Former Pro Wrestler Arrested After Wife’s Death

(ConservativeInsider.org) – “Billy Jack” Haynes, a retired wrestling star who competed in the World Wrestling Federation (which was renamed World Wrestling Entertainment in 2002) in the 1980’s, has been arrested in connection with the murder of his wife.

In the late morning hours of Thursday, February 8th, Portland police were called to Haynes’s home following reports of a shooting and that the shooter remained inside and refused to come out. After a two-hour standoff, a local SWAT team was able to breach the residence and take Haynes, 70, into custody. Inside the home they found the body of his wife Janette Becraft, 85, who was dead from apparent gunshot wounds. Haynes was taken to a hospital for an unspecified medical condition, but police said it was unrelated to the murder or his interactions with law enforcement. He will likely remain in the hospital for several days, but when he is booked into jail, the charges against him will be announced.

A neighbor of Haynes and Becraft named Brelynn Matthieu said she was close to the couple and had been staying with Becraft to help her while Haynes was in the hospital recovering from an injury to his rib that occurred after a fall. According to Matthieu, Becraft was suffering from dementia.

The former wrestler, whose full name is William Albert “Billy Jack” Haynes Jr, debuted his wrestling career in 1986, facing off against some of the most famous figures in wrestling like “Macho Man” Randy Savage and Ric Flair. He appeared in Wrestlemania III in Detroit in 1987.

Unfortunately, this is not the first time a famous wrestler has allegedly killed his wife. In 2007, WWE wrestler Chris Benoit murdered his wife Nancy and their 7-year-old son Daniel before committing suicide.

Haynes was part of a class-action lawsuit against the WWE in 2016, claiming that the organization had concealed researched into the traumatic brain injuries suffered by wrestlers involved, as well as concealing the injuries and preventing wrestlers from seeking medical treatment for them.