Frank 'Bruiser Brody' Goodish
(1946 - 1988)

On July 16, 1988, Brusier Brody was scheduled to wrestle later that night when he was stabbed in the dressing room of a coliseum in San Juan Puerto Rico. "Tell my son I love him...and my wife I love her, too", were his final words to Carlos Colon, according to "PWI magazine". Brody would die the following day on the operating table of stab wounds to the abdomen, leaving behind a wife (Barbara) and son. Fellow wrestler Jose Gonzales was charged with Brody's murder, but was later acquitted. Brody's murder remains "unsolved."

Frank Donald Goodish of San Antonio, known as Bruiser Brody, was stabbed in his dressing room minutes before a match and died on a hospital operating table. Goodish was 42.

"I was at a party, it was around 2 a.m. and I had been drinking like most young people seem to do, and on the TV was Entertainment Tonight. On the screen was Mary Hart and she was discussing a murder that happened during a pro-wrestling show in Puerto Rico. The story was about 45 seconds in length, and was reported in a sarcastic tone (as if the news people figured it was just part of the act) but it sent chills up and down my spine, and I went from being drunk and tipsy to being stonecold sober in a mere matter of seconds. I had not seen ALL of Brody's matches, I had not collected most of his video tapes. But what I did see of Brody in Dallas and other area's as Bruiser Brody, and Red River Jack was awesome. Words can not even describe this man. He was like Mick Foley at brawling in a manner it was totally hard to figure out how it was fake, and he had the ability to work like Ric Flair if he had too (being around 6 foot 6 and nearly 300 lbs it was amazing!). And he also could throw mean looking dropkicks with the best of them during matches too, however; he was famous for being ECW before ECW even existed! And by that I mean, this guy was EXTREME! He was feared! People actually feared him due to his character which was a brutal blood thirsty savage that butchered all of his opponents with weapons. Nobody escaped a Brody match without dropping tons of blood, even Brody himself! He was unique.. to say the least." — CJDark.

Brody's death went unsolved due to Carlos Colon and others who co-owned the World Wrestling Council covering up for Invader I (Jose Gonzales). Gonzales was the top babyface in Puerto Rico at the time of the killing, and a co-owner in WWC as well. Colon and his staff quickly disposed of the murder weapon, and had Gonzales wash up as Brody was being rushed to the hosptial seemingly breathing his last beath of air. In the aftermath, it is true tons of American wrestlers NEVER showed up for the murder trial of Jose Gonzales, and IT is true he was found not guilty largely because of the "no shows". But what was later uncovered about why the wrestlers had not appeared in the trial was outright disgusting! Many of them left the island for fear of their lives because they agreed to testify. They were told by Puerto Rico law enforcement agents to return home, and await for notification to come back, and they would even be sent tickets to get back for the trial. The tickets did come but a few days after the trial had concluded. The notifications were too late and the wrestlers could not have knowingly even testified if they wanted too.

It is true that some of the american-based wrestlers that KNEW what happened refused to leave the island and remained with the company and even were PUSHED to the moon by Gonzales and Colon (the top bookers) and handed all of the top titles in the company. It was thought at the time these pushes were to keep the wrestlers happy so they wouldn't testify. And it worked, none of them testified against Gonzales at the trial. The defense for Gonzales was even more bizarre. He didn't say he did not stab Brody, his defense was that Brody was a 'drug-crazed, violent, savage, on a drug enduced rage' and he was acting in self-defense that night. This was considered ironic because anybody that knew Frank Goodish outside of the ring knew was one the nicest guy in the world, and didn't have a violent bone in his body. But here you had the MOST VIOLENT wrestler in the history of pro-wrestling with the reputation of being one of the most feared men on the planet killed by a NATIONAL SPORTS CELEBRITY in his home country, with an outlet to get himself over as a national victim while the trial was going on. Gonzales returned to work the night of the murder and he even wrestled his match as if nothing had ever happened. It was probably part of the cover up as well. And it worked, Gonzales was found not guilty of all of the charges.

The drug Brody was indicted as having used by Gonzales and his legal team was Marijuana. To be fair to Gonzales, Brody was a known user of Marijuana. However; there are no studies anywhere that suggest usage of "pot" makes one violent, infact studies say it has the opposite effect in most cases. The fact the jury bought this defense outraged many people, including myself. I was a biased party, I to this day hate Jose Gonzales and Carlos Colon. And I have a huge dislike for quite a few wrestlers that stayed on the island and worked as if nothing had ever happened, and got pushes based on Brody's actual death. I also have a hatred for Ostushi Onita who years later ran an angle bringing in Gonzales to his Japanese Wrestling company and did a wrestling match based around wanting to get 'revenge' for the murder of his hero (Brody). And in the angle, Gonzales stabbed Onita in the forehead and opened up a gash so large Onita was rushed to a hospital, as the story goes the Doctors REFUSED to treat Onita, because of Brody's legendary status in Japan.