Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
This is the 536th installment of the ‘Wrestling with Sin‘ series. A group of stories that delves into the darker, underbelly of pro wrestling. Many of the stories involve such subjects as sex, drugs, greed and in some cases even murder! As with every single story in the Sin series, I do not condone or condemn the alleged participants. We simply retell their stories by researching interviews, newspapers, magazines and various other sources of media.
We Aren’t In Kansas Anymore
In March of 1931 in Kipp, Kansas…four men (three of which were professional wrestlers from the area) attempted to rob a farmer by the name of John Baxter. Aubrey Ogden, Eldon Sullivan and Fred Bigler were pro wrestlers, who along with a fourth man named James Britt (who acted as the getaway driver) arrived at the farm owned by Baxter. The three wrestlers broke into Baxter’s home and demanded he hand over all the cash he had stowed away in his home.
Baxter refused and was shot by Eldon Sullivan…Baxter returned fire and struck Sullivan. Both the gunman (Sullivan) and the victim (Baxter) died at the scene. To cover their tracks, Aubrey Ogden and Fred Bigler dowsed the home with gasoline and set the place on fire. The remaining two wrestlers then escaped the crime scene in the awaiting getaway car driven by James Britt. After the fire was extinguished, the fire fighters discovered the charred bodies of both Sullivan and Baxter. After a lengthy investigation, Ogden, Bigler and Britt were all arrested.
Aubrey Ogden pled guilty and received a life sentence. James Britt turned on his associates and became a witness for the prosecution in the case. Fred Bigler ended up receiving a 15 year sentence for second degree murder, with Britt completely exonerated. Five years after the sentencing in 1937, the Kansas governor Walter Huxman commuted the life sentence of Ogden to a 15 year prison sentence instead. Governor Huxman stated…“I do not believe the ends of justice will be promoted by making Aubrey Ogden, who has always had a good reputation, serve a life sentence simply because he refused to put Saline County to the expense of a trial, whereas Fred Bigler, whose reputation is bad and who was a dominating influence, stood trial and came off with just 15 years.”
Turn Out The Lights Marty’s Over
Marty Jannetty opened up about his pain pill addiction due to suffering a severe ankle injury. He pleaded with WWE to pay for his $60,000 surgery, but the company refused. Jannetty, not able to wrestle and make money, fell on some hard times both financially and mentally. He said he went into a deep depression and contemplated suicide. Jannetty said he was afraid to kill himself by hanging or jumping off of a bridge. He wanted to die from overdosing in a mound of cocaine…but couldn’t afford it.
Jannetty said he prayed for help and that is when his former tag team partner Shawn Michaels called to check on him. Michaels convinced him to attend a bible retreat and Marty agreed. That weekend, Jannetty got baptized and started feeling better about himself. Marty said that after a couple of days, he got bored at the retreat and left to go out drinking.
Cool and The Gang
The One Man Gang recalled wrestling for the Mid South territory back around 1982. Gang said that while he had friends in the territory, he wasn’t a partyer like many of the other wrestlers. He didn’t drink and did not partake in drugs, so he didn’t spend a lot of time with the boys after shows. On one occasion, Andre the Giant and Dick Murdoch invited Gang to hang out and drink with them one night. Gang said he politely turned down the offer and went ahead with his own business.
Andre and Murdoch were puzzled by the unintentional disrespect and asked Gang again to go out drinking. Gang again turned them down and explained that he doesn’t drink booze at all. According to Gang, Andre grabbed Gang and held him down, while Dick Murdoch forced several beers into Gang’s mouth. Years later, One Man Gang laughed off the incident, but at the time that it happened, Gang was both embarrassed and angry. He did not retaliate in any way, due to the fact that pissing off veterans like Andre the Giant and Dick Murdoch would not help his career in the least.
Stan By Your Man
Stan Hansen was a huge star for Shohei Baba’s All Japan Pro Wrestling back in the 1980’s. His wild behavior in and out of the ring, combined with his very stiff working style made Hansen a very popular wrestler for the promotion. Hansen admitted that his wild persona would sometimes get out of hand and fans at the arenas would at times be victims in the crossfire of that wild behavior.
Hansen said that there were many times he would spit his chewing tobacco on fans sitting ringside. He also said that he used to swing around his bull rope to scare fans and some were accidentally struck by it. Some of those incidents resulted in lawsuits by the fans against Baba, Hansen and All Japan. Hansen stated that he never went to court or dealt with any lawyers because all of the lawsuits simply disappeared after a while. Many speculated that Baba had strong connections to the Japanese underworld and he would use those connections to convince the fans not to sue. Wink, Wink.