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In “The Iron Claw,” four brothers from Texas become wrestling superstars. Then, after a series of accidents and personal tragedies, all but one die before the age of 35.
The new biopic, released Friday and directed by Sean Durkin, dramatizes the true story of the Von Erich wrestling family, a multigenerational group of athletes who gained international attention for their success in the ring and their struggles outside of the ring. The family's many misfortunes over the years led to rumors of a curse associated with the surname that the brothers' father had adopted for his wrestling persona.
“Ever since I was a kid, people said my family was cursed,” Kevin Von Erich, the only surviving brother, says in the film. “Pop tried to protect us with wrestling. He said that if we were the toughest and strongest, nothing could ever harm us. I believed him. We all did.”
Was the Von Erich family actually cursed? Some people believe in the superstition while others call it exactly that. But one thing is certain: the Von Erichs suffered an almost unbelievable tragedy – and it was even worse than the film shows.
The sad saga began with Fritz von Erich, the family patriarch. Born Jack Adkisson, he played football at Southern Methodist University before taking up wrestling in the 1950s. Adkisson adopted a German nickname that suited his character, a villain with a dark backstory that is glossed over in the film.
Fritz von Erich was a Nazi “heel” – a premeditated wrestling villain – often referred to in newspapers as the “Stormtrooper” from Stuttgart, who overwhelmed his rivals with his trademark weapon, the Iron Claw. Von Erich spread and clenched his fingers over his opponent's face and squeezed until blood flowed.
As sports journalist David Shoemaker writes in his book “The Squared Circle: Life, Death, and Professional Wrestling,” evil Germans were still common cultural villains in the 1950s. However, some reports suggest that fans “felt anger that the wrestlers would try to monetize and commercialize these fresh wounds.”
A legend retold in Shoemaker's book states that a man appeared in Von Erich's locker room after a game in Chicago and reprimanded him for his offensive act. The man rolled up his sleeve and revealed a tattoo inked by real Nazis in a World War II concentration camp and said he lost all seven of his sons in extermination camps. “He said ominously that he sincerely hoped nothing like this would ever happen to Fritz,” Shoemaker writes.
It may be a tall tale, but it followed Adkisson even after he retired from the ring and embraced born-again Christianity. Adkisson had six sons with his wife Doris and eventually lost five of them to suicide, medical emergencies or bizarre accidents.
The eldest, Jack Jr., died in 1959 while his father was still touring as Fritz Von Erich. The six-year-old was found in a ditch in Niagara Falls, drowned after being electrocuted.
“After losing the first one, I am tormented by the fear of losing another one,” Doris later told Texas Monthly. “Not only do you believe it can happen to you, you know it almost will.”
Adkisson continued to wrestle as Fritz von Erich into the 1980s, but increasingly moved into the promotion sector. He eventually became the owner of World Class Championship Wrestling, which televised matches from the 6,300-seat Sportatorium in Dallas.
He also began to mold his sons into WCCW stars. Kevin Von Erich made his wrestling debut in 1976 and, despite the shady origins of his last name, projected a wholesome, heroic image in his gold shorts and feathered blonde hair. This also applied to his brothers David and Kerry, who quickly followed him into the ring.
All three had fans, but David was considered the standout. Known as the “Yellow Rose of Texas,” he threatened his rivals with conviction, often wearing a cowboy hat and scratching the edges of the camera frame at 6 feet 11 inches. In 1984, he was on his way to achieving something even his father had failed to achieve: an NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship belt. But after he arrived in Tokyo for a tour, tragedy struck. David was found dead in his hotel room at the age of 25.
Although initial reports suggested he had died of a heart attack, the official cause was later determined to be acute enteritis, an inflammation of the intestines. Other wrestlers felt this was a cover story to hide the true nature of David's death. “Everyone in wrestling thinks he overdosed,” Ric Flair wrote in his 2004 autobiography, suggesting that brawler Bruiser Brody “flushed the pills down the toilet before the police arrived.”
Several of the Adkisson siblings publicly struggled with substance abuse. Mike, who began wrestling just months before David's death, died of a sedative overdose in 1987. He was “in poor health and in constant pain” after narrowly surviving a bout of toxic shock syndrome caused by shoulder surgery, his family told UPI in a statement. They had reported him missing shortly after he posted bail on drunk driving and drug possession charges.
Kerry also had run-ins with the law. The “Texas Tornado” had the best wrestling record of the group, being the only brother to win the NWA World Heavyweight Championship (a title he captured in a tribute match for David in 1984). But his success was interrupted by a motorcycle accident in 1986. It strained his right foot and, his family said, left him in deep despair.
“For Kerry, losing his foot made him half a man,” Kevin said on an ESPN episode of “30 for 30 Shorts.” “He took it really hard. We had to swear an oath that we wouldn’t tell anyone.”
On February 18, 1993, Kerry died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on his father's ranch. He was charged with cocaine possession earlier this week.
These tragedies are dramatized, or at least mentioned, in The Iron Claw, but an Adkisson brother is strangely absent. Chris, the youngest of the brothers, also started a wrestling career under the name Von Erich. Like Mike, he suffered from unfavorable comparisons to his older siblings from the start. At 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighing 175 pounds, he was the smallest Von Erich and suffered from asthma and other health problems. He died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on the family ranch in 1991 at the age of 21.
A curse? That's up for debate, but the Von Erich saga was undeniably a tragedy – an even deeper tragedy than that portrayed in the film.
If you or someone you know needs help, visit 988lifeline.org or call or text Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988.
Kristin Hunt is a senior writer at PhillyVoice and a freelance reporter specializing in history and pop culture. Keep following her X.