Editing Bruiser Brody (section)

== Death ==
On July 16, 1988, Brody was in the locker room before his scheduled match with [[Dan Spivey]] at [[Juan Ramón Loubriel Stadium]] in [[Bayamón, Puerto Rico]], when [[José González (wrestler)|José Huertas González]], a fellow wrestler and booker,<ref name="Foley, Mick p.115">Foley, Mick. Have A Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks (p.115)</ref> allegedly asked him to step into the shower area to discuss business. There was an argument between the two wrestlers and a scuffle ensued.{{Citation needed|date=March 2024}} Due to the dressing room layout, there were no witnesses to the altercation; however, two screams were heard, loud enough for the entire locker room to hear. [[Tony Atlas]] ran to the shower and saw Brody bent over and holding his stomach. Atlas then looked up at González and saw him holding a bloody knife.<ref name=atlasTMTS>{{cite book |last=Atlas |first=Tony |title=ATLAS Too Much ... Too Soon |date=October 2010 |publisher=Crowbar Press |pages=197–205 |isbn=978-0-9844090-2-0}}</ref>

Due to the heavy traffic outdoors and large crowd in the stadium, it took paramedics almost an hour to reach Brody. When the paramedics arrived, Atlas helped carry Brody downstairs to the waiting ambulance as, due to Brody's size, paramedics were unable to lift him. He later died from his stab wounds. González claimed self-defense and testified in his own defense at trial in 1989. The prosecution witnesses living outside of Puerto Rico claimed they had not received their summons until after the trial had ended. The case was not dismissed for their absence, nor were they charged with contempt of the Puerto Rico court. González was acquitted of murder. The prosecution did not appeal.

Fellow wrestlers [[Dutch Mantel]] and Tony Atlas have said in a lengthy interview featured in [[Vice Media|Vice]] documentary series [[Dark Side of the Ring#Season 1 (2019)|''Dark Side of the Ring season 1 episode 3'']] entitled "The Killing of Bruiser Brody" that in the 1970s, when Brody and González had wrestled each other, Brody had wrestled very roughly and beat up González. [[S. D. Jones]] claims after one such match González said to him "one day I am gonna kill that man".<ref name=newsAU>{{cite web |last1=Johnson |first1=Paul |title=How wrestling icon Bruiser Brody was killed in Puerto Rico by fellow wrestler |url=https://www.news.com.au/sport/sports-life/how-wrestling-icon-bruiser-brody-was-killed-in-puerto-rico-by-fellow-wrestler/news-story/437815ab94e8c01e02a587e368c62d4d |website=[[news.com.au]] |access-date=July 29, 2019}}</ref> Tony Atlas also said the local police were uninformed, and thought the killer was an angry wrestling fan gone berserk. Atlas also claims that he was the only witness to point out González to the authorities, so they could arrest him. In the same documentary, according to Atlas, Bruiser Brody was about to gain ownership in the wrestling company, even  promising him "''you are going to see a lot of changes''", implying that González might eventually be fired. Atlas recalls González, [[Víctor Quiñones]], and [[Carlos Colón]] were having an urgent meeting in the locker room only moments prior to the tragic events, while Mantel said the meeting seemed "''strange''". Shortly after, González called out Brody in the shower {{emdash}} "''can I talk to you for a minute please''" {{emdash}} then the stabbing ensued. Ultimately, the murder weapon has never been found, González aka ''Invader'' was acquitted in Puerto Rico for acting under self-defense, and Bruiser Brody's widow Barbara Goodish told the reporters "''I know the attacker did it, from what I hear about it the whole court case was a sham''". Vice producers for ''Dark Side of the Ring'' say they contacted González and Colón, but that both "declined to be interviewed".<ref>{{cite episode |series=Dark Side of the Ring |season=1 |number=3 |title=The Killing of Bruiser Brody |url=https://video.vice.com/en_us/video/the-killing-of-bruiser-brody/5c1a925cbe40777bcd280731|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190409164927/https://video.vice.com/en_us/video/the-killing-of-bruiser-brody/5c1a925cbe40777bcd280731|url-status=dead|archive-date=April 9, 2019}}</ref>