Original subtitles

We had scheduled a bout with Gino Hernandez.

However, we've 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

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.

And I'm listening to the person telling the story, and it's not even close to

true. Because I live 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

who typically did everything his way. As a mother, I've 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.

He had a wonderful personality.

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

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.

That's a bad guy.

As I say in the ring, Gino was evil.

Don't attempt to adjust your sensor. 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 have fit right in with a Randy Macho Man

Savage or some of those guys. So who knows where Gino would have went.

You can't buy it. You can't steal it. You can't borrow it.

You got it or you don't.

It's called charisma.

And he had charisma.

You had tag matches.

Yeah. Who's the wrestler that you hate the most?

Gino! Gino!

cocky, arrogant, good -looking, talented.

If you were to see Gino, you would have 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

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 them in real life.

I overcome any obstacle in my life, and especially some hormone -imbound female

that tries to stick her nose in a man's business.

Thank you, Tom.

And it's easy to hate somebody who's good -looking, who's got money or

and has a pretty girl on the side, and must be nice.

Full head of hair, got all that shit, you know.

I'd like to show you and the people pictures, no other.

Farrah Fawcett, I think they had a few dates. Who does she choose to be with?

wife was on the front row, and he said some of the things he would say to them.

I don't know that I wouldn't be waiting outside to knock him out. It almost came

natural for me.

One night, Geno had said something, and he insulted to the point this big cowboy

guy was getting up. He was headed to the ring, and the police stopped him.

Well, Geno 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, till around 89.

Probably I'd been in the business for about three, four years, five years,

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 is one of the few pieces of talent. I'd actually put Gino in the category

of a Ric Flair, a Jim Cornette, Michael Hayes, the people that you just hand

them a mic and they can do it. Tonight's the night. I told you 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 Bosch in Houston. Where

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 treated me like a kid 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.

Do you prefer to call him Charles or Gino?

No, Gino. Well, if you were asked, would you rather use the name Charles or

Gino? Because Gino always referred to himself as Gorgeous Gino. Gorgeous Gino

Hernandez.

G -G with two Gs on the back of his jacket.

He had Lewis's name.

Gino sometimes would kind of prance around, brag that his dad was Luis

Hernandez, you know. Did they play wrestle at all in the house and stuff?

Lord, yes.

From morning to night.

Well, I've always been a fan of wrestling all my life, and my father was

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

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. 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 Gina Hernandez.

After we were married, he kept his life very separate. So he had a professional

life, and he'd work out in the morning, and then he'd have a workout in the

afternoon, and it really consumed most of his day.

His family. There was really very little mixing outside of just family.

It was the soft side of him. It 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 hearing him

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

He would really be very, very intimidating. It made me very

around him when you would see him like that.

Has there been times in your life where your wrestling persona has bled into

your real life?

Jake Roberts never had a problem in his life. He's a bad guy.

about anybody, and he's going to do what he pleases, and he's going to go on

with life.

And he will f*** you up.

Aurelian Smith, on the other hand, is a human being, man, that cares about other

people.

He's made some mistakes.

He's a recovering alcoholic addict.

So, yeah, that guy has problems.

Jake Snake doesn't. For people to get mad at me for when I get on TV and say

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 used to tell him, you can drop that now, I know who you are.

I know that he and Chris had a very successful tag team, a dynamic duo.

Chris Adams was, he was a good guy. He could be a good friend as long as

wasn't involved.

They were a great team.

We got the looks.

We got the ability.

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.

We're bad to the bone.

All right.

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 Geno came to perform.

As a matter of fact, one of the highlighted matches at one of the

we ever had was at the Cotton Bowl.

It's all come down to the Cotton Bowl tomorrow at 3 p .m. And it was Geno and

Chris Adams against Kevin and Kerry, a hair match.

Chris and Geno both had just gorgeous hair down, you know, the whole thing,

sculptured look. And the Bonnards both had long hair, so people weren't sure

what was going to happen here.

And he would get in that ring, and he just owned the crowd. He knew exactly

he was doing. I've seen a lot of wrestlers in my life, and I've seen a

guys try to do what Geno did, and he was such an artist.

And sure enough, Geno and Chris Lawson, I remember they would hold him in those

seats, and they brought the razors out. The crowd was going crazy. They were

cheering. They were so happy. These guys were fixing 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 Friday night after the matches and party all night

long. My name is Jeannie Williams.

In 1985, Chris asked me to move to Dallas, and he said, you live next door

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

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, because they just had their hair shaved. And so we

decided we'd go to a nightclub.

We get in the car and he's going about 100 miles an hour and 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

in clouds and I come to find out afterwards that Gino had I

was in Las Vegas one time, and

Gino had a friend with him. This particular gentleman had a plane. They

rented the whole top suite floor of the hotel there, just partying for like

three days.

But I knew a lot of those guys were, I don't know if they were furnishing it

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 at Houston. You know, if you hang around

trouble, you're going to 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've got to watch who you hang out with.

Unknown to his family, Geno had been running with a fast and dangerous crowd.

But the party wouldn't last much longer.

Do you know or have you heard about some of those people that he was hanging

around, those heavier folks?

I just heard it was like, no, I don't know. I'm going to say, I don't know.

What I said is what it was.

I heard the people that you didn't mess with that had power in the city of

Houston and Dallas, and there's certainly those kind of people out

Well, when our children were young, we divorced.

I just didn't feel so safe about some of the people he might be hanging out

with, things I was hearing.

These were strong, powerful people within the city that might not have

certain things getting out.

There was just a side of him and people he ran with that I felt dangerous.

By 1986, there was a shift in the dynamic duo's storyline.

We saw Chris and Gino turn against each other.

igniting a vicious robbery.

Yeah,

one of Geno's last matches was he and Chris, we did a gimmick where, I think

it's Nair, it was like, you know, girls get it to get rid of hair.

Geno sprayed it in Chris's eyes, and for weeks, Chris wore this thing he

couldn't see and stuff like this.

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 that. Whatever happened, you took it with you.

Do you remember the last time you saw him? Can you tell me about that?

Super Bowl Sunday, 1986.

He was in a hurry, always in a hurry.

Did he seem like he was worried about anything to you at that time? Mm -hmm.

you talk about that?

It was very fidgety and nervous when he came in.

Say what you got to 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.

Do you know what he hid in her house?

No. Was he nervous?

Yeah, real nervous.

And Gina 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. And 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 going to try to stab me or whatever. And he said, so all of a

I just slammed on the brakes and then they jumped out the back and they ran

And he said, I think they were going to 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

to happen to me. You know, I've got to get a gun. I've got to get a gun.

He was adamant someone was sitting in the back seat 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 live, 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 booking.

and he said, Patrice, have you heard from Gino?

I said, no, but why? He said, well, I need to talk to him. I haven't heard

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 it wasn't like him. But I didn't think anything about it. And then we

couldn't reach him. 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 going to go and check on him and knock on his door. And I can't really

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 refereed for us was named Rick Hazard.

And I said, Rick, why don't you go over to Gino's apartment and see if his car

is here?

And so he called me and he said, well, the car is 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 estimated, about four to five days.

Walter took some rest there and went to the condo. They got in because Walter

was the only one they had in 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 where they found him.

I'm standing outside Chris's apartment, actually, and they're bringing out his

body in a body bag. It's just like something you're in denial.

Probably about, I'd say, a very short span of time, Walter calls me again.

And he said, Patrice is...

It's Walter.

And I said, did Gino get in touch with you? I said, he didn't call 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

the game.

His friends were saddened by an irreplaceable loss of a vibrant young

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.

Could you walk us through? You were at his home, and you heard a knock on the

door. Yeah, I was grieving.

Mika 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.

Gino went places with him.

But I really didn't know him.

We're both sitting facing each other, sitting on the floor, and I can

he says to me, Gino owed me a lot of money,

but just don't you worry about it.

Because I'm going to pay for his funeral.

I was sitting there, and I know how I felt looking at him.

I was scared to death.

Did what he said at the time feel like it was a threat?

Yeah. Well, it's just the tone of voice and the way somebody looks at you when

they stick their finger in you, 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 doggone well eye -to

-eye contact.

That tells you a lot.

You know, I remember walking into the funeral.

Went up, paid our respects.

There was a platinum casket.

It was closed casket.

So many people.

I dressed the finest I could dress, like a movie

star, because I knew Gina wanted me to look that way.

There were a lot of people that were hurting his mom and his sister. 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 do the service at the gravesite, and then they had a bottle of champagne,

they had glasses, and people were pouring champagne. And to you, Gino,

the champagne and breaking champagne glasses, you know, into 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. It

was just weird.

It was totally off.

And it was almost like people going, who the hell is this guy?

and to some of us that hadn't been around for a while, we just thought it

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

is. If you were to put him in a line today, I wouldn't know who it is.

But people talking about, oh, well, he's, he's, uh...

He's wanted by the authority show.

I don't know who the hell he is.

Who was the guy that gave the eulogy?

It was John Royal.

Did you know any of the activity that John Royal was involved in at all?

I just heard that 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 have done just pretty much anything then just to make sure my

was safe and I was too.

And that's the way it's been all these years.

I didn't talk to anybody until I talked to you guys.

As the Hernandez family mourned Gino's mysterious death, many questions

unanswered. Rumors began to fly throughout the resting 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

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,

the conflict going on. Police have received several telephone calls from

concerned fans who say Hernandez might have been murdered.

And immediately it's like, well, Chris did it. Why? The guy blinded him.

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 Gina.

That goes to show just how believable world -class championship wrestling was.

That somebody would go to the death 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.

Who was telling you guys that?

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.

I'm pretty meticulous about saving everything.

This is the suitcase that I put everything in after I had collected

he had passed away, anything that I could get my hands on because I never

go in his apartment.

As a mother, I've got a lot of questions that nobody has ever, ever answered me.

I said, well, I'll tell you what, I'll just do my own investigating.

And 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

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 up. So somebody was there with him.

Well, who was there with him?

And left him alone.

If it would have been me and I would have said, you need to do an autopsy

because someone murdered him.

The autopsy report, when they found him and he 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, you know, He had cocaine in

his system, but he had five times the amount.

I believe I was told he had enough that could have killed an elephant.

He had more than just enough to overdose. He had three or four or five

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.

It makes you question, you know, what the hell happened.

All top three reports said he was morbidly obese.

It's so 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.

How did that make you feel?

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

had faked his own death.

He was in some sort of trouble, whether it was tax evasion or he was trying to

hide from somebody after him. He had left a wife and a child and came back

years later.

Gino had said, I'm going to do that someday. That's what I would do.

Well, I wish that it wasn't him in there.

But I know in my heart that if he was alive, I'd have 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 that, well, if we

start stirring the pot, what's going to keep them from doing something to, you

know, our children?

At this point, it's sort of your working theory of what happened.

It feels like he was probably killed, that somebody murdered him. It feels

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

that he seemed fearful of something or someone.

Of course, you know, this is hearsay, you know, but it seemed to be that

consensus.

He, weeks leading up, or prior to his death, he felt like somebody was going

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 he said, hey, why don't you come along and have a cup of drink?

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 30 minutes, 40 minutes later,

he stopped speaking.

And when I talked, he said, he wasn't being angry to me, but he was, don't

speak. He kept going into 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

plug out of the sink and...

He stopped me, pulled me back.

He was a... The water was still falling on the floor. I turned

just around a little bit.

He had a gun in his hand.

My heart stopped to beat at first.

And he was holding me, telling me to be really quiet and could hear nothing but

the water.

And he seemed...

He'd 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.

Because he was afraid, it seemed, of the dark in his mind.

Did you know or come to know at any point that Gino had sort of issues with

drugs? Yeah, because I was dealing with him.

Duh.

I mean, 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 eight 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

told me that Rick was kind 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.

There might be more to it. Where was he getting so much cocaine from?

I was afraid then, very afraid, because I haven't talked about it all these

years. Because I got tired of looking over my shoulder every time I walked out

the apartment. And I've been living like that ever since.

Nobody should have to live like that.

It took a lot of my life away from me. And now...

You know, 77, where do I go from here?

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

I have nothing to lose because 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.

We're doing a documentary about Gino, and we've been talking a lot with his

family. Your name has come up a couple of times because you were close friends

with Gino.

Gino's mother had told us the story at a time when you approached her.

and had told her that you were going to pay for the funeral. Is that true?

Yeah.

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?

No, Gino didn't owe me any money.

I mean, I paid for the funeral.

Right. But Gino didn't owe me any money.

Well, that's really good to know. What did she think? Did he owe me some money?

Did I do something to him?

Had you ever heard any rumors about, you know, Gino's death not being something

that was accidental?

No.

I was with him until like 1 o 'clock in the morning the night he died.

Right.

We were at a pub club, and he was in a good mood, and he was buying drinks, and

he was drinking a lot.

I assumed that he was doing some drugs.

In addition

to John

Royal's story, a former drug trafficker who asked to remain anonymous has come

forward with his version of events.

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'd

like to set the record straight for the people who are concerned about Gino's

demise.

I wanted you to hear first what he had to say about him and about everything.

Thank you very much. I'm sorry.

It's okay.

When do you wait this long?

32 years.

And, yes, I miss him. I pray for him every day. I talk to him. She knows

I get up at 4 o 'clock every morning.

She was up this morning?

Yeah. Never been praying for two hours.

Yeah, I do that.

Okay, let me know when you're ready.

Okay. I'm ready. Okay.

There's nothing I can gain from this. I'm only doing this because I don't want

Gina's family to worry one more minute. If they've been worried for 30 years,

they've worried 29 years and 364 days too long.

I met Gino through some of the other people in the group and we got to be

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.

I started to make some money, and he thought it would be a good opportunity

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?

Absolutely.

Did you remember what you said?

I know it was a long time ago. Well, I mean, I said something like, you know,

wrestling there's good guys and bad guys, and Gino was a bad guy, but in

Gino was a good guy. You know, that's...

That's kind of what I opened up with, I remember.

There was no foul play with me. And this is something you don't know either.

I had a trial.

See, I was selling drugs at the time. They basically said that I gave Gino the

drugs that he died on. You know, basically, you know, they were talking

dope. You know, it was just fabricated. And what do you think the circumstances

were of his death?

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 super concerned

because we were in a business that we knew could get us in a lot of trouble,

even though we weren't gangsters. And 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 have misgivings because Gino had this problem with the drugs and that I should

have recognized it and did an intervention with him and saved him. 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.

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.

I want to believe that it was a tragic accident.

I want to believe that...

Somehow, someway, 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

Had nobody tell me outright.

Watching my grandma, 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. The legacy of Gino Hornadis, unfortunately,

he wasn't around long enough to create one of those. I would like to see him

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.

I mean, that they look like your dad, talk like your dad.

It's smooth sailing from here on out. I have five children. I have two girls and

three 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 kind of like I finally get my peace

at heart.

And I thank you for that.