Thirty years after Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka's mistress was rushed from the pro wrestler's Whitehall Township motel room with a fatal head injury, Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin said his office will "take a fresh look" at the case to decide if a grand jury investigation is warranted.
Despite having doubts about whether the case can be advanced three decades later, Martin confirmed Friday that he has asked Chief Deputy District Attorney Charles Gallagher to review the file on Nancy Argentino's death.
Once the review is complete, Martin, Gallagher and county Detective Gerry Procanyn, a former Whitehall detective who was in the motel room when Argentino was hurried to the hospital, will discuss "if there's anything to be gained by opening a grand jury investigation," Martin said.
The decision comes less than three weeks after The Morning Call published a story about Argentino's death, revealing an autopsy report and police interviews that had never been seen by the public.
Argentino, 23, of Brooklyn, N.Y., died of traumatic brain injuries consistent with a moving head striking a stationary object, according to the autopsy. Autopsy findings show Argentino suffered more than two dozen cuts and bruises — a possible sign of "mate abuse" — on her head, ear, chin, arms, hands, back, buttocks, legs and feet.
Forensic pathologist Isidore Mihalakis wrote the case should be investigated as a homicide until proved otherwise.
Snuka originally told at least five people, including the responding police officer, he shoved Argentino, causing her to fall and hit her head, according to police interviews obtained by The Morning Call. He later told police he was misunderstood and Argentino slipped and hit her head when they stopped along the highway to go to the bathroom.
Snuka, the only person of interest in the investigation, was questioned but never charged. The case was never closed.
Snuka's third wife, Carole Snuka, said Jimmy Snuka, now 70 and living in New Jersey, doesn't want to comment on Martin's decision to re-examine the case. The family read The Morning Call story this month, and she said the wrestling icon "doesn't really want to do this with the newspapers."
Carole Snuka wouldn't comment extensively on Martin's decision.
"If that's what they want to do, that's what they want to do," she said politely, in a soft voice.
Martin said he decided to revisit the case after receiving a letter from Argentino's two sisters and speaking with one of them, Louise Argentino-Upham, on Thursday.
While he promised to revisit the case, Martin said he didn't want to build any false expectations. Martin, who was not district attorney at the time of the investigation, has doubts that "there's anything to be gained" by taking a new look at the case because "quite frankly, it's all been done," he said.
"It hasn't improved with age," Martin said of the case.
The Argentino family believes then-District Attorney William H. Platt had a solid case but failed to push the investigation further. Platt has previously said he doesn't think it's appropriate to discuss the case.
On Friday, the family said revisiting the case is an appropriate and logical step for Martin to take.
"When someone has conflicted stories like that and the girl has bruises all over her body … come on, please," Argentino-Upham said.
Gallagher, who worked for 35 years in the Philadelphia district attorney's office before being hired by Martin, handles grand jury investigations for Lehigh County. During grand jury investigations, prosecutors present evidence to citizens to see if charges against someone are appropriate. The target of the investigation and his or her attorney are not involved and the proceedings are closed to the public and kept secret.
The original investigation effectively went cold on June 1, 1983, after prosecutors met with Snuka and World Wrestling Federation mogul Vince McMahon in the district attorney's office law library. There's no record of what was said during that meeting.
Argentino was rushed out of Snuka's George Washington Motor Lodge motel room — now the site of Home Depot along MacArthur Road and Route 22 — on May 10, 1983. Snuka, a married man, had returned from a World Wrestling Federation taping at the Allentown Fairgrounds to find Argentino gasping for air and oozing yellow fluid from her mouth and nose.
Argentino was declared dead hours later at Lehigh Valley Hospital.
In his autobiography, Snuka maintains his innocence and said Argentino's death ruined his life.
"Many terrible things have been written about me hurting Nancy and being responsible for her death, but they are not true," he wrote. "This has been very hard on me and very hard on my family. To this day, I get nasty notes and threats. It hurts. I never hit Nancy or threatened her."
Less than four months before Argentino died, Snuka was charged with assaulting her in a New York motel. Police say he also battled with responding police. He was charged with second- and third-degree assault, resisting arrest and obstruction of governmental administration but accepted a plea deal that dropped all of those charges in exchange for pleading guilty to harassment in April 1983.
Argentino swore in a deposition after the alleged assault that Snuka never hit her or intentionally harmed her.
Snuka and Argentino were the only two in the Whitehall motel room in May 1983, records say. In 1985, the Argentino family won a $500,000 wrongful death lawsuit against Snuka. Claiming he was broke and couldn't afford a legal defense, Snuka never paid.
Despite Snuka's claim that Argentino hit her head along the road, the autopsy showed she had no gravel or similar dirt particles on her head or scalp.
"The clear-cut forensics weren't there, but the suspicion was there," Mihalakis recently told The Morning Call about the initial investigation. "I did not have a clear-cut case. It was a very worrisome case. Obviously, there was enough there to arouse my suspicion but not enough to take it to trial. ... Just because she was beaten doesn't mean she was beaten to death."
http://www.mcall.com/news/local/allento ... 3636.story
