Verne Gagne is one of the legends of professional wrestling, a pioneer of the sports-entertainment hybrid who was influential both in the ring and out of it. (In the above video he's wrestling Killer Kowalski in 1953.) Gagne is now 82 years old and suffering from Alzheimer's Disease, and he's being investigated in the death of his nursing home roommate.
In January, a 97-year-old man named Helmut Gutmann suffered a fall at the Friendship Village retirement community in Minnesota. Gutmann died 20 days later, and now multiple news outlets are reporting that he fell because his roommate -- Gagne -- threw him to the ground.
According to a story at MinnPost.com, "Gagne picked up the diminutive and frail man and hurled him violently to the floor, breaking his hip." Gutmann's wife also lives at Friendship Village and said she was shocked, but added:
"You can't blame the person that did it," she said. "[Gagne] doesn't know what he's doing. I feel so sorry for his family, because they are faced with a terrible problem of what to do."A member of Gagne's family reacted angrily when told that MinnPost.com was publishing the story:
"He has only one minute of memory retention," the woman said. "And even though nobody is saying that this is the reason that this man died, you're going to publish this? Unbelievable. You take a man who has given nothing but his time and his energy to this state, he loses his mind, and you're going to do this?"The story has been picked up by the Minneapolis Star Tribune and the local Fox affiliate, and Gagne's Wikipedia entry was apparently the first place where information about his involvment in Gutmann's death was published. Police are reportedly investigating, and it is not clear whether any charges will be pressed.
Comments (Page 1 of 5)
Verne was a great competitor and did a great job for the business. I was a professional wrestler for over 10 years and wish my career could have been half as prolific as his. Sorry he has Alzheimers. What a waste of a great wrestling and story mind.
Im amazed that this person is shocked the media would print that story? they are nothing but self serving jackels that only care about selling their story! there is not on unbiased media outlet in this whole country! The media is NOT supposed to have an opinion, they are garbage and cannot be trusted, hey they got this idiot in The White House elected by being biased and lying!
hear..hear!!
Obama is your President and my President. The only advise I have for your kind is quit your whining and just deal with it.
we should stop whining and support our [resident. The liberals did not support bush so it is kind of hypocritical for them to yell at the right, but we can still be the bigger people and try to help this country. liberals try to destroy the country when a republican is in office.
If you were the family of course you would be surprised you nitwit.
You drunk: are you kidding, I hope you're being sarcastic. No of you whiny little nit-wits supported G.W. why would we support your "boy"
Sorry to hear that Verne has Alzheimers, it is a horrible way to live and die. I have some fun memories of Verne, his son Greg and his tag team partner "Jumping Jim Brunzell" from the 70' & 80's when I worked at a health club in the hotel they would stay in when working in Denver during their hayday. Verne was always a very nice, kind and respectful person that treated anyone he met with respect and kindness! We should all treat people the way Verne treated people.
I grew up in the world of wrestling. And Verne Gagne was one of my hero. It is a shame that he has Alzheimers which will destroy any family.
ANYBODY REMEMBER MADILDA THE HUN.....
I USED TO DEE HER IN ST. CLOUD FLORIDA .
ANYONE KNOW HER WHERE ABOUTS ...IM IN LOVE WITH HER.
this woman is shocked the media reported this? please..the media is fawning over the new celebrity who's in the White House..you cannot trust ANYBODY who's holding a pen and a piece of paper calling themselves a "journalist"..it's a damn shame they have to slam a legend in pro wrestling when he's suffering from an ugly disease like Alzheimer's...the shoe would be on the other foot if it was one of their parents..or would they exploit them too? friggin ghouls...
journalists--lowlife-bloodsucking-lying-fabricating- ba$tards that should be roasted alive..
rbearfield.....
You should`nt hold it in , just tell
us what you think....
P.S. DITTO....have a nice day.
Verne was a friend of my Dad who also wrestled professionally. I met him on ocassion when he wrestled in Buffalo. I can remember a very big yet great man who treated me with respect and was nothing but enjoyable to be with when I was young. I feel for the elderly man who died but if the nursing home knew Verne was a threat why did he have a roommate? I'm not condoning it if he did but nursing homes should be more careful about who they match up.
What is a patient with alzhiemers doing with a roommate? Any person that knows anything about the infliction knows sufferers at times have no idea what they are doing. He most likely thought he just slammed Dick The Bruiser to the mat!! If anyone is responsible it is the management of the nursing home.
As a memory care professional, I can tell you that many long term care communities are forced to offer "semi-private" rooms due to pathetic Medicaid reimbursement rates. They can't pay for decent food and care staff for their residents if they don't double up. They're doing their best. If you want to be angry, put it into a letter to your local Senator and let them know that it isn't okay to force our seniors to live in close quarters with people they don't know from minute to minute just because they have to rely on a system that won't pay for good care's fair cost.
You are oh so right. The issue with so many of these nursing homes is they just want to fill beds and make $$$. Then to top it off they have minimally trained, often apathetic staff to take care of people who have psychotic episodes. It's very sad to see one of my favorite Saturday afternoon childhood heroes in such a state. Just the same, we can't blame the reporter because this is a truly newsworthy story. We must blame the system that let an Alzheimer's dementia-addled ex-professional wrestler get anywhere near a feeble 97 year old man.
argonautatsea you say thay cant afford good help an food because thay dont get enough money less say you are in a resthome with 100 rooms thats 200 people at less say 2 grand a mo. and thats probley a low figure do the math thats 4.8 mill a year a thaty cant akkord good help an decent food just how damm much money do thay need
This wouldn't of happened if he waas allowed to room with the very capable KENNY JAY or the very capable KENNY YATES. He probably just put the sleeper hold on this fella and as we all know the only way to wake up after a sleeper hold applied by Vern was for him to pull on the victim's feet. Has anyone tried this. Now if he applied the pile driver this guy might truly be dead. As Marty O'Neil used to say "That move should be outlawed and in some states it is." I belief he dementia can be traced back to the time Doctor X rushed into the ring from the audience and properly applied a figure four leg lock on the champ. Lucky for Vern the Crusher was still around to knock Dr.X out of the ring.He just wasn't the same after that.
Its too bad when"reporting the news" has to stoop to something like this. If you got rid of the news media, lawyers and insurence companies the world might be a great place to live. Right now its avery sad place to live in