Did Mike Von Erichs death really happen the way Bret Hart says in his book?
Actually, in a bizarre error in the first edition of his book, Hitman: My Real Life in the Cartoon World of Wrestling, Bret claims that Mike took his own life via two different methods on two different occasions: once by overdosing on Placidyl in April 1985 (note that this would have been prior to his shoulder injury and surgery) and again two years later by loading up his sleeping bag with rocks, rolling into a lake and drowning. We can’t imagine where the latter story came from, but proof that it isn’t true can be found in local newspaper accounts of Mike’s suicide; the sad and simple truth is that he took a lethal dose of Placidyl and was found dead in his sleeping bag near (not in) Lake Lewisville, in a densely wooded area, on April 16, 1987. Although it doesn’t really qualify as a frequently asked question, we thought it best to try to head this one off at the pass, as stories about the Von Erichs that were far more nonsensical have nonetheless taken on lives of their own.
