Show:821083

1897-01-30 A Vinton Street Saloon, Omaha, Nebraska, US

• Aaron Sherroy W KO Wade Bell

Source for the result: The Omaha Daily Bee, Omaha, NE (2-1-1897, p. 1).

Prize fighting was illegal in Nebraska at the time, and The Omaha Daily Bee was fervently anti-prize fighting. Its coverage of the bout and the aftermath was in the style of muckraking. As a response to the newspaper coverage, both boxers and the referee were arrested within days of the bout. The boxers were jailed, but the referee--who was an attorney--was not. The newspaper coverage repeatedly mentioned that both boxers and the referee were black guys. The three went to trial in Omaha's police court. The newspaper charged the Omaha police with "utter inefficiency and neglect" in ineptly making a case against the boxers and the ref and deemed the trial "farcical". The cases against the three were dismissed for lack of evidence.