June 18, 2025

Unsportsmanlike Conduct

Unsportsmanlike Conduct
Tapes from the Darkside | Crime & Psychology
Unsportsmanlike Conduct

Three tales of rage and ruin in the sports world. Chapter 1 = The Gruesome Death of Otavio da Silva Chapter 2 = Bruiser Brody Chapter 3 = Snook Support the show on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/tapesfromthedarkside — Follow on instagram for...

Apple Podcasts podcast player badge
Spotify podcast player badge
iHeartRadio podcast player badge
PocketCasts podcast player badge
Castbox podcast player badge
Overcast podcast player badge
Podcast Addict podcast player badge
Amazon Music podcast player badge
Castro podcast player badge
Podchaser podcast player badge
RSS Feed podcast player badge
Apple Podcasts podcast player iconSpotify podcast player iconiHeartRadio podcast player iconPocketCasts podcast player iconCastbox podcast player iconOvercast podcast player iconPodcast Addict podcast player iconAmazon Music podcast player iconCastro podcast player iconPodchaser podcast player iconRSS Feed podcast player icon

(00:00:00) Unsportsmanlike Conduct
(00:00:19) chapter 1
(00:04:38) chapter 2
(00:13:07) chapter 3

Three tales of rage and ruin in the sports world.

Chapter 1 = The Gruesome Death of Otavio da Silva
Chapter 2 = Bruiser Brody
Chapter 3 = Snook

Support the show on Patreon!
www.patreon.com/tapesfromthedarkside



Follow on instagram for behind-the-scenes and updates.
https://www.instagram.com/thedarksidepod/



Music Credit:

Augusta Treverorum
https://linktr.ee/trvrrm

BABY-DOLL-BEATZ
https://www.youtube.com/@baby-doll-beatz
https://www.youtube.com/@lovechapo

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

244
00:16:07.240 --> 00:16:14.240
the hiss of electricity and then silence. James Snook remains

245
00:16:14.279 --> 00:16:17.799
to this day the only Olympic gold medalists ever executed

246
00:16:17.840 --> 00:16:21.440
for murder. A man who represented the best of American

247
00:16:21.480 --> 00:16:24.720
excellence and then shattered that image with a hammer. And

248
00:16:24.759 --> 00:16:28.440
a knife. The world of sports has had its scandals,

249
00:16:28.600 --> 00:16:32.759
its cheaters, liars, even criminals, but nothing compares to the

250
00:16:32.759 --> 00:16:37.960
brutality the obscurity of the snookcase, a reminder that sometimes

251
00:16:38.000 --> 00:16:50.879
the brightest metals hide the darkest secrets. I'm Tez. I've

252
00:16:50.879 --> 00:16:53.519
been your host today of this episode of Tapes from

253
00:16:53.600 --> 00:16:55.960
the Dark Side. I want to thank all of our

254
00:16:56.000 --> 00:16:59.360
Patreon members if you want to join Patreon and get

255
00:16:59.399 --> 00:17:03.799
access to exclusive episodes. In fact, this month we're covering

256
00:17:04.000 --> 00:17:07.599
an episode, a deep dive about an hour long into

257
00:17:07.720 --> 00:17:11.559
one of the most disturbing cases in music history. I'm

258
00:17:11.559 --> 00:17:14.119
really proud of this episode. I think you'll enjoy it.

259
00:17:14.640 --> 00:17:17.000
We asked you pay us about a coffee a month

260
00:17:17.160 --> 00:17:19.359
to get access to all this, and it helps the

261
00:17:19.400 --> 00:17:22.640
show keep going. We couldn't do it without you, truly,

262
00:17:22.920 --> 00:17:25.720
we need your help. So thank you to every single

263
00:17:25.720 --> 00:17:31.039
person who helps the show. Patreon dot com slash Tapes

264
00:17:31.200 --> 00:17:35.920
from the dark Side. Thank you to our new darksiders,

265
00:17:36.039 --> 00:17:40.759
Ali D. Huxley Greer and Erica Bee. Thank you to

266
00:17:40.839 --> 00:17:44.599
our executive producer at the thirty three dollars a month rate,

267
00:17:44.759 --> 00:17:49.240
which blows me away of your generosity. Thank you Alison Barkley,

268
00:17:49.920 --> 00:17:54.000
thank you to Augusta Trevororam who provided original music for

269
00:17:54.160 --> 00:18:06.039
today's show, and until next time, try to enjoy the daylight.

270
00:18:19.920 --> 00:18:24.039
A dark side scard