Gene Luker

Name: Gene Luker
Alias: Baby Face
Birth Name: Eugene Thomas Luker
Hometown: Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
Birthplace: Portsmouth, Ohio, USA
Died: 1960-08-01 (Age:41)
Height: 173cm
Pro Boxer: Record


While incarcerated in Mansfield, Ohio's State Reformatory, Luker won the Reformatory Lightweight title by decisioning Jack Thomas in 3 rounds May 15 1937. Luker was imprisoned in Columbus during the 1940 United States census. In 1943, Luker was shot twice by Thomas Cannon in a Cincinnati cafe along with fellow boxer Chris Fenton, who died. Luker was returned to prison after this, on a probation violation. Luker spent two years in prison after being arrested for breaking and entering a drug store in 1954, and another year after a 1957 charge of carrying a concealed weapon. Luker was shot and killed after getting into a fight with fellow retired boxer Smokey Maggard on August 1, 1960 at the Frontier Cafe in Newport, Kentucky. Maggard was originally charged with murder, but a grand jury ruled that Maggard had acted in self-defense, as Luker shot Maggard first in the thigh, before killing him.

Source: "Affray Blamed on $80 Debt at Frontier Club", Cincinnati Enquirer, August 2, 1960