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The estate of the late Janette Becraft filed a civil lawsuit against her husband, former WWF star William "Billy Jack" Haynes on Friday 5/23, according to numerous media reports in the Portland, Oregon area.
The lawsuit alleges Haynes, who was arrested after her death by shooting last year, had committed elder abuse against Becraft for a number of years, including coercing her to abandon her medical professionals as well as physical, mental and financial abuse. The suit claims Haynes coerced Becraft into a "fraudulent marriage" in 2021 and forced her to change her estate to cut her family off from receiving anything from it.
The lawsuit described Becraft, the mother of a now deceased friend of Haynes, as being susceptible to “force, threat, duress, coercion, persuasion or physical or emotional injury" due to her elderly age. The suit also claims that Haynes isolated Becraft from her family, even to the point of preventing them from delivering food to her and that he forced her to liquidate hundreds of thousands of dollars from her savings so he could control the finances.
The lawsuit also alleges that Haynes forced his wife to purchase a gun for him since he was legally prohibited from purchasing one due to his previous criminal record. The suit, which is seeking $750,000 in damages also alleges Haynes introduced his wife to heroin, methamphetamine, and sleeping pills, which caused a decline in her health.
Haynes was charged with murder in the second degree and unlawful use of weapon in connection to the death of Becraft in February 2024. Authorities received reports of a shooting at 6000 SE 100th Avenue around 9:52 a.m local time. He plead not guilty to the charges and was later ruled to be mentally unfit to assist in his own defense and unable to currently stand trial in the murder of his wife by Judge Angela Lucero. He was ordered to undergo further evaluation at Oregon State Hospital, a process that could take 1-3 years. Haynes was originally slated to stand trial this December but legal proceedings have been paused until and unless Haynes is declared fit to stand trial.
KOIN Channel 6, which was on the scene for the arrest, stated that Haynes, 70 (who had not been identified at that point) was not cooperative with the responding authorities, leading to a special tactical team and crisis negotiators being brought to the home. After two hours, Haynes was taken into custody. His local neighborhood was ordered to shelter in place during the standoff.
Once Haynes was taken into custody, authorities began a homicide investigation. The Medical Examiner determined Becraft died of homicide by gunshot wound.
Brilynn Matthieu, a neighbor with ties to the family, was interviewed by Portland FOX affiliate KPTV FOX 12 stating, “It’s a tragedy all around. Finally, being able to process the severity of the proximity of how close we were in nature. It’s my dad and I live and help take care of them. Recently, I was just taking care of his wife who had ongoing dementia. I was pretty decently close to both of them and loved them very much.”
Haynes was a massive star for Don Owens' Portland territory and had runs in the WWF in the late 1980s, WCW (under as mask as Black Blood) as well as Florida, World Class Championship Wrestling, Jim Crockett Promotions, New Japan and other territories. In recent years, Haynes had become more known for outlandish claims and conspiracy theories made while doing shoot interviews.
With a chiseled physique and a hat and nickname taken from the 1971 film Billy Jack (for which he was threatened with a lawsuit from the actor who starred in the film, Tom Laughlin, resulting Haynes’ real life last name being added to his ring name), Haynes’ rugged toughness and tenacity as a performer was never in question. He utilized a full nelson as his finisher during a period where fans still could believe it was a true finishing move. With a background in boxing and street fighting, Haynes' toughness was never questioned.
After training under Stu Hart in the Dungeon, Haynes wrestled in Stampede for a short time, including teaming with Bruce Hart on occasion. He shifted to the Don Owens territory for a feud with Rip Oliver and then began making his way across the territory system including Texas for The Von Erichs’ World Class Championship Wrestling and Eddie Graham’s Championship Wrestling from Florida, where he feuded with Kendo Nagasaki over the Florida Heavyweight Championship. In Jim Crockett Promotions, Haynes and Wahoo McDaniel feuded with Ole and Arn Anderson. He was about to begin a program with The Barbarian when he butted heads with the office and left. Haynes didn’t often remain in places for long periods of time if he wasn't happy.
His most famous run on a national level was for WWE, where he wrestled from June 1986 through January 1988. Originally brought in as a babyface, he feuded with Hercules Hernandez over who had the strongest full nelson, including a double countout at Wrestlemania 3. He challenged Randy Savage for the Intercontinental Championship on live events as well. After the Hernandez feud had climaxed with chain matches on the live show tours, Haynes was downshifted into a tag team with Ken Patera based on the idea they were both from Oregon.
Haynes was done by early 1988, allegedly over refusing to lose in his hometown of Portland, although there were other mitigating factors. There was an incident where Haynes, unhappy with being hit hard in the ring by Iron Mike Sharpe, got into it with him backstage at a show in Detroit and knocked Sharpe out, so there had been some heat on him. Greg Valentine has also told a story in interviews that Haynes was actually fired after passing out on a flight to a point that a flight attendant thought Haynes was having a health emergency, leading to the flight landing. Valentine’s version of the story was that Haynes had allegedly used GHB, which rendered Haynes comatose - and when Vince McMahon found out about the incident, Haynes was fired.
Haynes has claimed that during his WWF run, he was using his travel schedule to traffic cocaine at the same time, going as far as to claim he witnessed the murders in the infamous Boys on the Tracks case in Little Rock, Arkansas.
After his WWF run, Haynes returned to Portland and at different points, launched his own promotion, The Oregon Wrestling Federation. He worked for WCW as a heel under a mask as Black Blood during a time where Dusty Rhodes was churning out lots of new characters for the company, but was quickly gone over a dispute in pay for a PPV bout against Big Josh (Matt Borne) for the 1991 Great American Bash PPV. He did lots of independent shots in the Oregon area but was officially retired by 1996 beyond making appearances at conventions (which he drove to, not wanting to fly) and doing the aforementioned outlandish shoot interviews. The last place he regularly wrestled was the USWA in 1995.
Haynes was part of the now-dismissed WWE CTE lawsuit as well, one of the first talents to sue the company. In his lawsuit filed in 2014, Haynes alleged he was dealing with depression and exhibited symptoms of dementia due to his time in WWE. The CTE-related lawsuits were dismissed in 2019 outright.
Haynes was interviewed recently on ViceTV's Dark Side of the Ring. In the episode, Haynes claimed he loved Becraft with all his heart. There was a theory posed in the episode that due to Becraft suffering from dementia, Haynes killed her as an act of mercy. Haynes stated in the show that he felt good about his chances at trial and that he felt he had been "overcharged" by prosecutors. Much of the episode covered crazy claims that Haynes made over recent decades in shoot interviews.
Becraft's family did not respond to the series' attempts to contact them for comment. Instead, they have taken a legal route.
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