ARCHIVE 4/27/08: Benoit Investigation Reset

ARCHIVE 4/26/08: Benoit: Sheriff’s Refined Cell Phone Log Quits at Page 13 of 15
May 18, 2009
ARCHIVE 4/28/08: Muchnick Email/Fax to Fayette County Sheriff Randall Johnson
May 18, 2009

Chris Benoit murdered his wife Nancy, then his son Daniel, then killed himself over the course of the weekend of June 22-24, 2007. Vince McMahon consciously manipulated the news of June 25, 2007, to produce a Raw tribute to a murderer, before immediately turning around and distancing WWE. In between those two factual poles is a lot of ambiguous timeline.

Benoit Investigation Reset

Sunday, April 27th, 2008

Chris Benoit murdered his wife Nancy, then his son Daniel, then killed himself over the course of the weekend of June 22-24, 2007. This blog in no way says or suggests otherwise.

Vince McMahon consciously manipulated the news of June 25, 2007, to produce a Raw tribute to a murderer, before immediately turning around and distancing WWE. Only a moron could read our post earlier this month, “WWE Knew Chris Benoit Was the Perpetrator Before Staging ‘Monday Night Raw’ Tribute,” and deny that. (Then again, there are a lot of morons out there….)

In between those two factual poles is a lot of ambiguous timeline. Even open-and-shut crime cases leave questions about the larger narrative, and this one is no exception. The most curious issue uncovered so far is the lapse of more than 30 hours between the time Benoit’s farewell text messages were sent to Scott James and Chavo Guerrero, and when WWE’s security consultant called 911 (in the process, either accidentally or on purpose giving the wrong day). And James, after receiving Benoit’s messages, texted him, “When do u land?” – presumably referring to a Sunday morning flight that WWE claims, without proof, company executives had booked for him. What’s that all about?

I’m not asserting the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office investigation was a WWE whitewash; nor am I saying it wasn’t. The proof will be in the pudding. Investigators clearly let James and Guerrero off the hook for the 30-hour gap and for “When do u land?” We need to clarify the factors that persuaded the sheriff not to probe that angle. We also need to find out if there is a coherent explanation for the creation of a refined log based on Verizon Wireless’s crude printout of Chris Benoit’s incoming and outgoing cell phone calls – yet cutting off that log at 1:50 p.m. Sunday. Further, there’s the lack of backup for Verizon’s purported failure to produce the cell phone voicemail. Finally, will Sheriff Randall Johnson – who assigned Detective Ethon Harper to talk to me – allow a direct interview with Tommy Pope (at the time a lieutenant, now a captain) about the communications he had on Monday, June 25, with vice president Rich Hering and other WWE officials? (Hering refers to them in his 911 call, which was just released at my request.)

Irv Muchnick

Comments are closed.

Concussion Inc. - Author Irvin Muchnick