WEBVTT
1
00:00:04.679 --> 00:00:09.679
Tapes from the Dark Side contains descriptions of violence and sexuality.
2
00:00:10.160 --> 00:00:13.039
Listener discretion is advised.
3
00:00:20.519 --> 00:00:25.920
Chapter one. The gruesome death of Otavia da Silva. On
4
00:00:26.079 --> 00:00:30.120
June thirtieth, twenty thirteen, what was supposed to be just
5
00:00:30.199 --> 00:00:34.200
another weekend soccer match in a quiet rural town in
6
00:00:34.240 --> 00:00:37.640
Brazil turned into one of the most shocking and gruesome
7
00:00:37.679 --> 00:00:41.320
displays of violence the sports world has ever seen. The
8
00:00:41.359 --> 00:00:45.320
town is called Piu Desiu and it holds just around
9
00:00:45.320 --> 00:00:49.880
twenty thousand people. This wasn't a championship game. There were
10
00:00:49.920 --> 00:00:54.640
no TV crews, no major sponsors, and no roaring stadium crowd.
11
00:00:55.200 --> 00:00:58.320
It was just a friendly Sunday afternoon soccer match on
12
00:00:58.359 --> 00:01:03.000
a dusty field by family, friends and neighbors. People looking
13
00:01:03.039 --> 00:01:06.359
for a bit of entertainment, some local pride, maybe even
14
00:01:06.400 --> 00:01:12.120
a cold drink under the fading afternoon sun. But by
15
00:01:12.120 --> 00:01:14.640
the end of that day, two men would be dead,
16
00:01:15.200 --> 00:01:19.000
one stabbed, the other butchered, and a soccer field would
17
00:01:19.000 --> 00:01:22.879
be stained with blood. The referee's name was a Tavio
18
00:01:23.120 --> 00:01:27.959
da Silva. He was just twenty years old. According to reports,
19
00:01:28.120 --> 00:01:31.840
tensions began to simmer when Da Silva made the controversial
20
00:01:31.920 --> 00:01:35.200
decision to eject a player from the match that was
21
00:01:35.319 --> 00:01:39.400
thirty one year old Housenir de Santos Abrave. The ejection
22
00:01:39.599 --> 00:01:43.879
followed a heated verbal altercation, and some say Hosseinyir had
23
00:01:43.920 --> 00:01:47.319
physically confronted the young ref though the exact nature of
24
00:01:47.319 --> 00:01:51.840
the aggression remains unclear. Joseinnir didn't take the action well.
25
00:01:52.280 --> 00:01:55.200
He refused to leave the pitch. What began as a
26
00:01:55.239 --> 00:01:59.319
shouting match quickly escalated. A scuffle broke out between the
27
00:01:59.359 --> 00:02:02.920
two men. Punches were thrown, and then, in a move
28
00:02:03.000 --> 00:02:06.439
that no one could have predicted, referee Atavio d Silva
29
00:02:06.519 --> 00:02:10.000
pulled out a knife, yes, a knife, right there on
30
00:02:10.080 --> 00:02:13.599
the field, in full view of stunned spectators. A tavia
31
00:02:13.719 --> 00:02:19.080
stow Jousegnir. Multiple times, paramedics were called. Josenir was rushed
32
00:02:19.120 --> 00:02:22.479
towards medical help, but he never made it. He died
33
00:02:22.560 --> 00:02:25.879
and route to the hospital, but what happened next is
34
00:02:26.199 --> 00:02:30.919
difficult to comprehend. Word of Joseonnir's death reached the crowd
35
00:02:31.039 --> 00:02:36.199
still gathered at the field, and it came with a rage, uncontrolled,
36
00:02:36.319 --> 00:02:41.639
primal rage fueled by grief, fueled by horror, fueled by
37
00:02:41.719 --> 00:02:45.360
shock that a simple Sunday game had turned deadly. Friends
38
00:02:45.400 --> 00:02:49.039
and relatives of the slain players stormed the field. They
39
00:02:49.080 --> 00:02:51.879
caught a Tavio da Silva, and what they did to
40
00:02:52.000 --> 00:02:57.120
him defies belief. First, the mob stoned him. They beat
41
00:02:57.199 --> 00:03:00.400
him to death with whatever they could find. They didn't
42
00:03:00.400 --> 00:03:04.919
stop there after killing him. They reportedly quartered his body,
43
00:03:05.520 --> 00:03:08.199
which is a medieval term that means they severed his
44
00:03:08.360 --> 00:03:12.159
arms and legs, and, in an act as ritualistic as
45
00:03:12.159 --> 00:03:16.319
it was grotesque, they decapitated the young referee and then
46
00:03:16.360 --> 00:03:19.280
planted his head on a wooden steak in the center
47
00:03:19.319 --> 00:03:24.599
of the field, a warning, a message, a public display
48
00:03:24.639 --> 00:03:30.840
of vengeance. The scene was so surreal, so brutally symbolic,
49
00:03:31.039 --> 00:03:34.680
that local media struggled to even describe it. There were
50
00:03:34.759 --> 00:03:38.879
grainy photos, conflicting reports, but they all painted a picture
51
00:03:38.919 --> 00:03:42.599
of a community shocked into silence, a country left asking
52
00:03:42.639 --> 00:03:46.599
how something so unthinkable could happen over something as seemingly
53
00:03:46.680 --> 00:03:50.680
trivial as a soccer match. Police recalled, but by the
54
00:03:50.759 --> 00:03:55.159
time they arrived, the damage was done. Otavia's body was scattered,
55
00:03:55.319 --> 00:03:59.159
his head was displayed like some kind of trophy. Several
56
00:03:59.199 --> 00:04:03.080
individuals were eventually arrested in connection with the killing. But
57
00:04:03.199 --> 00:04:07.479
in small rural communities like this one, justice can be slow,
58
00:04:07.840 --> 00:04:12.439
and sometimes it never fully comes. This story forces us
59
00:04:12.439 --> 00:04:17.480
to confront uncomfortable questions about mob mentality, about how quickly
60
00:04:17.600 --> 00:04:22.120
order can collapse, and about the dangerous cocktail of tribalism,
61
00:04:22.399 --> 00:04:27.000
grief and revenge. A match that began to sport ended
62
00:04:27.160 --> 00:04:30.920
in ritual killing, and to this day, that field, in
63
00:04:31.000 --> 00:04:34.680
that small town in Brazil is remembered not for goal scored,
64
00:04:35.279 --> 00:04:43.079
but for blood spilled. Chapter two Bruiser Brodie. In the
65
00:04:43.079 --> 00:04:46.680
world of professional wrestling, there are legends and then there
66
00:04:46.720 --> 00:04:50.879
are forces of nature. Frank Donald Goodish, better known to
67
00:04:50.920 --> 00:04:55.319
fans around the globe as Bruiser Brodie, wasn't just another wrestler.
68
00:04:55.879 --> 00:04:59.079
He was a towering, wide eyed brawler, a man who
69
00:04:59.079 --> 00:05:01.680
seemed to step straight out of a nightmare and into
70
00:05:01.720 --> 00:05:05.600
the ring. With his tangled black hair, fierce growl, and
71
00:05:05.759 --> 00:05:10.279
unpredictable energy, Brody blurred the line between performance and something
72
00:05:10.399 --> 00:05:14.199
far more dangerous. By the mid nineteen eighties, he was
73
00:05:14.240 --> 00:05:18.519
a myth in motion, a hardcore icon, a special attraction
74
00:05:18.680 --> 00:05:22.040
who didn't belong to anyone promotion, but was in constant
75
00:05:22.040 --> 00:05:28.399
demand across the territories Japan, Texas, the Carolinas. Wherever Brody went,
76
00:05:28.720 --> 00:05:33.879
blood followed, and sometimes it wasn't just scripted. Behind the scenes,
77
00:05:33.920 --> 00:05:36.800
Brody was known to be fiercely protective of his image.
78
00:05:37.199 --> 00:05:39.800
He refused to lose unless it made sense to him,
79
00:05:39.959 --> 00:05:43.439
sometimes walking out of matches or going off script entirely.
80
00:05:43.759 --> 00:05:46.519
And when things got real in the ring, they got
81
00:05:46.959 --> 00:05:50.279
very real. He had no problem hitting an opponent for
82
00:05:50.360 --> 00:05:54.240
real if he felt disrespected. Some saw it as authenticity,
83
00:05:54.839 --> 00:05:59.120
others called it volatility, and maybe, just maybe there was
84
00:05:59.160 --> 00:06:06.519
someone who saw as a threat. July sixteenth, nineteen eighty eight,
85
00:06:07.319 --> 00:06:12.040
Juan Ramon lu Brielle Stadium and Belmon, Puerto Rico. It
86
00:06:12.160 --> 00:06:15.079
was a humid evening and the crowd outside was packed
87
00:06:15.120 --> 00:06:19.279
in shoulder to shoulder, excited for another wild night of wrestling.
88
00:06:19.839 --> 00:06:22.680
Inside the locker room, Brody was preparing for his match,
89
00:06:23.160 --> 00:06:27.079
a scheduled bout against Dan Spivey, but before he could
90
00:06:27.079 --> 00:06:29.439
even lace his boots, he was approached by a man
91
00:06:29.480 --> 00:06:34.319
he had known for years, Jose Huertas Gonzalez. Gonzalez was
92
00:06:34.319 --> 00:06:38.560
a fellow wrestler known in the ring as Invader, and
93
00:06:38.639 --> 00:06:41.079
he was also one of the bookers, a man with
94
00:06:41.160 --> 00:06:42.240
backstage power.
95
00:06:43.079 --> 00:06:46.240
Brody and Invader, they didn't really care for each other.
96
00:06:46.560 --> 00:06:50.800
Their personalities did not mash. Even their matches. You could
97
00:06:50.800 --> 00:06:53.079
tell there was something not quite right with.
98
00:06:53.720 --> 00:06:56.240
Who was a pretty decent guy. If he liked you,
99
00:06:56.959 --> 00:06:59.279
if he didn't like you, he would beat the living
100
00:07:00.360 --> 00:07:02.879
crap out of here. But I just seen Brody take
101
00:07:02.920 --> 00:07:05.240
people in the ring many a time and just beat
102
00:07:05.279 --> 00:07:08.079
him unmercifully. He would just beat him to death.
103
00:07:08.319 --> 00:07:10.399
Well, I've tried to piece it together over the years.
104
00:07:10.680 --> 00:07:13.839
What brought this on? Let's go back into past. In
105
00:07:13.920 --> 00:07:18.560
the mid seventies, they were grooming. I heard Jose Gonzale
106
00:07:18.720 --> 00:07:21.600
is to be like the next pert weecn Star Brews
107
00:07:21.600 --> 00:07:23.959
of Brody came in and had a match with Jose
108
00:07:24.040 --> 00:07:25.600
Gonzales and just beat the shit out of it.
109
00:07:26.079 --> 00:07:28.759
He ate him up. I mean the whole face, floody
110
00:07:29.040 --> 00:07:31.839
head was rolling up, look just like a pumpkin. Brody
111
00:07:31.879 --> 00:07:33.560
beat him so bad that as he had to take
112
00:07:33.600 --> 00:07:35.560
him to the houspitter. We put him in a car,
113
00:07:35.680 --> 00:07:37.839
and as he took him to the hospital and he
114
00:07:37.879 --> 00:07:41.399
turned to SD Jenermal. They said, one day I'm gonna
115
00:07:41.480 --> 00:07:44.319
kill that man. He was angry.
116
00:07:45.439 --> 00:07:48.439
He reportedly asked Brody to step into the shower area
117
00:07:48.560 --> 00:07:52.720
to talk business. Brody agreed. What happened next would be
118
00:07:52.800 --> 00:07:57.600
heard but not seen. There were no clear eyewitnesses. The
119
00:07:57.639 --> 00:07:59.680
shower area was out of you from the rest of
120
00:07:59.720 --> 00:08:02.959
the life locker room. But what happened next everyone heard
121
00:08:03.600 --> 00:08:08.279
two blood curdling screams. Tony Atlas, another wrestler in the
122
00:08:08.319 --> 00:08:11.759
locker room, was the first to react. He sprinted towards
123
00:08:11.759 --> 00:08:14.279
the sound, and what he saw would stay with him
124
00:08:14.319 --> 00:08:17.040
for the rest of his life. Brody was doubled over,
125
00:08:17.199 --> 00:08:20.959
clutching his abdomen. Blood was pouring from his body, and
126
00:08:21.040 --> 00:08:25.240
standing over him was Jose Guertus Gonzalez holding a knife.
127
00:08:30.639 --> 00:08:37.679
As I'm looking at Colos, I hear this sound, so
128
00:08:37.759 --> 00:08:42.000
I looked up. Brody was halfway hunch over. I thought
129
00:08:42.120 --> 00:08:45.480
Jose punched him in the stomach. That's what I thought.
130
00:08:45.679 --> 00:08:48.600
That The first thought came, a man, damn he hit Brody.
131
00:08:49.159 --> 00:08:51.840
I said, oh, this is gonna be a fight. So
132
00:08:51.960 --> 00:08:56.919
then he hauler again. I looked at Jose face and
133
00:08:57.039 --> 00:09:02.759
his eyes was blood shot red. Then I saw the knife.
134
00:09:03.600 --> 00:09:06.240
The knife went in the air, like this, with blood
135
00:09:06.320 --> 00:09:09.080
dripping off of it. I sprung up out of my chair,
136
00:09:09.240 --> 00:09:12.159
wrapped my arm around brody waists just like this. I
137
00:09:12.279 --> 00:09:14.720
yank him back, just in the nicked time to keep
138
00:09:14.759 --> 00:09:18.519
from his throat getting caught. And because I pulled him back,
139
00:09:18.559 --> 00:09:21.840
the knife cad and cut his ponytail off. That's how
140
00:09:21.840 --> 00:09:25.679
sharp that knife was. Carlo shoot right by me, and
141
00:09:25.759 --> 00:09:28.200
he grabbed Jose and push him up against the wall
142
00:09:28.279 --> 00:09:31.559
and said no Jose, no Jose. And Klo was keeping
143
00:09:31.600 --> 00:09:35.000
people away from Jose, telling the rast y'all stay back,
144
00:09:35.080 --> 00:09:38.639
stay back. So I takee Brody and I take him
145
00:09:38.679 --> 00:09:42.120
and I lay him down on the ground. I felt
146
00:09:42.159 --> 00:09:45.360
his intestines and blood all over this arm here, this
147
00:09:45.399 --> 00:09:47.840
whole arm was drenched in blood. And he looked up
148
00:09:47.879 --> 00:09:50.919
at me. He said, brother, don't let him hurt me
149
00:09:51.000 --> 00:09:53.320
no more. Please, Brother, don't let him hurt me no more.
150
00:09:53.399 --> 00:09:56.360
I say, ain't no fucking body gonna do anything to you.
151
00:09:57.679 --> 00:10:01.840
Chaos erupted. Paramedics were called immediately, but traffic outside the
152
00:10:01.879 --> 00:10:05.360
stadium was so dense, so jam packed with fans, that
153
00:10:05.440 --> 00:10:08.480
it took nearly an hour for them to reach the scene.
154
00:10:08.519 --> 00:10:11.879
When they finally arrived, the paramedics couldn't even lift Brody's
155
00:10:11.919 --> 00:10:15.240
massive body onto the stretcher. It was Tony Atlas who
156
00:10:15.240 --> 00:10:18.720
helped carry him down the stairs to the waiting ambulance bruiser.
157
00:10:18.720 --> 00:10:22.679
Brody died shortly after from his injuries, and that should
158
00:10:22.679 --> 00:10:24.960
have been the start of a murder trial that rocked
159
00:10:24.960 --> 00:10:28.120
the wrestling world. But what happened next would feel like
160
00:10:28.120 --> 00:10:31.720
a betrayal, not just to Brody but to justice everywhere.
161
00:10:32.480 --> 00:10:35.879
Gonzales claimed he acted in self defense, that Brody had
162
00:10:35.879 --> 00:10:39.840
attacked him first. The murder weapon never found. When the
163
00:10:39.879 --> 00:10:42.720
case went to court in Puerto Rico in nineteen eighty nine,
164
00:10:43.000 --> 00:10:47.000
several of the key prosecution witnesses, including Tony Atlas, were
165
00:10:47.039 --> 00:10:50.279
still living in the US. They later claimed they never
166
00:10:50.360 --> 00:10:54.039
received court summons until after the trial had ended. The
167
00:10:54.080 --> 00:10:57.519
court didn't delay the trial, it didn't pursue contempt charges.
168
00:10:57.759 --> 00:11:02.559
It simply moved on, and so did the jury. Jose
169
00:11:02.720 --> 00:11:06.919
Where Does Gonzalez was acquitted, no conviction, and no appeal.
170
00:11:08.120 --> 00:11:11.279
Years later, a documentary crew from the show Dark Side
171
00:11:11.320 --> 00:11:14.480
of the Ring, which I would highly suggest, would revisit
172
00:11:14.559 --> 00:11:17.840
the case in chilling detail. Tony Atlas appeared in that
173
00:11:17.960 --> 00:11:21.559
episode recalling the night in vivid horror, the way Brody
174
00:11:21.639 --> 00:11:24.759
had confided in him, the last words he spoke, the
175
00:11:24.840 --> 00:11:28.559
fear and disbelief in the locker room. He also claimed
176
00:11:28.559 --> 00:11:33.600
something else that Gonzalez, Victor Keonez in the legendary Puerto
177
00:11:33.720 --> 00:11:37.799
Rican promoter Carlos Cologne were having a private, urgent meeting
178
00:11:38.240 --> 00:11:41.720
just before Brody was called in the shower. Wrestler Dutchman
179
00:11:41.840 --> 00:11:46.720
Tell described the meeting as quote strange. Atlas also said
180
00:11:46.759 --> 00:11:49.759
Brody was about to gain partial ownership of the Puerto
181
00:11:49.840 --> 00:11:53.279
Rican Wrestling Company. He told Atlas, You're going to see
182
00:11:53.279 --> 00:11:57.279
a lot of changes, changes that perhaps some didn't want
183
00:11:57.320 --> 00:12:01.559
to see, and then Gonzalez to speak to him, quote
184
00:12:01.679 --> 00:12:04.080
can I talk to you for a minute please? Those
185
00:12:04.120 --> 00:12:07.320
were reportedly the last words Brody ever heard before being
186
00:12:07.360 --> 00:12:11.240
stabbed to death in a shower stall. Barbara Goodish, Brody's widow,
187
00:12:11.320 --> 00:12:14.639
told reporters quote, I know the attacker did it from
188
00:12:14.679 --> 00:12:16.720
what I hear. The whole court case was a sham.
189
00:12:17.279 --> 00:12:19.879
The Dark Side producers say they reached out to both
190
00:12:19.919 --> 00:12:24.200
Gonzales and Cologne, but both declined to be interviewed. Bruiser
191
00:12:24.240 --> 00:12:28.000
Brody was a wrestling legend, a brutal, defiant force who
192
00:12:28.080 --> 00:12:30.919
refused to play by the rules in the ring or
193
00:12:31.000 --> 00:12:33.440
out of it, and maybe that's why he died the
194
00:12:33.440 --> 00:12:36.519
way he did, not in front of thousands under the
195
00:12:36.519 --> 00:12:39.679
bright lights of the arena, but behind a closed door,
196
00:12:40.480 --> 00:12:52.080
no cameras, no referee, no script, just silence and a knife.
197
00:12:53.759 --> 00:12:56.159
We're gonna take a quick ad break. If you want
198
00:12:56.159 --> 00:12:59.720
to skip the ads, support the show on patreon dot com.
199
00:13:00.039 --> 00:13:03.320
Slash tapes from the Dark Side will be right back.
200
00:13:03.919 --> 00:13:09.080
Don't go anywhere. Chapter three.
201
00:13:09.480 --> 00:13:09.879
Snook.
202
00:13:11.200 --> 00:13:15.000
You've heard of athletes falling from grace, but this one.
203
00:13:15.159 --> 00:13:19.279
This ends in an electric chair. An Olympic gold medalist,
204
00:13:19.559 --> 00:13:25.200
a respective professor, a decorated war veteran, and a killer.
205
00:13:25.960 --> 00:13:29.200
This is the story of James Howard Snook, a man
206
00:13:29.240 --> 00:13:32.000
who stood on the world stage as a hero and
207
00:13:32.080 --> 00:13:35.200
died as one of the most brutal murderers the sports
208
00:13:35.200 --> 00:13:39.120
world has ever known. James Snook was born in eighteen
209
00:13:39.200 --> 00:13:42.200
seventy nine in West Virginia, the kind of man who
210
00:13:42.240 --> 00:13:46.480
seemed to do everything right. A trained veterinarian professor at
211
00:13:46.519 --> 00:13:50.000
Ohio State University, and in nineteen twenty, at the summer
212
00:13:50.000 --> 00:13:53.960
Olympics in Antwerp. He stood atop the podium, gold medal
213
00:13:54.000 --> 00:13:56.840
in hand, as part of the US pistol shooting team.
214
00:13:57.399 --> 00:14:01.120
He became a hero, a husband, a father, a professor
215
00:14:01.159 --> 00:14:07.759
of veterinary medicine, respected, trusted, untouchable. But in nineteen twenty six,
216
00:14:08.360 --> 00:14:11.879
everything began to unravel because that's when he met a
217
00:14:11.919 --> 00:14:15.759
twenty four year old medical student named Theora Hicks and
218
00:14:15.840 --> 00:14:19.799
started in an affair that would end in blood. The
219
00:14:19.919 --> 00:14:24.919
relationship was passionate, volatile. Snook had built a secret hideaway,
220
00:14:25.200 --> 00:14:28.279
a converted garage just off campus where the two would
221
00:14:28.320 --> 00:14:32.159
meet in secret. But Theora wasn't just a student. She
222
00:14:32.279 --> 00:14:37.200
was smart, assertive, and over time demanding. She wanted more
223
00:14:37.200 --> 00:14:42.519
out of Snook emotionally, physically, financially. He wanted out that.
224
00:14:42.600 --> 00:14:46.679
On June thirteenth, nineteen twenty nine, he made that decision final,
225
00:14:47.440 --> 00:14:51.279
but instead of ending things with a conversation, Snook used
226
00:14:51.279 --> 00:14:56.840
a hammer. According to court testimony, the two drove out
227
00:14:56.879 --> 00:15:01.080
together into the countryside near Columbus, Ohio. A heated argument
228
00:15:01.159 --> 00:15:03.840
broke out. No one knows what was said, but what
229
00:15:04.000 --> 00:15:08.759
happened next was pure savagery. Snook struck Theora repeatedly in
230
00:15:08.799 --> 00:15:12.320
the head with a ballpeen hammer. She didn't die immediately,
231
00:15:12.639 --> 00:15:15.480
so Snuk took out a small pocket knife and he
232
00:15:15.559 --> 00:15:19.759
slid her throat, severing her jugular vein. When her body
233
00:15:19.840 --> 00:15:22.720
was found, it was clear this wasn't a moment of passion,
234
00:15:23.279 --> 00:15:27.919
cold clinical the gold medalist had become a butcher. Snuk
235
00:15:27.960 --> 00:15:31.519
was arrested just two days later. At first he confessed,
236
00:15:31.600 --> 00:15:34.679
but later claimed the police had coerced them. The trial
237
00:15:34.799 --> 00:15:39.120
was a national sensation, a scandal. The prosecution painted Snook
238
00:15:39.120 --> 00:15:42.440
as a cold, calculating killer. The defense tried to argue
239
00:15:42.519 --> 00:15:46.120
self defense, that theora had threatened him, but no one
240
00:15:46.159 --> 00:15:49.399
believed it. It took the jury just twenty eight minutes
241
00:15:49.440 --> 00:15:56.720
to reach a verdict guilty, first degree murder. February twenty eighth,
242
00:15:56.879 --> 00:16:01.440
nineteen thirty the Olympic hero walked in final steps to
243
00:16:01.559 --> 00:16:07.159
the electric chair. No crowd, no anthem, no applause, just