Wrestling with Sin: 578

Brian Damage

This is the 578th installment of the ‘Wrestling with Sin‘ series. A group of stories that delves into the darker, underbelly of pro wrestling. Many of the stories involve such subjects as sex, drugs, greed and in some cases even murder! As with every single story in the Sin series, I do not condone or condemn the alleged participants. We simply retell their stories by researching interviews, newspapers, magazines and various other sources of media.

May Day

Tobias Harold Davies aka T. Harry Davies was a professional wrestler and business owner that was based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Aside from being a pro wrestler, Davies owned a skating rink. That is where he met a 14 year old girl by the name of Lucile May. Lucile and her mother were both actresses with a touring group called Knickerbocker Stock Company. Lucile and Davies met while the acting company was in Oklahoma City and Lucile went to the rink owned by Davies.

The two met and hit it off well. According to reports, Lucile lied about her age to Davies claiming to be much older than what she really was. The meeting between the wrestler and young actress began a three year cross country correspondence between the two. Davies would often be on the road as a wrestler and made sure to visit Lucile wherever she was with her acting company. Eventually, Davies proposed to the now 17 year old Lucile and she said yes. 

Problems arose when Davies admitted to his new fiance that he was already married to another woman and had a 2 year old daughter. Lucile broke it off with Davies, but he was persistent and convinced her that he was getting a divorce. Lucile and Davies would reconcile briefly, but ultimately decided to call off the engagement and stopped writing to him.After ignoring letters, Davies decided to follow her acting company to Vincennes, Indiana. 

It was in that town on September 21, 1921, where Lucile and her mother went to a restaurant called the Savoy after a performance. While both being seated at the restaurant, Davies appeared and pleaded with her to give him another chance. She refused his advances and Davies took out a revolver and shot Lucile four times. She was struck in the ear, neck and head, with one shot missing her entirely. He then pointed the gun at the mother, but the gun wouldn’t fire. Davies then attempted to shoot himself in the head, but the gun still didn’t fire another round despite two bullets remaining.

The police came to the Savoy restaurant and arrested Davies. He was placed in an empty holding cell that was left unsupervised. Davies grabbed a towel that was in the cell and tied it into a noose and hung himself from the top of the cage. Several years later, Davies’ now adult daughter discovered that before his death, he left behind a will and left all of his valuable possessions to his widowed wife and daughter.

Mark Your Territory

In January of 1999, the WWF was in Anaheim, California for the Royal Rumble. Vince Russo had arranged a meeting with famed porn director John Bowen to use a couple of his actresses for a segment involving Val Venis. Bowen arrived backstage with porn stars Kendra Jade and Zoe who were huge wrestling fans willing and wanting to work with the WWF. As Russo, Venis and Vince McMahon were trying to work out the particulars of how the segment would happen, Bowen and his girls hung out backstage. 

According to Bowen, the Undertaker and the Godfather approached the ladies and were very welcoming and cordial, taking time to take pictures and talk to the porn stars. Bowen said that the one WWF superstar that was not nice was Stone Cold Steve Austin, who refused to stop and talk to the girls and refused to even take a picture with them despite politely being asked. The real issues occurred when Mark Henry walked up to Bowen and the porn stars.

John Bowen claimed that Henry at first denied ever hearing of Jade or Zoe and that he was a fan of black porn actresses. Then, Henry allegedly started getting a bit touchy, feely with Zoe and approached Bowen and whispered in his ear. Bowen claimed that Henry asked him if he could “spend time” with the girls after the show. Bowen said that he chuckled and told Henry that he doesn’t do favors for anybody but the Los Angeles Dodgers who Bowen was a big fan of. Insulted, Henry began to stare down Bowen and the Godfather got in the middle of the two men. Henry allegedly threatened physical harm to Bowen, to which Bowen claimed to laugh in Henry’s face.

Mark Henry had to be removed from the situation before he pummeled Bowen. Kendra Jade and Zoe ended up on the show as a part of the Godfather’s ‘Ho Train’ and not in a segment with Val Venis. John Bowen said that the confrontation with Mark Henry soured him on the WWF and refused to work with them ever again. 

Stocking Stiffer

Billy Wicks was a tough, shoot style professional wrestler who was working across the southeast of the country early in his career. On Christmas Day in 1957, Wicks was looking for work with a wife and kids to support. Wicks got booked for a show in Fort Smith, Arkansas. A fellow wrestler named Tony Morelli warned Wicks not to work the show, because the booker Jimmy Lott was known as a thief. Wicks, who wanted to send home money to his family for Christmas, decided to appear on the show anyway.

Wicks ended up wrestling in the main event of a sold out house. Seeing the building packed to the gills, Wicks thought that he would get a great pay off. After the match, Wicks met with the promoter Jimmy Lott to receive his pay for the night and was handed $19.50. Wicks looked at the money and asked where the rest of it was, to which Lott said that was all he was getting. Wicks said he put the money in his pocket and told Lott to never book him again and called him a thief.

As Wicks turned to walk away, Lott brandished a blackjack and started whipping Wicks from behind. Wicks was able to hook Lott’s arm and threw the promoter to the ground and beat him unconscious. Lott’s wife jumped on Wicks’ back scratching and clawing him, until a ticket seller was able to break the melee up. Billy Wicks said he was blacklisted from wrestling anywhere in the surrounding territories until friends of his in the business spoke up and defended Wicks’ actions.

Black and Blue Sheep

Luke Williams and Butch Miller aka The Sheepherders were wild, violent brawlers for the majority of their careers. The team from New Zealand lived up to their gimmick one night in North Dartmouth, Massachusetts at the Lincoln Park Ballroom back in 1983. During a match pitting the Sheepherders against Bobby Jaggers and Manny Fernandez, the uncontrolled, bloody brawl spilled outside the ring. Some overzealous fans started swinging at the heel Sheepherders and that set off a mini riot. 

Luke and Butch went into the stands and began fist fighting with the crowd. Fans and the Sheepherders threw folding chairs and metal garbage cans at each other. Seeing that the Sheepherders were in imminent danger, Jaggers and Fernadez jumped in the middle of the brawl to help Luke and Butch out. A number of wrestlers ran to ringside and were able to pull the four men out of the frenzy. 

Local police were called and arrested all four wrestlers. They were all charged with disorderly conduct and disturbing the peace. They were detained in jail for over four hours where they all entered innocent pleas. The promoter posted bail and all four were released.

You can read all previous ‘Wrestling with Sin’ pieces here.