411’s Dark Side of The Ring Report: ‘Truth, Lies, and Billy Jack Haynes’

-This one is going to be crazy and just out there as Dark Side tackles Billy Jack Haynes. As a kid all I knew Billy Jack from was getting busted open by Hercules’ chain at WrestleMania III. Let’s get to it!

-The teaser shows the news coverage of Haynes having a police stand off and killing his wife. Jim Cornette and Dave Meltzer are two of the talking heads. Dave: “A lot of guys fall hard in wrestling, but he fall harder than most. Without a doubt.”

-Show opening!

-Cornette says most fans forgot about him and even die hard WWE fans knew he was there but may not remember what he did. We see the headline reading “Former professional wrestler accused of killing 85-year-old wife, police say.”

-He also had two assault charges before he was 30 and it was the mean streak that opened doors to pro-wrestling. Larry Oliver says that Billy was often listed as being trained by Stu Hart, but he was too tough and beat all Stu’s boys so was thrown out of The Dungeon. He became a gym rat in Portland, Oregon and David Sierra (The Cuban Assassin) found him in the Portland Arena looking for work. Haynes was jacked and David and Rip Oliver talked to Don Owens (promoter) into using Billy because of his size and being a local kid.

-Billy’s gimmick and look came from the movie “Billy Jack.” He was a soft spoken, but dangerous man and the fans in Oregon went crazy for him. Meltzer says Billy was an effective babyface promo in Oregon. He was just trying to get revenge on the heels. “The 80s was about the look and he had the look.” Cornette says he was immediately pushed no matter the territory he came to.

-Bill Alfonzo is here and doesn’t want to call Billy an oddball, but he was different than all the wrestlers. Billy wouldn’t go out and drink with the boys, as he would go have pizza with the fans.

-Billy gets the call to head to the WWF in 1986. Cornette says Billy Jack was what Vince McMahon thought a wrestler should look like. Someone mentions Billy Jack was part of “that Detroit WrestleMania where over 100,000 people showed up.” Those buying under 93.000 at Mania III won’t like to hear that.

-Ken Patera is here and says he was put in a team with Billy as The Oregon Lumberjacks. They wanted them to run chainsaws and Patera thought they were nuts. He says Billy had a nice personality and was soft spoken, but the gloss wears off after a while.

-Len Denton (The Grappler) is next and he notes he wrestled Billy Jack many times and he could never trust him. Assassin notes Billy was off the hinge and covers Billy being stiff with The Full Nelson. Cornette notes he had a reputation of snapping on people. We hear a story of Billy Jack slapping the piss out of Percy Pringle (Paul Bearer). Another story of Billy getting called out as being a fake by a fan. Billy attacked and beat the hell out of the person. They note he was a bully who picked on people who he could handle. Assassin never though the Billy Jack in the 80s would do what he did.

-We see video of Multnomah County Detention Center in Oregon and these words pop up:

“Several Months After His Arrest, Dark Side of The Ring Received an Unsolicited Offer on Behalf of Billy Jack Haynes. Haynes Asked to Sit Down with Us for an Interview.”

-Billy says there is a lot people don’t know about him. “Believe half of what you hear and nothing of what you see.” He introduces himself as “Billy Jack Haynes of the World Wrestling Federation and a 14 year pro. Good to talk to you.”

-Back to Billy Jack in jail as he has been incarcerated for six months. He says what happened is a small percentage of his life. He has his attorney present. He notes he is charged with second degree murder and that it is way overcharged. He only loved two people: his father, who was blind, and his wife. He says he allegedly murdered her, but we will find that he didn’t. “I loved her more than life.”

-He gets to his wrestling career and says we all know it was a work. He doesn’t want to be negative as he respects wrestlers, but they don’t know him. Cornette says Haynes wasn’t making friends hands over fists. He was a loner and someone mentions he always had an agenda. He says Billy would often leave the hotel in the middle of the night.

-Billy tells us he was heavy into pain killers and was taking 20-25 pills a day. They cut to a WWF promo where he tells kids to say no to drugs. Billy admits to us that drugs are no good. Patera says Billy shoewd up late to their tag match and was pilled out of his mind and that killed their push as a tag team.

-Billy asks his lawyer if he should mention a story about a plane. The attorney off screen, “well it happened.” He overdosed on a plane and they had to shock him twice and that was the last straw and he was fired from the WWF.

-He returned to Portland and opened The Oregon Wrestling Federation (OWF) and ran opposite Don Owen, who made Billy. The OWF didn’t last long as Dave says the crash was spectacular. Billy left a lot of guys hanging and it shot his reputation. Billy says it was his bad and says his head wasn’t screwed on right and was on pills.

-He wasted all his potential and his career was finished in 1996 after doing some matches in the UWF. His wrestling days were over, but he found his way back to the spotlight due to his weird personality. He popped up a few years later on the interview circuit and says (from a 2019 interview) he was a cocaine dealer.

-In 2017 he claims he put two dead kids on a rail road track in what was a long unsolved murder case in Arkansas.

-Commercials!

-Back to the death of the two teenagers. It seems it was on Unsolved Mysteries as two teenage boys in Arkansas were run over by a train. Billy Jack’s claim is they were both dead before he put them on the tracks. We get some footage from Unsolved Mysteries. The kids were soon found to have been beaten. Billy Jack says the kids walked into a drug meeting. He went there after he had a match with Bundy. The kids walked into the deal as Haynes says the kids were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

-The news story has words from the mother of one of the kids and she believes Haynes story as she feels he has no need ro tie himself to the case. He continues with his story as he was running with a giant drug dealer for uncut coke. Don Humphers, a friend, thought it was insane, but knows Billy can prove it. Current day Billy says he can’t talk about and his lawyer tells him to leave it alone.

“Billy Jack’s statements were not taken seriously by law enforcement and the “boys on the tracks” case remains open.”

-Haynes continues to do shoot interviews and makes up stories where he is in the middle of newsworthy gigs. He says he delivered cocaine to one of the Bee Gee’s in San Francisco in 1978. Larry Oliver says he was nutty and would find ways to make himself back in the scene. He claims The Clintons were involved in his cocaine business too. Fonzie: “Why the fuck would Bill Clinton call Billy Jack Haynes? That’s stupid.” Assassin: “He had to be on some good drugs to think that.”

-An old interview has his him claiming Vince Sr. could be his father and present day Billy says it could be true as there is a long history there. Dave nearly laughing as he says it’s ridiculous from someone to even try to pass that off.”

-Old interview says 9-11 was an inside job and The Bush Family was involved. Everyone figured he was telling crazy stories so he could do more and get more money. Cornette says one crazy thing in wrestling can be true, but when you are pulling shit out of your ass, nobody will believe you even if a couple could be true.

-Next we discussed an attempted murder on Billy Jack.

-Commercials!

-From 2006 to 2023, Billy Jack continues to run with conspiracy theories, but his ties to organized crime may be legit. We meet Phil Stanford, a columnist in Oregon, was doing a story and Haynes showed up after getting out of the hospital. The pictures show he had the shit beaten out of him and it looks bad. He claims he was set up for a hit on Jan 10, 2006 by two hitmen hired by Jimmy Longoria. He was attacked by two men and he played dead so they would stop. Jimmy claims two tweekers provoked Jimmy into getting in a fight. The surveillance cameras were not working and it seemed fishy, but the reporter believes Longoria had something to do with it. The beating was apparently retribution for him stealing $200,000 from The Longorias. The reporter says it doesn’t make sense though that they waited 16 years to get revenge.

-Back to the OWF as rumors were he got the money from The Mafia. Dave says that is possible as Billy had a past.

-The reporter remembers telling him about the murder of Mike Franke and then short after, Billy sends a letter saying he was tied to the murder. Everyone thinks he is just crazy and wants the attention of being tied to anything. One person even notes he wants to be The Forrest Gump of wrestling. The reporter believes the beating was real and the cocaine dealing were real, but everything else he has no clue.

-Commercials!

-They mention he had financial difficulties and had a period of time where he was homeless. Rip Oilver took him in, but Billy Jack says he knew Rip was dying and flew down to Florida to help him and doesn’t want a pat of the back for it. Rip’s son mentions Billy didn’t come for his dad and only wanted a place to live. He claims Billy Jack stole his dad’s pills as he was month from dying and was on the strongest stuff you could be. Assassin says he took advantage of Rip.

-Billy called Brian Blair to let Cauliflower Alley know Rip needed help paying taxes. His son says there were no taxes and the money was split between his dad and Billy. He admits his dad was a junkie, but Billy toook advantage of him and stole his stuff when he died.

“When asked about the allegations that he stole Rip Oliver’s pain medication and defrauded Cauliflower Alley, Billy Jack Haynes replied, “Both allegations are bullshit. Plain and simple.””

-Billy goes back to Portland and starts a relationship with Jan Becraft, the mother of his friend Todd. Todd dies in 2021 so Billy Jack and Jan get married. She was 85 and Billy Jack was 70 so people assumed he was using her.

-Tom Matthew, neighbor, shows us the house the alledged murder took place. Jan had been sick and was having bad days. Jack’s friend notes Billy loved Jan and was taking good care of her, but it is tough to handle the mental strain of watching someone die. He heard the cop cars on the scanner and saw where they were headed and knew it was Billy Jack.

-The neighbor says Billy took her life. The entire neighborhood was in shock as they viewed Billy as a big teddy bear. Everyone thought Billy was nuts but nobody thought he was that nuts.

-Commercials!

-Next week: The Original Sheik.

-Feb. 8, 2024: Bill Jack took the life of his wife. His newest claim was she had dementia so paid that he could not live with it and it was a mercy killing. “He shot his wife in the head and that was a mercy killing? I don’t know brother.” The reporter says the lawyer needs to argue diminished capacity if not for the wrestling, but the beating he took with the supposed bad drug deal. Billy Jack says he loved her with all his heart.

-Cornette says some older people in Oregon may have a fond spot for Haynes, but now he is known more for what he did out of the ring. Dave says he had a few good years when wrestling was extremely hot, but had a trouble existence after that fame ended. It’s not a happy story. They show him in the WWF teaming in a six man with Hogan and Piper to make sure we know the highs he hit in the WWF.

“Billy Jack Haynes has pleased not guilty to murder in the second degree and unlawful use of weapon in connection to the death of Jan Becraft.”

-Billy says when that door shuts, reality hits quit as there is no way out of here. “Not until trial.”

“Attempts to reach the family of Jan Becraft went unreturned.”

-Billy says he feels good about his chances with the trial and we lean the trial is currently set for December 2025.

-Wow, there was a lot here and probably didn’t even get into half of what they could have discussed. I knew Billy Jack had seemingly lost it and was on the conspiracy theory train, but didn’t know it was all of this. Billy Jack being able to talk is the main thing from this episode as he could give his side and whatever information he wanted, and up to each person to believe him or not. It seems most of the talking heads here don’t, but he had a few friends that seemingly give him the benefit of the doubt. Definitely worth a watch and I assume the shoot interviews are out there for people to pursue. Thanks for reading!