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As part of the settlement to bring Cole back, it was written in the settlement that Phillips, Garvin and Patterson would never work for the company. WWE pushed to Cole, when he was working there, to get his approval and bring Patterson back, which he did at the time. Cole, who we spoke with many times including on shows and was a longtime subscriber to the newsletter, had a variety of feelings over the years. He was always negative about Vince McMahon, but more mixed about Linda McMahon. When Linda McMahon ran for Senate twice, it was known that the Democratic opposition would go after Cole as would the media in Connecticut because of his story. But he told me at the time that not only would he not talk to the media in a negative way about Linda McMahon, that he was supporting her and even donated money to her campaign. But he was troubled, and would often say that out of all those involved the only one he respected was New York Post sports reporter Phil Mushnick. Tom Cole committed suicide at the age of 50 three years ago, shortly after the death of Patterson. Those close to him said outright that Patterson being so heavily praised upon his death bothered him so much he had major issues dealing with it. His controversial older brother Lee wrote: “ My brother Tom Committed suicide a couple of hours ago. Vince McMahon and his wife Linda let child molesters into their companies years ago and did everything possible to cover up what they did to my brother. I hope you can sleep good at night Vince. Our family suffers. Thank U.” Lee and Tom at times had issues with each other publicly. Then they would get back together. Patterson and those close to Patterson always maintained his innocence, as did McMahon, who did not say the same about Phillips or Garvin. Cole also claimed that Garvin, who was the WWF’s Vice President of Operations at the time, propositioned him.
