Gagne investigated for death
gman1269
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.