Dark Side of the Ring (2019) s01e05 Episode Script

We had scheduled a bout
with Gino Hernandez.
However, we have reached
a milestone, a sad moment,
in World Class
Championship Wrestling.
Gino Hernandez is dead.
On February the 4th, 1986,
the professional wrestling world
was in shock.
28-year-old wrestler
Gino Hernandez was dead.
The popular wrestling star's
badly decomposed body
was discovered late last night
at his home.
He had been dead for several days.
So a lot of people, when Gino died,
they know exactly what happened.
Person telling the story,
it's not close to true.
I lived the story.
Dallas police say Hernandez
might've been murdered.
The rumor grows, the story grows,
and gets more grandiose as it grows.
At the time of Gino's death,
Gino was already a major talent.
He was caught up in a very fast life,
and as a result of that, he paid.
And he paid with his life.
All respect to Gino Hernandez,
I think the Gino Hernandez you saw
in the ring
was like the Gino Hernandez
outside the ring,
and he was one who
typically did everything his way.
As a mother, I got a lot of questions
that nobody has ever
ever answered me.
Many believe that Gino's death
was a tragic accident,
but for over 30 years,
family members and wrestlers
have believed it to be murder.
There are a lot of rumors
in a wrestling,
and it just comes from us
being able to tell a story, man.
We're trying to figure out
the inside scoop on everything.
The only people that know
what really happened to Gino
was whoever was there.
A lot has been taken away from me.
God has blessed me
to let me stay here this long
and say this, finally
I think my son was murdered.
I don't think it.
I almost know it.
In this episode,
we put to rest decades of rumors
and investigate one
of wrestling's darkest mysteries.
Beautiful pictures,
beautiful memories
with our beautiful family.
He had a wonderful personality.
He he was a good son.
He was a good father.
And I want everybody
to remember him as a good man.
The hardest thing was
when he became a bad guy,
as a child at the wrestling matches,
like, people throwing pennies at us,
girls coming up to the ring saying,
"Sign it," he'd rip it and throw it.
I was like a little girl. I was like,
"Oh no!" He's such a bad guy.
As I say in the ring, Gino was evil.
Don't adjust your sets.
What you see is real,
the most gorgeous human on earth.
He had it.
He was special.
He could've fit right in
with Randy "Macho Man" Savage
or those guys, so who knows
where Gino would've went.
You can't buy it. You can't steal it.
You can't borrow it.
You either got it or you don't.
And that's called charisma.
He had charisma, man.
-You worked matches together?
-Yeah, tag matches. Yeah.
-Who's the wrestler you hate most?
-Gino! Gino!
And Gino was a cocky, arrogant,
good-looking, talented.
If you were to see Gino,
you would've thought
he was connected
or was a celebrity of some type.
He always just looked like money.
He was all about the finest suits,
the finest custom-made shirts,
the rings and the watches.
You name it, that was Gino.
And it wasn't a gimmick.
That was him.
If he wanted to,
he could take that room
and have everybody hating his guts
and wanting to kill him in real life.
I overcome any obstacle in my life,
and especially
some hormone-imbalanced female
that tries to stick her nose
in a man's business!
And he could talk.
And it's easy to hate somebody that's
good looking, got money, whatever,
got the pretty girl on the side
and must be nice.
Full head of hair. All that shit.
I'd like to show you and the people
pictures, no other.
Farah Fawcett,
I think they had a few dates.
Who does she choose to be with?
If my wife was on the front row
and he said things he'd say,
I'd be waiting to knock him out.
It almost came natural for him.
One night, Gino had said something
and insulted to the point
this big cowboy was getting up,
headed to the ring,
and police stopped him.
Well, Gino starts saying,
"Let him go, let him come in."
He convinced the police
to let him go.
And then Gino's telling me,
"Stop him!" whispering in my ear.
I told him in the dressing room,
"You bit that, you chew."
David Manning.
I was the referee and promoter
and booker for World Class
Championship Wrestling
from '77, '78 'til around '89.
I'd been in the business 3, 5 years,
when Gino started coming in.
I was a referee,
and he was a wrestler.
Greatest thing about Gino being
a heel was the microphone.
Gino's one of the few-- I'd put Gino
in the category of a Ric Flair,
a Jim Cornette, a Michael Hayes,
the people that you hand a mic
and they can do it.
Tonight's the night! I told you,
I brought out the $60,000 limo.
Tonight, the World
Junior Heavyweight champion!
Not bad for a kid
from Spring Ranch High, huh?
He was real close
with the promoter Paul Boesch,
in Houston, where Gino got
his big, big break was Houston.
Gorgeous Gino!
I remember meeting Gino
when he had to be 17, 18 years old.
Good looking guy, good body
and everything, chicks all over him.
Full of himself, conceited.
I was just a kid, so he treated me
like a kid at the time.
I was a professional model
at one time.
Most of the time I just took care
of my daughter and my son, Gino.
I was a single parent.
-Prefer to call him Charles or Gino?
-Mm-mm. Gino.
If you were a wrestler, would you
rather use Charles or Gino?
'Cause Gino always referred
to himself as "Gorgeous Gino."
"Gorgeous" Gino Hernandez!
GG with a two G's on the back
of his jacket. I had Luis's name.
Gino sometimes
would kind of prance around,
brag that his dad
was Luis Hernandez, you know.
Did they play wrestle in the house?
-Lord, yes.
-Can you talk about it?
From morning to night.
Well, I've always been
a fan of wrestling all my life,
and my father was a wrestler
and he died when I was 12.
I began training for wrestling
from the time I was in high school,
and I turned professional at the age
of 17, right out of high school.
When he got into the ring,
it was like he had been wrestling
for years, was flying off the rope,
and I'm going,
"Where did he learn that from?"
He said, "My dad did it for me.
I was wearing his shoes."
He said, "He did everything for me,"
and of course,
I had to cry when he told me that.
We were married very young.
We were both 18.
And he had our first child,
so that started our family.
I'm Janice Gillespie,
and I grew up in Houston, Texas,
and that is where I met
Charles Wolfe,
who you might know
as Gino Hernandez.
After we were married,
he kept his life very separate,
so he had his professional life,
work out in the mornings.
He'd have a workout in the afternoon,
and it consumed most of his day.
And then he had his family.
There was really very little mixing
outside of just family.
There was the soft side of him.
He was really a pushover.
He loved his children
very, very much.
I'm the man of the hour,
with the power,
too sweet to be sour.
Going back and like watching
the footage and hearing him talk
227 pounds of twisted steel
and sex appeal.
It's like a voice I always knew.
Really, everywhere we went,
people knew he was Gino.
He would get into his persona,
his character,
especially when he became a heel.
He would really be
very, very intimidating
and made me very uncomfortable
to be around him
when you would see him like that.
Has there been times in your life
where your wrestling persona
has bled into your real life?
Jake Roberts never had
a problem in his life.
He's a bad motherfucker,
don't give a fuck,
and he's gonna do what he pleases.
Don't fuck with him.
He will fuck you up.
Aurelian Smith, on the other hand,
is a human being.
He cares about other people.
He's made some mistakes.
He's a recovering alcoholic, addict.
So, yeah, that guy has problems.
Jake "The Snake" doesn't.
For people to get mad
when I get on TV
and say I'm the latest and greatest,
so fine that I'm divine,
to say I'm conceited,
I don't understand.
He lived his gimmick
in and out of the ring.
We're into sports cars, fast cars,
faster women, and fast life.
He lived it, he ate it,
and he slept it.
He loved every minute
and could bring that on like that.
I used to tell him, "You can drop
that now. I know who you are."
He and Chris had a very successful
tag team, the Dynamic Duo.
Chris Adams He was a good guy.
He could be a good friend
as long as alcohol wasn't involved.
They were a great team.
We got the looks!
We got the ability!
We got the money.
We got the women. We got the pill.
And from now on,
we are number one!
-We're bad, real bad.
-Let's go.
-We're bad to the bone.
-Let's go.
They're bad to the bone.
Chris Adams and Gino Hernandez.
See you, guys!
Gino's social life
and his life outside of wrestling
was just as flamboyant
as inside the Coliseum
when Gino came to perform.
One of the biggest draws we ever had
was at the Cotton Bowl.
It's all come down
to the Cotton Bowl tomorrow
at 3 p.m.
And it was Gino and Chris Adams
against Kevin and Kerry.
A hair match. Chris and Gino
both had just gorgeous hair, down,
the sculptured look.
The Von Erichs both had long hair.
People weren't sure what.
In that ring, he owned the crowd.
He knew exactly what he was doing.
I've seen a lot of wrestlers
in my life,
and I've seen a lot of guys try
to do what Gino did,
and he was such an artist.
And sure enough,
Gino and Chris lost.
I remember they'd hold them
in those seats
and brought razors out,
crowd going crazy,
happy these guys
were fixing' to lose hair.
And they had the perfect reaction,
and it just elevated the feud.
There was a nightclub
in Houston called Judges
that Gino frequented quite a bit.
That was the place to go
on Friday after matches
and party all night long.
My name is Jeanie Williams.
In 1985, Chris asked me
to move to Dallas.
And he said, "You'll live next door
to my friend Gino Hernandez,"
so Gino and I were neighbors.
Gino was front and center.
It wasn't a secret
that Gino did drugs,
from smoking dope, to cocaine,
and uppers and downers.
It was the '70s and '80s,
and we all did.
I never saw Gino
out of control on drugs.
But Gino liked to party.
Gino comes knocking on the door.
His eyes are huge.
He's like, "Touch my head.
Oh, my God, my hair."
They'd just had their hair shaved.
And so we all decided
we'd go to a night club.
We get in the car, and he's going
about 100 miles an hour.
And he has this tiny piece of paper,
and he says,
"Just take this."
We get to the club,
and then everybody's just
Everything's going all strange and
Gino is laughing.
I want to go to the bathroom,
and as I was walking,
it was like my feet were in clouds,
and I'd come to find out afterwards
that Gino had given me some acid.
I was in Las Vegas one time,
and Gino had a friend with him.
This particular gentleman
had a plane.
They had rented the whole top suite
floor of the hotel there,
just partying for like three days.
Those guys, I don't know
if they were furnishing it to him,
but from that time on,
after Las Vegas,
it was just a slowly progression.
Gino just, he ran with a
pretty tough crowd in Houston.
If you hang around trouble,
you get trouble.
Like I always say,
getting into the wrestling
is like the mob.
Once you're in, you're in.
It can go the other way too.
So watch who you hang out with.
Unknown to his family,
Gino had been running
with a fast and dangerous crowd,
but the party wouldn't last
much longer.
Do you know about
some of those people
he was hanging around with?
Heavier folks?
I just heard it was like
Nah, I don't know. I'm not gonna say.
I don't know. I don't know, man
That's, that's--
What I said is what I was.
I heard that it was people
that you didn't mess with
that had power
in the city of Houston and Dallas,
and there certainly are
those kind of people.
Well, when our children were young,
we divorced.
I didn't feel so safe about people
he might hang out with,
things I was hearing.
These were strong powerful people
within the city
that might not have liked
certain things getting out.
There was just a side of him
and people he ran with
that, they were, I felt, dangerous.
By 1986, there was a shift
in the Dynamic Duo's story line,
which saw Chris and Gino
turn against each other,
igniting a vicious rivalry.
Arrest him!
I'm gonna dive and kill him.
Yeah, one of Gino's last matches
was he and Chris.
We did a gimmick
where I think it's Nair.
It was like, you know,
girls get it to get rid of hair.
Gino sprayed it in Chris's eyes.
Chris wore this thing.
He couldn't see
and stuff like this, and
The gimmick in the ring
was the gimmick out of the ring.
And so even around in the public,
Chris couldn't hardly see.
His wife, Toni, would lead him around
and bumping into chairs.
That's what I really liked.
Whatever happened, you took it.
Do you remember
the last time you saw him?
Super Bowl Sunday, 1986.
He was in a hurry, always in a hurry.
Did he seem like
he was worried about anything?
-Can you talk about that?
-Mm-hmm.
He was very fidgety
and nervous when he came in.
Say what you gotta say, and leave.
She knew something was going on
because he had come home
to her home.
And he had something and he put it
somewhere in her home. And
He was acting nervous and antsy
and felt like
something might happen to him.
And who it was,
I don't think she knew
who he was afraid of
or who he was worried about.
Do you know
what he hid in her house,
-you're referring to?
-No.
Was he nervous? Yeah, real nervous.
Gino wasn't afraid of anything,
but there's certain things
you can't dodge.
Somebody wants to get you,
they'll get you.
He came to the matches one night,
and he came running in my office,
telling me this story, said,
"You wouldn't believe it.
I'm driving and I look in the back
and I can see someone in the back."
I'm watching to see if they're gonna
try to stab me,"
He says, "I slammed on the brakes,
and then they jumped out the back
and ran off.
I think they were gonna kill me."
He's like, "I need a gun." I could
just tell, he was scared to death.
I said, "I don't have a gun with me,
Gino. But I think you're okay.
Maybe you just saw something."
And he was like, "No, no, no.
They're following me.
Something's gonna happen.
I gotta get a gun.
I gotta get a gun."
He was adamant someone
was in the backseat of his car.
And he got a glimpse of him
through his rear-view mirror.
Maybe Gino was telling me the truth
that someone was either stalking him
or after him or going to kill him.
That night
was the last night I saw Gino.
The last time I saw Gino alive,
he said, "Hey, look what I got here."
And he had a white box,
and he said it was a peach pie.
And he said he was going out,
but if I wanted
to stop by the next day,
"Come and have a slice.
It's delicious."
On my birthday,
February the 5th, 1986,
Walter called me.
He was Gino's manager.
He did a lot of Gino's bookings.
And he said, "Patrice,
have you heard from Gino?"
I said, "No. Why?" He said,
"Well, I need to talk to him."
"Today's my birthday,
and I know he'll be calling me.
I'll tell him to give you a call."
The next day,
I saw Gino's car parked.
I noticed the car
was out of alignment.
The wheels were strange,
like he parked it really quick.
He missed a show up in Oklahoma.
It wasn't like him,
but I didn't think anything about it.
We couldn't reach him.
We tried to get a hold of Gino.
We couldn't reach him.
The next day,
the car was still the same position.
I'm gonna go and check on him.
And knocking on his door,
and I can't really get a good vision,
but I did see a pie, the pie.
And then I heard that
he didn't show up in Houston,
definitely unusual.
On Monday,
I hadn't heard from Gino.
I said, "We got a problem."
One of the guys that worked referee
was named Ric Hazzard.
I said, "Ric, go to Gino's apartment
and see if his car's there."
He called and said, "The car's here,
but no one's answering the door."
I said, "Why don't you see if you can
get over the wall and peek in."
And sure enough,
Ric got over the wall.
The way the bed was,
he couldn't see.
He just happened to glance down,
and where the bed ended,
he could see
part of a body hanging out.
They called the police.
The cops said he'd been laying there,
they estimated about
four to five days.
Walter took some wrestler
and went to the condo.
They got in 'cause Walter was
the only one that had a key.
There was a gun. I don't know
where Gino got the gun,
but there was a gun
when they found him.
I was standing outside
Chris's apartment, actually,
and they're bringing out his body in,
in a body bag. It was just like
something you're, you're in denial.
Probably about, I'd say,
a very short span of time,
Walter calls me again.
And he said
"Patrice, this-- it's Walter."
And I said,
"Did Gino get in touch with you?
He hasn't called me,
but have you found him?"
He said, "Yeah.
I'm standing here in his condo."
I said, "Well, is he okay?"
He said, "He's dead."
And he hung up.
And I just started screaming.
Death came to Gino Hernandez.
Wrestling fans were shocked
at the sudden end
to one of the brightest careers
in the game.
His friends were saddened
by an irreplaceable loss
of a vibrant young spirit.
To his mother and sister,
it was a tragedy
of indescribable magnitude.
Police arrived at the home
of wrestler Gino Hernandez
in February of 1986
and discovered his dead body.
It was so decomposed
that the exact cause of death
could not be determined.
A loaded pistol was found
next to his right hand.
Police found no sign of drugs
or paraphernalia in the condo.
Could you walk us through
You were home.
-And you heard a knock on the door?
-Yeah, I was grieving.
Mica and I was grieving.
And he just knocked on the door,
and he said,
"I would like to come in
and discuss the funeral."
Well, of course, I let him in.
Gino knew him. He was--
Gino went places with him.
But I really didn't know him.
We were both sitting facing
each other on the floor, and
If I can recollect, he says to me
"Gino owed me a lot of money,
but just don't you worry about it
'cause I'm gonna pay
for his funeral."
I was sitting there
and I know how I felt looking at him.
I was scared to death.
Did what he said at the time
feel like a threat?
Yeah. Well, it's the tone of voice
and the way somebody looks at you
when they stick their finger, lean in
to you like, "Do you hear me?"
No remorse. No empathy.
Nothing. Nothing.
I'm an intelligent woman,
and I can read a person
pretty dog gone well.
Eye to eye contact,
that tells you a lot.
You know, I remember walking into
to the funeral.
Went up, paid our respects.
There was a platinum casket.
And it was a closed casket.
So many people.
I dressed the finest I could dress,
like a movie star,
because I knew
that Gino wanted me to look that way.
There were a lot of people hurting,
his mom and his sister.
Gosh, and that was just painful
to know they were hurting.
A group of men,
Patrice would probably know
who they were more than I would,
took care of all the finances
of that funeral.
And it was a
very expensive funeral.
They, they do the service
at the grave site,
and then they had bottle
of champagne, had glasses,
people pouring champagne,
"To you, Gino!" Drinking champagne,
breaking the champagne glasses,
on the casket, and toasting Gino.
When you were looking at all of this,
it was surreal, to a point.
Almost like
an out-of-body experience a bit.
There was a gentleman there
that did a eulogy,
that talked about Gino getting
on planes and going to Vegas,
and beating up a guy
and putting him in a headlock, and
It was just weird.
It was tonally off,
and it was almost like people
going, "Who the fuck is this guy?"
To us that hadn't been
around for a while,
we just thought it was, you know,
a new friend. We had no clue.
At his funeral,
there was a lot of rich people,
where you might assume
drug dealing is going on.
And people made comments like,
"Do you know who that is?"
I had no clue who it is.
On the line today,
I wouldn't know who it is.
But people talking about,
"Oh, well, he's, he's
He's wanted by the authorities."
I don't know who the hell he is.
Who was the guy
that gave the eulogy?
That's John Royal.
Did you know any activities
John Royal was involved in?
I just heard
that he was a drug dealer.
I mean, I didn't know anything
about the man, period.
As far as I know,
right now, he's in prison.
I would've done anything then
just to make sure
my daughter was safe,
and I was too.
And that's the way it's been
all these years.
I hadn't talked to anybody
until I talked to you guys.
As the Hernandez family
mourned Gino's mysterious death,
many questions
remained unanswered.
Rumors began to fly
throughout the wrestling community
and beyond.
So a lot of people, when Gino died,
were telling, "Here's what happened."
Andre the Giant told us that he knew
that Gino had been shot in the head.
And that was not the case.
I heard from somebody
that he was close with
that he used to take trips
down to Houston,
Southwest Airlines,
several times a week
to Houston for what, I don't know.
The rumor mill was
that he had gambled
and that he owed some money
on a football game.
All these different rumors,
and with Chris and with Gino,
you had the conflict going.
Police have received several calls
from concerned fans,
who say Hernandez
might have been murdered.
Immediately, like, Chris did it.
Why? The guy blinded him.
Ever heard that
World Class fans called police
saying it must've been Chris?
I did hear that, and I think
the police actually did
contact Chris
about the murder of Gino.
Shows how believable World Class
Championship Wrestling was,
somebody thinks he killed that guy
because that guy took his eyesight.
This is a case
that we're talking 30 years ago.
There's been a lot of rumors.
None of the family members
were allowed to see him.
His corpse, his body
was just so guarded.
-Who was telling you guys "no"?
-Um, I think Walter.
It would be too shocking
because he'd been dead so long
that they didn't want anybody
to see him.
I'm pretty meticulous
about saving everything.
The suitcase I put everything in
after I had collected his stuff,
after he had passed away,
anything I could get
'cause I never got in his apartment.
As a mother, got a lot of questions
that nobody has ever
ever answered me.
I said, well, I tell you what,
I'll just do my own investigating.
And if I can find out
the right person to contact,
I'll contact that person
and take care of it myself
worry about the consequences later,
and that's exactly what I did.
I think foul play
in Gino's death only because,
one, he was super paranoid.
When he walked into his apartment,
he locked doors.
And he had a deadbolt on the inside,
so the deadbolt was not locked
from the inside of the apartment.
-It never made any sense to me.
-The deadbolt wasn't on.
And he always locked it.
So somebody was there with him.
Well, who was there with him
and left him alone?
I would've said, "Do an autopsy
'cause someone murdered him.
The autopsy, when they found him,
he had been dead for a while.
I asked what happened.
I believe they said that it might
be a drug overdose.
I remember talking to the coroner,
and he said that
Gino had cocaine in his system,
but he had 5 times the amount.
Was told he had enough
that could've killed an elephant.
He had more than enough
to overdose.
He had 3 or 4 or 5 times in his body
that it would take to overdose.
The medical examiner had said
that he didn't understand
how that much cocaine
could get in someone, be ingested.
It makes you question.
What the hell happened?
Autopsy report said
he was morbidly obese.
It said that he was Hispanic.
She said, "I'm pretty sure about this
because I did give birth to him.
Was Gino circumcised?"
I said, "Well, he was."
Well, the autopsy report said
it was an uncircumcised male.
-How did that make you feel?
-First, is that even really him?
If it's not him,
I wondered sometimes,
could he have,
would he have faked his own death?
When we were married,
there was a comedy sitcom.
I don't remember the name of it.
The main character
had faked his own death.
He was in trouble,
whether it was tax evasion
or to hide from somebody after him.
He had left a wife and a child
and came back like seven years later.
Gino had said,
"I'm gonna do that someday.
-That's what I would do."
-I wished it wasn't him in there.
But I know in my heart that,
if he is alive,
I'd have heard from him by now.
She was wanting to push for answers
really push.
And as a mother,
I felt for her, and I just
We had the discussion that,
if we start stirring the pot,
what's gonna keep them from doing
something to our children?
At this point, is your theory
of what happened
It feels like he was killed,
that somebody murdered him.
It feels that way to me.
That's what the rumblings were
at the time,
he had been murdered.
I could see that happening
with Gino, you know.
Some of the people he hung with
were powerful.
He may have pissed somebody off.
If he were in some way involved
with a drug ring,
maybe he knew something. And
Maybe they were worried
he would talk.
Conspiracy theories
about Gino's death lingered on,
but it would take over 30 years
before answers began to surface.
In the days leading up
to Gino's mysterious death,
those closest to him noticed that
he seemed fearful of something
or someone.
Of course, you know, this is,
this is hearsay, you know.
But it seems to be
that general consensus
that he, weeks leading up
or prior to his death,
he felt like somebody would kill him.
To hear multiple people saying that
they got that from him as well,
maybe this was
a very real possibility.
You know,
maybe this is what happened.
I was going to my car
and he was coming in, and he says,
"Come have a couple drinks?"
So I said, "Okay."
We actually walked to his apartment.
He walked into the kitchen,
and he had a cabinet above his sink.
He took out a cereal bowl,
and the bowl was full of cocaine.
There was a lot of cocaine in there.
And he put that on the counter,
and he started using the cocaine.
It wasn't very long,
maybe 30 minutes,
40 minutes later,
he stopped speaking,
and when I talked, he said, "Shh!"
He wasn't being angry to me,
but he was, "Shh, don't speak."
He kept going to the back
and looking out the window.
He had a quite intense paranoia.
He puts the plug in the sink
and turns on the water.
The water
started coming over the top,
dripping onto the floor.
I go to pull the plug out
of the sink,
and he stopped me, pulled me back.
He was like, "Shh!" The water was
still falling on the floor.
I turned, just around a little bit,
and he had a gun in his hand.
My heart started
to beat kind of fast,
and he was holding me,
telling me to be really quiet, and
I could hear nothing but the water.
And he seemed to be comforted
that it was covering up sound
of some kind.
Just the sound of the water seemed
For whatever reason,
he found that comforting.
He would go to the windows,
and he would just stare outside
into the darkness,
over and over again,
looking outside into the darkness.
You can see he was afraid,
it seemed, of the dark
in his mind.
Did you know
or come to know at any point
that Gino had issues with drugs?
Yeah, 'cause I was
doing them with him.
Duh.
You know, I was no saint, man.
I know Gino was doing coke,
and I don't know
how much he was doing,
but the night I was there
he damn sure had some,
quite a bit there, you know.
Wasn't no 8-ball,
that's for damn sure.
I was surprised that there was
not any cocaine found by the police.
But I did hear rumors
that it was cleaned it up.
A good source told me that Ric
was kind of enough to immediately--
There was a bowl. He said
it was crazy, like a sugar bowl.
He said, "I've never seen
that much blow in my life.
It was full of coke."
Just out of reaction,
he just dumped it.
I don't think
anyone else there knew that.
I don't know who he thought maybe
he was protecting, but
He did it out of instinct.
Some of the wrestlers,
including Chris,
said there might be more to it.
Where was he getting
so much cocaine from?
I was afraid then, very afraid.
I haven't talked about it
these years,
got tired of looking over my shoulder
every time I walked out,
and I been living like that
ever since.
Nobody should have to live like that.
Took a lot of my life away from me.
And now, you know, '77,
where do I go from here?
It's too much secrecy,
too much lying,
too much deceit.
I truly believe he's not here today
because of the people
he chose to be around.
I have nothing to lose
'cause I've already lost part of it.
You know, you can't take any more
away from me than you already have.
All we really want is just an answer.
Shortly after
Gino's family told their story,
producers contacted John Royal
by phone.
He had recently served
a 30-year prison term
for trafficking cocaine.
What follows
is their recorded conversation.
Doing a documentary about Gino
we've been talking with his family.
Your name has come up
a couple times
'cause you were close friends
with Gino.
Gino's mother had told us a story,
a time when you approached her
and had told her that you were
gonna pay for the funeral, true?
Yeah.
You had also said
Gino owed you a lot of money.
Is that something that you
had said to her?
No. Gino didn't owe me any money.
-I mean I paid for the funeral.
-Right.
-But Gino didn't owe me any money.
-That's good to know.
Does she think
he owed me some money,
that I did something to him?
Had you ever heard
any rumors about, you know,
Gino's death not being something
that was accidental?
-Like
-No.
I was with him You know like
one o'clock in the morning
-the night he died.
-Right.
We were at a club and
And he was in a good mood,
buying drinks, and drinking a lot.
I assume
that he was doing some drugs.
Then Gino left
with these airline stewardesses.
And-- That's the last time
I saw him alive.
So presumably,
that was the night that he died.
In addition to John Royal's story,
a former drug trafficker
who asked to remain anonymous
has come forward
with his version of events.
Yeah, I really want
to remain anonymous.
This was 30 years ago.
I'm not here to sugarcoat anything.
I wanted to tell the truth,
to set the record straight
for the people who are concerned
about Gino's demise.
I wanted you to hear it first,
what he had to say about
-about him and about everything.
-Thank you very much.
-I'm sorry.
-It's okay.
-I know this is--
-When you wait this long, 32 years.
I miss him. I pray for him every day.
I talk to him. She knows that.
-I get up at 4 o'clock every morning.
-She was up this morning.
-Yeah, never miss a day.
-She prayed for two hours.
Yeah, I do that.
-Let me know when you're ready.
-I'm ready.
Okay.
Nothing I can gain.
I'm doing this because
I don't want Gino's family to worry.
If they've been worried 30 years,
they worried 29 years
and 364 days too long.
I met Gino through some
of the people in the group,
got to be good friends.
This was the 80s
and disco was popular,
and the cocaine and drugs were
all just a part of that culture.
We kind of saw the opportunity
to get involved in selling drugs.
And one of the guys in the group
had cultivated a connection.
He would bring it in and give us
each a certain amount of it,
and not many people know
Gino was involved in this.
He was a professional wrestler.
He saw us starting to make money,
thought it'd be a good opportunity,
didn't make a lot of money
and it was just a way for young guys
to make some money,
just something everybody
was doing in that period of time.
Do you remember giving a eulogy
at Gino's funeral?
Absolutely.
Remember what you said?
It was a long time ago.
I mean, I said something like
there's good guys
and bad guys and
Gino was a bad guy, but in life,
Gino was a good guy. You know
What I opened with I remember.
There was no foul play
with-- with me,
This is something you don't know.
I had a trial.
See, I was selling drugs
at the time.
They basically said
that I gave Gino the drugs
that he died on.
With them talking "bad dope"
You know-- it's just fabricated.
And the circumstances
were of his death?
I felt like Gino started off
recreationally using the drugs,
I think the drugs got hold of him.
And of course, we were all,
you know, super concerned.
In a business
we knew could get us in trouble
we weren't gangsters, or
At the same time,
I don't think we saw a cop
like Gino seemed
to do in the last part of his life.
Just knowing Gino, I would imagine
he went to a club
and drank a lot of alcohol,
and he probably came back
overdosed on drugs,
and died of a combination
of drugs and alcohol.
I had misgivings because Gino
had this problem with drugs and--
I should have recognized it
and did an intervention
with him and saved him.
I don't know Gino's family,
would speak to them directly,
do not be concerned about
anything that happened to Gino.
It was just a situation
of his own doing, unfortunately.
Hard to hear because
you loved him and I loved him too.
If you're concerned about anything,
you should put that at rest because
you've worried for 30 years
and I can tell you
there's nothing to worry about.
I can't take those years back.
But I still have my daughter.
And
it's nice to know we don't have
anything to worry about.
Not anymore.
And I thank you very much for this.
I want to believe
that it was a tragic accident.
I want to believe that
Somehow, some way
he made a mistake.
That's what I want to believe.
I'm the type of person,
I can forgive anybody. You know?
Yes, I forgive John Royal.
I forgive anybody
that I thought the wrong way,
but I didn't know any different.
Had nobody tell me, outright.
Watching my grandma,
she's lived a sad life.
I mean, she's lived through things
that no mother should ever have to.
Sometimes you look at her
and think, wow, you know,
can't believe she walked that walk,
still smiling today.
But she is, and that's I think
the piece of life that goes on.
But now I know, there's nothing
to be afraid of. Nothing.
I feel so good.
-I could even have a margarita.
-All right!
The legacy of Gino Hernandez,
unfortunately,
he wasn't around long enough
to create one.
I would like to see them
put Gino into the Hall of Fame.
I think Gino was that good.
I want him to be remembered
for the person that he was.
And he made me,
as his mother, very, very proud.
I hear a lot that I look like my dad.
My mom used to say, "You look
like your dad, talk like your dad."
It's smooth sailing from here on out!
I have 5 children.
I have 2 girls and 3 boys.
And you see little pieces of each
of them in him through those videos.
-That's what's cool to watch.
-With you guys here and doing this,
it's it's kind of like
I finally get my, my peace at heart.
And I thank you for that.