sylvester ritter (december 13, 1952 – june 2, 1998) was an american professional wrestler who was best known for wrestling with world wrestling federation (wwf) and world championship wrestling (wcw) under the ring names, junkyard dog and jyd for short. he died in forest, mississippi on june 2, 1998 after he fell asleep at the wheel of the car he was driving home in and crashed into another car.