BS: old-time wrestler Verne Gagne

Subject: BS: old-time wrestler Vern Gagne
From: Art Thieme
Date: 19 Feb 09 - 03:11 PM

Word has just reached me that old time wrestler Vern Gagne, one of my all time favorites in the 1950s, body slammed his 97 year old roomy in a nursing home--and the fellow died!

Just a word to the wise.

Anyone have details? I did a search with no results.

Art

Subject: RE: BS: old-time wrestler Vern Gagne
From: gnu
Date: 19 Feb 09 - 03:45 PM

And they say American Wrestling is fake!?

Subject: RE: BS: old-time wrestler Vern Gagne
From: john f weldon
Date: 19 Feb 09 - 03:52 PM

Yes, it's in the news. Apparently these old guys can still drum up a testosterone storm from time to time.

My great-uncle was a top-ranked middleweight boxer. In his nineties, in a nursing home, he was still getting into brawls, and once knocked out another dotard whom he found stealing money from his bedside drawer. Luckily the guy lived.

Subject: RE: BS: old-time wrestler Vern Gagne
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 19 Feb 09 - 03:56 PM

Verne Gagne was a classmate of mine--or at least a contemporaneous student--at the University of Minnesota.   Of course he was a sports star, and I didn't know him.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: old-time wrestler Vern Gagne
From: gnu
Date: 19 Feb 09 - 04:01 PM

Um.... sorry. That "joke" of mine was in very poor taste.

Odd that I only realized that after I recalled the many hours I spent with war vets in the Vet Unit at the Georges Dumont Hospital here in Moncton, NB, Canada.

I recall several "lads" who were mentally diminished and who bullied and harrassed and mentally and physically abused others in the unit. Some of the other lads were frail and were scared for their lives 24 hours a day. I recall weeping over some instances.

My apologies.

Subject: RE: BS: old-time wrestler Vern Gagne
From: frogprince
Date: 19 Feb 09 - 04:32 PM

In all probability, Gagne no longer knows "if he's on foot or on horseback"; if he has been known to lapse back into wrestler mode,
the nursing facility may be justly facing some liability. If this came out of nowhere, it's just a bizzare tragedy, inseparable from the tragedy of alzheimers.
My brother-in-law, now deceased, worked at a TV station just large enough to have local televised wrestling. At that time Gagne was selling food supplements and sponsoring those shows. Gagne would show up sometimes and direct the wrestling action from off camera.

Subject: RE: BS: old-time wrestler Vern Gagne
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 20 Feb 09 - 01:15 AM

From the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:

Famed wrestler Gagne linked to death of man, 97

(It happened in Bloomington, a suburb of Minneapolis.)

Subject: RE: BS: old-time wrestler Vern Gagne
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 20 Feb 09 - 08:53 AM

From the St. Paul Pioneer-Press:

Minnesota wrestling legend Verne Gagne implicated in man's death

Subject: RE: BS: old-time wrestler Verne Gagne
From: frogprince
Date: 20 Feb 09 - 01:19 PM

I would hope everyone realizes the pointlessness of prosecuting Gagne. He might need to be kept under restraint to a degree that would be sad and cruel in itself. I don't see how I could ever advocate the legalization of involuntary euthanasia, but it almost seems like the humane option in a case like this.

Subject: RE: BS: old-time wrestler Verne Gagne
From: john f weldon
Date: 20 Feb 09 - 01:46 PM

It seems to me that one's bones can deteriorate faster than the muscles, and that what might have been a harmless punch-up at age thirty, forgiven and forgotten the next day, could be deadly at age ninety. It's easy to forget your age, even without alzheimer's.

Subject: RE: BS: old-time wrestler Verne Gagne
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 20 Feb 09 - 04:15 PM

Maybe some people wrestle or box for fun, but unless both parties consent, it's assault, and not to be tolerated.

In this case, it might not be practical to prosecute, however. The staff will have to take some measures to protect other patients.

People that age can die from simple falls. It happened to an aunt of mine.

Subject: RE: BS: old-time wrestler Verne Gagne
From: kendall
Date: 21 Feb 09 - 03:29 PM

A few years ago an old man was attacked on a NY street by three young punks and he "kicked 9 kinds of shit" out of all three of them. It turned out to be not a helpless old man, but "Battling Nelson" former lightweight boxing champion.

Anyone remember the scene in "Cocoon" where Hume Cronin decked that orderly? My favorite scene.

At the age of 70, my Uncle Guy decked a man half his age for insulting Guy's wife. He had Guy arrested and when the Judge saw Uncle he almost threw the aggressor into jail.Uncle had to pay a fine, but the idiot never lived it down. Decked by a skinny old man. I would be mortified.

Subject: RE: BS: old-time wrestler Verne Gagne
From: Art Thieme
Date: 21 Feb 09 - 09:10 PM

I saw Verne Gagne and Farmer Don Marlin beat Yukon Eric and Bruno Samartino. Eric was sitting on the curb and my brother asked him weather or not it was in the script that night for him to win or not. Eric got up and chased my little bro, but he didn't catch, him!

Fond memories of the old Marigold Arena on Chicago's north side.

Art

Subject: RE: BS: old-time wrestler Verne Gagne
From: Arkie
Date: 21 Feb 09 - 11:49 PM

I knew of Verne Gagne from my early days when I watched a lot of Thursday night matches and even went to the Norfolk arena for a few live matches, but he was appearing in my area. Seems like in those days wrestlers worked in specific regions and even the televised matches tended to show a select few. Georgeous George, Mr. Moto, George and Bobby Becker, Baron Leone were a few I did get see.

Keeping someone like Gagne, who was one of the good guys, if I remember right, under control even at his advanced age could be a handful.

Subject: RE: BS: old-time wrestler Verne Gagne
From: gnu
Date: 05 Mar 09 - 04:07 PM

The Beast has passed.

Subject: RE: BS: old-time wrestler Verne Gagne
From: gnu
Date: 05 Mar 09 - 04:10 PM

In another thread, I told the story... I never really followed wrestling.. but, one night, I walked into my uncle's house and they they were on the couch, having a beer... Including "The Beast", who was Russian? or crazy? or both?

As a wee lad, it was a shock.

Subject: RE: BS: old-time wrestler Verne Gagne
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 06 Mar 09 - 09:38 AM

"Charges in Gagne assault seem unlikely"
from the St Paul Pioneer Press, Friday, March 06, 2009.

"Former pro wrestler accused in nursing home death"
from the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Thursday, March 05, 2009.
(a different spin on the same data, apparently)

Subject: RE: BS: old-time wrestler Verne Gagne
From: john f weldon
Date: 06 Mar 09 - 10:25 AM

Verne Gagne was in an excellent wrestling documentary a few years ago. He seemed amiable and relaxed, and talked about Yukon Eric's cauliflower ear, which Killer Kowalski inadvertently removed.

Subject: RE: BS: old-time wrestler Verne Gagne
From: Ref
Date: 06 Mar 09 - 09:51 PM

Uh, it's not fair to assume Gagne was the aggressor in this. A lot of Alzheimer's patients get combative, even the little skinny ones. Verne could well have been, or believed himself to be acting in self-defense.

Subject: RE: BS: old-time wrestler Verne Gagne
From: frogprince
Date: 06 Mar 09 - 11:17 PM

Even if he did it without provocation, what's the use of punishing Vern for doing it, when Vern isn't there anymore? It's just part and parcel of the tragedy of alzheimers.