fame with the World Wrestling Federation, now the WWE. He was later inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 1996, the New England professional wrestling Hall of Fame in 2010, as well as the professional wrestling Hall of Fame in 2012.
On Sunday, Snuka’s daughter, Tamina Snuka, also a WWE star, tweeted “I love you dad. RIP Jimmy Snuka.