Following the pro wrestling theme this week (see
Minnie Nosler Enjoyed Watching Professional Wrestling), I thought I'd mention my 3rd cousin 3x removed Howard Clinkscale, aka Jim Clinkstock or Big Jim, was a professional wrestler from the mid-1920s until his death in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1944 of heart failure.
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| Howard (or "Jim") was a descendant of Benjamin Tibbetts and Hannah Snow, and a cousin to Minnie Nosler's first husband, George Henry Hartley. |
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| Must have been pretty entertaining! "Amusements. Wrestling Convention Hall," Kansas City Star (Kansas City, MO), Sunday, 24 January 1926, pg 74, col 5; digital image, GenealogyBank (http://www.genealogybank.com: 3 Sep 2016). |
His life appeared to be as violent as his profession:
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| Even more troubles would follow "Jim" as his father Dill and little brother A.C. both died the next year in 1935. "Wrestler Accused of Fatal Beating," Augusta Chronicle (Augusta, GA), Thursday, 1 November 1934, section A, pg 6, col 6; digital image, GenealogyBank (http://www.genealogybank.com: 3 Sep 2016). |
When he died in a strange rampage at a dentist's office (extensively covered nation-wide by looks of the result hits in GenealogyBank), it was finally concluded that he died of a heart attack. He was only 40.
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| "Parker and Sikes Cleared in Death of Jim Clinstock," Greensboro Record (Greensboro, NC), Wednesday, 1 March 1944, pg 11, col 6; digital image, GenealogyBank (http://www.genealogybank.com: 3 Sep 2016). |
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| He had been living at the Mecklenburg Hotel. North Carolina, Mecklenburg County, Charlotte. North Carolina State Board of Health Certificate of Death, Jim C. Clinstock, certificate 9, 29 January 1944.; digital image, Ancestry's North Carolina, Death Certificates, 1909-1976 (http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=1121: 3 Sep 2016). |
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