Sonny Liston The Mysterious Life and Death of a Champion

he's a tractor you're clearly someone who reached for the sky above from the Milou but really hood ain't got there he's got really brought an aura of destruction and an aura menace in Tajima intially he literally had to leave three cities because he's hounded out I was in my boots this guy comes prison he has his ties with organized crime and he doesn't see it so he's interested in uplift he doesn't he's interested in wanting to be so ed there were rumors about recycle 65 quit the violence either make a very mission Sony's death remains a mystery is what went into the master bedroom there was Sonny and blood Lee was old almost been dead some time so no son said son either go write up a song just for fighters it'll be four Sloat art some trumpet and well he was born on a Teddy firm outside of 4c Arkansas and rarely used the 2045 kids every day said he got whooped by his dad in fact many years near when he from the John toes Jim the names Johnny taco looked at his AK and he said what are the bird tracks on your back what are those welts from and Sonny said I had bad dealings with father I used to ask him how old he was and he told me that when he was born they made a mark on a tree and so they chop the tree down so he didn't have any idea he was really surely spooning there's no birth certificate it was a sense of growing up lost in family lacking self-esteem would he craved all his life thought he would get anyone ever wish had been shared the world went back to Murdock he's tied up here him down south his mother came up here first and he had sister and everything they were here and I think when he was 12 years old I think she said he hitchhiked up here he didn't really didn't even know where his mother boss he seems in school they were smaller to him because he was so big in the same breed and he said he had stopped going to school almost because he was robbing Chilton so to keep from hurting another thing he say just stop going to school he eventually started playing hooky and dropping out and not going to class and his formal education didn't get very far never to read never learned to write we actually got into robbery and stealing six dollars from this guy nine dollars from this guy and just roughing people up generally from my things although two armed robbery and he actually went to prison in Missouri for armed robbery after sunway the prison a cathegories father Stevens talked two minutes go out from boxing and it's just lending a chance of the prison Bailey project even so impressed first he got Sonny a parole and then later on he arranged from to introduce him in professional fight as a Gump some managers he want to go and goes here and under the national championships where he had three fights none lasted more than three months what you do it and then you got to turn on pro there's no point keeping on amateur so we did first thing his managers had to do is premature birth certificate which lane he was born May 8 1932 we know now from his early arrest records he was born here in making one sever in 1928 in truth it looked like Sonny was really four or five years older than his listed age throughout his whole career we got working and I got a couple of sparring partners it was hard to get anybody to spar with him because the guy had hands like hams you know he had their special gloves need to work with everything else after center and bro a long time op with controlled boxing began to notice him not too long been big for control he became a mob freighter Sonny Liston first got out of prison in the in the early 50s and at that time he was taken over by the top mobster in st. Louis Johnny vitally vitally ran the rackets there in st. Louis but tally also had a construction business idiot as a strike breaker for Tolly a hit record in st. Louis laborers got a line selya's the guy broke them out Kubek lacked money for loan sharks and numbers writers he was a typical bully who uses size to earn money whether it was in the ring around and they said that do you slipped up with the mob he was this and that but to me if he was hooked over to my we sure were poor he was one of the nicest guys you ever wanted to see when he wasn't drinking but when he got his little drink and him he had a problem in 1936 and robbed with a police officer the cop wound up with a broken knee and Sonny managed to run off with the cops gun in a cap him and the cub got into the cup called him a black ass nigger he pushed a cop and then he took the cop gun and he got seven bucks for it and I didn't get him that night that we got him couple of nights later of course I took him in an alley and talked to him talked to his language then he understood what I meant nobody want to get killed nobody want to get the hit Kaden I said that's what's gonna happen if you keep fuckin around here and then breaking the policeman's need Sonny was picked up and put back in the workhouse then after his release he wound up in another favor the policeman wound up putting him upside down in a trash barrel but now that police was tired of arresting him and they just told him out of town or else sunny was forced to move to Philadelphia where is a contract looking overabundant only to franking her beau unknown l'm his associate blinky palermo another note we know that as of december 1960 Sonny Liston was controlled by two powerful racketeer groups one situated in st. Louis under the leadership of John Vitali a notorious union racketeer and the other controlled by Frank Cabo and Frank Palermo he was managed finally I think as a front by guy named Joseph pepper owned it was a friend of Palermo's as every new developer Sonny with me in a force imagine the tremendous left here and greater has there been a popular cause or holy Williams and any mission yes destroyed from the outset I'd say that say listen blows among five greatest heavyweights of all time he had a left jab front of them she was probably the best no heavy wet history had the kind of jab that went through you there was a guy who came into gym and would hit the speed bag so hard they would come out of him he knocked his helping out of the head gear I mean this guy could really hit the stitching on the head gear game Park I could fair say that he was considered like a girls like a Mike Tyson or even in the way that George Foreman was considered early in his career as this absolutely fearsome unbeatable force of nature this was a toughest guy on planet he literally amber a danger and when cinesín came into the ring scholar you guys are depleting bring the national anthem who do you expect on next real fight - there with haven't I been having real them where's the court here over after watching you spa today it seems that you plan a vastly increased use of your right hand does this true I'm paranoia using both of them both of them right sunny was uncomfortable dealing with the press so he usually answer a question with one word hurry maybe just a angry stare I thought I know it was not fair about the Sonny Liston stare became known as he was suspicious of everyone he didn't like reporters or the media or maybe even the public he sat there that's the 14 inch face clenching and unclenching and those cobra eyes staring at you he was he was cursing the man was terrifying it's always been a struggle for any black person becomes a public figure because your image to the mainstream to the American mainstream is is defined by essentially a white medium white president encounter up or they like listenlisten was not used to it did not feel comfortable with dealing with them didn't trust him because his extreme life pupils that generally they're not have to do me any good it was not uncommon to read a newspaper story in which Liston was referred to as a latter-day caveman a quote jungle beast uncle and quote a guru I mean it was that blatant Iowa's sports editor and columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News when Liston came to town he had a reputation as a fearsome puncher as a potential rival for heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson the problem was his name began to appear on the front pages of the newspaper more than in the sports sections of the newspaper and immediately that turned off a lot of people he had a number of brushes with law sure quite unusual for a celebrity athlete in those days after he busted the cops leg in st. Louis he was a branded man for any Police Department anywhere in the country all the fluid LP squad cars had a picture of Sonny Liston taped to their Sun visors at least it was an informal push teller heaven between his ablest police and the philadelphia police the word had gone out you know harass this guy you know put the screws to him wherever you get the chance who do you want to fight in the ring in your next engagement a man got the title mr. Floyd Patterson currently the heavyweight champion let us ask you this Sonny what are you what have you heard are your chances of getting that title fight I think it's very good from what I hear there was a an awful lot of comfort at the time whether this morally reckless person quote/unquote actually was worthy of fighting for the heavyweight championship of the world well I thought all the top contenders and I fought my way up to the number one spot so what do a man have to do to get on a shot at a time listen danders we're trying to arrange a fight the fourth Addyson heavyweight champion and it's already known ties with the mob and his arrest record they were having a problem Castillo motto who was Floyd Patterson's trainer manager he knew that Floyd Patterson probably didn't have a chance in hell of beating Sonny Liston and avoided him and avoided him and avoided him on the pretext that Sonny was involved with the mob and that he was an undesirable that anyway she had been ship for the world should not be contested by man's ilk well when a fighter started making excuses like he wouldn't want to fight another fighter because of certain things he have did his must be some doubt in that fellas mind that he can be dubbed the fighter listen was very problematic because he come from prison because he had these ties with organized crime and those things wouldn't have been bad necessarily for either the white public or the black public except that came along more in the height missile Reisman LACP in particular was looking for black robots blacks to look up to Boyd Patterson was one the n-double-a-cp they were very unhappy with both business negative image and they begged Patterson please don't take the fight they didn't want me to fight either because there was a good chance of him winning the fight and I guess if he should win the fight he would represent the black race just felt that he is a man they're very similar life to mine and I thought that he should get a chance so I overlord my manager that gave me shot I think he's proved himself as far as being a Columbian contenders concerned I personally think that he has every right to fight for the championship despite his despite his unfortunate background cus D'Amato had no choice he had to make the fight Billy fuck September 21 1962 and chipper in Floyd accent he into the ring August at Anfield he was like Kim Morton heading George Foreman he was like Michael Spinks fighting Mike Tyson all you do was look at her eyes and they were out already they already had a glaze and you knew looking at Floyd Patterson that it wasn't going to last for you public would on let bygones be bygones that I would be a good champion maybe a better captain a willing to difficult every if sending one entitled Chicago he's gone through on a united flake back some of the things he was gonna say at his research at the airport he said I know how my own people were against me he said I want to prove to them then I'm not going to disgrace them I'm not going to embarrass them that I'm gonna make them proud so when we finally landed in Philadelphia he took a step outside the door of the cockpit in stood there for a moment are you looking I could see him look both ways and it was not nothing there was no evidence of any kind of activity of organized activity in a way of welcome and I could just see almost the air go out of money with these big broad shoulders in front of me just seemed to sag with the recognition that there was no welcome here for him I think they should have it be parade but never happened he's the tragic they could give the guy preached some kind of way there's just a whole roll for five minutes to man win the title anybody else I imagine it been fifty thousand million people out there man with championship he's repping his City don't kill what is all coming T is given manic read us all a lot of people feel that that really crushed him emotionally and that he never really recovered from that disappointment or really the realization they didn't make any difference what Sonny Liston dead the rest of his life he was always going to be branded as a bad guy even after he became champion the Philadelphia police they went right on harassing him they've just petty things picking them up for standing on a street corner talking to someone for Sonny the last straw is when picked him up in park for driving too slowly was after that driving too slow in the park and he said that he was going on to Denver and he would rather be a lamppost in Denver I think he said then a yeah the mayor of Philadelphia well sunny now you put a rule about a home here on bunger lunch - father milk is going to be your first home for a rock that's way well by this time Sonny had made friends with his father Murphy in Denver another Catholic priest Sonny and Geraldine moved on to Denver he wanted to be close to farmer fee and he hoped that would be the end of police harassment I think Murphy was maybe one of the few people wondering one two or three people in this world that's never trusted he was almost childlike around father Murphy father Murphy was like a father to Sonny and and he would talk tried to advance Sonny to help send me out to keep him out of trouble father Murphy felt sorry for him he used to say we have to pray for the poor bastard and that was because he was an accident waiting to happen when he was away for other Murphy when Geraldine his wife was out of town he'd drink too much and that white caddy has he'd get in it and he'd run stop signs and you'd exceed the scene limit and he'd get stopped over and over over father Murphy claims it was harassment the Denver Police said he was an 18-carat point the police was picking on Sonny Dave when they saw his car they were following him he loved to drink and he would get out of hand might pick up some girl go go tell him smoothie sauce and he's gone do it pull him over view of the Denver police harassed Sonny Liston and I thought treated him very bad if he would step one foot onto the golf course where he ran I was with him they were there to give him a ticket on it for some reason Patterson wanted a rematch in 1963 thought he said come on I'll give you one because there was another designer Patterson went round knockout well that's a typical point I can honestly say at night and the first time and also tonight system was a mystery divided anomaly public is not written down but they have to swung along until somebody else I'm alone too big man Jim Murray of the Los Angeles Times RUP the sports world was realized that it now has Sun listened to keep then he added it is like fining a live bat on a string under your Christmas tree he was not a popular champion in the American press ladies and gentlemen to have you a champ in the world sannyasins lost a minute ago even when he showed on projects things like during a good cell until he could shake that injured is silent solid route son was awesome his workouts I labels when he skipped broken there is this public image son next founder the former labor room is known Tyson come on the people of new he's from the fudge didn't it newspapers painted him as bad fella but for people that around him and people he knew in light he was a good fellow they do anything for you the only ones he really didn't get long when it was spooked right because he didn't talk they say you don't smile he said well do you be laughing when you go to work he said when you go in the rain you're going to do I was going there to do a job how old do you know 31 still 31 yeah I ever gonna be 32 no I'm like Jack Bennett the man kids born ready Sonny was one of the most charming people I've ever known in sports but he didn't shared with people because he had been burnt so often so he trusted me every day he told me the infant's of people and the unthreatening people there's any kids no Freddie you knew they were no right there when therefore the Sonny Liston that perhaps was not the same using that mining fatigue Thursday a conspirators needed work somebody always wanted shopping Society one of Sonny's closest friends was Ashe Resnick a Las Vegas casino operator with alleged mob connections well Sonny was in Vegas training for the first Ali fight he was pretty much under Resnick's influence from the get-go I had absolutely no doubt that the major corruptive influence on Sonny Liston was Ashe Resnick I mashed Resnick wanted to be seen with a heavyweight champion if Sonny had remained everybody champion for 10 years you would never seen a picture in something that Reznick lurking in the background edge was like start off with a thunderbird which was a mob controlled casino was generally considered to be under the control of the New York mob very very close to those people Hayes Resnick was the man that was pulling the strings for Sonny the lot of things and so we did we enjoy us up gambling and the girls Ashe Resnick had some her other mesmerised him into thinking that he was a superbeing that didn't have to train they could look by his own rules it corrupted it was a corruption Resnick wasn't the only problem to me that time we finish with the tag pageants right Liston began getting harassed by Cassius late then no more than Leung loud off capable contender on Miami I thought honey listen a few days ago catch any of you he's he's too ugly to be a world tell the world tell to be pretty like me don't you have any respect for him at all as a fighter as a fighter I think he should be locked up impersonating a fighter I think the seeds for Sonny's destruction at the hands of clay began in the last few days before being second Patterson fight as we're crossing the casino Liston stopped dead in his tracks in all of his hand like this but a whole entourage the people are bumping into him for the onion or everybody stopped when he stopped he pointed over on his right hand side and ordered the crap tables once again a clay looked up and Liston smacked him right across the mouth as he looked up whack smacked him right across the mouth clay said let's do that for and Sonny said because you to bleed and fresh and he turned around and just walked away and everybody's walking with him it son said I got Punk's heart he felt invincible he felt that he could knock anybody out so son was you know full of himself he was overconfident he was running around with yet another than wife he was doing things that no fighters should do you dissipating and a very very little real work training fight with clay there were legitimate fighters who will end up the spawn partners Sonny wouldn't touch him Sonny wouldnt get his the same ring with them he felt that he didn't need it because he thought he was gonna go through clay like a wet paper bag about K well I would love to know if he would come toward me I killed him and I'd be running approximate killer Phoebe moon you're ready old man and you over to say that clay wasn't taken seriously as an opponent for Liston before their first fight is an understatement nobody knew what Cassius Clay would become this was a very confusing time for people clay was a bike because he was bankers who hadn't really proved himself and guys would say I'd like to see sunny but in his lip but on the other hand he didn't want sunny either so there was this curious kind of scent of not knowing exactly who to pull for go in tonight you have a situation that the way they thought that he would get you know Ollie the old staredown giving evil eye you know getting I thought I've been on that that'd be it but at the weigh-in Sonny was completely upstaged I mean Ollie completely freaked out the opinion of most of the observer ones the PISA sterics the clay was going through her fear but of course weren't he's like in the old barrel hey listen finally Miami Beach and February 4 1964 I think we had in that night was that sunny really expected that the way Booker's robe off the clay was gonna be just about ready to collapse well the thing that occurred to me was that plague had a plan and seemed to have the quickness nerf to deal with this malevolent force in an app punch hole there was something happening in here that week no quite understand everyone thought well sooner or later he's going to stop and listen it only hit him but it became parent but listen he's getting a little frustrated Sonny suddenly realized wow this is something I've never never up against in the ring here was a fun room magnificent young elephant and here was an a shank middle-aged guy who didn't train lick and who was just going to go in there throw a few punches and all over the next shocking thing that happened was when clay leg difficulty in his corner between the first round something his eyes nobody knew exactly what was told Angelia trainer he said he was blocked good so you want to quit dumb he's on the back out there he said if you can't fight run Angelo just told him he said just stay away from until it'll go away there yell from Casa face on it thing got in his right eye however you think ugly cassia's he did a few reps but not enough to rehearse and in the middle of next round burning stopped when his beam came back then he started to take sunny apart pop pop pop good short her head upon my sharp you know ripping puncher and you see some sort of us up and before the start of the seventh round one of the last things enemy were expected happened when the bell rang they need a satyr a sec that's it and with what it's only gold over the referee and holding the deeper the shoulder when I vote appoint with the DA and I went back to my partner the whole club felt like it was full of water and when I raised my arm it felt like it was lay it ending love most heavyweight champions would rather be carried out on their shield than to quit on a stool but that's what wasn't chose to do and Claudia felt that he fights teams had favored remember now the odds were 8 to 1 and Liston's favored going into the faith and her a lot of people believe that the mob controlled Liston Adams egg dive mating rickety group cuz they knew they could give a match I knew that Sonny had to lose one way or the other sunny told me he said finita i'm gonna tell you when i got to drop it he did but I felt like I knew because they would let me go with him to train with whoever tells you that this was a great gambling cool engineered by the mafia either needs to change whatever it is they're smoking or needs to find out what you're talking about it's preposterous and there is just in my mind not any slim area of doubt that that could have been the case nobody can show me by Sonny Liston would give up the heavyweight championship of the world why would the mob controlled listen want give up control to mama dolly to which she had no ties where is the evidence of betting coos I have never seen it if there was a fix Angelina told me a totally phony story about trying to blind clay and I don't see why anybody would tell a story like that what happened was when Liston realized that this guy wasn't going enlist knew he had in him but he was not prepared to go the championship distance he wasn't prepared to go a goods from eight nuns let alone 15 rounds when listed realize this he told Joe Quino to use an application that Joe had in a bottle and lose the I'm occasional is Onika loves to joke we know during the break between the rounds smeared this stuff on Sonny's glove and then threw the stuff underneath the ring far as he could Sonny went out there and he got it in his eyes but not say when it was obvious that clay did not have any vision at all sunny started to do all that a little bit before that he was Foley's he rather be up and humiliated by its kid he decided to say I'm not gonna fight anymore and you read at that point dishonored himself desired them everyone she had been ship of the world well up boy I want to give me read mess I'll take it then every don't I have to not forget it this was a real wake-up call for Sonny listen you know he suddenly realized that to you he could be beaten and could be beaten by a young whippersnapper with the big mouth and he was deeply ashamed because this was the thing that gave Sonny his identity he was the toughest guy in the world and suddenly woke up one morning and he wasn't the toughest guy in the world so he decided to do something about it and he trained my head you feel you're sharper mystically then you've been on a bet yes I do of my life there are many people that feel after you second fire you come on schedule Sonny would have regained it Ali unexpectly come up Ernie and the fight was postponed the defense attorney just announced to the court the fight would not be held in Boston this second fight had a real stench about that nobody wanted one of the problems was that during a recent Senate investigations managers have been grilled about the possibility that the first fight in Miami had been fixed by the mob the day after the fight in Miami Beach did you have the media nor any conversations in a group with mr. Margolis mr. Barone mr. Resnick and mr. Dundee honestly mr. Cohn I cannot answer I and by now the FBI was even investigating leads that there might be a fix in the works for the second fight John metallic was living at that time and he says don't pay any attention what you hear about the next fight I'll be glad you're not going with him I said why is that he said if I can be a one-round fight his dad's always me look people seem to feel me more threatened by Clay's new allegiance to this mysterious nation that isn't why you insist on being called Muhammad Ali now that's the name given to me but my leading teacher the Honorable Elijah Muhammad that's my original name mr. black man named Cassius leave me my normal save your articles that say oh it's much better that organized crime running boxing and from booth looks roughing pocket which I thought was a rather incredible state but I'd be considering that you know the Muslims had done anything nearly to the United States an organized crime I thought it fit the racial phobia was just it was just incredible how does that preface but aligned by if anyone's had a stake in this thing it wasn't the dollars in any way change the value of how we win in that fight to the Muslims this was finally the name on the stationery that's what was important about it and don't let anybody get you about anything else he was the name that everybody he was the man and we'll wine daddy way champ is that's it he's the man and now they had go man I suggest to the Attorney General to see if he knew of any reason a little otherwise Riley should not invite this match to come to Maine finally sprayed with all the controversy swirling around the fight little town those named agree taken a lot quickly that Ali announced that he was joining move it in Elstad a change alpha mix left movement I'm fascinated a few months before the second fight so it's very rich arged politically I'll call Oldham in can be thought to get some about it and you can go get them what kind of laws attorney Metta World Police of Dodgers can't tell told us the assassin was coming from New York to assassinate Muhammad got leave for revenge your Mac on being assassinated what to come to tell me I'm gonna get me for why don't you go on Howie problem and there is listen I mean there's this listing standing there before this entire drama which I'm sure of us to wildered him is does it be with anyone else but it's kind of a much currently bode so-called assassination attempt that is you entered the arena these little hottie rink is what I really was everyone was searched this had to be the more chaotic fight of all you both know the rules this was like a wrestling match it was as chaotic as that and it looked as staged Italy had its name to it he know that early halfway through this first round as Sonny is doing mostly although he fighted I know Mosley took that bike in that might bubble Mikhail's they went yells fict Wow Jersey Joe look out people new heavyweight champion in the world great guy great fighter lousy referee he felt to pick up the Titans count listen got up and finally a nap Fleischer attracted walk out the tesha said you know tell you stuff in ten seconds I think a super boy all hell it was that there was a punch and a hard punch that landed in a vulnerable place various footage that shows Liston's neck be snapped back by that punch the thing that bothered me listen to take a hell of a punch I'd seen them fight guys if they what devastating punches ice in fight those guys I've seen those guys knock today I'd have a full oddity Rose come on tonight now I'll eat here is fast alley really annoying so I took him out picks out Holly's mouth in that fight and he told me say lay down somehow I see you hit it so he asked you something you thinking that's an old man you hit him and it took a long time for years so dafuq did he hit Sonny with the fake fight he played why do you think I thought it was funny okay you admitted he hit blue I heard they say fake committed right here the people okay can he feel I'm a dummy big above it the story that I about for various members of Sonny's camp was that two fellas did come up to training camp and represented themselves as black Muslims they called on Sonny and they spoke to him privately and that they told Sonny that if he won the rematch that he was a dead man could that happen sure should it have intimidated Sonny Liston why Sonny Liston had mob in his corner he had come from Mecca I should even fade him a couple of well-dressed in fact mobsters who are threatening it Sonny Liston was the most threatening guy around we've learned that they're very definitely had been a fix in that fight another guy who was very close to the Mancha cago I've got by the name of Bernie Glickman was very very close to Liston and while he was conversing with Liston before the fight and with Geraldine Geraldine said to Liston that as long as he had to dump right don't take a chance of getting hurt as long as you're gonna lose anyhow go ahead down go down early and of course he went down in the first round if he throw the fight he went as great he never told me and if it throw at him see none of the money I went in the back the dressing room and he was all by himself I said to him I know how you feel I've experienced this myself he didn't say one word didn't see he just kept looking look Gus he had that mean look on his face and I don't think you do hear the beat look but I kept on her talking anyway and finally I said I don't think the research that's okay I'll see you later so I went to walk out the door before get out to the door he's wrapping his arms on my shoulder I turned around and he said thanks yeah then I knew then that I reached him Sonny was disgraced after the first clay fight after the second one boy he really bottomed out and everybody sort of expected him to just disappear but I did not appear parkings his livelihood he hadn't made nearly as much money as one might suspect to unite and he continued 12 we went to Sweden he did exhibition in Sweden we travel round and main feed us and then after we came back we moved to Las Vegas sunny fitting well with Las Vegas you got remember you know the gambling casinos were founded a gangster Sonny fit well into the picture he wasn't harassed by the cops people didn't care about his background you know he was comfortable Sonny slowly began rebuilding career between 1966 and 69 fighting inferior opponents who won 14 straight matches one of his siren partners was George form it was Olympic champion of the time ironically it was during this period that Sonny's image began to soften he landed a movie role some TV roles are you married Mary are you kidding I can get in the damn I want all I have to do is to put out my hand and grab here when any ice cream remember there's an inherent beauty in soup cans that Michelangelo could not imagine existed talkative Andy Warhol and Gabby sonny liston always fly Braniff after sunny moved to Vegas he became more and more under the influence of ash Resnick he started hanging around with the wrong people friends of his were told by police out in Las Vegas that Sonny's hang out with the wrong folks there's a drug deal going down and Sonny's involved in it there were all kinds of allegations as to what Sonny was going those that say he'd gone back to his old job as collecting debts for the mob there were those that say he was pushing heroin but Sonny was pretty much just being Sonny Liston doing the same kind of things associated with the same kind of people he always had there were the two faces of Sonny lists one of the faces was this man who was totally abstinent perfectly well behaved but around people he ran with in the night he beiieved ugly there was Eklund high aspect to his personality any chance that Sonny had it for another show that title was lost in 1969 after he was knocked up by a pharmacist ro and putting his heart this fight will be over go evidently had just one more fight in June of 1974 Chuck Weber who was known as they day later to typical Wepner fight he bled all over the place sunny one on a dko sunny was paid $13,000 right away paid 10,000 oh that to repay a loan and the other $3,000 he gave was cornermen he wound up with nothing and he had nothing he was at that point he was just about broke his wife Geraldine was out of town over the nooner holidays she had tried to read sunny on the phone but she couldn't get him and she cut her holiday short because she was worried she arrives in Las Vegas around 8:30 8:45 and drives home she pulls up to the house on Ottawa Drive and she notices that lights are all out of the house well I went in the back court porch and I went through the few steps up and it was a terrible smell so I went in I to go you know I said he must have cooked in um left something on the stove so I went in the kitchen I didn't see anything so I went moral of step up to the bedroom and I seen him laying to his side that's how I think son is did he has nothing on but a t-shirt and his head is back on the bed and canted to one side and there's blood coming out of his nostrils on some kind of foam and she realizes he's dead and she screams Sonny's dead what happens after this is kind of murky I called my attorney and told that Sonny was dead you say how you know he's dead I said well he's Lynn I can see it's walled up you know till he stayed locked up and don't say anything I think Arlene is under the impression that a phone call was made to the authorities shortly thereafter I'm like 15 minutes he say call your doctor call the police and that's what I didn't like for 15-20 minutes but in fact a large amount of time passed something closer to 2 or 3 hours before the authorities were called it's a mystery to me - I don't know I'm telling you the pulleys was right there in about 5 to 10 minutes sonny liston the former heavyweight boxing champion was found dead last night in his Las Vegas home by his wife he was 38 he had been dead for at least we can autopsy failed to show the cause of death and further studies will be made police said that they found small quantities of what appeared to be heroin and marijuana in the home we came upstairs and on entering the bedroom I observed the body have a black male adult - obviously been deceased some time laying on his back looking at the ceiling and quite swollen and really in terrible shape I was directed to the kitchen area by the investigating officers and in this area they had located some narcotic paraphernalia a small bag of grass as my blue and heroin so it appeared to us at that point that he got a overdose of drugs whether it was by shooting up too much in that short time period or or whatever there was far too many too many hours passed between the time that mrs. Liston entered the house and found the body and when the actual call was made to our department time to remove things to change things where was the surgical tubing that he would have probably used to wrap around his arm to expose a vein where was this little Easter cookie had it moved none of stuff was present and of course you know the lack of things can be as suspicious as actual items of evidence there it wasn't uncommon for family members in these cases to go through and tidy up so to speak the crime scene or the scene to save face to save family embarrassment not the autopsy dr. Clark pointed out to mr. Cowell some scars on the arms of Sonny Liston which if I didn't wear interpreted as needle marks we spent at least all day working with this he screened out the presence of many drugs and found why found heroin present the cause of death being an accidental overdose that could very well be but was it self-inflicted or was it administered by someone else there's all kinds of speculation the kindest the speculation is that Sonny had got into shooting up heroin maybe a little joy popping or something like that and had taken a little bit too much and his hearted given out of it people say well he could have done drugs he was afraid of needles other people say oh no he was a drug addict he had a dentist and the dentist was quoted in various columns the Sonny you know the big bad Sonny Liston was deathly afraid of needles he didn't even like to get shot first ever so anything you know and so I says I don't think that he we've done someone gets to put something to go through his veins one her the autopsy said that he saw old needle tracks on Sonny's arm if in fact he had old needle tracks in his arm then that destroys the argument that Sonny could not have been a heroin addict because he was deathly afraid of needles the other school of thought is that Sonny was given a hot shot an intentional overdose of heroin to kill him why well there are some people say that he was getting too big for his britches he was trying to muscle in on some of the underground characters he was working for getting too big for his britches and they decided that this was the way to dispose of Sonny Errol Conrad his old friend from the fight days says that he had got involved muscling in on somebody's loan sharking business and that he was murdered over this dispute over territory loan sharking territory others say that he had a dispute with fight promoter name - Resnick and the Resnick had contract a kannada and the contract was executed by colleague the story was the sonny was going around vegas shooting off his mouth claiming a Resnick had fixed either one or both of his fights with Olly and because of this resinates supposedly taking a contract on Sonny who was then told by a hotshot and overdose of heroin instead of the drugs phone and listens body in suspicious circumstances surrounding his death the coroner still listed his death as resulting from natural causes as a result the police described the case there was no further investigation the fuel possession went down the strip and people came out of C nose to pay homage to Sonny Liston the ironic thing about was that Sonny to the end had a police escort even down the strip I thought that was the perfect touch he had police escort in st. Louis a police escort in Philadelphia he had a police escort in demmer and he end up with a police escort in Las Vegas the tragedy of listen as a man was that I don't think he was ever understood by the public that he was dealing with and he never knew how to make that public understand him I know all the bad things concerned he did or at least enough of them you know and I can't make excuses for a lot of his stuff that he did but I think honey wish that had so many light years to come meet a nose round was a listen young to you like no sure like a little kid look it's too sure like you know I like you too I think because he's terrible background going up we love him for zombie we didn't criticizing and then by hitting clubbers stick said he brought a lot of this stuff on himself there's no question about it there is nonetheless an undercurrent of sentence about Sonny Liston I feel it for him because he was born without a chance on some level it's life he was a stranger to everybody who knew him anyway because he was one guy to one person and one guy to another knows exactly when he was born and very openly nobody was exactly day he died man didn't know itself and that I don't know if anybody else really knew the whole Sonny Liston either this has been a presentation of HBO Sports the network of Champions

Channel: CelticPacman

Views: 301,708

Rating: 4.3256059 out of 5

Keywords: Sonny, Liston, The, Mysterious, Life, and, Death, of, a, Champion

Id: v_7Ps7SgxqU

Length: 60min 0sec (3600 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 22 2011