The Definitive Book on Arturo Gatti's Death?

There is no question that Arturo "Thunder" Gatti will forever be a legend in boxing. After a sixteen-year career, he finally hung up the gloves in 2007 after losing in characteristically blood-and-guts fashion against Alfonso Gomez, against whom he had been a two-to-one betting favorite. Many thought that after such a storied career, including four "Fight of the Year" awards from The Ring magazine, Gatti would ride off into the sunset and enjoy a peaceful retirement. Those who knew him, knew better.

Jimmy Tobin's true crime book (which could also be called a pamphlet, coming in at only 71 pages) titled Killed in Brazil?: The Mysterious Death of Arturo "Thunder" Gatti provides a minimalist description of Gatti's career and delves somewhat deeper into his fateful death and its fallout. For the uninitiated, here's a brief rundown: In July 2009, Gatti was found dead in a hotel in Brazil while on vacation with his wife and 10-month-old son, just two years after retiring. The cause? Therein lies the controversy. He was found on the floor with blunt-force trauma to the back of his head, a purse strap lay on the floor nearby. The Brazilian authorities originally declared they were investigating his death as a homicide before ultimately determining that Gatti took his own life by hanging, using his wife's purse strap to string himself up from an elegant baluster in the room. Gatti's wife, Amanda Rodrigues, was detained in Brazil initially, then promptly released when the autopsy report led authorities to declare the death a suicide.

Gatti was found dead in a hotel in Brazil while on vacation with his wife and 10-month-old son, just two years after retiring. The cause? Therein lies the controversy.

Two factions have formed with regard to Gatti's death: Those who believe Amanda hatched a nefarious plan to kill him, and those whose knowledge of Gatti's all-or-nothing, off-the-rails lifestyle has lead them to believe that suicide is, shall we say, not an impossibility. Tobin toes the line between the two positions, and if you picked up this book looking for any groundbreaking revelations, keep looking.

Those who believe Amanda took her husband's life certainly have a lot of circumstantial evidence to support their position. They can point to a suspiciously timed life insurance policy, the peculiarity of a couple already slated for divorce going on a "romantic" vacation, the dubious physics behind hanging oneself with a purse strap, and other facts that just don't seem to add up. Still, there is no proverbial "smoking gun." In the minds of (most of) Gatti's family members, friends, and even previous opponents, the clearest piece of evidence derives from Gatti's personality. "How," they ask, "could a man like Arturo, capable of taking so much punishment in the ring without ever giving up, commit the ultimate act of surrender?" For these people, Gatti's lust for life, his indomitable spirit, and sheer will to persevere are entirely incompatible with suicide. Tobin writes that to understand this perspective requires "an appreciation of [Gatti's] mythology. The mythology of a fighter who could do the impossible."

Those of us who would never consider suicide insist on imposing our own cool-headed logic on people who, as a rule, do not behave logically.

That so many hold this view is an indictment of just how misunderstood suicide is by the general public. Those of us who would never consider suicide insist on imposing our own cool-headed logic on people who, as a rule, do not behave logically. Yes, Gatti had young children, he had plans for the future, and he had a joie de vivre that sometimes bordered on the excessive. None of that is determinative. Those who know someone affected by suicide or, God forbid, have lost close relations to it, understand this. Often a person seems to have everything going for them, yet internal strife tears them apart. A recent, high-profile example is chef and television presenter Anthony Bourdain. Bourdain had a beautiful young daughter, great esteem from the public and his peers, and a dream job, none of which prevented him from hanging himself in his room while shooting for Parts Unknown in Strasbourg, France. One major difference between his death and Gatti's: Bourdain was sober.

Gatti had a long history of drug and alcohol abuse and a reputation for living life on the edge. The book briefly mentions what some believe to be a previous suicide attempt, as well as an occasion on which a manic Gatti asked a friend for his gun in an apparent cry for help or perhaps a sincere effort to end his life. On both occasions, Gatti was very drunk, high, or both. A person's capacity to make a reckless, and selfish, decision while they are intoxicated should not be underestimated. Indeed, nearly one in four people who commit suicide do so under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol, and given concomitant impulsivity while under the influence, they are more likely to do so violently. Add to that the speculation that Gatti - no stranger to blows to the head - may have suffered from CTE as well as the beating he took from a violent mob after assaulting Amanda in the street on the 10th of July (the day before he was found dead), and suicide becomes an increasingly likely explanation.

A person's capacity to make a reckless, and selfish, decision while they are intoxicated should not be underestimated.

The book reads as though its author is unsure of who its audience will be. It presumes a level of knowledge about Gatti and about the situation surrounding his death that the average person simply will not have. At the same time, there is very little information collected here that cannot be found by even a cursory Google search on a lazy Saturday afternoon, nor are the theories presented particularly insightful. Each theory is described, an opinion is provided by a pertinent commentator, and then it is placed firmly in the "maybe" category. Rhetorical questions, similar to the one found in the book's title, abound; they serve only to raise ultimately unanswerable questions and highlight the mysteriousness of the circumstances. It is possible that I expected too much of a 71-page book, but surely it needs to justify its existence in some way. Why should we buy it?

Some might expect a bit of biography in order to set the stage for the events of July 11, 2009; perhaps a description of Gatti's childhood which, almost certainly, would shed some light on his adult behavior. Alas, we are treated only to a Wikipedia-esque description of Gatti's greatest in-ring hits, comprising one-third of the book; the only remaining events described are closely related to his death.

I can only recommend it as a resource for die-hard Gatti fans who inexplicably know nothing about his death...

Ultimately, this is a book that would have benefited from a deeper dive into Gatti's life and perhaps some editorializing on Tobin's part. As it stands, I can only recommend it as a resource for die-hard Gatti fans who inexplicably know nothing about his death, though I'd also recommend they skip chapter two, since they are surely familiar with his career. Tobin managed to take a fascinating subject and present it in an uninspiring way by remaining entirely neutral and asking more questions than he has the nerve to answer.

"Betteridge's law of headlines" refers to a journalistic phenomenon that can be summed up in one sentence: If the title of a story ends in a question mark, the answer is most assuredly no. Killed in Brazil?, then, may be the author's subtle indication of a belief that Gatti likely took his own life; a proposition that, if true, would not merit even the 71 pages he dedicated to the brawler's "mysterious death."