A former professional wrestler during the World Wrestling Federation golden era of the 1980s known as Billy Jack Haynes has been arrested after allegedly shooting and killing his 85-year-old wife.
The Portland Police Bureau in Oregon identified William Albert Haynes Jr. 70, as the suspect in the murder of Janette Becraft this past weekend.
Mr. Haynes was taken into custody and treated at a local hospital “for a medical condition unrelated to the homicide,” said Portland police, who planned to book Haynes upon his release from the hospital.
WWF Wrestler Billy Jack Haynes Shoots Wife
On the morning of Thursday Feb. 8, just before 10 a.m., the police responded to reports of a shooting at the couple’s home in Portland, Oregon.
Officers made contact with Mr. Haynes, who was inside the home and was uncooperative, they said. Cops called in the Special Emergency Reaction Team and the Crisis Negotiation Team to get Haynes into custody.
The incident turned into a two-hour long standoff with police asking neighbors to lock doors and shelter in place. Sgt. Kevin Allen, a spokesman for the Portland Police Bureau, said there were no updates Monday evening and declined to elaborate on Mr. Haynes’s medical condition.
Mercy Killing? Or CTE Induced Violence?
According to an interview with Fox 12 Oregon, a neighbor, Brelynn Matthieu, said was friends with the couple and she had recently been staying with Ms. Becraft, who had dementia, while Mr. Haynes recovered in the hospital from a rib injury he sustained during a fall.
Knowing that his wife had dementia and was on her way to 90 years old, you have to at least question if there was any malice involved in this shooting. Could this be something that the couple agreed upon? The police will investigate, and those answers will follow. Also knowing the amount of brain and body damage wrestlers of the ’80s and ’90s endured, it would be of no shock to anyone if Haynes was suffering from CTE. Such violent and erratic behavior are symptoms of the debilitating disease.
While Haynes hasn’t been in the public eye as a wrestler, he has still been a voice for wrestling and appeared on different shows and podcasts and is very much a part of the early explosion of WWE wrestling.
Wrestling fans flooded social media with reaction to this tragic turn of events and many shared fond memories of their encounters with the wrestler.
Billy Jack Haynes: Conspiracy Theorist
Billy Jack Haynes has been known within the industry for his temper, his energy, his jokes and his outlandish behavior and conspiracy theories relating to the wrestling world over the years.
One theory that stands out eerily in light of this recent murder is his theory surrounding the death of Nancy Argentino, who was allegedly killed by wrestler Jimmy “Supafly” Snuka.
Snuka was accused of murdering his girlfriend in 1983 in Allentown, Pennsylvania, but wasn’t arrested or charged until 30 years later, and in 2017 the murder charges were officially dropped.
Billy Jack has said that Argentino was pregnant with Hulk Hogan’s baby when Snuka allegedly killed her. And that’s why Billy didn’t get his desired job as a booker in the WWF, because he would have possibly exposed it as Hogan rose up the ladder.
Nothing can be confirmed, but his creative mind and focus on showmanship and shock value was an asset back in his early wrestling career.
In his most high-profile matches, Billy Jack Haynes faced Randy “Macho Man” Savage and in 1987 went against Hercules Hernandez in WrestleMania III.
He feuded with titans of the industry and tasted his fair share of success and popularity.
Haynes didn’t rise to superstar heights in the WWE for various reasons. Within the construct and checks and balances of the company he was a rabble-rouser of sorts in a company that we now know all too well is accused of violating the rights of their employees as common practice.
He was a plaintiff in a federal class-action lawsuit filed against the WWE in 2016. The suit claimed that the organization had mistreated its wrestlers by denying and concealing medical research about the traumatic brain injuries they suffered.
The suit further claimed that the WWE had “disavowed, concealed and prevented” medical care for such injuries.
Police have no time frame on how long Haynes will be in the hospital.