If she had been suspended, she likely still would have competed at the Olympics after filing suit, seeking an injunction against the USFSA, and asserting her rights under the Amateur Sports Act of 1978. Also, Eckardt includes with his resume a letter of recommendation from Blackstone Corp. and uses as a reference a Mr. W. J. Walther, the company's purported Oregon-based representative. In 2018, she said she had prior knowledge of Gillooly and Eckardt discussing "[taking] out" one of her competitors in late 1993. As the new movie I, Tonya depicts, he and Harding's ex-husband, Jeff Gillooly, became suspects for the crime, and they both pleaded guilty to racketeering in their attempts to harm Kerrigan. Dec. 24, 1994: Harding skates as Mrs. Santa Claus at Clackamas Town Center during her first public skating performance since the Olympics. The events -- and the ramshackle cast or characters behind them -- fascinated and disturbed Portlanders and the nation. Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site. Harding then phoned Marano again asking her to spell the arena name, and Gillooly said he watched as Harding wrote out "Tony Kent Arena. . 12 Dec 2007 (aged 40) Burial. Gillooly suggested that Harding call the Tony Kent Arena because she knew ice skating terminology. [1][2][3] They hired Stant, and his uncle Derrick Smith, to carry out the attack. To his attorney, Eckardt "wasn't smart enough" to plot the clubbing of Kerrigan. June 23, 2010: Harding, 39, marries, Joseph Jens Price, 42, in Clark County, Wash. (She later told Inside Edition it was she who proposed: "It was at his birthday party. She said she worked as a freelance writer and had written some figure skating articles about Harding, regularly trading phone calls with her. It also dredged up a cast of characters far removed from the world of skating. The lettersfrom his mom, his sister, a former Navy SEAL/Army chaplain and a lawyer who is a former military prosecutorglow with praise for how Stant has turned his life around, Bleacher Report notes, adding that, in 2013, Stant had not given an interview for 20 years, choosing a life of obscurity after the scandal. [92][93], The attack was mentioned in Weird Al Yankovic's song "Headline News", a parody of the Crash Test Dummies hit "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm". "He can talk the talk. Most people who remember the 1994 scandal, during which Harding's figure skating competitor, Nancy Kerrigan, was whacked on the knees with a metal baton as she was practicing for the U.S. Championships, probably remember Eckardt. [28][24], On August 28, 1993, Harding and Gillooly were granted a divorce. O.J. "Despite my mistakes and rough edges," she says, "I have done nothing to violate the standards of excellence in sportsmanship that are expected in an Olympic athlete." Counter-terrorist specialist. The real Shawn Eckardt: CHRIS WILKINS/AFP via Getty Images The two side by side: Frank Masi/30West / courtesy Everett Collection / CHRIS WILKINS/AFP via Getty Images 17. She was told she could never have a child . [38], He arrived at 11 a.m. to the meeting held at Eckardt's home office, knocking on the door with Stant letting him in. That Eckardt inflated his credentials is undeniable. On June 29, the USFSA disciplinary panel met for nine hours over two days to consider Harding's alleged role in the attack. Lurking in the background was Harding's self-anointed "bodyguard," Shawn Eckardt, a slovenly fabulist. Accounts of Stants personal rehabilitation can be read in letters of recommendation he filed with a court in Oregon when he tried to have his conviction in the Kerrigan assault expunged. Release Calendar Top 250 Movies Most Popular Movies Browse Movies by Genre Top Box Office Showtimes & Tickets Movie News India Movie Spotlight. And I don't know of any major newspaper that wouldn't have wanted the first interview with (Harding "hit man"') Shawn Eckardt or O.J. Simpson led police on the most-watched car chase in history. Shawn Eckardt, the 300-pound would-be bodyguard of figure skater Tonya Harding, walked out of prison Friday morning in Salem, Ore., the last of those involved in the attack on Nancy Kerrigan to be . [26] In spring 1993, she dated Tom Arant who spoke about Harding to The Oregonian, saying she would complain about Gillooly, yet still contacted him often: "she couldn't stop talking to him. Harding continues to deny her involvement in the attack on Kerrigan. Oct. 1997: Harding's pickup is apparently stolen from the Vancouver Mall parking lot. Speaking on ABCs Truth and Lies: The Tonya Harding Story, the shamed athlete said she heard a conversation between her husband and Eckardt who she described as dumb as a post.. When asked whether Gillooly had ever threatened her, Harding said he had not. . [51] He quit that job in late 1993 and moved to Arizona with his wife. [11] The Winter Olympics were also set to take place in February, where Kerrigan and Harding were likely to be the two female figure skaters representing the United States. [25], In both March and July 1993, police came to Harding and Gillooly's shared apartment after reported arguments. Schatz asked Harding whether someone she knew could have planned the attack. Original Name. He was 40. [77] Eckardt died in 2007. Stant said no. Her plea admissions were knowing of the assault plot after the fact, settling on a cover story with Gillooly and Eckardt on January 10, witnessing payphone calls to Smith affirming the story on January 10 and 11, and lying to FBI. Shane Stant, the hit man who was hired to attack Olympic figure skater Nancy Kerrigan with a collapsible baton 24 years ago, has told Inside Edition exclusively that he is regretful for the act. We've played chess together.". Feb. 1999: Harding says the way has been cleared for her return to skating, but United States Figure Skating Association officials say her status has not changed. "Shawn was the kind of guy you saw in high school or at the bus stop who's in his own world. Gillooly opposed carrying out an attack in Detroit, feeling it too likely they would be caught, and instructed Eckardt to wire Stant funds to return home without carrying out the attack. I knew something was up, confessed Harding, who still insists she had no role in the vicious attack. Feb. 10, 1994: Harding sues the U.S. Olympic Committee to stop it from a planned hearing to discuss whether she should participate in the Olympics. After the meeting, he and Stant agreed not to injure Kerrigan "too badly. "I'm just a simple buyer," he said. Advertisement. They settled on injuring Kerrigan's right leg. Gillooly said he could pay $6,500 for this plan and wanted to know what they could do. And you get a peek," says Hauser, 31. Eckardt then offered more money than Gillooly stated and said more bodyguard work would follow. They settled on injuring the person enough so she could not skate. He tracked down Kerrigan and whacked her in the knee with a metal baton. Neither Harding nor her ex-husband, Jeff Gillooly, has been charged in the case. [16] The attack severely bruised her knee and quadriceps tendon and forced her to withdraw from the U.S. Ten days later, Harding's lawyer asked the restraining order to be lifted because the couple again wished to reconcile. [78], On March 16, Harding pleaded guilty to conspiracy to hinder prosecution as a Class C felony offense at a Multnomah County court hearing. Barack Obama referenced the attack while giving a speech in 2007 in Iowa during his run in the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries, stating "Folks said there's no way Obama has a chance unless he goes and kneecaps the person ahead of us, does a Tonya Harding. .". Gillooly said Harding told him to tear off the magazine's mailing label because it had their home address. For further details of our complaints policy and to make a complaint please click this link: thesun.co.uk/editorial-complaints/, Skater Tonya Harding has finally admitted she knew about the plot to injure her rival, Tonya Harding, left, skates past compatriot Nancy Kerrigan during a practice session at the Olympic Games in Norway in 1994, The athlete eventually finished in eighth place at the '94 Games and was later banned for life from US figure skating, Harding's former husband Jeff Gillooly, right, attends his arraignment hearing January 19, 1994, flanked by attorney Ronald H. Hoevet, Margot Robbie. Harding thumps her and dollar signs flash in boxing promoters' eyes. With no record of military service, Eckardt boasts that his skills include unconventional warfare, surveillance, psychological operations and something he calls the "Secret Service characteristics matrix for assassins." He claims to have worked as a counterintelligence specialist for a Swiss company 10 . In reality, the. I don't want to lose him. Smith did not want to commit the assault himself because he had no criminal record, but said he might know someone who would do it. "Tonya and Jeff remembered almost nothing the same way," Rogers said. [50][51] Smith then applied for a police officer job and was waiting for his interview to be scheduled before Eckardt told him about possible bodyguard work in Oregon. Jan. 6, 1994: An assailant clubs Nancy Kerrigan, Harding's skating rival, on the right knee with a metal baton as she leaves skating practice in Detroit. You know something was a major cultural phenomenon if SNL parodied it, and Eckardt definitely became a household name for all the wrong reasons in the early '90s. A jaw-dropping confession found in the archives of early-90s TV newsmagazine Hot Take, featuring Tonya Harding's infamous "bodyguard" Shawn Eckhardt.Learn mo. They also found two photos of Kerrigan from the World Team handbook and Olympian magazine. As if Gillooly's and Harding's contradicting stories aren't enough to keep up with, I, Tonya also focuses on a third central character, Harding's mom, LaVona Fay, aka "Sandy" Golden. The penultimate episode of the animated comedy Futurama, "Stench and Stenchibility", features a devilish six-year-old girl named Tonya (voiced by Tara Strong; a reference to Harding), who is the opponent of Bender Rodriguez (John DiMaggio) in a tap dancing competition held by Randy Munchnik. "Eckardt just couldn't keep up with the training, and we terminated him," said Tom Duggan, the school's training manager. They later exchanged phone numbers and went out to the movies, chaperoned by her father. Simpson's girlfriend." If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. Those involved dream it might make it to Broadway one day. [38], On January 22, 1994, Vera Marano was interviewed by the FBI. The indictment concluded more than two months of investigation and witness testimonies from Diane Rawlinson; Harding's choreographer Erika Bakacs; freelance figure skating writer Vera Marano; and Eckardt's college instructor and classmates. The man was later found to have been hired by Harding's ex-husband Jeff Gillooly and his friend, Shawn Eckardt. March 21, 1994: A Multnomah County grand jury indicts Eckardt, Smith and Stant on charges including racketeering and conspiracy to commit second-degree assault. It's been nearly 20 years since Kerrigan was clubbed after practice in Detroit by a member of a bumbling goon squad hired by Harding's ex-husband with the hope of eliminating his former wife's top competition for the U.S. Olympic team. A camera crew was recording her practice session and showed her leaving the ice rink and walking through a curtain and down a hallway; the camera then cuts out. Shawn Eckardt, a friend of Gillooly's who was also Harding's bodyguard before the attack, had originally been hired by the figure skater after she received an anonymous death threat. Gillooly and Harding were surprised that Eckardt's mother seemed to know about the plot too. "But unless you really know him, you don't how deep that rabbit . Shawn Eckhardt Clip Brooke Brown 5 subscribers Subscribe 308 Share 44K views 4 years ago A clip from the video Tanya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan video Show more Show more The Tonya Harding and. Still, the movie's screenwriter, Steven Rogers, made sure to interview Gillooly and others so as not to only get Harding's side of the story. Figure. The interview with Diane Sawyer from 1994 is as weird as you'd expect, with Sawyer explaining to viewers that, "Eckhardt has a rsum that makes him out to be a cross between James Bond and. She then angrily asked him why "this thing" (the plot) was not completed. Jan. 23, 1994: Investigators say they have enough evidence to arrest Harding but want to build an airtight case before going forward. On December 28, Harding finished her practice session at 10:30a.m., then Gillooly drove them to Eckardt's home. [43], On December 22, 1993, Eckardt received a call from his friend Derrick Smith who lived in Phoenix, Arizona. Sept. 22, 1995: Shawn Eckardt gets out of the Oregon State Penitentiary 109 days early for good behavior; he was to have served 18 months for his part in planning the attack. The media allowed him to air his version of events: that of an innocent caught in Harding and Gillooly's nefarious web. He changed his name to Jeff Stone and also went on to a life outside of the headlines. Today: She reportedly lives in Central Oregon with her husband and son. June 30, 1994: Harding is stripped of her 1994 national figure skating title and banned for life from the U.S. Formerly Shawn Eckardt, Griffith served 14 months for his role in the 1994 attack on. Nothing materializes. The USFSA also recommended that she face a disciplinary hearing. Oregon sentencing guidelines carried a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment for the offense. Claims surface that Gillooly threatened Harding on several occasions during their marriage. If In a July affidavit, Harding wrote that she had been in an abusive marriage for two years, "he has assaulted me physically with his open hand and fist [] put me down to the floor on several occasions. In 1993, Eckardt was enrolled in a paralegal course at Pioneer Pacific College and trying to build a business called World Bodyguard Services. [6][7] Law enforcement investigators had been following and videotaping the co-conspirators since January 10, and knew about the payphone calls. Jan. 27, 1994: Harding meets the press and reads a statement admitting she failed to report things she knew about the assault on Kerrigan. She's the national champ. She and her lawyer, Robert Weaver, negotiated a plea agreement ensuring no further prosecution. By subscribing to this BDG newsletter, you agree to our. Griffith was Harding's bodyguard when she competed for a spot on the United States Olympic figure skating team in 1994. It really is a miracle, and she really is very happy.". Nancy Kerrigan had already finished her practice session and departed to Stoneham, Massachusetts for the weekend. Check social media profiles, resumes and CV, places of employment, photos and videos, news, public records, publications, skilled experts and arrest records . [50] Smith later worked for the United States Army as an "intelligence analyst" for about 3 years until he was discharged. The Sun website is regulated by the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), Our journalists strive for accuracy but on occasion we make mistakes. But the two men have known each other since attending grade school together. Olympic television ratings soar. Further investigation revealed that Harding's ex-husband Jeff Gillooly and bodyguard Shawn Eckhardt had paid Stant $6,500 to eliminate Kerrigan from Olympic consideration. Shawn Eckhardt Found 11 people in Pennsylvania, Virginia and 12 other states. Gillooly first stated that the gun had fired when he was carrying it. [13] Eckardt had dropped out of high school and was currently enrolled in a paralegal course at Pioneer Pacific Collegethat is, when he wasn't running the grandly titled World Bodyguard Services from. As the Bleacher Report explains, Stants uncle, Derrick Smith, called Stant, who was 22 at the time, in 1993 and asked if Stant would hurt somebody for money. Stant told the FBI that Smith asked him if he would take down a skater. The Bleacher Report added, A man named Shawn Eckardt called and said it would involve slicing the skaters Achilles tendon. [12] Shane Stant later testified that Harding was part of staging the death threat against herself. The New York Times, which announced his death, called him Brian Sean Griffith, which Eckardt changed his name to after getting out of prison. [38], On December 28, as the men were waiting for Gillooly to arrive at his office, Smith persuaded Eckardt to tape record the meeting to use as "leverage." Smith told Gillooly he could solve "problems," and Gillooly said he wanted Kerrigan out of the National Championships so Harding could win an Olympic gold medal. The group schedules a disciplinary hearing and gives Harding 30 days to respond to charges that she did something detrimental to the welfare of figure skating. The events of the 1994 Winter Olympics which led to Tonya Harding's infamy introduced a colorful cast of characters to the world. [94], The event is referenced in the songs "Strange Clouds" by B.o.B featuring Lil Wayne, "Tonya Harding" by Sufjan Stevens, and TONYA by Brockhampton.[95][96]. But the life beefy bodyguard Shawn Eric Eckardt portrayed in a resume filled with misspellings and apparent misstatements is vastly different from the facts. Knee and quadriceps tendon and forced her to withdraw from the U.S most-watched car chase history. 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