♪
We had scheduled a bout with Gino Hernandez.
However, we have reached a milestone,
a sad moment, in World Class Championship Wrestling.
Gino Hernandez is dead.
On February the 4th, 1986,
the professional wrestling world was in shock.
28-year-old wrestler Gino Hernandez was dead.
The popular wrestling star's badly decomposed body was
discovered late last night at his home in Highland Park.
He had apparently been dead for several days.
So a lot of people, when Gino died,
they know exactly what happened.
I'm listening to the person telling the story that's
not even close to true... 'cause I lived the story.
Dallas police say Hernandez might have been murdered.
The rumor grows, the story grows,
and it gets more grandiose as it grows.
At the time of Gino's death, Gino was already a major talent.
He was caught up in a very fast life,
and as a result of that, he paid.
And he paid... with his life.
Well, in all respect to Gino Hernandez,
I think the Gino Hernandez you saw in the ring was
very much like the Gino Hernandez outside the ring,
and he was one who typically did everything his way.
As a mother, I got a lot of questions that
nobody has ever... ever answered me.
Many believe that Gino's death was a tragic accident,
but for over 30 years, family members and wrestlers
have believed it to be murder.
Well, I think there are a lot of rumors in wrestling,
and it just comes from us being able to tell a story, man.
We're trying to figure out the inside scoop on everything.
The only people that know what really happened to Gino...
was whoever was there.
A lot has been taken away from me,
and God has blessed me to let me stay here this long
and say this, finally...
I think my son was murdered.
I don't think it... I almost know it.
In this episode, we put to rest decades of rumors,
and investigate one of wrestling's darkest mysteries.
♪
Beautiful pictures, beautiful memories
with our beautiful family.
Aw.
He had a wonderful personality. He...
He was a good son. He was a good father.
And I want everybody to remember him as a good man.
I think the hardest thing for me was when he became a
bad guy, and as a child at the wrestling matches,
like, people throwing pennies at us,
all these girls coming up to the ring saying,
"Sign it," and he'd like rip it and throw it.
And I was like a little girl. I was like, "Oh no!"
He's such a bad guy. [laughs]
As I say, in the ring, Gino was evil.
Don't attempt to adjust your sets. What you see is real,
the most gorgeous human being on this earth.
He had it. He was special.
He was the type of guy that could've fit right in with the
Randy "Macho Man" Savage or some of those guys,
so who knows where Gino would 'a went.
You can't buy it; you can't steal it;
you can't borrow it.
You either got it or you don't,
and that's called charisma, and he had charisma, man.
Yeah, tag matches. Yeah.
Who's the wrestler that you hate the most?
- Gino! - Gino!
And Gino was a cocky, arrogant, good looking, talented.
If you were to see Gino, you would 'a thought he was
connected or he was a celebrity of some type.
He always just looked like money.
He was all about the finest suits,
the finest custom-made shirts,
the rings and the watches. You name it, that was Gino.
And it wasn't a gimmick; that was him.
If he wanted to, he could take that room and have
everybody in that room hating his guts and
wanting to kill him, in real life.
I overcome any obstacle in my life,
and especially some hormone-imbalanced female
that tries to stick her nose in a man's business!
And he could talk.
And it's easy to hate somebody who's good looking,
got money, or whatever.
Got the pretty girl on the side and...
must be nice.
Full head of hair. He's got all that shit, you know.
I'd like to show you and the people pictures, no other.
PATRICE: Farrah Fawcett, I think they had a few dates.
GINO: Who does she choose to be with?
If my wife was on the front row when he said some of the things
he would say to 'em, I don't know that
I wouldn't be waiting outside to knock him out.
It almost came natural for him.
One night, Gino had said something and he insulted
to the point, this big cowboy guy was getting up
and he was headed to the ring.
And the police stopped him.
Well, Gino starts saying, "Let him go, let him go,
let him come in here," to the point
he convinced the police to let him go.
And then Gino's telling me, "Stop him, stop him!"
He's whispering in the back of my ear,
but I told him in the dressing room, I said,
"You bit that off, you chew it."
David Manning.
I was the referee and promoter,
and booker for World Class Championship Wrestling
from '77, '78 'til around '89.
♪
Probably, I'd been in the business for about
3, 4 years, 5 years, when Gino started coming in.
At that time, I was a referee and he was a wrestler.
The greatest thing about Gino being a heel was,
one, the microphone.
Gino's one of the few pieces of talent -
I'd actually put Gino in the category of a Ric Flair,
a Jim Cornette, a Michael Hayes,
the people that you just hand 'em a mic
and they can do it.
Tonight's the night!
I told ya, I brought out the $60,000 limo.
Tonight, the World Junior Heavyweight champion!
Not bad for a kid from Spring Branch High, huh?
You know, he was real close with the promoter Paul Boesch,
in Houston, where Gino got his big, big break was Houston.
"Gorgeous" Gino.
I remember meeting Gino when he had to be
17, 18 years old.
Good looking guy, you know, good body and everything,
and had chicks all over him.
Full of himself, conceited.
I was just a kid, so he, he treated me like a kid...
[laughs] ... at the time.
I was a professional model at one time.
Most of the time I just took care of my daughter and
my son, Gino. I was a single parent.
PRODUCER: Do you prefer to call him Charles, or Gino, or...?
- Mm-mm. Gino. - Gino?
Well, if you were a wrestler, would you rather use
the name Charles or Gino?
'Cause Gino always referred to himself as "Gorgeous" Gino.
"Gorgeous" Gino Hernandez!
[cheering]
GG with a, two G's on the back of his jacket.
I had Luis's name.
Gino sometimes would kind of prance around,
brag that his dad was Luis Hernandez, you know.
Lord, yes. [laughs]
- Can you talk about it? - From morning to night.
[laughs]
Well, I've always been a fan of wrestling all my life,
and my father was a wrestler and he died
when I was 12 years old.
And, I began to start training for wrestling
from the time I was in high school,
and I turned professional at the age of 17,
right out of high school.
When he got into the ring,
it was like he had been wrestling for years.
He was flying off the rope and I'm going,
"Where did he learn that from?"
He said, "My dad did it for me.
I was wearing his shoes."
He said, "He did everything for me," and of course,
I had to cry when he told me that.
We were married very young. We were both 18.
And we had our first child, so that started our family.
I'm Janice Gillespie, and I grew up in Houston, Texas,
and that is where I met Charles Wolfe,
who you might know as Gino Hernandez.
After we were married, he kept his life very separate,
so he had his professional life.
And, he'd work out in the mornings,
and then he'd have a workout in the afternoon and
it really consumed most of his day.
And then he had his family.
There was really very little mixing outside of just family.
There was the soft side of him.
He was really a pushover.
He loved his children very, very much.
Everybody knows I'm the man of the hour,
the man with the power, too sweet to be sour.
You know, going back and like watching the footage,
and, and hearing him talk...
227 pounds of twisted steel and sex appeal.
It's like a voice I always knew.
Really, everywhere we went, people knew he was Gino.
He would get into his persona, his character,
especially when he became a heel.
He would really be very, very intimidating and
made me very uncomfortable to be around him when,
when you would see him like that.
PRODUCER: Has there been times in your,
in your life where your wrestling persona
has bled into your real life?
Jake Roberts never had a fucking problem in his life.
He's a bad motherfucker that don't give a fuck about anybody
and he's gonna do what he pleases,
and he's gonna go on with life.
Don't fuck with him. He will fuck you up.
Aurelian Smith, on the other hand,
is a human being, man. He cares about other people.
He's made some mistakes.
He's a recovering alcoholic, addict.
So, yeah, that guy has problems.
Jake "The Snake" doesn't.
For people to get mad at me for when I get on TV and say
I'm the latest and I'm the greatest,
and I'm so fine that I'm divine...
For people to say I'm conceited,
I don't understand it.
He lived his gimmick in the ring and he lived it out of the ring.
We're into sports cars, we're into fast cars.
Faster women, and fast life.
He lived it, he ate it, and he slept it.
He loved every minute and
he could bring that on just like that.
And I, I used to tell him, "You can drop that now.
I know who you are." [laughs]
I know that he and Chris had a very successful tag team,
the Dynamic Duo.
Chris Adams was, ah...
He was a good guy.
He could be a good friend as long as alcohol wasn't involved.
They were a great team.
We got the looks! We got the ability!
And we got the money, we got the women,
we got the build.
And from now on, we are number one!
- We're bad, we're real bad. - Let's go, let's go.
We're bad to the bone.
Alright. They're bad to the bone.
Well, there they go,
Chris Adams and Gino Hernandez.
See you, guys!
Gino's social life and his life outside of wrestling,
was just as flamboyant as
inside the coliseum when Gino came to perform.
Matter of fact, one of the highlighted matches,
one of the biggest draws we ever had was at the Cotton Bowl.
It's all come down to the Cotton Bowl tomorrow at 3 pm.
And it was Gino and Chris Adams
against Kevin and Kerry. A hair match.
Chris and Gino both had just gorgeous hair, down,
you know, the whole thing. The sculptured look.
And the Von Erichs both had long hair.
So, people weren't sure what was gonna happen here.
And he would get in that ring and he just owned the crowd.
He knew exactly what he was doing.
I've seen a lot of wrestlers in my life,
and I've seen a lot of guys try to do what Gino did,
and he was such an artist.
And, sure enough, Gino and Chris lost.
I remember they would hold 'em in those seats and
they brought the razors out.
The crowd was going crazy. They were cheering.
They were so happy these guys were fixin' to lose their hair.
And they had the perfect reaction, you know,
and it just elevated the feud.
♪
There was a nightclub in Houston called Judges that
Gino frequented quite a bit; that was the place to go
on a Friday night after the matches.
And, party all night long.
My name is Jeanie Williams.
In 1985, Chris asked me to move to Dallas.
And he said, "You live next door to my friend Gino Hernandez,"
so Gino and I were neighbors.
Gino was front and center, man.
It wasn't like it was a secret that Gino did drugs,
from smoking dope, to cocaine,
and uppers and downers.
It was the 70s and 80s and we all did.
I never saw Gino out of control on drugs.
But Gino liked to party and have a good time.
Gino comes knocking on the door.
His eyes are huge and he's like,
"Touch my head. Oh my God, my hair,"
'cause they'd just had their hair shaved.
And so, we all decided we'd go to a night club.
We get in the car and he's going about 100 miles an hour
and he, he has this tiny piece of paper
and he says, "Just take this."
♪
We get to the club and then everybody's just,
everything's going all strange and...
Gino is laughing.
I want to go to the bathroom, and as I was walking,
it was like my feet were going into clouds and I,
I'd come to find out afterwards that
Gino had given me some acid.
♪
I was in Las Vegas one time, and...
Gino had a friend with him.
This particular gentleman was-- had a plane.
They had rented the whole top suite floor of the hotel there,
just partying for like 3 days.
But I knew a lot of those guys were--
I don't know if they were furnishing it all to him, but...
From that time on, after Las Vegas,
it was just a slowly, progression.
Gino just, he ran with a...
pretty tough crowd in Houston.
You know, if you hang around trouble,
you're gonna get trouble.
It's like I always say, getting into the wrestling
is like getting into the mob. Once you're in, you're in.
It can go the other way, too.
So, you gotta watch who you hang out with.
♪
Unknown to his family, Gino had been running with
a fast and dangerous crowd,
but the party wouldn't last much longer.
I just heard it was like...
Nah, I don't know. I'm not gonna say.
I don't know. I don't know, man...
Ah... That's, that's-- What I said is what it was.
I heard that it was people that you didn't mess with
that had power in the city of Houston and Dallas,
and there are certainly those kind of people out there.
Well, when our children were young, we divorced.
I just didn't feel so safe about some of the people
he might hang out with, things I was hearing.
These were strong powerful people within the city that
might not have liked certain things getting out.
There was just a side of him and people he ran with that,
they were, I felt, dangerous.
♪
By 1986, there was a shift in the Dynamic Duo's story line,
which saw Chris and Gino turn against each other,
igniting a vicious rivalry.
I m gonna kill him!
That s what I m gonna do, I m gonna kill him!
Yeah, one of Gino's last matches was he and Chris.
We did a gimmick where...
I think it's Nair, it was like, you know -
girls, to get rid of hair -
Gino sprayed it in Chris's eyes and for weeks,
Chris wore this thing. He couldn't see, and...
and stuff like this, and...
Whatever the gimmick was in the ring,
that was the gimmick out of the ring.
And so, even around in the public,
Chris would, you know, like he couldn't hardly see.
And, his wife, Toni, would lead him around and
bumping into chairs and...
that's what I really liked about it.
Whatever happened, you took it with you.
Super Bowl Sunday, 1986.
He was in a hurry, always in a hurry.
♪
Mhm...
Mhm.
He was very fidgety and nervous when he came in.
Say what you gotta say, and leave.
She knew something was going on because he had come home
to her home, and he had something and he put it
somewhere in her home. And...
He was acting...
nervous and antsy, and felt like...
something might happen to him.
And who it was, I don't think she knew
who he was afraid of, or who he was worried about.
PRODUCER: Do you know what he hid in her house,
that you're referring to?
No.
Was he nervous? Yeah, real nervous.
And Gino wasn't afraid of anything,
but there's certain things you can't dodge.
If somebody wants to get you, they'll get you.
♪
He came to the matches one night,
and he came running in my office,
and he was telling me this story.
And he said, "You wouldn't believe it, Dave.
You wouldn't believe it."
He said, "I'm driving and I look in the back and
I can see someone sitting in the back."
And he said, "I didn't know what to do," and he said,
"So I'm watching to see if they're gonna try to stab me
or whatever," and he says, "So all of a sudden,
I just slammed on the brakes and then they jumped out
the back and they ran off."
And he said, "I think they were gonna kill me."
He's like, "I need a gun."
I could just tell, he was scared to death.
And so, I said, "No, I don't have a gun with me, Gino."
I said, "But I think you're okay. I think, you know,
maybe you just saw something."
And he was like, "No, no, no. They're following me.
I'm afraid something's gonna happen to me,
you know, I gotta get a gun. I gotta get a gun."
He was adamant someone was sitting in the
backseat of his car, and he got a glimpse of him
through his rearview mirror.
Maybe Gino was telling me the truth all these times
that someone was either stalking him,
or someone was after him, or someone was going to kill him.
That night was the last night I saw Gino.
The last time I saw Gino alive, and he said,
"Hey, kiddo, look what I got here," and he had
a white box and he said it was a peach pie.
And he said he was going out,
but if I wanted to stop by the next day,
"Come and have a slice, it's delicious."
On my birthday February the 5th, 1986...
Walter called me. He was Gino's manager.
He did a lot of Gino's bookings and he said,
"Patrice, have you heard from Gino?"
I said, "No. Why?"
He said, "Well, I need to, I need to talk to him."
"I haven't heard from him, but today's my birthday and
I know he'll be calling me.
I'll tell him to give you a call."
The next day, I saw Gino's car parked.
I noticed the car was sort of out of alignment,
the wheels were strange, like he parked it really quick.
He missed a show up in Oklahoma,
and that wasn't like him, but I didn't think anything about it.
And then we couldn't reach him.
We tried to, we tried to get a hold of Gino.
We couldn't reach him.
The next day, the car was still the same position.
I'm gonna go and check on him, and, and...
knocking on his door, and I can't really get a good vision,
but I did see a pie, the pie.
And then I heard that, you know,
he didn't show up in Houston,
which was definitely unusual.
When I went to the office on Monday and
I hadn't heard from Gino...
I said, "We got a problem."
One of the guys that worked referee,
of course, was named Rick Hazzard.
And I said, "Rick, why don't you go over to Gino's apartment,
see if his car's there."
And so, he called me, and he said,
"Well, the car's here, but no one's answering the door."
And I said, "Why don't you see if you can get
over the wall and just peek in."
And sure enough, Rick got over the wall.
The way the bed was laying, at first,
he couldn't see anything.
He just happened to glance down...
and where the bed ended,
he could see part of the body hanging out.
At that point, they called the police.
The cops said he had been laying there,
they had estimated about...
4 to 5 days.
Walter took some wrestler and went to the condo.
They got in 'cause Walter was the only one that had the key.
There was a gun on the scene,
so I don't know where Gino got the gun,
but there was a gun on the scene when they found him.
I was standing outside Chris's apartment,
actually, and they're bringing out his body in,
in a body bag. It was just like...
something you're, you're in denial.
Probably about, I'd say, very short span of time,
Walter calls me again.
And he said... "Patrice, this-- it's Walter."
And I said, "Do you-- Did Gino get in touch with you?"
I said, "He hasn't called me, but have you found him?"
He said...
"Yeah... I'm standing here in his condo."
I said, "Well, is he okay?" He said, "He's dead."
And he hung up.
♪
And I just started screaming.
♪
Death came to Gino Hernandez.
Wrestling fans were shocked at the sudden end to
one of the brightest careers in the game.
His friends were saddened by an irreplaceable loss
of a vibrant young spirit.
To his mother and sister,
it was a tragedy of indescribable magnitude.
Police arrived at the home of wrestler Gino Hernandez
in February of 1986, and discovered his dead body.
It was so decomposed that the exact cause of death
could not be determined.
A loaded pistol was found next to his right hand,
and police found no sign of drugs or
paraphernalia in the condo.
Yeah, I was grieving. Mica and I was grieving.
And, he just knocked on the door and he said,
"I would like to come in and discuss the funeral."
Well, of course, I let him in.
Gino knew him. He was-- Gino went places with him.
♪
But I really didn't know him.
We were both sitting facing each other,
sitting on the floor, and...
If I can recollect, he says to me...
"Gino owed me a lot of money,
but just don't you worry about it
'cause I'm gonna pay for his funeral."
I was sitting there and I know how I felt,
looking at him.
I was scared to death.
Yeah.
Well, it's just the tone of voice and the way somebody
looks at you when they stick their finger in your--
and they lean in to you like, "Do you hear me?"
No remorse. No empathy.
Nothing... nothing.
I'm an intelligent woman, and I can read a person
pretty dog gone well.
Eye to eye contact; that tells you a lot.
♪
You know, I remember walking into...
to the funeral.
Went up, paid our respects.
There was a platinum casket.
And... it was closed casket.
So many people.
I dressed the finest I could dress, like a...
movie star because I knew that Gino wanted me to look that way.
♪
There were a lot of people that were hurting,
his mom, and his sister. Oh my gosh,
and that was just painful to know they were hurting.
There was a group of men, and Patrice would probably
know who they were more than I would,
that took care of all the finances of that funeral
and it was a...
very expensive funeral.
They, they...
do the service at the grave site,
and then they had bottle of champagne,
they had glasses, and people were pouring champagne.
And, "To you, Gino!" Drinking the champagne,
then breaking the champagne glasses,
you know, on the casket, and toasting Gino.
When you were looking at all of this,
it just was surreal, to a point.
Almost like an out of body experience, a little bit.
There was a gentleman there that did a eulogy,
that talked about Gino getting on planes and
going to Vegas, and...
beating up a guy and putting him in a headlock, and...
It was just weird. It was tonally off,
and it was almost like people going,
"Who the fuck is this guy?"
And, to some of us that hadn't been around for a while,
we just thought it was, you know,
a new friend or whatever. We had no clue.
At his funeral, there was a lot of rich people.
You might assume drug dealing is going on.
And people made comments like,
"Do you know who that is?" And I had no clue who it is.
If you were putting me on the line today,
I wouldn't know who it is.
But people talking about, "Oh, well, he's, he's...
He's wanted by the authorities, you know."
I don't know who the hell he is.
Who was the guy that gave the eulogy?
That's John Royal.
I just heard that he, he was a drug dealer.
I mean, I didn't know anything about the man, period.
As far as I know, right now he's in prison.
I would've done just pretty much anything then
just to make sure my daughter was safe,
and I was too.
And that's the way it's been all these years.
I hadn't talked to anybody until I talked to you guys.
♪
As the Hernandez family mourned Gino's mysterious death,
many questions remained unanswered.
Rumors began to fly throughout the
wrestling community and beyond.
So, a lot of people, when Gino died,
were immediately telling the story,
"Here's what happened."
Andre the Giant told us that he knew for a fact that
Gino had been shot in the head.
And that was not the case.
I heard from somebody that he was close with that
he used to take trips down to Houston, Southwest Airlines,
several times a week to go down to Houston.
For what, I don't know.
The rumor mill was that he had gambled and that
he owed some money on a football game.
And so, you got all these different rumors,
and with Chris and with Gino,
you had the conflict going on.
Police have received several telephone calls
from concerned fans,
who say Hernandez might have been murdered.
[indistinct shouts]
And immediately it's like, well, Chris did it.
Why? The guy blinded him.
PRODUCER: Had you ever heard that all the World Class fans
called the police saying it must have been Chris?
I did hear that, and I think the police actually did...
contact Chris about the murder of Gino.
That goes to show just how believable
World Class Championship Wrestling was,
that somebody would go to the depth to think,
Jesus, he killed that guy because that guy
took his eyesight.
This is a case that we're talking 30 years ago...
and there's been a lot of rumors like this.
None of the family members were ever allowed to see him.
His corpse, his body was just so guarded.
Um, I think Walter.
It would just be too shocking because he had been
dead for so long that they didn't want anybody to see him.
Now, I'm pretty meticulous about saving everything.
This is the suitcase that I put everything in after
I had collected stuff, after he had passed away,
anything that I could get my hands on 'cause
I never got to go in his apartment.
As a mother, got a lot of questions that nobody
has ever... ever answered me.
I said, well, I tell you what,
I'll just do my own investigating.
And if, if I can find out the right person to contact,
I'll contact that person and take care of it myself...
worry about the consequences later,
and that's exactly what I did.
I think there was foul play in Gino's death only because,
one, he was super paranoid.
When he walked into his apartment,
he locked the doors.
And he had a deadbolt on the inside, so,
the deadbolt was not locked from the inside of the apartment.
It never made any sense to me.
The deadbolt wasn't on, and he always locked it.
So, somebody was there with him.
Well, who was there with him?
And left him alone?
If it would 'a been me, and I would 'a said,
"You need to do an autopsy 'cause someone murdered him."
The autopsy report?
When they found him and he was,
had been dead for a while. I asked what happened.
I believe they said that it might be a drug overdose.
I remember talking to the coroner and he said that
Gino had cocaine in his system,
but he had 5 times the amount.
I believe I was told he had enough that
could've killed an elephant.
He had more than just enough to overdose;
he had 3 or 4 or 5 times in his body that
it would take to overdose.
The medical examiner had said that he didn't understand
how that much cocaine could get in someone,
you know, be ingested...
Makes you question, you know,
what the hell happened?
Autopsy report said he was morbidly obese.
It said that he was Hispanic.
She asked me, she said, "Now,
I'm pretty sure about this because, you know,
I did give birth to him. Was Gino circumcised?"
I said, "Well, he was."
Well, the autopsy report said it was an uncircumcised male.
Well, first of all, is that even really him?
If it's not him... I wondered sometimes,
could he have, would he have faked his own death?
When we were married, there was a comedy, sitcom,
I don't remember the name of it.
The main character had faked his own death.
He was some sort of trouble, whether it was tax evasion
or he was trying to hide from somebody after him.
He had left a, a wife and a child,
and came back like 7 years later.
Gino had said, "I'm gonna do that someday.
That's what I would do."
Well, I wished that it wasn't him in there.
But, I know in my heart that if he is alive,
I'd 'a heard from him by now.
She was wanting to push for answers and
really push for answers.
And as a mother, I felt for her, and I just...
We had the discussion then, well,
if we start stirring the pot,
what's gonna keep them from doing something to,
you know, our children?
It feels like he was probably killed,
that somebody murdered him. It feels that way to me.
♪
That's what the rumblings were at the time,
that he had been murdered.
And I could certainly see that happening with Gino, you know.
Some of the people he hung with were powerful people.
He may have pissed somebody off.
If he were in some way involved with a drug ring...
Maybe he knew something.
And...
Maybe they were worried he would talk.
Conspiracy theories about Gino's death lingered on,
but it would take over 30 years
before answers began to surface.
♪
In the days leading up to Gino's mysterious death,
those closest to him noticed that he seemed
fearful of something, or... someone.
Of course, you know, this is,
this is hearsay, you know.
But, it seems to be that general consensus that he,
weeks leading up, or prior to his death,
he felt like he, somebody was going to kill him.
To hear multiple people saying that they got that
from him as well, maybe this was a very real possibility.
You know, maybe this is what happened.
♪
I was going to my car and he was coming in, and,
and he says, "Hey, why don't you come along,
have a couple drinks?" So, I said, "Okay."
We actually walked to his apartment.
He walked into the kitchen and he had a cabinet above his sink.
He took out a cereal bowl and the bowl was full of cocaine.
There was a lot of cocaine in there.
And he put that on the counter,
and he started using the cocaine.
♪
It wasn't very long, maybe... [sighs]
30 minutes, 40 minutes later,
he stopped speaking and when I talked he said, "Sh!"
He wasn't being angry to me, but he was,
"Sh, don't speak."
He kept going to the back and looking out the window.
He had a, quite intense paranoia.
He puts a plug in the sink, and...
turns on the water.
The water started coming over the top,
dripping onto the floor.
I go to pull the plug out of the sink and
he stops me, pulls me back.
He was like, "Sh!"
The water was still falling on the floor.
I turned, just around a little bit,
and he had a gun in his hand.
My heart started to beat kind of fast,
and he was holding me, telling me to be really quiet, and...
Could hear nothing but the water.
And he seemed to be comforted that
it was covering up sound of some kind,
just the sound of the water seemed,
for whatever reason, he found that comforting.
He would go to the windows and he would just
stare outside into the darkness, over and over again,
just looking outside into the darkness.
You can see he was afraid, it seemed, of the dark...
in his mind.
♪
Yeah, 'cause I was doing them with him.
[laughs] Duh.
You know, I was no saint, man.
I know that Gino was doing coke and I don't know
how much he was doing, but the night I was there
he damn sure had some, quite a bit there, you know.
Wasn't no 8-ball, that's for damn sure.
I was surprised that there was not any cocaine
found by the police.
But I did hear rumors that it was cleaned up.
I would just say a good source told me that
Rick was kind of enough to immediately--
there was a bowl.
He said it was crazy, it was almost like a sugar bowl.
And he said, "I've never seen that much blow in my life.
It was full of coke."
Just out of reaction, he just took it and dumped it.
I don't think anyone else that was even there knew that.
I don't know who he thought maybe he was protecting,
but you know...
I think he just did it out of instinct.
Some of the wrestlers, including Chris,
said there might be more to it.
Where was he getting so much cocaine from?
[sighs] I was afraid then, very afraid,
'cause I haven't talked about it all these years...
'cause I, I got tired of looking over my shoulder
every time I walked out the apartment,
and I been living like that ever since.
Nobody should have to live like that.
Took a lot of my life away from me.
And now, you know, 77, where do I go from here?
♪
It's too much secrecy, too much lying.
Too much deceit.
I truly believe he's not here today because of the
people he chose to be around.
I have nothing to lose 'cause I've already lost part of it.
You know, you can't take any more away from me
than you already have.
All we really want is just an answer.
Shortly after Gino's family told their story,
producers contacted John Royal by phone.
He had recently served a 30-year prison term
for trafficking cocaine.
What follows is their recorded conversation.
PRODUCER: We're doing a documentary about Gino and
we've been talking a lot with his family,
and your name has come up a couple of times 'cause
you were close friends with Gino.
Gino's mother had told us a story,
a time when you approached her and had told her
that you were gonna pay for the funeral,
is that true?
I think you had also said that Gino had
owed you a lot of money.
Is that something that you had said to her as well?
PRODUCER: Right.
Well, that's really good to know.
♪
PRODUCER: Had you ever heard any rumors about, you know,
Gino's death not being something that was accidental? Like...
JOHN: No.
PRODUCER: Right.
In addition to John Royal's story,
a former drug trafficker who asked to remain anonymous
has come forward with his version of events.
[distorted] Yeah, I really want to remain anonymous.
This was 30 years ago and I'm not really here
to sugarcoat anything. I wanted to tell the truth.
You know, I would like to set the record straight for
the people who are concerned about Gino's demise.
PRODUCER: I wanted you to hear first what he had to say
about... about him and about, and about everything.
Thank you very much. I'm sorry.
It's okay. I know this is--
When you wait this long, 32 years...
♪
And yes, I miss him. I pray for him every day.
I talk to him. She knows that.
I get up at 4 o'clock every morning.
- She was up this morning. - Yeah, never miss a day.
- She prayed for two hours. - Yeah, I do that.
Okay, let me know when you're ready.
- Okay. I'm ready. - Okay.
ANONYMOUS: There's nothing I can gain from this.
I'm only doing this because I don't want Gino's family
to worry one more minute.
If they've been worried for 30 years, they worried,
you know, 29 years and 364 days too long.
I met Gino through some of the other people in the group
and we got to be good friends.
This was the 80s and disco was popular,
and the cocaine and drugs were all just a part of that culture,
and we kind of saw the opportunity to get
involved in selling drugs.
And, one of the guys in the group had...
cultivated a connection.
He would bring it in and he would give us each
a certain amount of it, and not many people know
that Gino was involved in this.
He was a professional wrestler,
and he saw us starting to make some money and
he thought it'd be a good opportunity for him.
He didn't make a lot of money as a wrestler and it was
basically just a way for some young guys to make some money,
and it was just something that everybody was
kind of doing in that period of time.
Do you remember giving a eulogy at Gino's funeral?
Do you remember what you said?
I know it was a long time ago.
It's a great line...
ANONYMOUS: Unfortunately, I felt like Gino started off
recreationally using the drugs,
and I think the drugs got hold of him.
And, of course, we were all, you know,
super concerned because we were in a business that
we knew could get us in a lot trouble even though
we weren't gangsters, or...
At the same time, I don't think we saw a cop behind
every bush like Gino seemed to do in the last part of his life.
Just knowing Gino, I would imagine that he probably
went to a club and probably drank a lot of alcohol,
and he probably came back to his apartment,
overdosed on drugs, and died of a
combination of drugs and alcohol.
I don't know Gino's family, but I would speak to them
directly and say, do not be concerned about anything
that happened to Gino. It was, basically,
just a situation of his own doing, unfortunately.
I know that's hard to hear because I know you loved him
and I loved him, too, but...
If you're concerned about anything,
you should put that at rest because you've worried for
30 years and I can absolutely tell you
there's nothing to worry about.
♪
I can't take those years back.
But I still have my daughter. And...
it's just nice to know that we don't have
anything to worry about.
Not anymore.
And I thank you very much for this.
[sniffles]
I want to believe that it was a tragic accident.
I want to believe that... [sighs]
Somehow, some way...
Um... he made a mistake.
That's what I want to believe.
I'm the type of person, I can forgive anybody.
You know? Yes, I forgive John Royal.
I forgive anybody that I thought the wrong way,
but I didn't know any different.
Had nobody tell me, outright.
Watching my grandma, she, she's lived a sad life.
I mean, she's gone through things and lived through things
that no mother should ever have to.
And sometimes you look at her and you think, wow,
you know, you can't believe that she walked that walk and
that she's still smiling today.
But she is, you know, and that's I think
the piece of life that goes on.
But now I know, there's nothing to be afraid of.
Nothing. I feel so good.
I could even have a margarita.
LANA: All right! PRODUCER: [laughs]
The legacy of Gino Hernandez, unfortunately,
he wasn't around long enough to create one of those.
I would like to see 'em put Gino into the Hall of Fame.
I think Gino was that good.
I want him to be remembered for the person that he was.
♪
And he made me, as his mother, very, very proud.
I hear a lot that I look like my dad.
My mom used to say, "You look like your dad.
You talk like your dad."
It's smooth sailing from here on out!
I have 5 children. I have 2 girls and 3 boys.
And you see little pieces of each of them in him
through those videos; that's what's cool to watch.
With you guys here and doing this, it's,
it's kind of like I finally get my, my peace at heart.
And I thank you for that.
♪