An excellent obituary has been posted by THE BOSTON GLOBE on the life and death of Walter "Killer" Kowalski, which you can read in its entirety HERE

 

The night that legendary wrestler Walter "Tarzan" Kowalski became "Killer" Kowalski saw the fight that would launch his career. It was 1954 and Mr. Kowalski was fighting Yukon Eric at the Montreal Forum during a weekly match. As they slammed each other around the ring, Mr. Kowalski's shin met Yukon's ear, severing it from his head.

 

"I thought I missed him," Mr. Kowalski, of Malden, told the Globe in 1991, "but my shinbone grazed his cheek. His ear went flying right across the ring. All that was left was the lobe. The referee was yelling at me, saying, 'We disallowed that move,' but I was watching the blood squirting out of his head. Every time his heart would beat, more blood would squirt."

 

At the next week's match, fans heckled Mr. Kowalski. They threw garbage at him, calling him an animal and a killer. The name stuck.

 

But outside the ring, Mr. Kowalski lived a life that belied his fierce persona. He was a vegetarian, a choice that made him as famous as his nickname. He enjoyed classical music, philosophy, and photography, and followed the teachings of Jesus.

 

Mr. Kowalski, who for years ran a wrestling school, first in Malden and later in North Andover, died yesterday at Whidden Hospital in Everett with his wife, Theresa Ferrioli, by his side. He had suffered a massive heart attack Aug. 8 and was taken off life support Aug. 18. He was 81.

 

Mr. Kowalski said he became a vegetarian after reading two books about the benefits of raw foods and fresh juices. He only slipped twice.

 

Once, he said, he suffered a lack of willpower six weeks after converting. The other time he did it to appease a fan. Mr. Kowalski went to a diner in Pennsylvania after a match one night. He ordered a mushroom omelet, but what the waitress brought him was a plate full of bacon and ham, compliments of the admiring cook.

 

"It was a labor of love; that's what it was," Mr. Kowalski said in a 1987 interview in Vegetarian Times. "So I put it in my mouth and I clapped my hands. I hollered, 'Fantastic!' And boy, was he pleased. He bowed. The waitress beamed. For me to refuse that would have been worse that what little harm the meat did to me."

He was born Wladek Kowalski in Windsor, Ontario. In high school, Mr. Kowalski joined the swim team but then turned his attention to weightlifting after being told he was too weak to swim. At 17, he started wrestling as an amateur.

 

"I lied about my age to get my license to wrestle as a pro," he told the Boston Herald in 1977. "I was 19 at the time, and you had to be 21." He worked at Ford Motor Co. in Detroit while attending the University of Detriot. When a request for time off was denied, he left Ford to become a wrestler.