Dutch Mantell was a recent guest on this week’s episode of Total Engagement with Matt Koon. Mantell discussed Bruiser Brody’s death and the incident being the subject of the latest episode of VICELAND’s Dark Side Of The Ring documentary.
Mantell discussed coming home after Brody’s death, saying he initially thought Brody’s killer, José Huertas González (aka Invader 1), would be prosecuted, but later realized no justice would come from the situation:
After it happened, I came back to the States and everyone had heard about it. They were asking me all these questions. When I went home, I told my wife, “They’re gonna prosecute him.” My wife said, “They’re not going to bother, they have no reason to.” I denied it because a man died, they have to hold him accountable. But, the more I thought about it, the more I found out she was right. Brody was a victim of his own success in wrestling. When he went to the ring, he was a crazy man. He swung that chain around his head, and people literally thought he was crazy. When Invader had the fight with him and stabbed him, when they put him on trial, he never denied that he killed him. His defense was just self-defense, and people on the jury all knew Invader from ten years of TV appearances. The jury deliberated for less than 40 minutes and stated he wasn’t guilty.
Mantell talked about the night before Brody was killed, saying Invader claimed the incident with Brody was over being slapped in the face. He added that the night of the murder, he felt a “sense of doom” in the locker room:
There was a problem between Invader and Brody, probably a month or so before the stabbing. I went to Puerto Rico recently, and I spoke to someone, and they told me that they asked Invader what it was about. He told them “You know what it was about.” Invader said that the day before, Brody had slapped him after an argument at an event sixty miles away. This is the first time in all these years that I’ve heard that, and I don’t know if it was true or not.
Whenever I go to Puerto Rico, I’m careful, because it’s dangerous down there. When I went into that locker room that night, I felt a sense of doom come over me. Something was not right. I remember that Brody and I went to the back of the dressing room, I sat down beside him, and I kept getting more nervous. I had to leave because of the growing sense of dread. I’ve had that feeling several times in my life, but it was strongest that day. I went out for five or six minutes, I went back in, and I heard loud voices coming from the dressing room. When I walked in, that’s when I saw Brody laying on the floor.
Dutch also spoke about not going back to Puerto Rico after that incident, and how out of hand the situation ended up being, saying he knows the records on the case are missing, but he still doesn’t think anyone involved thought an argument would end up with someone being killed:
I didn’t go back to Puerto Rico. A lot of people said that they put a boycott on the location, but it was really already in place. It was just a dangerous place to work, those people were brutal. I was the first heel that went in there and trash talked the island. After that, I couldn’t walk five steps down the street without people cursing me. That’s how I learned bad words in Spanish.
I don’t think that Carlos Colon or Victor Jovica knew how much heat there truly was. It could have been a fistfight, but it escalated. They weren’t ready for this. Even if they thought it was going to be a fight, I never heard that they went back to the shower area. I’ve known Carlos for years, they’ve both treated me well. I don’t think they’re going to sit down and plan with a coworker to stab a guy.
Dutch added:
I’m sure they wanted [the evidence and records] gone. Their business went to crap after that, because all the Americans boycotted the place. They wouldn’t go there. As far as due diligence, hey man. It’s Puerto Rico. I don’t know what to tell you. They can’t even find the files on the Bruiser Brody case, but no one can find them. You gotta understand, Puerto Rico is a US commonwealth, but it’s not to the level of a state as far as organization is concerned.
Check out the complete episode below:
