One of the most common terms when it comes to wrestling, and more precisely to watch it, is “lingering disbelief.” That is, when you are an adult watching a staged sport, you have to get into a somewhat innocent state of mind. The part of you that is aware that the battles are staged, that the conflicts are exaggerated, that these are players who the moment after they leave the arena become ordinary people, is put aside, because only then can you enjoy. For most of us, it is indeed a delay. When the screen goes down, you are again an intelligent person who understands that this is a show. If this does not happen, it’s a problem. When that did not happen on July 17, 1988, the killer of Brody Brody Escaped conviction.
People believed that Brozer Brody was really an animal psychopath who enjoyed beating his opponents to the point of bloodshed. It can be attributed to a time when he wrestled, the 70s and 80s, and it can also be attributed to him – the size, the look, the total dedication to the character – when the Pennsylvania family man, Frank Goodish, shaved his hair and put on the fur boots, he did not Just played Broder Brody, he seems to have been Brody Broder. This is what made him such a big star, this is what made his death story a scandalous and controversial lacquer.
On a hot, humid summer night in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Brody wrestled as part of a WWC event, a local organization known for the violent battles it provided, both in the arena and behind the scenes. The organization was owned by a legendary local wrestler named Carlos Colon, who along with another wrestler named Jose Gonzalez wore two hats – they were the stars and they were the screenwriters. They determined who would win, who would lose, who would gain fame, and as a result who would also receive money. You can imagine that when these two hats came together, Colon and Gonzalez came out with quite a bit of pesos.
You can also imagine that when a star like Brody came to the area, the two faced a dilemma – on the one hand, as always, they wanted to promote themselves. On the other hand, they could not really have shown fights in which a star like Brody is portrayed as sluggish in front of them. What made the situation even more complex, as most times in wrestling, is money. Brody decided to invest a considerable amount of the even more respectable money he earned by investing in a wrestling organization. He saw how the crowd in Puerto Rico was flocking and the growth potential, and he decided this was the place. This time Brody went down to San Juan not only as a wrestler, but as a centenarian, determined to become an opinionated man. And existing opinion leaders did not like it.
Bruiser Brody always lived up to his “Mercenary of Mayhem” tag.he didn’t mind bleeding in order to accomplish his mission. pic.twitter.com/RlDZlpVVgY
— Rasslin’ History 101 (@WrestlingIsKing) May 20, 2022
I will not tire of you with too many details, but we will just note that the tension between Brody and Colon and Gonzalez had many more layers. The two lagged behind in payments that Brody owed for his previous appearances in the organization, the battles between Brody and Gonzalez were often characterized by violence that went beyond the staged and pre-agreed violence and Gonzalez, who dreamed of inheriting Colon as the organization’s big star and island, saw Brody overshadow his popularity. In other words, Brody has become a big problem for them. And that summer night they decided to take care of her.
The evidence tells of a particularly tense evening in the locker room. It may be time to point out that most of the evidence comes from another American who wrestled with Brody, a guy named Tony Atlas, who says he sat and painted, as he used to do before fights. Brody approached him with a photo of his son and asked him to draw it. While they were talking, Gonzalez called Brody, ostensibly to plan the battle between them that would take place later in the evening. A few minutes later a roar was heard from Brody’s mouth, quite different from the roars that characterized his character in the arena. It was a roar of pain and fear, moments after Gonzalez stabbed him in the abdomen with a knife.
atlas He says he hurried to pull Brody out of the room, and that the first words his friend said to him after the stabbing were, “Don’t let them hurt me.” The word “them” resonates in Atlas’ head to this day. Gonzalez did hold the knife, but Brody knew that Colon was also behind his stabbing. Brody’s friends in the locker room knew about the tension between him and the Puerto Ricans, so they were also not surprised when all the local wrestlers told the police the same false story: Brody was stabbed by an enthusiastic spectator who took the show too seriously. In fact, only Atlas agreed to tell What he saw. The cops were stunned and asked him, “The invader stabbed Brody?”. The invader was Gonzalez’s stage name, Brody was Goodish’s stage name. The two in the arena.
Atlas did not really have time to reflect on the lack of faith in the Puerto Rican police. Shortly after talking to them, one of the wrestlers sneaked his bag out of the locker room and told him he should disappear because Colon and Gonzalez were looking for him. “They know you talked,” he told him. Atlas walked around the local beach all that night, the rest of the American wrestlers returned to the hotel until the rage passed and the local wrestlers of course did not want to show distrust of the bosses. So it turned out that Frank “Brozer Brody” Goodish died alone in a hospital in a foreign city, with the most similar thing to a relative next to him being the same photograph of his son he wanted to submit to Atlas, and was left with the last moment of his life.
2/15/80: Houston, Texas
Bruiser Brody vs. Superstar Graham pic.twitter.com/4f7nE3xgus— Phil Cole (@Philcool27) May 21, 2022
While Goodish’s wife arrived in Puerto Rico to identify his body, the investigation was ongoing. One by one, the wrestlers entered the police station and handed over their version. Atlas again realized how big the conspiracy was when investigators told him he was the only one willing to tell that Gonzalez was the one who committed the murder. Before returning to his home, the police asked him to leave his details, so that he could also hand over the version over the witness stand. Atlas happily gave his address and was told they would contact him soon.
To date, they have not contacted Atlas. Another American wrestler who was present at the incident said he was called to testify 10 days after the verdict was given. Unfortunately, in Puerto Rico judgments are made through a jury, and unfortunately, it turns out that the jury, like the cops who arrived immediately after the murder, had a hard time separating the wrestling figures from real life. Jose Gonzalez wins for self-defense reasons. The media in Puerto Rico covered the trial not as a murder resulting from a business dispute between Jose Gonzalez and Frank Goodish, but as a bizarre event in which local protagonist “The Invader” was forced to stab the animal psychopath at Roger Brody, as it was his only way to escape. As far as the local reporters were concerned, there was no difference between the battles between them in the arena and this incident that took place behind the scenes. Even if at the end of this event, a real man deprived his life and left his widowed wife and son orphaned.
Broiser Brody would have been considered a legend even had it not been for his tragic death. He is considered one of the scariest and cruelest figures the industry has known, fear and cruelty selling hundreds of thousands of tickets all over the world. Fear and cruelty that led one confused jury to one distorted verdict and one killer named Jose Gonzalez to roam free again in 2022. Gonzalez still calls himself the “Invader,” and terribly, he earns a living from small children’s birthday appearances, unlike that jury. Know how to separate reality from fiction.