John Joseph Bonello is a Canadian professional wrestler and referee who worked for the World Wrestling Federation during the 1980s.
Bonello started as enhancement talent for Big Time Wrestling. He got a push in 1980 that saw him with the Detroit version of the NWA World Tag Team Championship twice. [1] After the promotion closed, he moved to Maple Leaf Wrestling. In 1984, he faced Billy Red Lyons in Lyons’ match for the promotion. [2] He also wrestled for Jim Crockett Promotions. [3]
After his in-ring career ended, Bonello regularly refereed wrestling shows at Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens. He refereed at Wrestlemania VI at the SkyDome. [4] He helped train future WWF referee Jimmy Korderas. [5]
On April 15, 1990, Bonello was arrested and charged with counselling to commit first-degree murder. According to police, he offered $5,000 an undercover officer posing as a hit man to murder his wife, Diane . [4] He was convicted of counselling first-degree murder, which carried a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. During sentencing, the prosecution asked for a prison term of at least six years. Diane Bonello testified on her husband's behalf, telling the court that her husband's multiple jobs (he was working full-time at McDonnell Douglas and part time as a referee and bouncer) and drug use (he was using marijuana, cocaine, amphetamines, and steroids) sent her husband "over the edge." Psychiatrist Dr. Basil Orchard testified Bonello's steroid use likely resulted in a steroid psychosis. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison, three years' probation, and 360 hours of community service. [6] The Court of Appeal for Ontario later increased the sentence to five years, on the grounds that the original sentence "clearly failed to reflect the need for a denunciatory sentence to mark the gravity of the offence and the need to deter others similarly inclined." [7]
Joseph Lyle Menéndez and Erik Galen Menéndez are American brothers who were convicted in 1996 of the murders of their parents, José and Mary Louise "Kitty" Menéndez.
Maple Leaf Gardens is a historic building located at the northwest corner of Carlton Street and Church Street in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The building was originally constructed in 1931 as an indoor arena to host ice hockey games.
Tamara Lynn Sytch, commonly known by her ring name Sunny, is an American former professional wrestling personality.
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Maple Leaf Wrestling was the unofficial name in the 1970s and 1980s of the professional wrestling promotion run by Frank Tunney in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Ion William Croitoru was a Canadian professional wrestler and outlaw biker, known to wrestling fans by his ring names Johnny K-9, Taras Bulba and Bruiser Bedlam. He worked in several Canadian wrestling promotions, including Stampede Wrestling, and later wrestled for New Japan Pro-Wrestling, Smoky Mountain Wrestling (SMW) and the World Wrestling Federation. Croitoru wrestled as a jobber in the WWF, but was booked to win titles in several other promotions.
The 2007 hitman case is an Australian criminal case involving Steven Wayne Spaliviero and Swede Charlotte Karin Lindström. Lindström is so far the only one sentenced for the crime. Spaliviero served 11 years in prison and was released October 2017, but was never charged for the hitman case. The hitman case has been widely reported by media in Australia and Scandinavia.
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United States v. McMahon et al (9:93-cr-01276) is a 1994 United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York criminal court case brought against Vince McMahon, chairman of the World Wrestling Federation on suspicion of supplying illegal anabolic steroids to his professional wrestlers. The jury found McMahon not guilty on July 23, 1994.
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