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Brian Damage
Grappling with Tragedy is a series of articles that deal with unfortunate, tragic incidents that have occurred throughout the history of professional wrestling. It is unlike the ‘Wrestling with Sin’ series that deals more with the seedier side of wrestling like arrests, murders and suicides. Grappling looks more at particular tragic incidents that have in some instances altered pro wrestling in some way.
Charley Hanson
Charles ‘Charley’ Hanson was born in Sweden in 1884. When he immigrated to the United States, Hanson made Seattle, Washington his home. Hanson was trained to become a professional wrestler by the legendary grappler Martin ‘Farmer’ Burns. Hanson began his career around 1922.
Charley Hanson had a few nicknames while wrestling all over the country. He was most notably known as the ‘Sensational Swede’ or ‘The Blonde Tiger.’ Hanson was considered one of the most feared shooters in wrestling for a period of time. He only weighed around 200 pounds, but was a master of several submission holds that could easily overtake wrestlers bigger and stronger than he was.
He once had a gimmick where he offered any fan $50 to last 10 minutes with him inside the ring. It was Hanson’s way proving how tough he really was. Several accepted his challenge and nobody was able to collect the money. In the spring of 1934, Hanson and his manager were involved in an automobile crash which killed his manager and another person in another vehicle. Hanson survived the crash, but injured one of his arms.
On June 26th, 1934…Hanson and his trainer went to Lake Washington in the Seattle area to prepare for a match against Jack Forsgren that was scheduled the following week. They took Hanson’s row boat and rowed down the lake. After docking the boat by some logs, Hanson continued his workout. The boat had come loose and started to drift away. Hanson stripped down to his underwear and jumped into the lake to retrieve it.
As Hanson swam towards the boat, his trainer said he heard Hanson scream out and suddenly could no longer be seen in the lake. Eventually, a search team began looking for Hanson…but his body was never recovered. It was believed at the time, Hanson drowned due to the arm injury he sustained a few months earlier in that car crash. Charley Hanson was 49 years old at the time of his death.