![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() There was also an HBO documentary from 1995, The Mysterious Life and Death of A Champion, readily viewable on YouTube. At first glance, it seemed unlikely that there was much to add to what the great writers - Nick Tosches, David Remnick, James Baldwin - had already chewed over. The rumor mill churned: Liston was murdered.įour decades later, I was looking for a cold case to crack when I decided to dig into the story. Friends dismissed the idea that heroin metabolites in his blood signaled an accidental overdose. The smart money speculated that the coroner was hiding something. Still, the coroner’s conclusion - natural causes - was deeply unsatisfying. Liston (center), moments after losing the heavyweight title to Cassius Clay in 1964. An ignoble end seemed inevitable for a man who lived as carelessly as Liston did. Although his death was untimely, the sports world reacted much as his friends in Vegas did: with a shrug. His birth certificate listed his age as 38, but he was probably in his mid-40s when his wife returned home from a Christmas vacation in January 1971 to find him slumped lifelessly backward over their bed in an advanced state of decomposition. He was filming bit roles in movies, dealing cocaine on The Strip and spending his nights in the dingy bars of the town’s segregated Westside. Five years after that loss, however, Liston had settled into the comforting seams of Las Vegas. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |