Dark Side of the Ring 1x5

1. we had scheduled a bout with gi.

2. However, we have reached a mile,

3. a sad moment, in world class ch.

4. Gino hernandez is dead.

5. On February the 4th, 1986,

6. the professional wrestling worl.

7. 28-year-old wrestler gino herna.

8. The popular wrestling star's bas

9. discovered late last night at h.

10. He had apparently been dead for.

11. So a lot of people, when gino d,

12. they know exactly what happened.

13. I'm listening to the person tels

14. not even close to true... 'caus.

15. Dallas police say hernandez mig.

16. The rumor grows, the story grow,

17. and it gets more grandiose as I.

18. At the time of gino's death, gi.

19. He was caught up in a very fast,

20. and as a result of that, he pai.

21. And he paid... With his life.

22. Well, in all respect to gino he,

23. I think the gino hernandez you s

24. very much like the gino hernand,

25. and he was one who typically di.

26. As a mother, I got a lot of quet

27. nobody has ever... Ever answere.

28. Many believe that gino's death,

29. but for over 30 years, family ms

30. have believed it to be murder.

31. Well, I think there are a lot o,

32. and it just comes from us being.

33. We're trying to figure out the.

34. The only people that know what.

35. Was whoever was there.

36. A lot has been taken away from,

37. and god has blessed me to let mg

38. and say this, finally...

39. I think my son was murdered.

40. I don't think it... I almost kn.

41. In this episode, we put to rest,

42. and investigate one of wrestlin.

43. beautiful pictures, beautiful ms

44. with our beautiful family.

45. Aw.

46. He had a wonderful personality..

47. He was a good son. He was a goo.

48. And I want everybody to remembe.

49. I think the hardest thing for ma

50. bad guy, and as a child at the,

51. like, people throwing pennies a,

52. all these girls coming up to th,

53. "sign it," and he'd like rip it.

54. And I was like a little girl. I"

55. he's such a bad guy.

56. as I say, in the ring, gino was.

57. Don't attempt to adjust your se,

58. the most gorgeous human being o.

59. He had it. He was special.

60. He was the type of guy that coue

61. randy "macho man" savage or som,

62. so who knows where gino would '.

63. You can't buy it; you can't ste;

64. you can't borrow it.

65. You either got it or you don't,

66. and that's called charisma, and.

67. Yeah, tag matches. Yeah.

68. Who's the wrestler that you hat?

69. - Gino! - Gino!

70. And gino was a cocky, arrogant,

71. If you were to see gino, you wos

72. connected or he was a celebrity.

73. He always just looked like mone.

74. He was all about the finest sui,

75. the finest custom-made shirts,

76. the rings and the watches. You.

77. And it wasn't a gimmick; that w.

78. If he wanted to, he could take e

79. everybody in that room hating hd

80. wanting to kill him, in real li.

81. I overcome any obstacle in my l,

82. and especially some hormone-imbe

83. that tries to stick her nose in!

84. And he could talk.

85. And it's easy to hate somebody,

86. got money, or whatever.

87. Got the pretty girl on the side.

88. Must be nice.

89. Full head of hair. He's got all.

90. I'd like to show you and the pe.

91. Farrah fawcett, I thin.

92. Who does she choose to be?

93. If my wife was on the front rows

94. he would say to 'em, I don't knt

95. I wouldn't be waiting outside t.

96. It almost came natural for him.

97. One night, gino had said somethd

98. to the point, this big cowboy gp

99. and he was headed to the ring.

100. And the police stopped him.

101. Well, gino starts saying, "let,

102. let him come in here," to the pt

103. he convinced the police to let.

104. And then gino's telling me, "st"

105. he's whispering in the back of,

106. but I told him in the dressing,

107. "you bit that off, you chew it."

108. david manning.

109. I was the referee and promoter,

110. and booker for world class chamg

111. from '77, '78 'til around '89.

112. probably, I'd been in the busint

113. 3, 4 years, 5 years, when gino.

114. At that time, I was a referee a.

115. The greatest thing about gino b,

116. one, the microphone.

117. Gino's one of the few pieces of-

118. I'd actually put gino in the ca,

119. a jim cornette, a michael hayes,

120. the people that you just hand 'c

121. and they can do it.

122. Tonight's the night!

123. I told ya, I brought out the $6.

124. Tonight, the world junior heavy!

125. Not bad for a kid from spring b?

126. You know, he was real close wit,

127. in houston, where gino got his.

128. "gorgeous" gino.

129. I remember meeting gino when hee

130. 17, 18 years old.

131. Good looking guy, you know, goo,

132. and had chicks all over him.

133. Full of himself, conceited.

134. I was just a kid, so he, he tre.

135. At the time.

136. I was a professional model at o.

137. Most of the time I just took cad

138. my son, gino. I was a single pa.

139. Do you prefer to call?

140. - Mm-mm. Gino. - Gino?

141. Well, if you were a wrestler, we

142. the name charles or gino?

143. 'cause gino always referred to.

144. "gorgeous" gino hernandez!

145. gg with a, two g's on the back.

146. I had luis's name.

147. Gino sometimes would kind of pr,

148. brag that his dad was luis hern.

149. Lord, yes.

150. - can you talk about it? - From.

151. well, I've always been a fan of,

152. and my father was a wrestler and

153. when I was 12 years old.

154. And, I began to start training g

155. from the time I was in high sch,

156. and I turned professional at th,

157. right out of high school.

158. When he got into the ring,

159. it was like he had been wrestli.

160. He was flying off the rope and,

161. "where did he learn that from?"

162. he said, "my dad did it for me.

163. I was wearing his shoes."

164. he said, "he did everything for,

165. I had to cry when he told me th.

166. We were married very young. We.

167. And we had our first child, so.

168. I'm janice gillespie, and I gre,

169. and that is where I met charles,

170. who you might know as gino hern.

171. After we were married, he kept,

172. so he had his professional life.

173. And, he'd work out in the morni,

174. and then he'd have a workout ind

175. it really consumed most of his.

176. And then he had his family.

177. There was really very little mi.

178. There was the soft side of him.

179. He was really a pushover.

180. He loved his children very, ver.

181. Everybody knows I'm the man of,

182. the man with the power, too swe.

183. You know, going back and like w,

184. and, and hearing him talk...

185. 227 pounds of twisted steel and.

186. It's like a voice I always knew.

187. Really, everywhere we went, peo.

188. He would get into his persona,

189. especially when he became a hee.

190. He would really be very, very id

191. made me very uncomfortable to b,

192. when you would see him like tha.

193. Has there been times,

194. in your life where your wrestlia

195. has bled into your real life?

196. Jake roberts never had a in.

197. He's a bad mother er that doy

198. and he's gonna do what he pleas,

199. and he's gonna go on with life.

200. Don't with him. He will.

201. Aurelian smith, on the other ha,

202. is a human being, man. He cares.

203. He's made some mistakes.

204. He's a recovering alcoholic, ad.

205. So, yeah, that guy has problems.

206. Jake "the snake" doesn't.

207. For people to get mad at me fory

208. I'm the latest and I'm the grea,

209. and I'm so fine that I'm divine.

210. For people to say I'm conceited,

211. I don't understand it.

212. He lived his gimmick in the rin.

213. We're into sports cars, we're I.

214. Faster women, and fast life.

215. He lived it, he ate it, and he.

216. He loved every minute and

217. he could bring that on just lik.

218. And I, I used to tell him, "you.

219. I know who you are."

220. I know that he and chris had a,

221. the dynamic duo.

222. Chris adams was, ah...

223. He was a good guy.

224. He could be a good friend as lo.

225. They were a great team.

226. We got the looks! We got the ab!

227. And we got the money, we got th,

228. we got the build.

229. And from now on, we are number!

230. - We're bad, we're real bad. - .

231. We're bad to the bone.

232. Alright. They're bad to the bon.

233. Well, there they go,

234. chris adams and gino hernandez.

235. See you, guys!

236. Gino's social life and his life,

237. was just as flamboyant as

238. inside the coliseum when gino c.

239. Matter of fact, one of the high,

240. one of the biggest draws we eve.

241. It's all come down to the cotto.

242. And it was gino and chris adams

243. against kevin and kerry. A hair.

244. Chris and gino both had just go,

245. you know, the whole thing. The.

246. And the von erichs both had lon.

247. So, people weren't sure what wa.

248. And he would get in that ring a.

249. He knew exactly what he was doi.

250. I've seen a lot of wrestlers in,

251. and I've seen a lot of guys try,

252. and he was such an artist.

253. And, sure enough, gino and chri.

254. I remember they would hold 'em d

255. they brought the razors out.

256. The crowd was going crazy. They.

257. They were so happy these guys w.

258. And they had the perfect reacti,

259. and it just elevated the feud.

260. there was a nightclub in houstot

261. gino frequented quite a bit; tho

262. on a Friday night after the mat.

263. And, party all night long.

264. My name is jeanie williams.

265. In 1985, chris asked me to move.

266. And he said, "you live next doo"

267. so gino and I were neighbors.

268. Gino was front and center, man.

269. It wasn't like it was a secret,

270. from smoking dope, to cocaine,

271. and uppers and downers.

272. It was the 70s and 80s and we a.

273. I never saw gino out of control.

274. But gino liked to party and hav.

275. Gino comes knocking on the door.

276. His eyes are huge and he's like,

277. "touch my head. Oh my god, my h"

278. 'cause they'd just had their ha.

279. And so, we all decided we'd go.

280. We get in the car and he's goinr

281. and he, he has this tiny piece r

282. and he says, "just take this."

283. we get to the club and then eve,

284. everything's going all strange.

285. Gino is laughing.

286. I want to go to the bathroom, a,

287. it was like my feet were going,

288. I'd come to find out afterwardst

289. gino had given me some acid.

290. I was in las vegas one time, an.

291. Gino had a friend with him.

292. This particular gentleman was—.

293. They had rented the whole top s,

294. just partying for like 3 days.

295. But I knew a lot of those guys -

296. I don't know if they were furni.

297. From that time on, after las ve,

298. it was just a slowly, progressi.

299. Gino just, he ran with a...

300. Pretty tough crowd in houston.

301. You know, if you hang around tr,

302. you're gonna get trouble.

303. It's like I always say, gettingg

304. is like getting into the mob. O.

305. It can go the other way, too.

306. So, you gotta watch who you han.

307. unknown to his family, gino hadh

308. a fast and dangerous crowd,

309. but the party wouldn't last muc.

310. I just heard it was like...

311. Nah, I don't know. I'm not gonn.

312. I don't know. I don't know, man.

313. Ah... That's, that's— what I s.

314. I heard that it was people thath

315. that had power in the city of h,

316. and there are certainly those k.

317. Well, when our children were yo.

318. I just didn't feel so safe aboue

319. he might hang out with, things.

320. These were strong powerful peopt

321. might not have liked certain th.

322. There was just a side of him an,

323. they were, I felt, dangerous.

324. by 1986, there was a shift in t,

325. which saw chris and gino turn a,

326. igniting a vicious rivalry.

327. I'm gonna kill him!

328. That's what I'm gonna do, I m g!

329. Yeah, one of gino's last matche.

330. We did a gimmick where...

331. I think it's nair, it was like,-

332. girls, to get rid of hair -

333. gino sprayed it in chris's eyes,

334. chris wore this thing. He could.

335. And stuff like this, and...

336. Whatever the gimmick was in the,

337. that was the gimmick out of the.

338. And so, even around in the publ,

339. chris would, you know, like he.

340. And, his wife, toni, would leadd

341. bumping into chairs and...

342. That's what I really liked abou.

343. Whatever happened, you took it.

344. Super bowl Sunday, 1986.

345. He was in a hurry, always in a.

346. mhm...

347. Mhm.

348. He was very fidgety and nervous.

349. Say what you gotta say, and lea.

350. She knew something was going one

351. to her home, and he had somethit

352. somewhere in her home. And...

353. He was acting...

354. Nervous and antsy, and felt lik.

355. Something might happen to him.

356. And who it was, I don't think sw

357. who he was afraid of, or who he.

358. Do you know what he h,

359. that you're referring to?

360. No.

361. Was he nervous? Yeah, real nerv.

362. And gino wasn't afraid of anyth,

363. but there's certain things you.

364. If somebody wants to get you, t.

365. he came to the matches one nigh,

366. and he came running in my offic,

367. and he was telling me this stor.

368. And he said, "you wouldn't beli.

369. You wouldn't believe it."

370. he said, "I'm driving and I lood

371. I can see someone sitting in th"

372. and he said, "I didn't know wha,

373. "so I'm watching to see if theye

374. or whatever," and he says, "so,

375. I just slammed on the brakes ant

376. the back and they ran off."

377. and he said, "I think they were"

378. he's like, "I need a gun."

379. I could just tell, he was scare.

380. And so, I said, "no, I don't ha"

381. I said, "but I think you're oka,

382. maybe you just saw something."

383. and he was like, "no, no, no. T.

384. I'm afraid something's gonna ha,

385. you know, I gotta get a gun. I "

386. he was adamant someone was sitte

387. backseat of his car, and he gotm

388. through his rearview mirror.

389. Maybe gino was telling me the ts

390. that someone was either stalkin,

391. or someone was after him, or so.

392. That night was the last night I.

393. The last time I saw gino alive,

394. "hey, kiddo, look what I got hed

395. a white box and he said it was.

396. And he said he was going out,

397. but if I wanted to stop by the,

398. "come and have a slice, it's de"

399. on my birthday February the 5th.

400. Walter called me. He was gino's.

401. He did a lot of gino's bookings,

402. "patrice, have you heard from g"

403. I said, "no. Why?"

404. he said, "well, I need to, I ne"

405. "I haven't heard from him, but d

406. I know he'll be calling me.

407. I'll tell him to give you a cal"

408. the next day, I saw gino's car.

409. I noticed the car was sort of o,

410. the wheels were strange, like h.

411. He missed a show up in oklahoma,

412. and that wasn't like him, but I.

413. And then we couldn't reach him.

414. We tried to, we tried to get a.

415. We couldn't reach him.

416. The next day, the car was still.

417. I'm gonna go and check on him,

418. Knocking on his door, and I can,

419. but I did see a pie, the pie.

420. And then I heard that, you know,

421. he didn't show up in houston,

422. which was definitely unusual.

423. When I went to the office on mod

424. I hadn't heard from gino...

425. I said, "we got a problem."

426. one of the guys that worked ref,

427. of course, was named rick hazza.

428. And I said, "rick, why don't yo,

429. see if his car's there."

430. and so, he called me, and he sa,

431. "well, the car's here, but no o"

432. and I said, "why don't you see t

433. over the wall and just peek in."

434. and sure enough, rick got over.

435. The way the bed was laying, at,

436. he couldn't see anything.

437. He just happened to glance down.

438. And where the bed ended,

439. he could see part of the body h.

440. At that point, they called the.

441. The cops said he had been layin,

442. they had estimated about...

443. 4 to 5 days.

444. Walter took some wrestler and w.

445. They got in 'cause walter was t.

446. There was a gun on the scene,

447. so I don't know where gino got,

448. but there was a gun on the scen.

449. I was standing outside chris's,

450. actually, and they're bringing,

451. in a body bag. It was just like.

452. Something you're, you're in den.

453. Probably about, I'd say, very s,

454. walter calls me again.

455. And he said... "patrice, this—"

456. and I said, "do you— did gino "

457. I said, "he hasn't called me, b"

458. he said...

459. "yeah... I'm standing here in h"

460. I said, "well, is he okay?" he "

461. and he hung up.

462. and I just started screaming.

463. death came to gino hernandez.

464. Wrestling fans were shocked at o

465. one of the brightest careers in.

466. His friends were saddened by ans

467. of a vibrant young spirit.

468. To his mother and sister,

469. it was a tragedy of indescribab.

470. Police arrived at the home of wz

471. in February of 1986, and discov.

472. It was so decomposed that the eh

473. could not be determined.

474. A loaded pistol was found next,

475. and police found no sign of drur

476. paraphernalia in the condo.

477. Yeah, I was grieving. Mica and.

478. And, he just knocked on the doo,

479. "I would like to come in and di"

480. well, of course, I let him in.

481. Gino knew him. He was— gino we.

482. but I really didn't know him.

483. We were both sitting facing eac,

484. sitting on the floor, and...

485. If I can recollect, he says to.

486. "gino owed me a lot of money,

487. but just don't you worry about t

488. 'cause I'm gonna pay for his fu"

489. I was sitting there and I know,

490. looking at him.

491. I was scared to death.

492. Yeah.

493. Well, it's just the tone of voiy

494. looks at you when they stick th-

495. and they lean in to you like,"

496. no remorse. No empathy.

497. Nothing... Nothing.

498. I'm an intelligent woman, and in

499. pretty dog gone well.

500. Eye to eye contact; that tells.

501. you know, I remember walking in.

502. To the funeral.

503. Went up, paid our respects.

504. There was a platinum casket.

505. And... It was closed casket.

506. So many people.

507. I dressed the finest I could dr.

508. Movie star because I knew that.

509. there were a lot of people that,

510. his mom, and his sister. Oh my,

511. and that was just painful to kn.

512. There was a group of men, and py

513. know who they were more than I,

514. that took care of all the finanl

515. and it was a...

516. Very expensive funeral.

517. They, they...

518. Do the service at the grave sit,

519. and then they had bottle of cha,

520. they had glasses, and people we.

521. And, "to you, gino!" drinking t,

522. then breaking the champagne gla,

523. you know, on the casket, and to.

524. When you were looking at all of,

525. it just was surreal, to a point.

526. Almost like an out of body expe.

527. There was a gentleman there tha,

528. that talked about gino getting d

529. going to vegas, and...

530. Beating up a guy and putting hi.

531. It was just weird. It was tonal,

532. and it was almost like people g,

533. "who the is this guy?"

534. and, to some of us that hadn't,

535. we just thought it was, you kno,

536. a new friend or whatever. We ha.

537. At his funeral, there was a lot.

538. You might assume drug dealing I.

539. And people made comments like,

540. "do you know who that is?" and.

541. If you were putting me on the l,

542. I wouldn't know who it is.

543. But people talking about, "oh,

544. He's wanted by the authorities,"

545. I don't know who the hell he is.

546. Who was the guy that gave the e?

547. That's john royal.

548. I just heard that he, he was a.

549. I mean, I didn't know anything.

550. As far as I know, right now he'.

551. I would've done just pretty mucn

552. just to make sure my daughter w,

553. and I was too.

554. And that's the way it's been al.

555. I hadn't talked to anybody unti.

556. as the hernandez family mourned,

557. many questions remained unanswe.

558. Rumors began to fly throughout e

559. wrestling community and beyond.

560. So, a lot of people, when gino,

561. were immediately telling the st,

562. "here's what happened."

563. andre the giant told us that het

564. gino had been shot in the head.

565. And that was not the case.

566. I heard from somebody that he wt

567. he used to take trips down to h,

568. several times a week to go down.

569. For what, I don't know.

570. The rumor mill was that he had t

571. he owed some money on a footbal.

572. And so, you got all these diffe,

573. and with chris and with gino,

574. you had the conflict going on.

575. Police have received several tes

576. from concerned fans,

577. who say hernandez might have be.

578. and immediately it's like, well.

579. Why? The guy blinded him.

580. Had you ever heard ths

581. called the police saying it mus?

582. I did hear that, and I think th.

583. Contact chris about the murder.

584. That goes to show just how belie

585. world class championship wrestl,

586. that somebody would go to the d,

587. Jesus, he killed that guy becauy

588. took his eyesight.

589. This is a case that we're talki.

590. And there's been a lot of rumor.

591. None of the family members were.

592. His corpse, his body was just s.

593. Um, I think walter.

594. It would just be too shocking bn

595. dead for so long that they didn.

596. Now, I'm pretty meticulous abou.

597. This is the suitcase that I putr

598. I had collected stuff, after he,

599. anything that I could get my hae

600. I never got to go in his apartm.

601. As a mother, got a lot of questy

602. has ever... Ever answered me.

603. I said, well, I tell you what,

604. I'll just do my own investigati.

605. And if, if I can find out the r,

606. I'll contact that person and ta.

607. Worry about the consequences la,

608. and that's exactly what I did.

609. I think there was foul play in,

610. one, he was super paranoid.

611. When he walked into his apartme,

612. he locked the doors.

613. And he had a deadbolt on the in,

614. the deadbolt was not locked fro.

615. It never made any sense to me.

616. The deadbolt wasn't on, and he.

617. So, somebody was there with him.

618. Well, who was there with him?

619. And left him alone?

620. If it would 'a been me, and I w,

621. "you need to do an autopsy 'cau"

622. the autopsy report?

623. When they found him and he was,

624. had been dead for a while. I as.

625. I believe they said that it mig.

626. I remember talking to the coront

627. gino had cocaine in his system,

628. but he had 5 times the amount.

629. I believe I was told he had enot

630. could've killed an elephant.

631. He had more than just enough to;

632. he had 3 or 4 or 5 times in hist

633. it would take to overdose.

634. The medical examiner had said td

635. how that much cocaine could get,

636. you know, be ingested...

637. Makes you question, you know,

638. what the hell happened?

639. Autopsy report said he was morb.

640. It said that he was hispanic.

641. She asked me, she said, "now,

642. I'm pretty sure about this beca,

643. I did give birth to him. Was gi"

644. I said, "well, he was."

645. well, the autopsy report said I.

646. Well, first of all, is that eve?

647. If it's not him... I wondered s,

648. could he have, would he have fa?

649. When we were married, there was,

650. I don't remember the name of it.

651. The main character had faked hi.

652. He was some sort of trouble, whn

653. or he was trying to hide from s.

654. He had left a, a wife and a chi,

655. and came back like 7 years late.

656. Gino had said, "I'm gonna do th.

657. That's what I would do."

658. well, I wished that it wasn't h.

659. But, I know in my heart that if,

660. I'd 'a heard from him by now.

661. She was wanting to push for ansd

662. really push for answers.

663. And as a mother, I felt for her.

664. We had the discussion then, wel,

665. if we start stirring the pot,

666. what's gonna keep them from doi,

667. you know, our children?

668. It feels like he was probably k,

669. that somebody murdered him. It.

670. that's what the rumblings were,

671. that he had been murdered.

672. And I could certainly see that.

673. Some of the people he hung with.

674. He may have pissed somebody off.

675. If he were in some way involved.

676. Maybe he knew something.

677. And...

678. Maybe they were worried he woul.

679. Conspiracy theories about gino',

680. but it would take over 30 years

681. before answers began to surface.

682. in the days leading up to gino',

683. those closest to him noticed thd

684. fearful of something, or... Som.

685. Of course, you know, this is,

686. this is hearsay, you know.

687. But, it seems to be that genera,

688. weeks leading up, or prior to h,

689. he felt like he, somebody was g.

690. To hear multiple people saying t

691. from him as well, maybe this wa.

692. You know, maybe this is what ha.

693. I was going to my car and he wa,

694. and he says, "hey, why don't yo,

695. have a couple drinks?" so, I sa"

696. we actually walked to his apart.

697. He walked into the kitchen and.

698. He took out a cereal bowl and t.

699. There was a lot of cocaine in t.

700. And he put that on the counter,

701. and he started using the cocain.

702. it wasn't very long, maybe... ()

703. 30 minutes, 40 minutes later,

704. he stopped speaking and when I "

705. he wasn't being angry to me, bu,

706. "sh, don't speak."

707. he kept going to the back and l.

708. He had a, quite intense paranoi.

709. He puts a plug in the sink, and.

710. Turns on the water.

711. The water started coming over t,

712. dripping onto the floor.

713. I go to pull the plug out of thd

714. he stops me, pulls me back.

715. He was like, "sh!"

716. the water was still falling on.

717. I turned, just around a little,

718. and he had a gun in his hand.

719. My heart started to beat kind o,

720. and he was holding me, telling.

721. Could hear nothing but the wate.

722. And he seemed to be comforted tt

723. it was covering up sound of som,

724. just the sound of the water see,

725. for whatever reason, he found t.

726. He would go to the windows and t

727. stare outside into the darkness,

728. just looking outside into the d.

729. You can see he was afraid, it s.

730. In his mind.

731. yeah, 'cause I was doing them w.

732. duh.

733. You know, I was no saint, man.

734. I know that gino was doing cokew

735. how much he was doing, but the e

736. he damn sure had some, quite a.

737. Wasn't no 8-ball, that's for da.

738. I was surprised that there was e

739. found by the police.

740. But I did hear rumors that it w.

741. I would just say a good source t

742. rick was kind of enough to imme-

743. there was a bowl.

744. He said it was crazy, it was al.

745. And he said, "I've never seen t.

746. It was full of coke."

747. just out of reaction, he just t.

748. I don't think anyone else that.

749. I don't know who he thought may,

750. but you know...

751. I think he just did it out of I.

752. Some of the wrestlers, includin,

753. said there might be more to it.

754. Where was he getting so much co?

755. I was afraid then, very,

756. 'cause I haven't talked about I.

757. 'cause I, I got tired of lookinr

758. every time I walked out the apa,

759. and I been living like that eve.

760. Nobody should have to live like.

761. Took a lot of my life away from.

762. And now, you know, 77, where do?

763. it's too much secrecy, too much.

764. Too much deceit.

765. I truly believe he's not here te

766. people he chose to be around.

767. I have nothing to lose 'cause I.

768. You know, you can't take any moe

769. than you already have.

770. All we really want is just an a.

771. Shortly after gino's family tol,

772. producers contacted john royal.

773. He had recently served a 30-yeam

774. for trafficking cocaine.

775. What follows is their recorded.

776. We're doing a documend

777. we've been talking a lot with h,

778. and your name has come up a coue

779. you were close friends with gin.

780. Gino's mother had told us a sto,

781. a time when you approached her r

782. that you were gonna pay for the,

783. is that true?

784. I think you had also said that d

785. owed you a lot of money.

786. Is that something that you had?

787. Right.

788. Well, that's really good to kno.

789. Had you ever heard an,

790. gino's death not being somethin.

791. No.

792. Right.

793. In addition to john royal's sto,

794. a former drug trafficker who ass

795. has come forward with his versi.

796. yeah, I really want.

797. This was 30 years ago and I'm ne

798. to sugarcoat anything. I wanted.

799. You know, I would like to set tr

800. the people who are concerned ab.

801. I wanted you to hear y

802. about... About him and about, a.

803. Thank you very much. I'm sorry.

804. It's okay. I know this is—

805. when you wait this long, 32 yea.

806. and yes, I miss him. I pray for.

807. I talk to him. She knows that.

808. I get up at 4 o'clock every mor.

809. - She was up this morning. - Ye.

810. - She prayed for two hours. - Y.

811. Okay, let me know when you're r.

812. - Okay. I'm ready. - Okay.

813. There's nothing I ca.

814. I'm only doing this because I dy

815. to worry one more minute.

816. If they've been worried for 30,

817. you know, 29 years and 364 days.

818. I met gino through some of the p

819. and we got to be good friends.

820. This was the 80s and disco was,

821. and the cocaine and drugs were,

822. and we kind of saw the opportunt

823. involved in selling drugs.

824. And, one of the guys in the gro.

825. Cultivated a connection.

826. He would bring it in and he wouh

827. a certain amount of it, and notw

828. that gino was involved in this.

829. He was a professional wrestler,

830. and he saw us starting to make d

831. he thought it'd be a good oppor.

832. He didn't make a lot of money as

833. basically just a way for some y,

834. and it was just something that s

835. kind of doing in that period of.

836. Do you remember giving a eulogy?

837. Do you remember what you said?

838. I know it was a long time ago.

839. It's a great line...

840. Unfortunately, I felf

841. recreationally using the drugs,

842. and I think the drugs got hold.

843. And, of course, we were all, yo,

844. super concerned because we weret

845. we knew could get us in a lot th

846. we weren't gangsters, or...

847. At the same time, I don't thinkd

848. every bush like gino seemed to.

849. Just knowing gino, I would imagy

850. went to a club and probably dra,

851. and he probably came back to hi,

852. overdosed on drugs, and died of a

853. combination of drugs and alcoho.

854. I don't know gino's family, butm

855. directly and say, do not be cong

856. that happened to gino. It was,

857. just a situation of his own doi.

858. I know that's hard to hear becam

859. and I loved him, too, but...

860. If you're concerned about anyth,

861. you should put that at rest becr

862. 30 years and I can absolutely tu

863. there's nothing to worry about.

864. I can't take those years back.

865. But I still have my daughter. A.

866. It's just nice to know that we e

867. anything to worry about.

868. Not anymore.

869. And I thank you very much for t.

870. I want to believe that it was a.

871. I want to believe that...

872. somehow, some way...

873. Um... He made a mistake.

874. That's what I want to believe.

875. I'm the type of person, I can f.

876. You know? Yes, I forgive john r.

877. I forgive anybody that I though,

878. but I didn't know any different.

879. Had nobody tell me, outright.

880. Watching my grandma, she, she's.

881. I mean, she's gone through thins

882. that no mother should ever have.

883. And sometimes you look at her a,

884. you know, you can't believe thad

885. that she's still smiling today.

886. But she is, you know, and that'k

887. the piece of life that goes on.

888. But now I know, there's nothing.

889. Nothing. I feel so good.

890. I could even have a margarita.

891. All right! (lau)

892. the legacy of gino hernandez, u,

893. he wasn't around long enough to.

894. I would like to see 'em put gin.

895. I think gino was that good.

896. I want him to be remembered for.

897. and he made me, as his mother,

898. I hear a lot that I look like m.

899. My mom used to say, "you look l.

900. You talk like your dad."

901. it's smooth sailing from here o!

902. I have 5 children. I have 2 gir.

903. And you see little pieces of eam

904. through those videos; that's wh.

905. With you guys here and doing th,

906. it's kind of like I finally get.

907. And I thank you for that.