Customer Reviews

Chris & Nancy: The True Story of the Benoit Murder-Suicide and Pro Wrestling's Cocktail of Death

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I'll readily admit that I don't follow professional wrestling at all...but this book is a tremendous effort by Irv Muchnick. He pulled out all of the stops in his investigative efforts, from filing Freedom of Information Act requests, to interviewing many of the key players who were involved in the Benoit investigation. He's left no stone unturned, as he reveals all of the text messages, public statements, and official documents to back up his words. He proves, beyond a shadow of a doubt that the WWE was well aware of the fact that this was a grisly double murder/suicide, even as they went to air with their Benoit Tribute episode - and that's not all! The book reads like any good true crime novel, but has the added elements of the author speaking to you in first person at times, describing the various walls he hit, and the attempts at a cover up, that he experienced during the investigative process.

Whether you're a fan of professional wrestling, true crime, or just a good story, this book doesn't let you down.

I remember tuning into Monday Night Raw, WWE's flagship show, on June 25th 2007 to find it was a tribute show to WWE superstar Chris Benoit who had been found dead earlier that day along with his wife and young son. My blood turned cold and my skin broke out in goosebumps. I couldn't believe what I was seeing and quickly logged onto the internet to validate that this was real and not some twisted storyline (up until their recent change to a more PG rated product there was very little off limits in terms of WWE storylines including such topics as necrophilia, gay rape, wrestlers being covered in excrement and, ironically, the week previous to June 25th's episode the murder of WWE chairman Vince McMahon). Unfortunately, this was no storyline.
It's unfortunate that in my tenure as a wrestling fan that a whole bunch of my favorite wrestlers have died while still young including such greats as David Smith aka 'The British Bulldog', Curt Hennig aka 'Mr Perfect' and more recently Eddie Guerrero. What's even more unfortunate is that the passing of these lives occurred without much scrutiny from the media in general. All that changed with the Benoit tragedy.
If you're not familiar with Chris Benoit, or somehow missed the media explosion following the murder-suicide, he was regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of his era. He was a former WWE champion and looked upon as being a role model to fans and younger wrestlers learning their craft. Outside the squared circle he was known as a very humble and reserved man who always found time to pose for pictures, and sign autographs, for his fans. 'Chris & Nancy' looks at the reasons as to why Benoit snapped and committed such atrocities and the subsequent investigation into the murder-suicide along with the role the WWE played in distancing themselves from the scandal.
I found this a very difficult book to read due to the fact I was a big Chris Benoit fan and knowing what he done to his wife and child sickens me to my stomach. However, such crimes are not committed on a whim and I wanted to know more about the timeline of events and what might have led to such a tragedy. This book was the perfect source for such information.
The book itself is split into fourteen chapters each dealing with a particular topic related to the events that unfolded on that fateful weekend in June. Each chapter relays the officially stated facts pertaining to the particular topic it is dealing with and Muchnick's investigation into those facts. It soon becomes apparent that those "facts" are sometimes nothing of the sort and he exposes such things as inconsistencies in the police reports, information that was overlooked and a possible WWE cover up of the timeline to limit damage to their public image.
The investigation by Mr Muchnick is very much a thorough one although I felt some information would have been better left out of the book. For instance, Chris Benoit was rumored to be having an affair with a current WWE diva. Even though it might appear that this was true, and may have led to further instability in Benoit's already unstable marriage, there wasn't enough evidence to support this theory as concrete fact. Yes, the diva's phone number might well have appeared on Benoit's cell records but that doesn't necessarily mean they were having an affair. Although intriguing I also felt that the chapter on the Wikipedia hacker was more filler than it was anything substantial in relation to the investigation.
As for the rest of the book it was very well thought out and evidence was presented, as required, in relation to the case that Muchnick built throughout the text. Ultimately, the reader is left with many unanswered questions that we will never know the answers to due to the case being closed and many people involved refusing to speak further about the incident. One of those bigger unanswered questions, in my opinion, was why WWE wrestler Dave Taylor was at the scene of the crime but later denied being there at all? However, Muchnick does make it clear that multiple explanations are the likely cause of Benoit snapping including prolonged use of performance enhancing drugs (which WWE knew about but chose to look the other way), depression and trauma inflicted upon the brain. The biggest unanswered question though is how Mr McMahon sleeps comfortably of a night knowing the role that his company has played in the deaths of many its performers as well as Chris Benoit and his family?
I recommend this book if you are interested in finding out more about what took place, the attitude of the WWE to what happened and the reasons as to why the murder-suicide occurred as you will find 'Chris & Nancy' be the definitive source on the subject matter.

I grew up in the early 1980's when wrestling hit its peak in terms of popularity and entertainment value. What drew me in during that era of Hogan, Snuka, and the Junkyard Dog was the sheer fun of it all. Sure, there was an element of danger to it, but there was still a bit of wholesomeness with even the scariest of the bad guys like King Kong Bundy, perhaps due to the cartoonish quality the characters had. By the 1990's, wrestling (and more specifically the WWF--later WWE--had sucked all the fun out of everything and made it all about money. Wrestlers were taking steroids like never before, pushing themselves more and more over the line. It was no longer family entertainment. Instead, it became something sick and twisted. No story better exemplifies this than the cautionary tale of the Benoits.

Since I was also a bookworm growing up, I eagerly sought out and consumed any book I could find on wrestling. Most of them were terrible, with bad writing and shoddy structures. Not so with this book. Not only is the story compelling, but Muchnick writes it like a true writer with a firm command of language and knowledge of his subject. By far the best book I've ever read on wrestling, and I'd recommend it to anyone who's interested in wrestling, crime stories, or just good writing.

Irv Muchnick's latest book about Chris & Nancy Benoit is an in-depth look at the dark side of professional wrestling. Muchnick has gone above and beyond in doing research for his book, interviewing dozens of people associated with the murder-suicide, and bringing a level of investigative journalism to a subject usually relegated to fluff stories. I recommend this book to anyone interested in what happened to Chris Benoit, but also those who are interested in true crime books.

I first got hooked on pro wrestling back in the fifties and early sixties when televisions were still mostly in black and white. Gorgeous George was one of my early heroes. By today's standards he was relatively "normal," meaning not pumped up on steroids and human growth hormones. He had great, classic, freestyle moves. Over the past four years, the course of pro wrestling has been all downhill. It's a tragedy. Most books on wrestling are about as phony as today's wrestlers. Muchnick knows wrestling. His genuine love for this entertainment form is palpable. I'm guessing he misses the good old days as much as I do. What he's written here is a searing indictment of pro wrestling today--one big steroid phony mess. It's also also about the tragic deaths of three people who paid the ultimate price. Reading it was both a deeply sad experience and one that made me angry as hell that the days of Gorgeous George are gone forever!!

I found this book to be the most comprehensive source of information on the benoit tragedy. Although the book does behin to lose steam in the end chapters it was an excellent read and gives a very chilling look into the darkest moment in pro wrestling history.

Was really sad to hear aboutthis man but I use to watch him wrestle and dont understand why he would do such a bad thing. I wish people would get off the drugs they would be alot better.

I have only read the few pages they allow you to read on Amazon.com and I'm hooked. I hope to find this great book under the Christman tree. (If I can wait that long.)

Looks like JohnBuford stole all my thunder in regards to this book.

We have a company that has shown time and time again it cares nothing about anyone or anything other than it's own bottom line and will lie, cheat, steal and in the case of Owen Hart, kill. In the case of Chris Benoit and his wife and son, it's put forth by Muchnick that there may have been a coverup in regards to when the WWE knew what had happened and when they claim they knew.

Muchnick implies that a former WWE wrestler may have been sent to the Benoit home and found out about the murder/suicide days before the WWE claimed they knew. While this can't be proven and as time goes by it becomes less likely the facts if different from the official story will come out.

It is true that the county Benoit lived and died in is a rather crime free area of metro Atlanta. It's also a possibilty that because of the nature of the crime and the status of the victims and perpetrator that there would be a reluctance on the part of the district attorney, county sheriff and other powers that be in Fayette county to wish this whole thing to go away.

I am a police officer not far from where this crime occured and I do work in an area that has more than it's fair share of violent crime and murder and have seen more than my share in 15+ years of experience. I got to see the photo's of the crime scene and of the bodies and it's not well known, but Chris Benoit killed himself by tying a cable from a weight machine in his home gym and then wrapped a towel around his own neck, then wrapped the cable around the towel and then carried a 45 pound weight in each hand as he leaned forward and choked himself to death.

It was not an easy death and it must have been terribly painful. I've seen countless suicides over the years, but I've never seen or heard of one like this. It's suggested that Benoit was torturing himself for what he did to his wife and child, and Muchnick gives examples in the book of this kind of masochistic behavior that seemed to drive Benoit.

It talks about the seroids and whether or not his son was really mentally handicapped or not and how these issues may have been contributing factors in the deaths.

Regardless, there can be no excuse for what Benoit did and in the end he and he alone must be held responsible.

What sticks in my craw about this incident is that it's not isolated. As pointed out by others, the WWE has shown itself to be lower than low, and considering that wrestling has it's roots in conning people, and that they have always refered to fans as "marks" shows their total lack of respect to the people who put money in their pocket's and made Vince McMahon a member of the billionaire club is more than sickening.

I've known about kayfabe since the mid 1970's when I worked out at a gym that was used by professional wrestlers. Back then they told me of the low's a promoter would sink and how many wrestler's long before Benoit have committed suicide, murder or wound up in prison. I can no longer in good faith or conscience watch professional wrestling and I don't believe anything short of a total boycott of the WWE will do anything to improve the situation.

The only question is when will it happen again? You know that it will, you just don't know when.

This is the author's second attempt to the tell the tragic story of the double murder and suicide of Chris Benoit,his wife Nancy and their son in June 2007.We have all heard "a wise person learns from their mistakes".Evidently Mr. Muchnick didn't get the memo.In his zeal to find a "smoking gun" where none exists,he tries too hard to create villians.The Sheriff's Department of Fayette County Georgia are not crack homicide investigators.Wow.Raise your hand if you're surprised at that revelation considering there was one other homicide in the entire county in 2007.Vince McMahon is a bad guy because the WWE went on with a tribute to Benoit on the very night that disturbing facts were coming out.Once again...who is surprised here? That has been McMahon's modus operandi.In 1997,1999 and 2005 the "show went on" in spite of the sudden and tragic deaths of Brian Pillman,Owen Hart and Eddie Guerrero respectively.It needs always to be remembered that whatever missteps and outright mistakes the police made and WWE officals not being very forthcoming in what they knew and when they knew it; that this was a murder/suicide and therefore no one escaped justice.Even outright lies and coverups were only attempts to protect reputations and business interests and in no way hurt the investigation.I'm grateful to my fellow Amazon users for killing the other book with their reviews.It saved me time and money.Now it's my turn to return the favor.Don't bother with this one.