Following the win over Wepner, Liston was going to face Canadian champion George Chuvalo, but the fight never took place. Gandy also had a real estate appraiser’s license and used his access to houses to case them for burglaries. But Peters irked the sergeant when he said, “And remember that Sonny Liston thing? Liston had been hospitalized in early December, complaining of chest pains. Clark Hoyt Biography, Age, Wife, Career, NPF And Net Worth. The controversy became a flashpoint. Liston was noted for his punching power and durability. According to the FBI, Resnick used Louis as a “bodyguard companion” — an enforcer — on collection calls. }); Proudly powered by WordPress And I know a guy on drugs, believe me. More than a decade after Sonny Liston’s 1970 death from what a coroner called natural causes—and police suspected was an accidental OD of heroin—bookies, mobste… I never saw him drunk.”. U.S. authorities collared him, and in exchange for ratting out his friends he got one-way bus tickets to Vegas for his family. Whatever it was, Gandy beat the crap out of the guy and got sued for police brutality. Inevitably, Peters wound up running his own cons that got him in enough trouble to land him in the Las Vegas jail. News Corp is a network of leading companies in the worlds of diversified media, news, education, and information services. To see all content on The Sun, please use the Site Map. Johnny left the house before the police did. “There was all that blood. Peters was already in the middle of telling his story to two detectives when Beckwith arrived at the small interview room. "I am willing to entertain the idea that it was an overdose, but not an accidental one," Assael said. But less than six years after the controversial first round KO the legend was found dead by his wife Geraldine at their home in Las Vegas. He used an informant budget to give Peters money for tips and kept him on the payroll long after he should have been locked up. And, in a way, it’s still a shock. Liston wound up in prison for armed robbery, where he learned to box. Our journalists strive for accuracy but on occasion we make mistakes. Officially, Liston died of lung congestion and heart failure. How to vote. “I’d tell them I’d blow their heads off if they didn’t get on the ground.” After they were subdued, he said, he’d pull pillowcases over their heads and give Gandy the all-clear sign. I know the difference between right and wrong. Liston’s wife also reported that her husband would refuse basic medical care for common colds because of his dislike of needles. “You ready for this?” his lieutenant asked. Celebrities and Notable People Who Have Had Coronavirus. Some believe the police covered up what happened.[who?] But, to his surprise, when he compared the addresses of the houses that Peters said they’d robbed with open cases in the department’s files, he noticed that many of them matched. If Liston was murdered in a staged overdose, it's possible that his killer was unaware of his needle phobia. Terms of Use and Privacy Policy and Safety Information/Your California Privacy Rights/Do Not Sell My Info/Children's Online Privacy Policy are applicable to you. A couple of weeks later, he was still complainin’ about that needle mark. He lies directly beneath the flight path of arriving passenger jets. Congress debated whether Liston — whose criminal record included breaking a policeman's leg in 1956 — was civilised enough to get into a boxing ring. In February 1969, Assael writes, Liston was at the home of a beautician and drug dealer named Earl Cage when it was raided by the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (BNDD) — the precursor to the DEA — and the Las Vegas police. “There was nothing Sonny feared more than a needle. Despite his red hair, Peters managed to be forgettable enough to rarely make an impression, which made him a great snitch. He was more angry about that shot than he was about the car wreck. The next day, one of those guys comes up to me, shakes my hand, and says something like: ‘If your guy loses, don’t feel bad--Chuck’s a real popular guy here.’, “Well, I went up to Sonny, and I said, ‘Hey, is something going on? After he had knocked out Floyd Patterson twice, both times in the first round, it didn’t appear that there was a human on the planet who could stand up to him. Beckwith found that part reassuring: He always preferred to know someone’s motive. Baseball’s Jackie Robinson said he wished Liston’s record were better but that he deserved the title shot, while President John F. Kennedy “urged Patterson to find [an opponent] with a better character”. He wouldn’t even go to a doctor for a checkup, for fear some doctor would want to stick a needle in him. Sonny Liston was born on May 8, 1932 and died on December 30, 1970. Clay then took the fight back to Liston. While training for the rematch in Las Vegas, according to Assael, Liston met a well-connected bookie named Ash Resnick, who made himself Liston’s personal concierge, “offering Sonny everything from fine clothes to consorts,” and became part of his inner circle. According to Assael, a theory emerged that Resnick made a deal with the Nation of Islam, which was connected to Ali, to have Liston take a dive in exchange for a percentage of Ali’s future earnings. Before I could ring the bell, the door flew open to reveal a man who looked like Santa Claus in the offseason: roundish and gray-haired with a jolly smile and biker tattoos all over his body. For other inquiries, Contact Us. Today Liston lies near sculpted Italian cypress trees, and a fountain. He was once invited to sing “Charlie Brown” on stage with The Coasters when he was four years old. Read now. Caputo found a quarter-ounce of heroin in a balloon in the kitchen and a half-ounce of marijuana in Liston’s pants pocket, but no syringes or needles. Since the death certificate required a date, it was fixed at Dec. 30. The toxicology report said his body was too decomposed for the tests to be conclusive. Liston lost the title to Clay, and the associate told the FBI, “Resnick knew that Liston was going to lose.”. What Beckwith remembered more than anything was the gimmick Gandy used, because more than a decade later it still inspired awe. Sonny's cause of death was heart failure. Most notable for her role as Cassandra in the SyFy series Z Nation. According to Bekz post on twitter on March 23, 2020, Sonny Liston passed away recently leaving his family unhappy. “Sonny loved going out to the lake and fishing for catfish,” Tocco said. A long-avoided contender, he became world heavyweight champion in 1962 by knocking out Floyd Patterson in the first round, repeating the knockout in a defense of the title. 2019. window._taboola = window._taboola || []; Liston was born in Forrest City, Arkansas, US, possibly in the early 1930s - the day and year are unknown. He wore a trim goatee that matched his military buzz cut, and even in happy-looking scenes there was very little reassuring about his smile. He’d recognized the undercover cop from an incident months before, when they had both been lured to the same house by an informant and nearly got into a shootout. A few years before Tocco died, he allegedly told his good friend, Tony Davi, that he went to Liston’s house and found the door locked and his car in the driveway. The film emphasizes the possibility of foul play and that Liston might have been intentionally given a fatal heroin dose. Whether he injected it or snorted it is another matter as despite the presence of needle marks, no syringe was ever found at the scene. Every time he passed a new construction site, he wondered how much more his city could stand. “I don’t think so. Liston had been hospitalized in early December, complaining of chest pains. Coronavirus Update. The former heavyweight champion is perhaps best known for being laid out on the canvas by Muhammad Ali in one of the sports most iconic bouts. Was something about the Clay/Ali fights coming back to haunt him? We agreed to meet on one of those post-Christmas days in Las Vegas where you can make a few green lights on the Strip and get out of town fast. Liston was on the defensive for a time, then Clay was in trouble as Liston banged him about the body. Beckwith wasn’t 100 percent clear on the details. He said they found Sonny lying on his bed with a needle sticking out of his arm. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. “He had a deadly fear of needles”, said Davey Pearl, a boxing referee, and friend of Liston’s. The junkies all got dragged into headquarters in handcuffs thinking each had set the other up. Radha Blank’s ‘Forty-Year-Old Version’ on Netflix highlights racism in the theater industry. Beckwith studied Peters, trying to figure out his angle. “And I never saw him take a drink. container: 'taboola-below-article-thumbnails', There he caught the eye of a sergeant who turned him into an informant—and assigned him to Larry Gandy. 12:00 AM, Feb. 23, 1989: 40 Black playwrights on the theater industry’s insidious racism. From 1953 (his first recorded fight) through 1970 Liston, who stood 6 feet 1 inch (1.85 meters) tall and weighed 215 pounds (97.5 kg), had 54 bouts, winning 39 by knockouts and losing only 4. Was someone afraid Liston would one day speak up about his past, about his prison years? Then his partner would come in and loot the place. And as they said in the movies, it was the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Sonny Liston: The Mysterious Life and Death of a Champion is a well-paced and even-handed film for anyone looking for a comprehensive overview of Liston’s life.Its greatest strength is the nuanced image it gives of its subject, treatment that Liston would have doubtlessly benefited from in real life. The lonely death of former world heavyweight champion Charles “Sonny” Liston, 38, may have been caused by an overdose of heroin, the Clark County Sheriff’s Department reported yesterday. “He passed away after I’d sent a telegram to the promoter, agreeing to terms to the fight at the Montreal Forum. “The month before he died, some guy ran into Sonny while he was making a left turn. © 2020 ESPN Internet Ventures. Interest-Based Ads. Back then he was an undercover deputy who kept his hair in a ponytail and dressed in sleeveless biker vests. He apparently was at the dealers’ house shortly before they got busted. With all of that on his mind, he wasn’t prepared to get a call at home after midnight from his boss, asking him to come back into the office. “Every once in a while, I’d see him drink a vodka on the rocks. Within a few hours, I received this reply: “I would be delighted to sit down with you. There’s got to be good guys and there’s got to be bad guys. In this excerpt from his upcoming book, The Murder of Sonny Liston, ESPN senior writer Shaun Assael recounts the day in 1982 when a sergeant in the Las Vegas police force got a strange tip that set in motion a new round of questions. He was a mountain, a guy who had muscles in his ears. . In a sensational turn of events, Clay protested that he could not see. Sergeant Dennis Caputo of the Clark County Sheriff’s Department was one of the first officers on the scene. Billy Corben is an American documentary film director. The probable cause of death on the autopsy report was listed as heart failure. Newspapermen ask dumb questions. Sonny Liston Death – Loved ones and family of Sonny Liston are saddened and mourns his death as he has passed away. Death and Obituaries – Funeral | Cause Of Death. Nothing was ever proven, but Nevada state assemblyman Gene Collins told Assael that in 1970, as Ali prepared to fight Joe Frazier, Liston told him and others that “he had a portion of Ali’s contract”.