More supplementary information has been released about the Verne Gagne death investigation that I just reported about.
Gagne, who suffers from Alzheimer's Disease-related dementia, is suspected in the death of his former roommate, Helmut Gutmann, at the Friendship Village Home who also suffered from dementia.
It is not known what actually caused the incident between the two men in the Village’s memory loss unit. According to Gutmann’s widow, Betty Gutmann, Gagne picked up her husband and threw him to the floor, breaking his hip.
An ambulance was called to take Gutmann to the hospital for treatment. He was later released from the hospital but his condition worsened and he died in hospice care on February 14.
Police were not called initially but Bloomington Deputy Police Chief Perry Heles said they were notified “later of an incident involving two vulnerable adults at Friendship Village on January 26.” Heles would neither confirm nor deny the identities of the people involved in that incident, but said an investigation is under way on "a limited inquiry" basis. He said the results of the inquiry would not be made public unless someone is charged with a crime.
Betty, who also lives at Friendship Village, was of course initially angry about the attack, but her feelings cooled once it realized that Gagne probably did not understand what he was doing at the time, and apparently does not remember it.
"You can't blame the person that did it," she said. "[Gagne] doesn't know what he's doing. I feel so sorry for his family, because they are faced with a terrible problem of what to do."
She went on to say that Gagne had a run-in with Gutmann before, at the residence’s lounge. In that incidence Gagne put Gutmann in a chokehold, but he was not injured. Gagne had also been involved in a third incident according to residents. He was later asked to leave the facility, and is no longer a resident at Friendship Village.
Ron Donacik, assistant director of Friendship Village, would not comment on the case, citing federal health-care privacy regulations.
According to MinnPost.com, A woman who only identified herself as Verne Gagne’s daughter greeted a reporter who called his home in Eden Prairie. She was angered that the reporter was asking about “what she considers a personal family matter,” but did confirm that her father did suffer from Alzheimer’s.
"He has only one minute of memory retention, and even though nobody is saying that this is the reason that this man died, you're going to publish this? Unbelievable,” the unidentified woman said. “You take a man who has given nothing but his time and his energy to this state, he loses his mind, and you're going to do this?"
Gagne is a former amateur and professional wrestling champion. He won NCAA wrestling titles while attending the University of Minnesota and later was drafted to the Chicago Bears in 1947, although he never actually played for the team. He became a pro wrestler from 1949 until 1981, up until he was in his late ‘50s. Gagne opened his own pro wrestling organization in 1960, called the American Wrestling Association, based out of Minneapolis. Gagne was the promoter and the company’s main star until his retirement. Not surprisingly he holds the record for the most combined days as being the AWA World Heavyweight Champion.
He has become a folk legend here in Minnesota, known for his wrestling accomplishments, as well as his many charitable contributions. In 1960 he started his first AWA television show, “All-Star Wrestling TV.” He has been voted into various Minnesota halls of fame, including Minnesota's Museum of Broadcasting Hall of Fame.
As for the deceased Gutmann, he was a former cancer researcher who came to America after fleeing Hitler's Nazi Germany.
Gutmann and his wife co-founded the Minnesota Valley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in 1966. He was also a classically trained musician, playing violin for 12 years with the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra.
A memorial service is planned at the very church that Gutmann and his wife co-founded.
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