Boxer Arturo Gatti's death: Suicide or murder?

Arturo and Amanda Gatti (Amanda Gatti)

Produced by Doug Longhini and Josh Yager

To look at them together it's clear: Amanda Gatti lives for her 3-year-old boy, Arturo Jr.

"He's everything I asked God for," Amanda told "48 Hours Mystery" correspondent Erin Moriarty in her first American television interview. "Junior makes me complete."

In no small part, she says, because he's the spitting image of his father... a man they're both learning to live without.

"The smile is the same...just like his daddy," she said. "I miss my husband very much. I miss him when I go to sleep...I miss him when I wake up..."

It's a loss made all the more difficult by the shadow of suspicion that surrounds Amanda.

In July 2009, Amanda was arrested for murder and held before investigators shocked the world with their findings: Arturo Gatti, world class fighter who never gave up in the ring, had committed suicide.

"I knew. I knew. I knew," Amanda said in broken English. "My husband kill himself. Oh my God, my husband killed himself."

But even today, more than two years after Arturo's death, many of his friends, family and fans refuse to believe he took his own life.

By late 2006, Arturo Gatti had been crowned welterweight champion and amassed a multimillion-dollar fortune when, Amanda Rodrigues, then a struggling Brazilian immigrant, says they met walking dogs near his home in New Jersey.

She says she had no idea who he was. "I remember when I find out he was a fighter, I told him ... 'Oh... I thought you was even a movie star...but not a fighter...because he was so cute...'"

"Arturo was special. ...There was nobody like him," according to Tom Casino, a boxing photographer who had met Arturo years earlier -- soon after the fighter moved down from Montreal. "He looked like this little peanut."

But Arturo, then just 19, already had his eye on the prize.

"Did you have any idea the kind of fighter he'd become? Moriarty asked Casino.

"No, not a clue," he said. "Not, until I saw him fight."

That happened a few months later in an amateur fight where 19-year-old Arturo took on a much older, more seasoned fighter.

"The guy couldn't hit him... he's pot-shotting the guy and then hitting him like BANG," Casino explained. "He won and I was like 'Wow.' ...I've never seen anything like it. ...I knew this guy was gonna be a champ."

And Arturo Gatti became just that -- bobbing, weaving and punching his way to three world titles.

He won 40 fights - 31 by knockout. His relentlessness in the ring made Arturo a crowd favorite. And he partied outside the ring as hard as he fought in it.

"I would get calls that Arturo did something crazy," Casino told Moriarty. "Everybody that I met in the tri-state area had a party story with Arturo Gatti."

But it was his rivalry with one man that really made him a legend. "Irish" Micky Ward became a household name when actor Mark Wahlberg made a movie, "The Fighter," about Ward's life.

"I had three amazing fights with Arturo Gatti and in doing that became a very good friend..." he said.

The Ward-Gatti trilogy would become the stuff of boxing lore. Ward won the first fight; Gatti took the second.

"He caught me in the ear and I stumbled into the corner like this," Ward demonstrated in the ring for Moriarty, "and I went boom!"

And in their final bout, Gatti stunned the crowd by winning - with a broken hand.

"Gatti...it's just the poster boy of courage and heart," said Casino.

The battles Gatti fought with Ward brought out the best in both of them.

"It showed that two guys, we can actually try to fight, win and that we respected each other," said Ward.

Video: Micky Ward on his relationship with Gatti
Photos: Gatti's life and career

Gatti showed that respect after the third fight when a battered Ward was being examined by an emergency room doctor.

"And he opens up the curtain and says, 'We got someone here who wants to say hi to ya.' The next bed over is Arturo...he's laying there, he was getting stitched up also I believe," recalled Ward.

"Well you put him there," noted Moriarty.

"Right, and he put me there. And the first thing outta his mouth, he says, 'Micky, you OK?' And that showed me...what a kid! What a guy."

It would be the start of an extraordinary friendship.

Which is why, to this day, Micky Ward can't believe Arturo could have killed himself. "I just can't see him taking his own life," he told Moriarty. "That's just not him! ...Everything in life was going good for him."

In 2006, after almost two decades in the ring, Arturo met Amanda. In less than a year, he sat her down, popped a bottle of champagne... "And then he just asked me if I would marry him. ...I think it was one of the most beautiful moments in my life," she said.

Moriarty asked Amanda, "Did you ever see him fight?"

"I only saw his last fight," she replied.

In July 2007, Gatti, now 35 and plagued by injuries, faces a much younger Alfonso Gomez. It would be Arturo's last professional fight.

"And I remember that...he was so sad...And he says, 'Baby, I wanted you to be the champion's wife." And I said, 'Baby, you're always gonna be my champion.'"

Despite his newfound love, retirement from boxing would hit Arturo Gatti hard.

According to Casino, "He partied like he fought... hard and heavy."

"48 Hours Mystery" reveals the truth about a man boxing the darkest shadows... and headed for a fall.

"I knew if he continued drinking something bad was gonna happen," Casino said. "...it was inevitable."

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[pipesmygame]

At the N.J. presser for Arturo Gatti they said he got hit over the head in the room causing his head to bleed . I myself do not buy it , there was to many people saw his head bleeding outside the room .Taxi driver and hotel staff and bystanders . There was even blood on the head rest of the cab . Also at the N.J. presser they said there was no blood transfer . They did not show upstairs where there is blood transfer on the sheet of the bed . If there is blood upstairs its part of the crime scene .There is more that i do not agree from the N.J. presser . I do think 48 hours is more for killing himself.

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7382189n#ixzz1ZrIefoFC

[silveradocool]

Lets be honest this man was murdered - killing himself with a purse strap come on - he loved that lil boy to much to do that he met this woman out in the streets of NJ for crying out loud did you hear how she talked very streetish arrogant and full of it. As far as security goes any system can be defeated any of them. This girl came out of jail smiling and strutting like a rock star or something - and a couple questions that were posed to her by the 48 Hours Interviewer she refused to answer - string her up.

[SilverFieldHOA]

Agree! Her story has so many holes. Let's see, where to begin...

The article said "Arturo took their 10-month-old baby... and took off.
...When he returned minutes later to look for his wife, the angry crowd began throwing things at him. "
1. Why would someone drunk would took a baby with him?
2. If #1 is true, she don't care enough for her baby's safety by calling the cops in stopping him from harming himself and the baby.
3. I don't know that any angry crowd would throw things at man with a 10-month old with him unless she approved it.

Later, "When Arturo and the baby caught up with her, she says she noticed a cut on the back of her husband's head..
"He was like, 'Look what happened to me. I got in a fight with four people in the street, four guys.'""
4. Althought it's psossible, but it's unlikely that 4 guys would rob/fought a drunk man with a 10-month old on a stroller.
5. Four-Five hours later, she still in the condos and don't care enough for her baby's safety by calling the cops in looking for them?


"According to Amanda, she had finally had enough and took their son with her to bed."
...he just say, 'So I guess it's over, huh?' And I look at him and I say, 'It's over.' I couldn't take that anymore."

6. Really? a reasonable person at this point would leave the hotel and move to another motel or with relatives. I suspects she stays to make sure he is dead.

"she came downstairs about two hours later... still so upset, she was ready to say goodbye."
7. Hmm, that's not a typical abused spouse response - upset, but nice enough to bye to a guy who had beaten you up. That is a weird behavior.


"I wanted to believe that he was just pass[ed] out, so I started shaking him.... I was calling his name. I say, 'Arturo I forgive you, please wake up!"
8. Huh? I thought she was ready to say goodbye minutes earlier, but forgive him. This is now getting really fishy.

Asked if she knew what happened to Arturo at that point, Amanda told Moriarty, "Yes, I knew. I knew.... My husband kill himself! Oh my God, my husband killed himself."
9. People don't kill themselves at a foregin place, they like to do it at comfortable place like their home or a known suicide areas like a tall bridge in a familiar town.

[aoket2010]

Today, the mother of his first child was confronted with allegations she had made in court documents, perhaps in court testimony as well, that Arturo tried to kill himself in 2005. There is all kinds of French articles about it. Now, she is saying she lied. A big witch hunt of a young girl whose husband committed suicide, or what murder because he punched the wrong person in the face that night maybe. But, no way, no how is a 100 pound 5 foot - short girl going to be able to do that and with no evidence to say it was not a suicide there is no way I am ever going to see where you're going with it. If you're going to suggest someone else did it, maybe I could see the angle. To say someone did something without solid proof that he did not kill himself is odd. If you look at Arturo's body it's covered in marks, nothing was moved in the whole place, and if he was beaten or there was a struggle in that small space it would be obvious. People that get hit in the head as many times as he did because he always got a good beating really pay for it mentally. Think about what a 1000 punches in the head, hard punches, would do to a person. Then many people said he talked suicide. The mother of the first child said it in court documents. Sorry, her saying that she lied in court documents now is pretty bad, but these are the type of things the widow has to deal with. People like you looking for guilt when there is so much evidence that speaks loudly of the truth. It's a sad truth, but it must really be accepted sooner than later so people can learn what needs to be learned. I watched his fights and he really took a lot of blows and I feel sorry that it damaged him to that degree. Nobody was able to help the man, even the people who tried, and denial was a big reason that it's such a shock to the people who loved him. Just this summer there was a young hockey player, just retired, same thing, but he OD. This fame thing adds another element to it.

[pipesmygame]

This will be my third post and my theory is to not connect the murder, but to put Arturo Gatti upstairs in the bedroom. They went out that day to a number of places and i will pick it up from the fight . When Arturo pushed down Amanda he had Jr. in his arms. I think the fight started over jr when she told him you are in my counrty and Jr. is staying here. She would say she would take the baby to Brazil many times when she was in the United States. She takes off after Arturo pushed her down and then leaving the baby with Arturo. Arturo was getting into a taxi when a man asked him whats going on. He turn and hit the man a number of times knocking the man out. Bystanders seen this and started throwing rocks and a bike hitting gatti in the head causing him to bleed from the head . He gets in the taxi and the taxi driver said gatti said I WOULD OF KILLED THEM ALL IF IT WAS NOT FOR MY SON . This can be found on youtube real sports arturo gatti video .http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VN1aE7wKrIo The cab driver saw him bleeding from the head and also on the head rest of the car . They get back to the resort and she is there. He gets out of the cab with Jr. in his arms and resort staff saw him with jr. They get in the room and she asks for Jr and she goes upstairs to the bedroom with Jr and locks the door. Before that she tells Arturo she is leaving him. I think there is some truth in every lie and Arturo took the baby upstairs and locked the door. If you look at the crime scene photo you can see a blood smear on the bed sheets. There are two twin beds pushed together and in 48 hours they are apart. If you look at the ear smear that is from his left ear. He laid across one bed and his ear smear is just on the other bed . But then is legs would be hanging off the bed with how tall he is. I think it is his ear smear and he was in a pre-natal postion with Jr on the bed with him. He made a phone call in the past that was recorded and he was pissed off and he was going to come home sooner. This is my theory on some of what i think happened.

[aoket2010]

Sorry, I think you're really grasping...For example, the beds were apart because they usually are and so they were when they went back to do the "special" they were. If anything, and I do believe all the facts say suicide, you have things confused, and maybe he pissed someone off enough that night enough that they followed him back to the hotel. However, they had camera's everywhere and security and nobody entered the room. You can't say someone murdered someone without a lot more evidence than this. His head was bleeding a lot and that bed would have been covered. He was attached by 20 people and hit in the head by a bike. That was confirmed by multiple witnesses.

[pipesmygame]

I can show he was probably upstairs and there were no cameras at the resort, as stated by the police in Brazil. The police said the doors where timed lock when you come in. Also, they said that they had security and security at the gate. I myself was shocked that this resort had no cameras at all. I did make 2 videos showing how i came up with him on the bed. These were sent out to the people in charge of looking into gatti death. I showed over thirty people my videos before sending them out to the right people. They all believed that it was enough to put him upstairs. I am not saying that she murdered him by any means, but I do believe that he did go upstairs and thats what I am trying to prove. In one of the videos on the internet they have the two beds next to each other with a blood stain. If you Youtube Real Sports Arturo Gatti, then you will see what I am talking about. I have viewed the crime scenes over and over and any other videos that I could find relating to this particular case. I can tell you one thing and that is that I could show more evidence supporting my theory than what I have seen on the internet or on TV. N.J.

[max308]

Couldn't confirm her employment in the strip club?
Amanda was in the US illegally. Might that be a reason? Amanda was deported shortly after she married Gatti...

[canadianjustice]

Dr. Gil Grissom, Lieutenant Horatio Caine,
Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Alexx Woods
and the cast and crew of CSI Las Vegas,
Miami and NY would have done a better job
to protect Arturo Gatti's crime/homocide
scene than how Brazilian Police Officers
concluded to date.

Brazil has a corrupt Police force. I doubt
Brazilian Police Officers did all in their
power to safeguard forensic evidence at the
crime/homocide of Arturo Gatti.

Very sad when a Brazilian Police force
mishandles a homocide and does not care
to work diligently to find the dead victim's
killer.

Brasil Police requires to reopen this cold case.

[aoket2010]

They sure did do a better job than those hired investigators who clearly had tunnel vision.

[aoket2010]

CBS did not show a crucial part that the fifth estate did.

There were belt buckle notches and fibre from the handbag strap on the stairwell where he would have hung himself.

As for those saying Amanda should have helped her husband when he was on the floor...She said he blacked out and passed out on the floor before when he was loaded drunk. So, after being pushed down and injured I'm sure she wasn't feeling the love and just thought it was part of his drunken state again.

[pipesmygame]

I think he was upstairs in the bedroom and thats why he was found in his underwear. There was blood smear on the bed sheets . what i am saying she said she went up stairs if she is being truthful . Also with blood on the sheets up stairs that should be included in the crime scene . If you youtube real sports arturo gatti you can see the blood on the bed . Also if you look at it looks like his left ear smear. If you like to see more email [e-mail]

[aoket2010]

I've been following it for two years and there was no mention of him being in bed, or upstairs at all. Watch the show again and watch the fifth estate and you will not see any mention of him being upstairs. She's always maintained it is her who went upstairs. I've read it all, watched it all and there was no blood anywhere else. She went in the room and she locked the door.

[canadianjustice]

Amanda Rodrigues:

Arturo Gatti Sr. spirit will haunt you and hope you continue to have sleepless nights, because that what happens to a person that has a guilty conscience.

I hope you encounter the same destiny that you pre-destined Arturo Sr to have.

To all persons that helped Amanda commit this homicide and looked the other way (including Brazil police force who were paid to look the otherway):

==> He who helps the guilty, shares the crime.

Make Arturo Jr. take a paternity test and you will find out
who is behind this homicide with Amanda the stripper/prostitute.

[aoket2010]

I guess you didn't see the little boy? He is identical to his father the spitting image.

I think Karma is a boomerang and those who look for guilt in the innocent will reap what they sow.

[pipesmygame]

We all have heard they had a fight and rocks and bike hit his head. The blood was on the head rest of a taxi. Resort staff seen his head bleeding . He was seen holding jr in his arm threw out the night during there fight .Maybe she told him you are in my country and jr is staying here . She said to arturo give me the baby and she went up stairs locked the door. There is some truth in every lie . I think arturo did not give her the baby and he went up stairs and locked the door . you do not hear any thing about the blood smear up stairs in the bed room on the sheets . I do think it is arturo blood from his head causing blood transfer from his left ear .

[aoket2010]

There was never any statement that he went upstairs, only that she went upstairs and the strap broke which would explain how he ended up on the floor and the fifth estate showed pictures of the fiber on the stairwell and the notches from the buckle on the stairwell case, which the these private investigators excluded from the evidence they collected. In addition to the chair not being where it was in the photographs and that specialist hired by the investigators who said the placement of the chair being different would change what he wrote and his opinion of where he was positioned. This is just a witch hunt by a bunch of people who don't want to see the truth and the family has decided to plant these seeds in the minds of people because it's easier to believe than the truth, which is he was in a dark place (getting beaten up by the crowd) that was his last fight and it put him in a dark place.

[pipesmygame]

Why do you thing he is in his underwear he was up stairs in the bed. she said she went up stairs and locked the door if she is telling the truth . let me ask you this can it be her blood or his blood ?

[pr_boxer]

The suicide verdict is non-sense, Gatti was a total warrior, not a quitter. Plus, no man commits suicide by hanging himself by a womans purse straps. This was a corrupt police investigation plain and simple.This gal wanted Gatti's money, all of it!

[ReckonedTruth]

Really?

Quitters don't do illicit drugs/ alcohol abuse/ beat on his wife because he couldn't cope - no longer a boxer in the lime-light? I'm not trying to dimish Mr. Gatti's boxing record.. but did he not retire from his boxing career because of debilitating physicality?