James Barrier

As a wrestling promoter, auto repair specialist, and entrepreneur, Barrier befriended numerous celebrities.  Among them are Hulk Hogan, the Undertaker, boxer Muhammad Ali, and wrestling and film star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Barrier also possessed a large collection of celebrity memorabilia, from vehicles to a lock of musician Elvis Presley’s hair.  In addition to smaller pieces in his collection, Barrier also sported a car collection that included a Jensen Interceptor once owned by singer Wayne Newton and a pink Cadillac that was later borrowed by musician Kid Rock as part of his proposal to Pamela Anderson in Las Vegas in 2002.

In a first-person article for Las Vegas Weekly, journalist and Barrier friend Joshua Longobardy included a conversation he’d had with Barrier before Barrier's death:

[Barrier] had already been on high alert. His concerns for his safety had exacerbated with the knowledge that Rick Rizzolo, the former owner of the Crazy Horse Too gentlemen’s club, who federal authorities allege has ties with organized crime families, and against whom Barrier helped solidify a federal case that resulted in a one-year prison sentence, had been released to the free world the day before. For this reason Barrier had also called me on Friday evening. Earlier in the day he had received a phone call from a self-described hit man, and though Barrier didn’t believe anyone would attack him face to face, he did express concern about an alternative form of attack. Because I spoke to Barrier on a weekly basis, and because I had always known him to be a sensible man, I deemed his worries generally valid, and told him so. “Be aware of ambushes,” I said. He countered by stating his presentiment that his enemies—in name, the Rizzolo family and their associates—would try to get him through a stratagem. “They’re gonna try to do it through a woman,” he said. “Or they’re gonna try to drug me.”

Days after Barrier was found dead, Gus Flangas, an acquaintance and attorney for Barrier, was quoted in the Las Vegas Review Journal saying, "All I can say is the circumstances (surrounding Barrier’s death) seem suspicious; obviously it will warrant further investigation."

The keys to Barrier’s Rolls Royce were in the room with him. However, the car was not seen in the parking lot when his two youngest daughters were brought to the room at the Motel 6 to identify his body.  The vehicle, which he had driven from his home to the Motel 6, was originally owned by casino developer Bob Stupak and was seized by Barrier after non-payment by Stupak for repair services.  After the Barrier family questioned police about the whereabouts of the Rolls Royce, it was later found in the Motel 6 parking lot in an area that had been previously searched and did not originally contain his vehicle.  It has also been cleaned.

"Simms’ preliminary report indicated there were no signs of a heart attack, fueling the family’s belief that Barrier died under suspicious circumstances.

Barrier had no dead muscles but had heart disease. In medical terms, he died from a heart disease combined with cocaine use, Murphy said, clarifying Simms’ findings."

Not satisfied with the findings of the Clark County Coroner, Barrier’s family hired independent pathologist Dr. Rexene Worrell to perform an autopsy.  Barrier’s family was promised photographs, video, audio, and notes documenting the examination upon completion of the autopsy.  Once completed, however, Worrell declined to provide the family with the findings, saying, “I need to hold on to the file in case it goes to court.”  As of 2018, 10 years after the independent autopsy, the information obtained by Worrell concerning Barrier’s body had yet to be released to the family.

Barrier’s grave is located at the Palm Downtown Cemetery at 36.184451, -115.135685.

Before he was to be buried, four weeks ago, the great multitudes filed into the Palms Mortuary in the old part of Las Vegas to see Buffalo Jim Barrier one final time. They arrived in endless droves: midgets, wrestlers, Hells Angels, Native American Indians of unadulterated descent, lawyers, journalists, world-renowned neurosurgeons—the lame and the homeless—politicians, bankers, television executives, men who had more money than God, boxers, leviathans, Elvis impersonators, those like Buffalo who fixed cars and who arrived with fresh grease smeared across their jumpsuits, sinners, celebrities, folks as old as Vegas itself and young babes just born into the city this Spring.

On the morning of April 6, 2008, the body of James Barrier was found in a Motel 6 on Boulder Highway, an older section of Las Vegas near a residential area.  According to police, Barrier was found lying in bed, face up, with an empty prescription bottle of Valium on the nightstand and his pants pulled down around his ankles.  A woman only known as "Lisa" that was in the room with Barrier that night told police that Barrier had a seizure, however she did not report it at the time and left as his seizure occurred.  The official cause of death was ruled accidental, citing dilated cardiomyopathy.  Between April 2008 and June 2008, statements by then-Clark County Coroner Michael Murphy, also stated traces of cocaine in Barrier’s toxicology reports as a contributing factor to his death. Additionally, 20 mg of GHB in Barrier’s system, but was not seen as a factor leading to his death.

In the weeks and days before his death, Barrier had received death threats via phone and letters addressed to his auto repair shop.  On April 5, 2008, the day before his death, Barrier stated he received a phone call from someone identifying himself as a hitman and threatened to kill him.

Barrier's funeral was on April 12, 2008 at the Palm Downtown Mortuary and Cemetery. The following is a description of the mourners who came to show their respects:

Barrier was known in Las Vegas, because of media coverage, for winning a lengthy court dispute about parking spaces with his neighbor and landlord, Rick Rizzolo, former owner of the Crazy Horse Too gentlemen's club, located next door to Barrier's repair shop. Rizzolo was court ordered to sell the nightclub to satisfy debts. When the business did not sell, the U.S. Marshals Service seized the bar in September 2007, forcing its eventual closure. Rizzolo was released in late-March 2008 after serving a year in a federal prison on a racketeering and tax evasion conviction in U.S. Federal court.

In 2005, Barrier was voted “Las Vegas’ Most Colorful Character” by the Las Vegas Review Journal, describing him as “a modern Renaissance man.”  He was also single father of four daughters.

Barrier moved to Las Vegas in 1971 from Cleveland, Ohio.  He later opened an auto repair shop, Allstate Auto & Marine, on Industrial Road, near the Las Vegas Strip.  The business was in operation until his death in 2008.  In the 1980s and 1990s, he opened and operated a wrestling school, the Buffalo Wrestling Federation.  The school was sometimes the site of his popular local TV show, Jim Wars, that aired on Friday nights.  In addition to his auto repair business, wrestling school, and television show, Barrier wrote a weekly column on auto repair for the now defunct Las Vegas Mercury entitled “Nuts and Bold with Buffalo Jim.”

James "Buffalo Jim" Barrier (March 22, 1953 – April 6, 2008), born in Cleveland, Ohio, was a local wrestling promoter in Las Vegas. His legal struggle with business owner and landlord Frederick "Rick" Rizzolo, who owned land occupied by Barrier's auto repair business, was covered by the media during the early 2000s.