Ms. Williams claims she and Nancy Benoit's stories are very similar.
Both sought help from law enforcement because of domestic abuse. In 2003, Benoit sought a divorce from Chris Benoit saying he physically abused her, she also asked the courts for a restraining order. Williams did the same thing on the third occasion when she says she was attacked by ‘Stone Cold.’
Williams says, like Benoit, Austin all but forced her to write a letter to authorities saying her complaint was a mistake. But in Williams’ case, the courts put Austin on probation for a year. In return, Ms. Williams was placed under a gag order, forcing her to remain silent about the "dark side" of professional wrestling, filled with drugs, booze and domestic abuse.
"If only I had spoken up sooner, maybe Nancy and her little boy would be alive today... that's why I'm going public now, something has to change!"
The NY Times spoke with Chris Nowinski (who is convinced Benoit was suffering from long term brain damage), and Nancy's former husband and Benoit's long time in ring rival, Kevin Sullivan.
Quote:
- In today's New York Times, author/former wrestler Chris Nowinski talks about concussions in the context of Benoit's behavior. "He was one of the only guys who would take a chair shot to the back of the head ... which is stupid," said Nowinski, who according to the article was trying to persuade the coroner examining Mr. Benoit to examine his brain to look for neurofibrillary tangles in the brain's cortex which would be a telltale sign of significant problems. The article goes on to say that Nowinski - who has written a book called Head Games: Football's Concussion Crisis that talks about chronic traumatic encephalopathy, which can cause memory loss, depression and "bizarre, paranoid behavior" - so far has been turned down. He goes on to say that "Part of me hopes there was something wrong with his brain ... The Chris Benoit I knew was always more concerned about everybody else's well-being than his own."
Also in the story, Nancy Benoit's ex-husband Kevin Sullivan says: "I'm in the dark ... I wrestled with him a lot. I thought he was a great performer ... Last night when I found out, it was shocking, just shocking."
The Edmonton Sun talks to Dr. John Bradford, an expert on murder-suicide cases.
Dr. John Bradford, associate chief of the integrated forensic program for the Royal Ottawa Health Care Group, said murder-suicides that wipe out a family are most often carried out by the father.
“The most usual cause is a major depression, normally a severe one with psychotic features,” said Bradford, also a professor of forensic psychiatry at the University of Ottawa.
“They sort of start to think, in this psychotic thinking, that the whole family would be better off in heaven ... that, ‘This is a horrible place, I think we’d all be better off dead.’”
Psychiatrists commonly refer to murder-suicide as “extended suicide,” when the killer decides life is not worth living, he said.
