According to his brother Lee Cole, Tom Cole, who worked as a ring boy in WWF in the late 80s and early 90s, has committed suicide. Cole had accused Director of Wrestling Operations Terry Garvin of sexually harassing him. There were also allegations that ring announcer Mel Phillips had a fixation with Cole’s feet and Pat Patterson groped him.
Cole claimed a top WWF official groped him numerous times, asked to smoke marijuana, snort cocaine, and have sex after he was driven to his house. Cole claimed that after refusing the official’s advances, he was fired. Although the three men eventually resigned, Patterson was rehired.
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According to court documents, Cole was offered $55,000 to return and work as a crew member. On June 7, 1993, the Wrestling Observer Newsletter reported, “Tom Cole, the WWF ring boy who was largely responsible for much of the negative publicity that surrounded the WWF last year, filed a $1.6 million suit against Titan Sports, Pat Patterson, Mel Phillips and Terry Garvin this past Tuesday.”
Former wrestler Barry Orton corroborated Cole’s allegations, stating that Garvin had also sexually harassed him in Texas in 1978, when he was just nineteen. Orton also claimed that Garvin had thwarted his wrestling career after he declined his sexual advances. Orton, son of Bob Orton and brother Bob Orton Jr., spent most of his life as a jobber. Garvin, who retired in 1984, died on August 18, 1998.
On Twitter, Lee Cole wrote, “My brother Tom committed suicide a couple of hours ago. Vince McMahon and his wife Linda let child molesters into their companies years ago and did everything possible to cover up what they did to my brother. I hope you can sleep good at night Vince. Our family suffers. Thank you.”
“Media do your job! Stop letting these people win. They will attack me and call me all sorts of names. This is their style. Tommy I will not let you down everyone will know who these people are. If something happens to me, you will know why,” he added.
Source: Wrestling News
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