Sports Articles: Boxing Legends Part 2 - Arturo Gatti page 6
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Gatti returned to Montreal after retiring to work in real estate and his new Brazilian wife Amanda Rodriguez. The pair had a son together, Arturo Jr, but their relationship was fraught. A close friend of the couple, former boxer Acelino Freitas stated that they were having marital problems and were about to split up when Arturo Gatti died on 11th July 2009 in Brazil. He was just 37 years old. The couple were there with their 10 month old baby for a family gathering. Suspicion was immediately cast on his wife, as he was found dead in a pool of his own blood with the strap of her handbag stained with his blood next to him.
A will which had been signed just a few weeks earlier left everything to Amanda Gatti and Arturo Jr, other than a trust fund set up for his daughter, which gave her a motive to commit murder. She was arrested for homicide while the investigation was undertaken, as she was unable to explain how she had managed to spend 10 hours in the apartment without noticing he was dead. However the official Brazilian autopsy report ruled his death a suicide, concluding that Arturo Gatti hung himself from a wooden staircase column in their rented holiday home using the strap of his wife's handbag. Three weeks after her arrest Amanda Gatti was released by Brazilian police.
If she thought that was the end of her problems, she was much mistaken as Arturo Gatti's family refused to accept the verdict, which led to the Canadian government asking for more information regarding the death on 31st July. John Lynch, Pat's brother and Arturo's solicitor, summed up the mood amongst the family when he said of Amanda's release: "Coming out with... these big glasses like she's a movie star, with a smile from ear to ear." His brother Pat added, "like a Cheshire cat." The pair also refused to believe Arturo could have killed himself and they paid for two private detectives to investigate and find proof that his death was not a suicide. The family were also determined to contest his will, leaving his entire estate, worth millions, to Amanda, his wife.
The family hired a pathologist who claimed bruises on his body were ignored in the initial autopsy. Their suspicions were based around the new will which Arturo had drawn up and signed in later May 2009, just days before they went away on holiday, first to Europe and then on to Brazil. She claimed she had nothing to do with the will but the family refused to accept her claims. They also remembered times the couple had argued. One friend of Arturo, Gisella Miniera, remembers an outburst from Amanda during an angry text exchange with Arturo when she said she would kill him.
There were other signs of issues as Amanda was describing the trip to Europe as a second honeymoon and called it such things as "beautiful" and "perfect", Tony Rizzo, a friend of Arturo's claims Arturo left him a voice message saying it was a nightmare. More concerns were raised by the way the Brazilian police found Arturo, face down in a pool of blood with a deep gash on the back of his head and a knife lying nearby. They also wondered why she never phoned the police immediately on finding him on the floor. Security systems had shown no one else had entered the apartment after they returned that night.
The private eyes, Paul Ciolino and Joe Moura, believed police had bungled the investigation. They ruled out hanging. Their theory was that Arturo had been hit on the head, knocking him unconscious, then strangled. Something the Brazilian police had ruled out because Amanda Gatti was too small, in their eyes, to have hit Arturo with enough force to render him unconscious. The detectives assembled a panel of experts to prove their theory. Dr Alfred Bowles, an expert in body movement, said: "You simply cannot hang yourself the way the Brazilian authorities have identified."
Forensic pathologist Dr Cyril Wecht went even further, making the bald statement: "This is homicide." Forensic scientist Brent Turvey added: "And that blood tells us everything we need to know. The blunt-force injury to the back of the head was most likely inflicted in the apartment. And why do we know that? We know that because of the blood flow."
An almost relentless campaign was waged by the family to denigrate Amanda, who was described by them and sympathetic journalists as a former stripper who met Arturo at a topless bar. She denied those claims, always maintaining the pair met while walking dogs and forced a number of news outlets to retract the stripper claim after being unable to prove she had worked at any topless bar. Ex-wife Erika Rivera claimed Amanda was extremely jealous of Arturo's daughter and had tried to stop him seeing her. She also said that the pair had once had an argument in the middle of a restaurant after Amanda had said the daughter, Sofia, "didn't look normal" and described her using words such as "Mongoloid". The private investigators also claimed that Arturo had separated from his wife in January and had begun a new relationship with a lady in Florida and that she had found out when he made out his new will.
That does have supporting evidence of a kind, as Arturo also signed an agreement to pay Amanda $1m if he ever cheated on her at the same time as the new will was made. Was the will, payout agreement and holiday an attempt at a reconciliation? It was well known that both of them were prone to bouts of excessive jealousy. Texts between the pair also showed her increasing anger over his drinking. The family believed she had pressured him into the new will so he could see his son and produced a previous will dating from 2007 that left his money to his mother, brother and daughter. However that particular will was unsigned.
Boxing Legends Part 2 - Arturo Gatti page 7
Written by Tris Burke - June 25 2018 19:55:06
