# Chris Benoit and family found dead... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 25, 2007, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chris-benoit-and-family-found-dead/409410 "2007-06-25T23:38:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chris-benoit-and-family-found-dead/409410/121 "2007-06-27T00:52:25Z")
I don’t have a link to a list, but just Wiki any of the names in Banquet Bear’s post from page 2: [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=8717662&postcount=63](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=8717662&postcount=63) It’s a weird trend that no one seems to be able to explain. ---
**Author:** ![Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chris-benoit-and-family-found-dead/409410/122 "2007-06-27T00:54:02Z")
OK, here’s a cite with a list of wrestlers who died since 1985, with their ages: > **[Pro Wrestlers' High Death Rates](https://www.liveabout.com/wrestlings-dirty-secret-2787283)** > > Due to a variety of factors, professional wrestlers die young at an alarming rate. Here are a sad list and an exploration of possible reasons. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chris-benoit-and-family-found-dead/409410/123 "2007-06-27T01:02:20Z")
For those who want to know what McMahon was thinking, he’ll address the tribute on tonight’s ECW broadcast: [WWE’s McMahon to Address Benoit Tribute](http://tvweek.com/news/2007/06/mcmahon_to_apologize_for_benoi.php) I will add that half of whatever McMahon says usually is not to be believed, and the other half to be taken with a great degree of speculation. WWE is also, in what will be a losing effort, combating the _'roid rage_ allegations, noting that this was likely premeditated act, and that Benoit was last tested in April with negative results. I will side with WWE, as I found out around 10:30p, and when I looked on the web at that time, there was nothing saying murder/suicide. Sure, I suspected, as most probably did, but WWE had to do something with that 3 hour slot, and they tried to do right by the man they remembered in the locker room, not the monster he turned out to be. ESPN is reporting that the son’s arms contained needle marks, and the DA **speculates** that the boy was being given HGH as ‘they’ (presumably Chris, maybe Chris and Nancy) believed him to be ‘too small’ (a knock which may have prevented Benoit from making his mark earlier in his chosen field). I side with **Rucksinator** ’s statement. Also, these people probably knew Benoit much better than I know many of my own co-workers whom I regard well, because of the time spent on the road together. I follow wrestling (with interest which waxes and wanes) outside of the official statements and packaged products. I’ve read/heard many candid interviews where wrestlers will trash anyone and anything. Never have I read a disparaging remark about Benoit, except by Kevin Sullivan (Nancy Benoit’s former husband). Each can look at this through their own personal lens and leap to whatever factless conclusions they may. All I know is that a man who entertained me for more than a decade, sacrificing his body for my entertainment night after night, turned into a demon overnight. It’s not sitting well. ---
**Author:** ![Zabali\_Clawbane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecd19e/32.png) [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chris-benoit-and-family-found-dead/409410/124 "2007-06-27T01:11:17Z")
[QUOTE=Ogre] Fuck him. Forget his name. Forget he ever lived. You might have enjoyed him in the ring, but he was a double murderer, not a “class act.” Let him burn in hell, and never let his name be mentioned again. Motherfucker. [/QUOTE] You might find the thoughts expressed [here](http://crimeblog.us/?p=489) an interesting read. I also, think he’s a family anihillating scumbag. ---
**Author:** ![ladybug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/46a35a/32.png) [@ladybug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ladybug)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chris-benoit-and-family-found-dead/409410/125 "2007-06-27T01:12:30Z")
[QUOTE=Wee Bairn] O’Reilly (don’t ask) just made some statement that some large amount of wrestlers have died before the age of 45 in the last decade or something- if this wasn’t made up on the fly, does anyone have a good link? I couldn’t find the one Wikipedia must surely have. [/QUOTE] Dan Abrams on MSNBC just gave the number as 65 deaths in the last 10 years, but I can’t find anything online to confirm that. ---
**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chris-benoit-and-family-found-dead/409410/126 "2007-06-27T01:20:45Z")
[QUOTE=Big Bad Voodoo Lou] OK, here’s a cite with a list of wrestlers who died since 1985, with their ages: [http://prowrestling.about.com/od/whatsrealwhatsfake/a/wrestlersdeaths.htm](http://prowrestling.about.com/od/whatsrealwhatsfake/a/wrestlersdeaths.htm) [/QUOTE] Interesting- thanks. Now after looking up several of these in Wikipedia, it is obvious drugs played a part in many/most, but it doesn’t seem to indicate the level of “roid rage” I was expecting. In other words, I don’t doubt this exists, but it doesn’t seem that any except for Benoit have seriously harmed/killed others, only themselves. ---
**Author:** ![Zabali\_Clawbane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecd19e/32.png) [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chris-benoit-and-family-found-dead/409410/127 "2007-06-27T01:25:21Z")
Not 'roid rage so much as health related problems caused by the steroid use/abuse. The site I linked details more than one wrestler recently who died of heart problems at a young age, for example. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chris-benoit-and-family-found-dead/409410/128 "2007-06-27T01:28:19Z")
[QUOTE=Justin\_Bailey] Except this thread is filled with cites featuring the people around him saying “I never really knew him that well.” So I’d say he wasn’t “well regarded by friends and associates,” it sounds like he was a wacko who was able to hide it well. [/QUOTE] It’s still early. Could it be the only people “around him” the reporters are able to get statements from are those who in fact, didn’t know him well? From Forbes: “He was like a family member to me, and everyone in my family is taking it real hard,” said fellow Canadian Bret Hart, a five-time champion. Well, somebody still alive appears to have known him well, if he was “like family.” Maybe you’re basing your opinion on this: > [@](#): > > Neighbors said the Benoits led a low-key lifestyle. > > “We would see Chris walking in his yard from time to time. He wasn’t rude, but he wasn’t really outwardly warm,” said Alaina Jones, who lives across the street. > > Jimmy Baswell, who was Benoit’s driver for more than five years, placed a white wreath at the Benoits’ gate. “They always seemed like they were the happiest people,” he said. Hm, a neighbor across the street said he wasn’t outwardly warm. God, I hope no one asks my neighbors across the street what they think of me. [QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic] He did have a history of domestic violence and reportedly few in the WWE were very close to him. Maybe he was just an asshole. No maybe about it, actually. He killed his own 7 year old child. [/QUOTE] I just googled up the latest Forbes & Bloomberg articles. Forbes says: > [@](#): > > Nevertheless, Nancy Benoit filed for a divorce in 2003, saying the couple’s three-year marriage was irrevocably broken and alleging “cruel treatment.” She later dropped the complaint, as well as a request for a restraining order in which she charged that the 5-foot-10, 220-pound Benoit had threatened her and had broken furniture in their home. She withdrew the complaint and didn’t divorce him. Has he ever been arrested for, or charged with, or convicted of domestic violence? They found bibles next to the wife & son’s bodies, and friends were alarmed by strange text messages he was sending. Sounds like he was mentally unhinged to me. I’m just wondering if it wasn’t a sudden and unexpected unhinging. ---
**Author:** ![Operation\_Ripper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/34f0e0/32.png) [@Operation\_Ripper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Operation_Ripper)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chris-benoit-and-family-found-dead/409410/129 "2007-06-27T01:28:52Z")
[QUOTE=Big Bad Voodoo Lou] OK, here’s a cite with a list of wrestlers who died since 1985, with their ages: [http://prowrestling.about.com/od/whatsrealwhatsfake/a/wrestlersdeaths.htm](http://prowrestling.about.com/od/whatsrealwhatsfake/a/wrestlersdeaths.htm) [/QUOTE] Holy frakkin’ smokes, that some list! ---
**Author:** ![Operation\_Ripper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/34f0e0/32.png) [@Operation\_Ripper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Operation_Ripper)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chris-benoit-and-family-found-dead/409410/130 "2007-06-27T01:36:28Z")
[QUOTE=levdrakon] I’m just wondering if it wasn’t a sudden and unexpected unhinging. [/QUOTE] Isn’t this sort of unhinging so rare that it is practically apocryphal? Whitman and the other few well known instances being the exceptions to the rule? ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chris-benoit-and-family-found-dead/409410/131 "2007-06-27T01:37:30Z")
[QUOTE=levdrakon] I just googled up the latest Forbes & Bloomberg articles. Forbes says: She withdrew the complaint and didn’t divorce him. [/quote] So what? That’s SOP for DV victims. > [@](#): > > Has he ever been arrested for, or charged with, or convicted of domestic violence? His wife was granted a restraining order for it. He didn’t deny her allegations. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chris-benoit-and-family-found-dead/409410/132 "2007-06-27T01:38:31Z")
[QUOTE=Rucksinator] Have you never been to a funeral? [/QUOTE] I have. My grandfather did a lot of charity work for the SPCA and Humane Society. A woman who worked there spoke at his funeral. I found out that when they met, he called her “Jugs” until she asked him not to. And she knew him well enough to talk about him. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chris-benoit-and-family-found-dead/409410/133 "2007-06-27T01:40:10Z")
Even if it was 'roid rage (or psychosis related to steroid withdrawal), he still chose to put that crap in his body, so I’m not going to give him a pass on a double murder. ---
**Author:** ![pokey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ebca7d/32.png) [@pokey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pokey)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chris-benoit-and-family-found-dead/409410/134 "2007-06-27T01:50:33Z")
The weird thing is that this type of domestic murder-suicide doesn’t seem freakish. It happened this week in Toronto too and last year one of my friend’s neighbours did the same thing. Just the fact that someone has a family to kill proves that they were liked, cared about and trusted by people. I can’t imagine how anyone could simultaneously suspect someone capable of murdering his family, and work with that person. If anyone had been able to hear the initial report and say, “well I’m not going to say anything because I think it was probably that he killed them all–he was that kind of guy though I did enjoy chatting with him.” It’s the perfect picture of cognitive dissonance. ---
**Author:** ![SmackFu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chris-benoit-and-family-found-dead/409410/135 "2007-06-27T01:55:12Z")
No one will say they “knew” a murderer “well”. Otherwise it makes them culpable for not seeing it coming. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chris-benoit-and-family-found-dead/409410/136 "2007-06-27T01:55:54Z")
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic] Even if it was 'roid rage (or psychosis related to steroid withdrawal), he still chose to put that crap in his body, so I’m not going to give him a pass on a double murder. [/QUOTE] No one is asking you to. No one here seems to be giving him one (although I read in the comments to an article some CTs wondering if Benoit was murdered and staged to look like a suicide, including one person suggesting they investigate Kevin Sullivan - guess 9/11 is played out). As for the statement “(h)e didn’t deny her allegations” of domestic abuse, he also did not confirm them. As a matter of fact, there is no statement that I’ve ever heard of by Chris Benoit regarding the charge. Rather than painting him as a saint who snapped, or as a wife-beating asshole who finally went too far, why not just admit we have no fucking clue what happened here. WWE has also posted a [timeline](http://www.wwe.com/inside/news/chrisbenoittimeline). They don’t name the co-workers the messages were sent to, but it is believed one is Chavo Guerrero, possibly the last co-worker to see the family alive, and likely Dean Malenko is the other. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chris-benoit-and-family-found-dead/409410/137 "2007-06-27T02:19:23Z")
Maybe it was plain old rage. You can only hear “hey, Benoit! Didja bring your _balls_?” so many times before you become necessarily homicidal. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chris-benoit-and-family-found-dead/409410/138 "2007-06-27T02:57:13Z")
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic] So what? That’s SOP for DV victims. [/quote] In my opinion, it’s also SOP for women who’ve divorced one wrestler so they can hook up with another wrestler to make shit up when it comes time to divorce wrestler number two. > [@](#): > > His wife was granted a restraining order for it. He didn’t deny her allegations. I don’t see in the articles I read anything about being granted anything. She dropped the request for a restraining order, and in the request “she charged that the 5-foot-10, 220-pound Benoit had threatened her and had broken furniture in their home.” Supposedly he threatened her and broke furniture. Nowhere does it say he ever laid a hand on her. Let’s not forgot Nancy was a long time wrestler herself at one time going by the moniker “Fallen Angel” and sporting a satanist style. There are two people with big personalities and I can well imagine their arguments got equally big. Not that that justifies killing your family or anything. I’m sure not saying that. I see no evidence she was ever a victim of domestic violence. Well, except for this latest thing. But it still strikes me as the actions of someone who’s just recently lost their mind, as opposed to the truly evil smile-for-the-camera-I-got-away-with-it OJ type killer. ---
**Author:** ![brianjedi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@brianjedi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brianjedi)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chris-benoit-and-family-found-dead/409410/139 "2007-06-27T03:09:11Z")
Man. I couldn’t believe it when I saw the paper this morning, because everything I had ever heard from everyone who worked with him said that he was a genuinely good guy. Hell, Bret Hart called him family, and Bret doesn’t like anyone at this point. I really haven’t watched wrestling seriously in a few years, but I was a huge fan during the height of WCW’s run on top, and Chris Benoit was one of my favorites, alongside Jericho, Booker T and Eddie Guerrero. That last name, I would imagine, probably has more to do with this than anyone will ever admit. Benoit and Guerrero were incredibly close, and I have a sneaking suspicion that his unexpected death was what pushed Benoit down this path. Do I have any respect for him as a man now that we know the details of how his family died? Absolutely not. Does that mean I’m going to deny that he was one hell of an entertainer in the ring? Nope. I can separate Chris Benoit the entertainer from Chris Benoit the man, and still acknowledge the work of the entertainer while deploring the senseless acts of the man. ---
**Author:** ![Pixiesnix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/898d66/32.png) [@Pixiesnix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pixiesnix)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chris-benoit-and-family-found-dead/409410/140 "2007-06-27T03:52:52Z")
> [@](#): > > **Snarky Kong** wrote: > Can you please elaborate. This has me very confused. I just meant that another person who seemed decent and hardworking turned out to have a nasty side. For further information, see: Kobe Bryant, Pete Rose, Bob Crane, O.J., etc. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chris-benoit-and-family-found-dead/409410.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chris-benoit-and-family-found-dead/409410.md?page=8)