TAKING STOCK OF SONNY LISTON

[molecule76]

I'm trying to understand the way in which Sonny Liston was divided up by gangsters, upon his mov to Philadelphia.

I know that Frankie Carbo took 52%...Blinky Palermo and Johnny Vitale each took 12% and Pep Barone (manager of record) took 24%

Can anyone tell me what each of these men's responsibilities were for their percentage?

[Brutu]

It is not too well known,but Sonny Liston's original trainer under Pep Barone in Philadelphia in 1958,
was a veteran trainer named Jimmy Wilson.
Im not exactly sure when Willie Reddish took over or if he had been a co-trainer under Jimmy Wilson,
but Reddish was training Liston in 1959 for the Mike DeJohn fight.
I wonder if that was the same Jimmy Wilson boxing referee that was found dead in his hotel in Tokyo Japan
in 1964 when he was referring a fight there?

[molecule76]

I'm not sure either... Though Reddish was definitely in the picture at some point in Philadelphia.

Do you happen to know what I was talking about in the post? As to who was responsible for what -- for their percentages?

[jaclem2]

..i think it's impossible to ever know who took what percentage. creative bookkeeping, the code of silence and other barriers would have made it impossible for anyone to know at that time, let alone at this late date. in many cases like this one, more than half the time the guys getting their own percentage didn't know themselves who else was getting what...just as long as each guy got his.

WE do know that after the mob was through with him sonny got 100 percent dead.

[molecule76]

So you lean toward him being murdered? I'm still on the fence about that.... Just not sure.

[Brutu]

I doubt that any of the ledger books of Frankie Carbo will ever turn up soon.
The one person in the world who may know something about this
would probably be Ernie Terrell.but from what i remember from his interview in the movie FACING ALI,
he just cant seem to recall things back then as far as his management anyway.

[Brutu]

Again,as far as Liston being murdered.
I think the sports journalist investigators dropped the ball years ago.
In those documentaries and books from the early 1990's.
It was mentioned more then once that a former Las Vegas ex-cop
that was serving time in Carson City NV,claimed that he was offered a contract
by Ash Resnick to knock off Sonny Liston.
For whatever reason(s)no one ever seemed to bother to follow up on that lead.
How many of the people who were originally interviewed in the 1989 Unsolved Mysteries episode
and the HBO documentary have since passed on?

[jaclem2]

...no, i'm not certain that sonny was murdered and i don't think we'll ever really know . i lean that way, but not at a 45 degree angle. it could be that those who thought he might know too much about his business world got him on heroin , suggested because he was so big he'd have to take bigger doses. of course that's just conjecture.

i do think he knew more than he should have and there were some who were afraid he'd reveal what he did know. no way of proving anything because sonny took whatever he knew to the grave.