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00:00a world-class bodybuilder who revolutionized the business of wrestling
00:14billy graham was the first superstar superstar billy graham was the biggest box office attraction
00:21in the world the men of the hour the man with the power the man is too sweet to be sour
00:27oh my gosh perfection his body was unbelievable he was so far ahead of his time he was an icon but he
00:35was imitated so much every time you watch a wrestling show billy graham influences all of
00:40them and most of them don't even know it you're looking at the strongest wrestler in the world
00:45today crowned world champion graham spiraled after losing the belt superstar billy graham lost the
00:52title and never recovered he had it all taken away and the drugs that made him a star proved to be
00:59his undoing steroids came to define billy but it absolutely destroyed his joints the damage was
01:06done my dad would do anything to keep that fame and that stardom and that status he was at the
01:12pinnacle he was selling out arenas and then it's yanked from him and he couldn't accept it and for
01:18some people and you get that taken away you don't have a lot left except for spite so he went to war
01:25with this man and vince could squash like a grape if he wanted to the rise of superstar billy graham is
01:30fascinating but the decline of superstar billy graham is tragic he overcame everything in life
01:37from meager beginnings to be the champion of the world but he killed himself in the process
01:44there he is superstar billy graham very charismatic colorful individual look at the size of those
01:58upper arms ladies and gentlemen they border at some 22 inches my dad was always superstar since the day
02:06he was born it was always in him he's always been superstar my name is capella flaherty and i am the
02:13daughter of superstar billy graham i remember being in a match with my brother and the ceiling of the
02:21arena opened up and the sunbeams shone down on my dad and he just lit up when that light shone on him
02:28there was no getting away from it oh they're superstar they're superstar they're superstar he was more
02:36superstar than he was wayne coleman at least to myself and my brother when he was wayne coleman he
02:44was loving and he loved us but i think he loved being superstar a little bit more very loud very
02:52boisterous always trying to be the center of attention and if he wasn't he would make sure that
02:57he was that's just who my dad was i'm joseph michael meluso and i am the son of superstar billy graham
03:04my dad was always on even when the camera wasn't on him if you don't have a color television go out
03:12and hawk your car and buy a color tv so you can see superstar billy graham in living living color
03:19in the late 1970s superstar billy graham was on top of the world redefining the look the style
03:29and the idea of the perfect professional wrestler superstar billy graham was the world champion
03:35of the biggest wrestling company in the united states the look is what made superstar billy graham
03:42nobody in that era like nobody looked like him i'm dave melcher and i've been covering pro wrestling
03:48for just over 50 years he had the bleach blonde hair and was legitimately very very strong guy
03:54he was very flamboyant whatever it is superstar billy graham had it he had all the charisma he had
04:04the body most guys look like chief j strongbow a little bit of a pot belly a little bit flabby arms
04:11but billy had a physique that was phenomenal the body in wrestling wasn't crucial until billy graham
04:20i'm jim cornett i've had a 40-year career in professional wrestling but for even longer
04:25than that i've been an historian he wasn't a polished in-ring performer but he looked great
04:33and he could talk this is the beauty of a champion this is the brains of a champion
04:37before making it big in new york billy graham had first made a name for himself as a teenager
04:45growing up in arizona he was a competitive bodybuilder and 1961 was teenage mr america
04:52he was a born athlete and self-made when he was in his teens he took to weightlifting and
05:00he would pour concrete into coffee cans and that's how he would lift weights
05:06i think that was just what made him feel good it probably gave him some strength
05:12when he was younger his dad used to be very physical abusive with him and my dad would get
05:20hit with the belt one day my dad was just big enough and grabbed the belt out of his father's
05:26hand and that's when he knew the beatings were over and they were over because he showed look
05:31i'm bigger than you now i'm stronger than you you can't beat me anymore eager to put his physical
05:37attributes to work wayne coleman travels from arizona to calgary where a failed attempt at canadian
05:44football stardom leads him to the legendary stew hart
05:47billy walks into the gym and meets stew stew's just enamored by the size of this guy he was just
05:56a specimen beyond description my name is steve strong and i was a professional wrestler for 19 years
06:04and superstar billy graham was one of my best friends there's a carte blanche about uh the dungeon
06:12and stew hart if you broke in with stew hart you could pretty much stamp your past to whatever
06:18territory you wanted to go to and super worked up there for a while and left and uh started his
06:24career back in arizona a chance encounter with another wrestling legend sets wayne coleman on the
06:32path to greatness we will be the international tag team champions as soon as that match comes off
06:38and it's going to be the greatest match the graham family legacy in wrestling it's one of the most
06:43famous in the history of the business in the early 70s dr jerry graham is broke and drunk and he thought
06:50maybe i need another brother i just returned from calgary and i said i don't have anywhere really to
06:57wrestle now and he said but won't you just become another graham brother what name do you want i said
07:02well i really like the reverend billy graham he said that's a good name you're my youngest brother
07:07billy graham and superstar billy graham is born they went to los angeles together and jerry was just a
07:15hopeless drunk jerry lasted a couple of weeks and they fired him but billy had enough charisma that
07:20they kept him on i am a reflection of perfection the number one selection you got it at that time
07:27billy would train at gold's gym like everybody builder would and he was arnold schwarzenegger's
07:32regular training partner they were very close friends i was born in june of 1972 and my father was
07:39a heel at the time and some fans had vandalized my father's cadillac so he couldn't drive
07:45to pick my mother and i up from the hospital so arnold picked up my mom and my sister from the
07:51hospital it is blue volkswagen bug here's an arnold picture here's a couple arnold pictures i'm not
07:56sure where that was but i think it was in our apartment on ocean avenue probably i just found
08:02this recently this is an original western union telegram that my mother had sent her parents
08:08the day that she married my father they went to vegas jandy lopes yeah january 19th 1971
08:16this is mr and mrs joseph meluso that was my grandfather mom and dad billy and i were just
08:22married we really love each other please try and understand i love you both
08:26my mother was madeline meluso she worked in a bank in southern california and he came in
08:37and thought she was really pretty she always loved his smile and he made her laugh a lot
08:46she fell in love with him she thought he was the most handsome man in the world
08:49she got pregnant with me and they got a apartment in santa monica california
08:54she didn't care about the wrestling part of it at all she just loved my dad
09:02i remember mom tie-dying clothes in our kitchen she was a big part of his look
09:09mr rainbow more colors in the rainbow the prettiest brother in the world billy's superstar queen
09:15the look was good and he understood his deal was posing and flexing and everything but it was
09:22really the promos and i'm gonna take out my frustrations i'm gonna take out my wrath i'm
09:27gonna take out my anger he'd been an evangelist in his younger years he was a traveling tent show
09:34preacher my dad just started preaching as an evangelist when he was in his teens he went all
09:39over arizona in particular speaking at churches and did feats of strength when i listened to his
09:45promos now it's like he's standing in front of a church assembly it's the same thing except it's
09:51wrestling you are the greatest you are the strongest you're the man in power billy graham was probably
09:59one of the first to use various catchphrases that he would then start repeating i'm the man in power
10:04the man with the power the man with the power too sweet to be sour too sweet to be sour i mean it's
10:10legendary stuff they were unbelievable promos back then these hands can crush coconuts these hands can
10:16straighten out of horseshoes you know what this arm can do in 1975 billy graham's star is already on
10:24the rise when he gets a call from vince mcmahon senior new york's top promoter
10:29he weighed in at 285 pounds superstar billy graham billy was very very excited about being
10:38at madison square garden and being in the limelight mcmahon has a clear vision for the superstar
10:45with a bold plan for the future of the world championship
10:49bruno sammartino is ready to step down as being the champion he'd already had a nine-year run from 63 to 71
10:59and then he was champion again in the mid-70s bruno was a living god to the wrestling fans he was
11:05so admired and so idolized bruno was so embedded into the history of the sport and new york but it
11:15was time for him to drop the strap you know when you've had it for so long and so long there has to
11:21be a passing of the guard bob backland was a vince's guy he wanted that squeaky clean guy who'd go to
11:27schools and tell kids don't do drugs don't smoke bobby backland was my tag team partner before he
11:33went up there he was a great athlete but his promos were the drizzling shit i've been raised on the farm
11:40and climbing has been a part of my life bruno wanted to lose the belt to somebody huge a big man
11:48so billy graham becomes the transitional champion he will hold the belt for almost a year and then
11:56he will lose it on such and such date so they can crown their new champion the all-american boy bob
12:01back that's the deal so billy knew the day he was winning it he knew the day he was losing it he was told
12:08but something happens graham wins the title even though he's a bad guy people start cheering for
12:17him billy graham became the hottest box office attraction in the business he's selling out
12:23madison square garden the winner of the book and still champion superstar every month there's 25 000
12:31people watching billy graham defend the title but vince senior always had a plan and he was always
12:38regimented he was sticking to it no matter what it was strictly we want a baby face as the champion
12:45and billy was not going to be that baby face and this is what led to billy graham's downfall
12:50superstar billy graham's reign as champion ushers in an era of good fortune for his family
13:10we had a very nice house in new york we had maids in new york we had a three-story home in new york we
13:16had a limo we had a lot of money i remember going in their bedroom and i found his championship belt
13:24i'm like oh this is cool and i took it out i laid it on the bed i was shining his belt so the gold
13:30would sparkle and the little gems and then i put it back so i didn't get in trouble but for billy's
13:37wife madeline and their children those good fortunes prove short-lived
13:41i know he loved my mother but there was something going on while he was married to my mother
13:48i remember him talking to my mom when he told her that he wanted to divorce her
13:56i was hiding behind the couch she's crying and i'm looking at my dad and he's breaking my mother's
14:03heart right now saying i'm in love with valerie when i was 18 years old i met him at an ihop
14:10it was right next to the hotel where he was staying and i would go and sit at the ihop just
14:17to get a glimpse of him and that particular night they came in and sat down at the table next to us
14:22and just started talking hi i'm valerie coleman and i was married to superstar billy graham for
14:29just short of 45 years basically from the time we met we were together all the time yeah it sucked but
14:37it was just really sad watching my parents break up right in front of me
14:43it was probably almost a year before he told me about his family
14:52it was devastating um i didn't know what to do i was very conflicted but ultimately
15:00i didn't leave him and we were married a couple of months later
15:04with a new wife and a new life superstar billy graham feels on top of the world
15:14i had a universal appeal i crossed all lines i crossed all borders and i had had all types of fans
15:22and i told him i said we're gonna have a sellout after sellout after sellout
15:26but even as superstar pushes himself to deliver the demands of being champion wreak havoc on his body
15:33he'd always have pills around and so when he would call us it's clear in his voice that he was
15:41definitely on something yeah i mean he was in pain you know and when you're in pain you want to take
15:48medicine and unfortunately he had that type of personality that he just abused it he just didn't
15:54know how to control it he overdosed in his hotel room in new york several times while he was champion
16:00it was all pharmaceuticals uppers downers trying to get through the pain and just live with it
16:07he had an overdose in the hotel room he'd gone into the bathroom and taken a handful of pills
16:13and came out and all of a sudden his body rolls over and he's not breathing at all
16:20i would call downstairs and i'm begging for them to come help and this woman comes up and she starts
16:28pounding and beating his chest and screaming don't die on me and she's causing him out don't you die on
16:32me and she's beating him paramedics get there and they're trying to use the defibrillators and
16:37things on him his heart had stopped they you know shocked him back so yeah that was a pretty intense
16:46time
16:47there's pandemonium tonight there's excitement look at the people's faces look at the people's expressions
16:55can you feel look at you you're excited because i am the champion
16:59after almost a year as champion billy graham is set to lose the belt to bob backland
17:06following the plan originally laid out by vince mcmahon senior
17:09his run was the hottest it ever was but i think in his mind it's like i'm gonna prove them wrong i'm
17:16gonna draw so big that they can't take the title from me graham went to vince senior he's like how can
17:22you do we're selling out we're turning them away the new york promoters had always put their heavyweight
17:28championship on a hero and vince senior was looking for his next champion who was gonna be
17:34bob backland he had planned this for a year and a half and nothing was gonna change his mind
17:39right before he goes out before the match he was trying to get them to change their mind
17:49and they're like no we're going with bob backland
17:51bob backland i hate that
17:56he was the biggest box office traction in the business and it was taken away from him he couldn't
18:20understand why all the struggles all the pain working his way up from nothing
18:25to being champion of the world then all of a sudden lose it in his mind he's like what was the point
18:32did i do something wrong these guys obviously don't know greatness when they see it so it hit
18:38him very hard that's all that there is in this world is the championship belt the greatest wrestler
18:44on the wayne was very very his entire life a very insecure person it's kind of hard to believe when
18:51you would look at him with the physique and everything but he was very insecure so he just
18:56never could believe that he was really worth anything he was beaten down so much growing up not
19:03just the physical but also the verbal abuse and being told that you're worthless you're no good
19:08you'll never be anything you're ugly and and he took it he he received that he accepted that you know
19:14and he believed it his entire life it stayed with him being on top being the champion carrying that belt
19:22meant so much to him and when he lost that title it certainly changed everything from that day forward
19:28it just flat out was devastating to him it destroyed his ego
19:37one day he'd started a big bonfire burned all of his wrestling gear boots his jackets his robes
19:46his attire you know just uh he burned everything
19:52for billy graham losing the championship was more than just a story it was a blow to his self-worth
20:11and his confidence it was everything to billy it was his life it was bigger than i could even understand
20:18some guys can't take it he wasn't mentally capable of seeing the light in other places
20:25hi i'm steve kernan i've been in professional wrestling over 40 years and i've shared a locker
20:30room with superstar billy graham he saw the big money was new york he was the man he had the belt
20:37now he's beltless you know when that belt somebody told you that you're gonna get that belt it's not real
20:43the part about you're a champion or you're not a champion it's not real like a year later billy's
20:50running a lawn care business or something in arizona you know wrestling on friday nights i mean he's out
20:55of it so much that people thought he died it's in the paper he's dead gorilla monsoon wrote that his
21:03tragic news billy graham has died from cancer and for a couple of years there i mean he was right that
21:10superstar billy graham was dead when he lost the belt that was the beginning of his decline
21:16and a lot of it was mental we went back to phoenix and he didn't know about withdrawals
21:23and he just cold turkey stopped taking pills on our road trip and we were in this ran down little hotel
21:30new mexico and he had a grandma seizure and i called paramedics and they thought he tried to kill
21:37himself so he didn't try to kill himself he was actually trying to live and instead of going home
21:43he went into a rehab but it didn't work it didn't last i was so afraid of him dying i and i you know
21:53was naive enough to think i could love him back from whatever brink he was on
21:58broke and frustrated by his stagnant career graham seeks to reinvent himself and get back into the
22:07business that made him famous he was so crestfallen that he wanted to reinvent himself and do it in a
22:15vindictive style that would say screw you if you didn't want that original superstar i'm going to give
22:21you something else he comes back to the wwf bald head much smaller looked like a completely different
22:29guy and he claimed that he had left wrestling and he'd become the world's martial arts champion
22:33when i give him a superstar chop the people will fall out of their seats will fall out of their seats
22:39i watched him one of the very first times i think and i said what the is he doing
22:47this isn't the superstar i remember superstar billy brown he would just do karate chops he'd have a
22:57black belt just like kind of stood there was pretty immobile it was like really lame and his wrestling
23:02wasn't good at all at that point he was covering up his body all of a sudden like with his judo jacket
23:08on you know and he looked kind of hokey kind of like a guy that fell out of a third grade judo class
23:15so bad and he's like so defeated he just was not the same person it was something he did out of
23:23being desperate to get back into the limelight superstar in big trouble unfortunately billy's
23:31body started giving out he started getting hip injuries that was a sad time i look at him when he
23:38was like that and it just makes me so sad because he was so thin he was so high on pills and he did
23:46not know who he was everything has been said everything has been done all the preparation
23:52everything is ready he just looks so sick to me it's hard for me to look at him during that time
23:58it really is i don't like it that's one of the darkest times of my life when started using pain
24:05pills and sleeping pills again that's when he became emaciated and i mean he looked like he was
24:10dying it was a horrible time i mean mcmahon had aspirations to push him to the moon but billy
24:17lost his mojo it was gone look at this look at the chop less than a year into his return billy
24:24graham leaves the wwf for a second time who knows what the plans were for him because before too long
24:31the way the business was growing mcmahon kind of transitioned into making hogan his ideal version
24:46of superstar billy graham and embellishing that character and creating someone that maybe he
24:52felt like he didn't do enough of for billy graham the pythons are ready for the largest arms in the
24:58world superstar billy graham will put the 22-inch python arms around your body and squeeze the
25:04promo skills the posing all of that stuff it came from billy graham hulk hogan he was wearing boas
25:13and things like that i want to know one thing brother superstar started brother brother hey brother
25:19hey brother how you doing brother i got the hulk hogan war bonnet on now brother literally though
25:24everything from you know the ear wayne ripping the shirt off and throwing it out to the crowd
25:29you name it he did it look at the videos there's wayne doing it you're gonna see a lot of number one
25:34contenders come and go brother but there's only one hulkster there's only one hulk hogan daddy
25:39my dad deep down knew that you know hulk was younger and more relevant at the time and was probably a
25:46little jealous vince had said that if the billy graham of 1974 was around in 1984 he could have been hulk hogan
25:56the former world wrestling federation heavyweight champ now working out every day and training with
26:08a vision a vision of being back in the squared circle superstar billy graham is on top of his game
26:15and the future is mine the pythons are back in 1987 following his first failed attempt to reinvent
26:21himself billy graham once again attempts to come back billy's not the same the fans aren't the same
26:28and billy was more considered an old timer by 86 and 87 he tore his body up he had his ankle fused they
26:39had a steel rod that went from the bottom of his heel through his leg my right leg is now approximately
26:47one inch shorter than my left leg the whole ankle joint had deteriorated from taking a lot of steroids
26:53on a long-term basis his spine was collapsing it was an absolute mess it was the steroids had eaten
26:59him up billy was pumping a lot of steroids in his body still he'd always been on steroids he was one of
27:07the original users of steroids in wrestling to him it was normal he didn't care you know what anybody
27:13thought of him because he still first of all he knew he had to do the work anybody can take steroids
27:17but not anybody's gonna have a physique i started the mid-60s a friend of mine at arizona state
27:22uh university at the time he kind of introduced me and some of my friends to uh to steroids and
27:28then we put on like 35 40 pounds of muscle we couldn't believe our eyes and i started taking
27:33steroids then for power lifting and body building purposes he had a big ego and he took voids to look
27:41good just like arnold schwarzenegger did all the bodybuilders of the 60s and 70s anybody in my
27:48industry in the 70s and 80s they were playing with steroids because they saw the effect on promoters
27:54when they had a better body
27:56he was really struggling mentally with it i think he wanted to be who he was back in the 70s
28:04and it wasn't going to happen he would get in these moods he could get really incredibly rageful
28:11he never was physically abusive to me but he would destroy the house and he could be very
28:19intimidated um so if he wanted a shot in his hip you know i would have to get him the shot
28:25but i would stab him that was just my only thing i could do i would use it like a dagger
28:30or a dart and do it as hard as i could the mental anguish that he was going through i'm sure was
28:38amplified also by the physical pain of his body and the fact that he wasn't in the ring he wasn't
28:46wrestling which is what he wanted to do even as he got older he always talked about how he lost that
28:52belt and that he shouldn't have lost it that soon i'm like well dad that's the way that it was
28:58supposed to happen but i think that once he lost that that was his downfall billy never ever ever ever
29:07ever forgave vince mcmahon senior for having him drop the belt to bob backland when the segwayed into
29:15the early 90s i think billy was just going how can i hurt vince mcmahon but to be successful
29:22in pro wrestling it's an absolute must to take steroids from 1985 to 1991 mcmahon and a doctor
29:31conspired to distribute steroids to the wrestlers to enhance their size and muscle development
29:36dr zavorian was the wrestling commission doctor but then he became close to some of the wrestlers
29:43and he became their drug supplier of prescription drugs he sent through the mail thousands upon
29:51thousands of pills just to my husband alone he made a ton of money got very very rich off of their
29:56suffering and their addiction billy testified for the prosecution here was you know the former world
30:04champion on the witness stand talking about his life and history with anabolic steroids but he didn't go
30:12after benson go after hogan then and then hogan goes on arsenio hall i saw a guy on a program named
30:19billy graham what's up with him well superstar billy graham apparently um in the 70s was one of the top
30:26wrestlers hulk says something to the effect oh he's just like some old time like that he was nobody that
30:31he was a nobody that's when things started changing with wayne about the way that he felt
30:37about terry about hulk and he apparently was a heavy-duty steroid abuser graham was furious at
30:44hogan for using his name like that because hogan was doing the same steroids so billy was really mad
30:51and so at that point he went and said that hogan did steroids i know he did steroids of course he did
30:56steroids well i remember the first night i met hulk hogan it was in a local nightclub in tampa and one
31:03night in walks the future hulk hogan terry bullay he said i want to know two things how do i become
31:08a professional wrestler and how do i take steroids and billy had the bitterness against vince too that's
31:16how it really manifested and because of that we end up on the phil donahue show superstar billy graham
31:22i'll tell you what he's won his share it's billy it's bruno it's myself it's melzer and then
31:29we found out that mcmahon was in fact going to be there they want to do a story on steroid use in
31:35wrestling the tension you could cut with a knife and billy wanted to unload the selling of drugs by
31:40dr george behorian that's gone on for 15 years in the world wrestling family billy said i shot
31:45hogan up with steroids i've injected the man myself probably a half a dozen times and vince just goes
31:51you're lying you never shot hogan up with steroids when vince looks at him and he's a superstar you know
31:57that's not true i literally started to cry in the audience i knew when wayne was lying i think he had
32:05an enormous amount of guilt over it after it was all said and done he's human just a human being
32:11just a man and he was bitter and he was hurt i mean when you've been physical since you were 10
32:17years old and all of a sudden he's crippled and there's this awful awful bitterness towards certain
32:23people and vince happened to be one of them struggling with addiction and financial ruin
32:32billy's relationship with his children unravels there is a difference between a dad and a father
32:39father's somebody who in every aspect is always there for the children and my father was a dad because
32:47he got my mother pregnant with me and that's kind of it really i mean i hate to say this but my father
32:55never really paid child support ever so my mother went back to working at the bank my mom was working
33:02a lot doing two or three jobs but she would make sure that me and my sister ate she always was verbal
33:10about how hurt she was but she loved him till the day she died i mean my mother um never remarried
33:19he'd moved on he married valerie thome love we were part of his past life and he never helped us
33:27there was never a father figure in my life i never respected the guy as a kid i never respected him as i got
33:33older he he made me very angry about how he treated myself and my sister and my mom
33:39he made me very angry i mean it was heartbreaking you know because i look at him and i love him
33:46you know and i just wanted him to want to be with us and he didn't want it he just didn't want it
33:56joey knew that my dad i think loved me more than him my brother was born sick he was born with a hole
34:03in his heart so i think because my brother wasn't perfect my dad kind of pushed him aside a little
34:10bit he would forget my brother's birthday all the time because my dad didn't really care about him
34:19when i was 18 i changed my name from joseph cole coleman to joseph michael meluso because meluso is my
34:25mom's maiden name i decided i was moving on from who my dad was in my life and i was hoping it hurt
34:33him when i did it that destroyed him it broke his heart completely he hurt me my entire life
34:43when i made him upset or mad at me tough i don't care he loved those kids so much
34:50he didn't know how to be the dad that he wanted to be he never had a role model unfortunately so
34:58much of his life was defined by his dad i'm very happy that he found valerie and they were in love
35:05for so long because they truly were meant to be together i don't like the fact that he treated us
35:11as if we weren't there anymore i just knew that my dad was full of but i accepted
35:19because i loved him but my father was not invited to my wedding so my brother gave me away
35:28i was lonely i was depressed and i'm telling you i felt every emotion that you brothers have felt
35:35in your life alienated from his children and the world of wrestling wayne coleman returns to his roots
35:43as a preacher he didn't have anything else and he knew he was good at ministry so he went back to
35:50that i think as he got older he went full blown with the church and maybe to make amends to god
35:57for the sins that he committed in his life he truly believed and i believe it as well
36:06that his true calling was for ministry
36:10wayne wrote the play called the empty ring it was wayne's life story and it was a wrestling ring
36:17but it was empty for him right there was no fulfillment and jake the snake played wayne's
36:22part i wanted my daddy to look me in the eye and say son i'm proud of you
36:29he couldn't do it one scene was a hotel room and he overdoses in the scene and it shows him
36:35like taking the bottle of pills and it's very dark and there's a lot of demons all around jake they're
36:40swirling like trying to get him but ultimately it's a redemption story and it was so emotional
36:46for me to watch that because it was so real you know and it was his life and it's what we lived
36:52you could see like this peace and this joy inside of him but even as graham finds peace the damage to
36:59his body from years of wrestling and drug abuse continue to take their toll he had contracted
37:05hepatitis from i think a cut on his knee from wrestling is what he told me the common belief
37:13of the doctors is that i probably extracted hepatitis c from the cold mingling of blood
37:20because that's the only way you get it and of course you know back in the 70s all the masses
37:26were pretty much blood mass back then his liver was like turned to a rock it just the years of abuse
37:33on his body and all the drugs he was doing one night we're laying in bed and he coughed and i felt
37:40something wet hit me in the face and i jump up and turn on the light and i'm covered in blood
37:47and he was bleeding out we got to the hospital and they said there was nothing they could do for him
37:55that's when they told us he's got stage four liver disease he has to have a transplant
38:00he was getting sicker and sicker and sicker and um he's like i capella i've only got like six weeks max
38:14ravaged by hepatitis c superstar billy graham faces a fight for survival requiring a liver transplant just
38:22to stay alive knowing that he might not wake up he called vince and he just asked him again to forgive
38:29him and he told him that he loved him and he thanked him for everything he'd ever done for him but that
38:34tells you his heart what was on his mind were the people that he had hurt you know people that things
38:41he hadn't forgiven himself for vince was gracious enough and he was very kind thankfully because he
38:48didn't have to be even then but he was this poor girl had died and donated all her organs that could
38:55be donated thank god for that because i really thought he was gonna that was it that was it for
39:01him and then short while after that i told him i'm never gonna forget all the things that happened in
39:09the past between you and mom and me and joey but i'm an adult now i'm pregnant you're going to be a
39:15grandfather and i can forgive i was given 21 more years with him you know god for whatever reason
39:24he had his hand on wayne's life and and he never let go and he never gave up on him he was a walking
39:31miracle in january 2023 after two decades of battling liver and heart issues graham is hospitalized once
39:42more all the times he got sick i'm like my dad's always bounced back i'm not worried about it and
39:48me and my sister talked for about six months before she's like do you think we should go see him and i'm
39:53like he's fine he's fine he always gets sick he always gets better i was still conflicted if i was
40:01gonna go or not i just i had had enough you know if he dies he dies okay god's gonna take him and that's
40:08just what happens to us we live we die and um you know as much as he had disappointed me
40:16for most of my life i wanted to make him happy at the end for a while i was like why the hell should
40:22i go see him why should i have to put myself out to go see my father in arizona when he never did
40:28did anything for me i mean what am i supposed to do and then i saw some pictures that valerie posted
40:35and that's when i saw my dad as my dad he wasn't superstar anymore he is going to die
40:44so that's when i went to go see him he started actually telling me some stories about my mom
40:53and it sounded like he was very uh very remorseful about how he treated her how he
41:01wish he could have been a better person and when i heard that i knew he was not and i looked at him
41:07and his body was he was just i hate to say it but he was so small he had no muscle anymore and i looked
41:17at my dad i'm like my god this is not superstar billy graham anymore my brother had flown out there
41:25before i did so i bought a ticket and i flew out there by myself i played him bob dylan and that
41:34meant a lot to him i put that music on and he closed his eyes and he put his head back and he
41:39got this little faint smile his best smile that he could give at the time and he just was so happy to
41:45be listening to dylan and it made me happy that i could do that for him you know the next day valerie and
41:52i are talking to the doctors and we're like you know what valerie it was like it's time
41:59my sister was with him at the hospital and i was home and i could hear my dad on the phone
42:05i told him i said dad you know we've had our problems in life we've had a lot of issues with
42:09each other i've hated you for a very long time but i i always understood you were my dad and i always
42:15have loved you so i just want you to know that i've always loved you and
42:26the last words he told me i could hear him
42:29trying to get the words out he just said i love you and that's the last thing
42:43that's the last thing i heard from my dad
42:45that's it and i wasn't the superstar it was my dad
42:56he's been gone for 17 months but there's no relief there's not i just miss him i can't even describe
43:04it so he was appreciated he was loved he was admired he was respected he is superstar billy graham
43:17he's missed you know he's missed by so many that he would never have imagined misting
43:22but he is it's a tragic story because of somebody who had it all and who lost it all i am happy that
43:29he had god in his life i'm not happy about all the other things but i am happy that he is my dad
43:35i understand where he was coming from more now and the job he had in the life that he was trying to
43:39have and who he wanted to be he was superstar billy graham