Hardbody Harrison

Last updated
Hardbody Harrison
Born
Harrison Norris Jr. [1]

(1966-08-22) August 22, 1966 (age 57)
Kennesaw, Georgia, U.S.
OccupationProfessional wrestler
Criminal status Incarcerated
Conviction(s) Peonage, Forced Labor, Human Trafficking, Sex Trafficking, Witness Tampering, Criminal Conspiracy, Obstruction of Justice [2]
Criminal penalty Life imprisonment
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s) Hardbody Harrison
Hardbody Harris
The Colorado Crusader
The Georgia Blond
Billed height5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
Billed weight185 lb (84 kg)
Trained by WCW Power Plant
Debut1995
Retired2001

Harrison Norris Jr. (born August 22, 1966), is an American Gulf War U.S. Army veteran, [3] retired professional wrestler and former 2001 Toughman heavyweight champion, best known by his ring name Hardbody Harrison and sometimes Hardbody Harris. [4] In 2008, he was sentenced to life in prison for his part in a sex trafficking and forced labor ring. [5]

Contents

Early life

Harrison graduated from high school in Pensacola, Florida, after which he enlisted in the United States Army and saw action in Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm. [6] He served as a platoon and motor sergeant, and received an honorable discharge in 1995. [6]

Professional wrestling

He then trained at the WCW Power Plant and later in 1995, debuted in World Championship Wrestling as a jobber. He appeared on WCW Monday Nitro as well as 1997's Starrcade. In 2000, he was a party to a multi-plaintiff lawsuit filed by Sonny Onoo, Bobby Walker and several other former WCW talents against former parent company AOL Time Warner alleging racial discrimination; the suit was settled out of court for which Harrison received a sizeable payout. [7]

In 2000, Harrison also appeared in Toughman competitions which broadcast from 1999 to 2001 on FX show Toughman. [8] In 2000, he was the show's heavyweight champion. [4]

In March 2001, WCW was bought by the World Wrestling Federation and Harrison's contract was not retained.

Criminal charges

On August 18, 2004, Harrison was arrested by the Smyrna Police Department in Smyrna, Georgia on three counts of false imprisonment and after spending one night in jail, he was released on a $55,000 bond the next day. [9]

On August 23, 2005, FBI agents served a search warrant and raided Harrison's two homes in Bartow County, Georgia. [10] On October 18, 2005, he was arrested by the FBI on a nine count federal indictment for false imprisonment and trafficking women for commercial sex acts. [11] [12] On November 22, 2007, he was found guilty and convicted by a federal jury in Atlanta, Georgia on charges related to keeping eight women as sex slaves. [3] [13] [14] During proceedings, for which he served as his own attorney, Harrison contended the women lived in his homes with his wife and child because they wanted to train as professional wrestlers, and that he had helped them quit drugs. [3] Witnesses contended that Harrison manipulated the women psychologically, forced them to have sex with him, and required them to participate in large sex orgies involving up to eight men at a single time. [1] The victims contended that Harrison's rigid training regimen, consisting of a wide variety of exercises and household chores, and having to memorize a series of "commandments" was designed to make them attractive prostitutes, and that he pimped them out to nightclubs, trailer parks, apartments, hotels, in the back of Norris’ truck, and in other locations in North Carolina and northern Georgia until a few of the women went to the police. [1] Failure to complete chores or breaking rules required the women to pay money to Harrison, creating a never-ending debt cycle. [1]

After conviction, Harrison was sentenced to life in prison on April 1, 2008. [15] [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allison Mack</span> American actress (born 1982)

Allison Christin Mack is an American actress. She played Chloe Sullivan on the superhero series Smallville (2001–2011) and had a recurring role on the comedy series Wilfred (2012–2014).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chuck Palumbo</span> American professional wrestler

Charles Ronald Palumbo is an American retired professional wrestler. He is best known for his appearances with professional wrestling promotions World Championship Wrestling and the World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment (WWE) in the late-1990s and 2000s, where he held the WCW World Tag Team Championship and WWF/E World Tag Team Championship. He hosted the Discovery Channel series Lords of the Car Hoards and "Rusted Development".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sonny Onoo</span> Professional wrestling manager and actor

Kazuo Onoo is a Japanese-American professional wrestling manager, and actor better known by his ring name Sonny Onoo. He is best known for his appearances with World Championship Wrestling between 1995 and 1999 as the manager of many of the promotion's Japanese performers. He now lives modestly with his family and owns XTC Auto in Mason City, Iowa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nicki Clyne</span> Canadian actress

Nicki Clyne is a Canadian actress, known for her role as Cally Henderson on the SyFy television series Battlestar Galactica. Clyne was a member of NXIVM, a multi-level marketing company founded by Keith Raniere that has been described by former members, the media, and cult experts as a cult.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Nygård</span> Canadian-Finnish fashion executive

Peter J. Nygård is a Finnish-Canadian businessman and former fashion executive. In 1967 he founded Nygård International, a Winnipeg-based company that initially was a sportswear manufacturer before producing women's apparel. He was rated the 70th richest Canadian by Canadian Business Magazine in 2009, with a net worth of C$817 million, while in 2017 his net worth was estimated to be C$900 million.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United States Penitentiary, Atlanta</span> Low-security United States federal prison for male inmates in Atlanta, Georgia, USA

The United States Penitentiary, Atlanta is a low-security United States federal prison for male inmates in Atlanta, Georgia. It is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Justice. The facility also has a detention center for pretrial and holdover inmates, and a satellite prison camp for minimum-security male inmates.

Homaidan Ali Al-Turki is a Saudi national convicted in a Colorado court for sexually assaulting his Indonesian housekeeper and keeping her as a virtual slave for four years. On August 31, 2006, Al-Turki was sentenced to 28 years in prison on twelve felony counts of false imprisonment, unlawful sexual contact, theft and criminal extortion. On February 25, 2011, he was re-sentenced from 28 to eight years for his good behavior in prison. Al-Turki maintains his innocence and blames anti-Muslim sentiment for the charges that led to his 2006 conviction and sentence in a case that has strained relations between the U.S. and the Saudi government.

Prostitution in Bulgaria is itself legal, but organised prostitution brothels, prostitution rings, or other forms of procuring prostitution procuring are prohibited. In the past, the Bulgarian government considered fully legalising and regulating prostitution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jack Tarpley Camp Jr.</span> American judge

Jack Tarpley Camp Jr. is a former United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. A Republican, he was nominated by Ronald Reagan, and retired from the bench in November 2010 after pleading guilty to drug related charges, including a felony count for giving a stripper cocaine even though he knew she was a convicted felon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NXIVM</span> North American cult and pyramid scheme

NXIVM was a cult led by convicted racketeer and sex offender Keith Raniere. NXIVM is also the name of the defunct company that Raniere founded in 1998, which provided seminars ostensibly about human potential development, and served as a front organization for criminal activity by Raniere and his close associates. Following Raniere's conviction in 2019, the Department of Justice seized ownership of NXIVM-related entities and their intellectual property through asset forfeiture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Keith Raniere</span> American cult founder and convicted felon (born 1960)

Keith Allen Raniere is an American cult leader who was convicted of a pattern of racketeering activity, including human trafficking, sex offenses and fraud. Raniere co-founded NXIVM, a purported self-help multi-level marketing company offering personal development seminars and headquartered in Albany, New York. Operating from 1998 to 2018, NXIVM had 700 members at its height, including celebrities and the wealthy. Within NXIVM, Raniere was referred to as "Vanguard".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Federal Correctional Institution, Elkton</span> Low-security United States prison in Ohio

The Federal Correctional Institution, Elkton is a low-security United States federal prison for male inmates near Elkton, Ohio. It is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Justice. It also has an adjacent satellite prison camp that houses low and minimum-security male inmates.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lakireddy Bali Reddy</span> American criminal, landlord and investor (1937–2021)

Lakireddy Bali Reddy was an Indian and American landlord, convicted felon, and chairman of the Lakireddy Balireddy College of Engineering in Andhra Pradesh. Reddy exploited the Indian caste system to bring young Indian women and girls to Berkeley, California. From 1986 to 1999, he and his family members and associates forced them into servitude and sexual slavery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Contemporary slavery in the United States</span>

Slavery is a system which requires workers to work against their will for little to no compensation. In modern-day terms, this practice is more widely referred to as human trafficking. Human trafficking is defined by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime as “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation”. The practices of slavery and human trafficking are still prevalent in modern America with estimated 17,500 foreign nationals and 400,000 Americans being trafficked into and within the United States every year with 80% of those being women and children. Human trafficking in the United States can be divided into the two major categories of labor and sex trafficking, with sex trafficking accounting for a majority of cases.

The Nine Trey Gangster Bloods or Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods (NTG) are a violent set of the United Blood Nation street gang, which is itself a set of the Bloods gang. The gang operates on the East Coast of the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sex trafficking in the United States</span>

Sex trafficking in the United States is a form of human trafficking which involves reproductive slavery or commercial sexual exploitation as it occurs in the United States. Sex trafficking includes the transportation of persons by means of coercion, deception and/or force into exploitative and slavery-like conditions. It is commonly associated with organized crime.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ralph Shortey</span> American politician

Ralph Allan Lee Shortey is an American convicted sex offender and former politician and businessman. A member of the Republican Party, he was elected to the Oklahoma Senate in 2010, defeating several challengers in primary elections, re-elected in 2014 and served his term until 2017. Shortey advocated 'family values' during his campaigns. During his tenure, he established a Republican consulting firm. Shortey was the state campaign chair for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of unfree labor in the United States</span>

The history of forced labor in the United States encompasses to all forms of unfree labor which have occurred within the present day borders of the United States through the modern era. "Unfree labor" is a generic or collective term for those work relations, in which people are employed against their will by the threat of destitution, detention, violence, lawful compulsion, or other extreme hardship to themselves or to members of their families.

GirlsDoPorn was an American pornographic website active from 2009 until 2020. In October and November 2019, six people involved were charged on counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud, and coercion. In December 2019, two more individuals were charged with obstruction of sex trafficking enforcement. The website was removed in January 2020 after 22 victims won the civil case against the company. According to the United States Department of Justice, the website and its sister website GirlsDoToys generated over $17 million in revenue. Videos were featured on GirlsDoPorn.com as well as pornography aggregate websites such as Pornhub, where the channel reached the top 20 most viewed, with approximately 680 million views.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Feagans, Brian (November 15, 2007). "Former wrestler fighting charges he kept sex slaves". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Archived from the original on November 22, 2007. Retrieved 1 December 2016.
  2. ↑ "United States v. Harrison Norris, Jr. – CourtListener.com". CourtListener. Retrieved 2019-03-08.
  3. 1 2 3 Associated Press (November 22, 2007). "Pro Wrestler 'Hardbody Harrison' Convicted of Holding 8 Women as Sex Slaves". Fox News. Retrieved 1 December 2016.
  4. 1 2 Hall, Eric (March 4, 2002). "Ambridge policeman trains for Toughman Contest national finals". The Times. Retrieved 1 December 2016.
  5. 1 2 "Former Wrestler Sentenced on Sex Trafficking and Forced Labor Charges". justice.gov. United States Department of Justice. Retrieved 1 December 2016.
  6. 1 2 Golianopoulos, Thomas (2008). "Hard times". King Magazine.
  7. ↑ "WCW wrestler who sued the company sentenced to life in prison". prowrestling.net. April 1, 2008. Retrieved 1 December 2016.
  8. ↑ Dempsey, John (July 27, 1999). "'Toughman' scores big for FX". Variety. Retrieved 1 December 2016.
  9. ↑ "Hardbody Harrison". September 27, 2014. Retrieved July 22, 2021.
  10. ↑ "FBI agents raid home of former pro wrestle Breaking New". August 23, 2005. Retrieved July 22, 2021.
  11. ↑ "Former pro wrestler faces sex charges". October 18, 2005. Retrieved July 22, 2021.
  12. ↑ "Wrestler Hardbody Harrison had a Side Hustle That Earned Him a Life Sentence". October 27, 2020. Retrieved July 22, 2021.
  13. ↑ "Ex-wrestler convicted in Georgia forced prostitution case". November 22, 2007. Retrieved July 22, 2021.
  14. ↑ "Former Wrestler Found Guilty on Human Trafficking Charges in Georgia". November 23, 2007. Retrieved 21 February 2022.
  15. ↑ ""Hardbody" Harrison sentenced to life in prison". wwe.com. Retrieved 1 December 2016.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.