We’re filing this one under insane, creepy, interesting, telling, and WTF. You’ve possibly heard of the WWE murder/suicide of the week, featuring popular WWE superstar Chris Benoit and his family. Yah, it’s not gadgety, but it’s about Wikiepedia, and if you like, then you’ll love!
Chris Benoit is a pro wrestler. Christ Benoit was a fan of anabolic steroids. At some point over the last weekend, Chris Benoit strangled his loving wife and smothered his young child. After killing his family, Chris Benoit hung himself with his own weight set in his garage. No, really.
Many are assigning his bout of psychosis to a condition called “roid rage”, wherein users of steroids go nuts and kill loved ones. Jocks rule.
What’s interesting though is the unravelling mystery behind Benoit’s Wikipedia entry. Just prior to the discovery of the murders, Chris Benoit called his bosses at the WWE and told them he wouldn’t be able to wrestle in a match due to familial problems. WWE said that Chris Benoit told them his family was sick. That was good enough for us, and good enough for the fans. But that might not be what happened.
Chris Benoit’s Wikipedia entry was edited 14 hours before the bodies of his family were discovered by police to say that his wife and child were dead. That is the creepy part you were waiting for. The IP address of the last edit to his entry comes from Stamford, CT, the same hometown as WWE’s headquarters.
The conclusion isn’t hard to jump to: WWE knew that Chris Benoit was about to or had killed his family. If true, then the WWE, the bastion of all thing legal and sane, is complicit in covering up the murder and suicide of a family in Atlanta, GA. We’re hoping the law does not find this to be fact, but things look bad for the WWE.
The moral of the story: Don’t edit Wikipedia entries. And use proxies. Thank you.
Wikipedia notes death of Benoit’s wife before body found [CNN]