Scandals & Feuds ·
The Backstage Stabbing That Killed Bruiser Brody
José González was acquitted of murder after his defense argued self-defense. Wrestlers Tony Atlas and Dutch Mantell did not testify at the trial.
On July 16, 1988, José González asked Bruiser Brody to join him in a backstage shower area at a wrestling event in Bayamón, Puerto Rico. Brody followed him inside, where González stabbed him. Brody, whose real name was Frank Goodish, died in hospital early the next day. González was later acquitted of murder after presenting a self-defense case.
The two men were wrestlers on a World Wrestling Council show at Estadio Juan Ramón Loubriel. González performed as Invader I and worked as the promotion’s booker. Brody was 42. His wrestling persona was a chain-swinging wildman; his wife, Barbara, remembered a quieter man away from the ring.
Tony Atlas, another wrestler in the dressing room, later described the encounter for the documentary series Dark Side of the Ring. He recalled González approaching with a towel over his head and asking, “Brody can I talk to you for a minute please.” Brody agreed. Atlas heard a sound and saw Brody hunched over. At first, he thought González had hit him. Then, Atlas said, he saw a knife raised in the air, with blood dripping from it.
Atlas said he sprang from his chair and wrapped an arm around Brody’s waist. After laying Brody down, Atlas remembered him asking, “don’t let them hurt me no more.” Brody then asked Carlos Colón to tell his wife that he loved her.
Atlas accompanied Brody to hospital. Dutch Mantell, who remained at the arena, recalled Atlas returning and pointing González out to police as the man officers should arrest. Atlas also gave a statement to police.
Neither Atlas nor Mantell testified at González’s trial several months later. Atlas was never contacted to appear as a witness, according to a Wrestling Inc. retrospective. Mantell was sent a subpoena, but it reached him only after González had been acquitted.
Mantell said González did not testify and that the defense presented the stabbing as self-defense. The jury acquitted González of murder.
Brody left Barbara and their son, Geoff. Looking back, Barbara rejected the idea that the man at home resembled the frightening figure audiences watched in the ring. “Frank was very quiet, very intelligent, he never lost sight of who he was. He never became the character he created,” she said. “When Geoff was born he changed so much because he wanted to provide for his son.”