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Ion William Croitoru, who wrestled as Johnny K-9 and Bruiser Bedlam in the WWF and Smoky Mountain Wrestling, was found dead in a Toronto halfway house, where he had been living after being paroled in serving a prison term after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit murder, according to The Hamilton Spectator. He was 51 years old at the time of his death.
Croitoru debuted for Stu Hart's Stampede Wrestling in 1984 after a hockey career, where he worked under a number of different names before working for the AWA, Memphis and Grand Prix in The Maritimes, among other territories. In 1989, he debuted under the name Johnny K-9 for the World Wrestling Federation, where he worked as an enhancement talent, losing to contracted talents on TV in singles bouts and in tag bouts, often with Barry "O" Orton, doing jobs for the major babyfaces of the era like Hulk Hogan and the Junkyard Dog. He worked overseas for a number of promotions in Japan, including FMW, WAR and New Japan.
In 1991, his pro wrestling career was stalled as Croitoru served a 10 month sentence for trafficking cocaine. Soon after, he was arrested and sentenced to seven months in prison for assault. Although he denied he was a member, he was implicated as a member of the Satan's Choice bike gang.
Once he was released from prison, Croitoru received the biggest push of his career as Bruiser Bedlam in Jim Cornette's Smoky Mountain Wrestling with the story being that Cornette brought him in to try and take out Cornette's arch-enemy, SMW Commissioner Bob Armstrong. Bedlam won the SMW Beat the Champ TV title and feuded with Tracy Smothers and The Dirty White Boy Tony Anthony as one of the top heels of the promotion's latter years, which he considered the best era of his career. After SMW closed down in 1995, Croitoru worked for a number of independent promotions in the United States and Canada but his career pretty much ended on a major level when Cornette shut down SMW.
In 1996, there was more legal issues for Croitoru. After being kicked out of a strip club for wearing the Satan's Choice gang colors, he and several friends toyed with bombing the club, but instead bombed a police station in Sudbury, Ontario, causing over $100,000 in damage. After being arrested and waiting for trial, a police investigation led to the gang's clubhouse being confiscated and the chapter being shut down by the Satan's Choice national leadership. He was sentenced to 33 months in prison.
The legal issues didn't stop there. Croitoru was arrested in January 2005 for the double murder of Ancaster lawyer Lynn Gilbank and her husband Fred, who had been shot to death in their home in November 1998. Croitoru was arrested several weeks after a public plea went out to anyone who may have been involved in a lesser role in the crime to step forth and help authorities. A police source then tied Croitoru to the crime under the idea that Croitoru had ties to the Gravelle crime family, who ordered the murders in response to Gilbank helping someone who had flipped on the Gravelles into the witness protection program. Croitoru was released on $100,000 bail but ended up arrested on an extortion charge and was held for violating the terms of his release. A trial was held in 2006 but after eight weeks, the presiding judge warned prosecutors that the case against them was not strong. Twenty months after he was arrested, police dropped the charges. He denied having anything to do with the murders and said his name was somehow brought up during the investigation and police were desperate to pin the crime on someone, but did end up pleading guilty to the extortion charge.
In 2009, Croitoru was arrested again, as a member of the United Nations Gang, along with several other members, charged with conspiracy to commit murder in a ploy against members of another gang, The Red Scorpions. He was later charged with the 2008 death of Jonathan Barber and the attempted murder of 17 year old Vicky King. He plead guilty to the conspiracy charges, the murder charges were dropped and he was sentenced to 13 years in prison. With time served, he ended up being incarcerated for four years and eight months. He had earlier been turned down for parole after admitting he agreed to help with the murders to get over with the members of the gang, but had no intentions on following through.
Croitoru had been living in Toronto because he was not allowed to return to Hamilton, Ontario as part of the terms of his release. His wife told The Spectator that he had been ill with a recurring respiratory infection and had told her he thought he was dying.
Despite all the legal issues, Croitoru was well liked among those in the business he shared a locker room with and was considered someone who had a fierce loyalty for the other wrestlers and deeply loved the business. Croitoru had claimed in 2007 that he was working on an autobiography, but no book was ever released.
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