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You’re Floyd Mayweather, Jr.

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Borrowing from the classic style and prose of hall of fame sportswriter Jimmy Cannon (April 10, 1909 – December 5, 1973), the writer takes a look at the career of Floyd Mayweather, Jr. and discovers that time is not the only vandal.

You’re Floyd Maweather, Jr., aged thirty-five, the preeminent star in the sport of boxing. People love you, and they hate you. They love you because of how great you could be. They hate you because you seem unwilling to prove it. Still, you are the alpha figure in boxing today, and you love it. You make more money than any other fighter in the sport. In fact, you have the fantastic ability to make in one night more than what ninety-nine percent of fighters make for their whole careers. You’re Floyd Mayweather, and you’re the best fighter in the world…maybe.

Oh sure, you’re still undefeated. No one can take that away from you. You wouldn’t give them the chance. Yeah, you’ve beaten some of the very best fighters of your era. The names on your resume are nothing to scoff at. Not at all. Ricky Hatton, Oscar De La Hoya, Shane Mosley, Juan Manuel Marquez, Miguel Cotto. Big names. Huge. But there’s more to a legacy than just “names,” isn’t there?

You started out the right way. No doubt about it. You began your career as good a prospect as any. Your hands were fast; your feet too. You were an exceptional amateur talent with the litany of accomplishments to prove it. You weren’t just another athlete who boxed, you were a real fighter, born and bred. That picture of you in the gym as a tyke with boxing gloves on, it’s legit. That was you. You were born for this. God made you to be a boxer.

You won amateur titles all through your youth, national titles even. Then you went to the Olympics and did your country proud. You earned a bronze medal in the 1996 Olympics. Almost everyone thought you got jobbed in your loss to eventual silver medalist Serafim Todorov of Bulgaria. That Bulgarian judge did all he could for the other kid. He did you in. You won it for sure, and you would’ve won the gold medal, too. Impressive stuff. Men have been well reasoned to be prouder for doing less. Not you, though. You aspired for something more. Greatness.

You were a “can’t miss” prospect, and you didn’t. You coasted through the rite of passage palookas and hobos they put in front of you with ease, just like you should. Your handlers did everything right. They lined up marks for you to look good against, and you did. They patted you on the back. Said you’d be champion one day. Told you that you could be the greatest. You ate it up. We all did. You were something special. Everybody saw it. Heck, after your seventh professional fight, Manny Steward said he thought you’d go on to be the best ever. Ever!

You won your first title in 1998 at junior lightweight by obliterating tough guy Genaro Hernadez. You’d been a professional for just two years, and you were already champion. By the end of the year, you started getting listed among the pound-for-pound elites. All you did was win, no matter who or what they put in front of you, and you did it convincingly. You started getting noticed. You said you wanted to be like Oscar De La Hoya and Roy Jones, Jr. You didn’t just want to be the best in the business, you wanted to make the most money, be the biggest star.

Your junior lightweight run culminated in maybe the most impressive win of your career. When you met undefeated slugger Diego Corrales in 2001, you were sure to be up against your stiffest test. But you weren’t. You beat Corrales like he was an amateur, knocking him down five times en route to the TKO.

After a few more wins, you were ready to move up in weight. You had dreams to chase. And money. Then it happened, the unthinkable. You almost lost. You! Lightweight champion Jose Luis Castillo gave you all you could handle. Kept you on the ropes with punches coming from all angles. Worked you over good. You were lucky. The judges gave you the nod, even though Castillo out-landed you, even though the crowd booed you. It was close. Too close.

You did the right thing. You took an immediate rematch. At the end of it, the official scorecards were closer than last time, but you got the call again. It was a tough test, but you passed. They wouldn’t have robbed Castillo twice, right? You deserved to win. Maybe you learned something there, though. Maybe you learned taking the toughest fights might not be all it’s cracked up to be. Maybe you learned you liked winning more than anything else. Winning and money.

You didn’t let it deter you. Not at first. You moved up in weight again. You potshotted Demarcus Corely to an easy decision win in your junior welterweight debut. By now, you were one of HBO’s bell cows. You were setting up big PPV dates, so they gave you something easy. It’s understandable. You’d earned it. Next up, was blood and guts warrior Arturo Gatti. He had world class heart, but not the skills to match it. Not like you. You destroyed him. Easy money, and lots.

You skipped over light welterweight champion Kostya Tszu and moved up to welterweight instead. People were disappointed, but it wasn’t like you had some kind of history with this type of thing. Not yet. HBO gave you another gimme in Sharmba Mitchell. It was your first fight at the weight, after all. You had big fights to set up. You wanted Zab Judah and you got him, even though he lost the championship in his previous fight against Carlos Baldomir. You beat Mitchell and got what you wanted.

Against Zab Judah, you really showed your stuff. He was just as fast as you. Maybe faster. You found that out quickly. You adjusted, though. You had more than just fast hands. Much more. You had skill. You had stamina. After maybe losing three of the first four rounds, you won the last eight with ease. It was vintage stuff. A glimpse of perfection, perhaps. You showed how great you can be. For good measure, you followed it up by nabbing that linear title from Baldomir. He probably didn’t win a round against you.

Your ship was about to come in. You figured out you didn’t just want to be like Oscar De La Hoya, you wanted to beat him. A fight against the Golden Boy would open a lot of doors for you, and you knew it. You even moved up to junior middleweight to do it. It would be a tough test, but you believed in yourself. Besides, you reasoned, you’d make more money than you had ever made before in your life. It was worth the risk. It had to be. He was passed his best. You were not.

The fight was close. De La Hoya was bigger than you, and it showed. You made the adjustments. You eked out a majority decision win. Most people didn’t see it that close. You were the clear winner. Your undefeated record remained intact. You took De La Hoya’s title, but more than that, too. You took over his mantle as boxing’s biggest draw. You called yourself “Money” Mayweather now, and for good reason. Money became your primary reason for fighting. You didn’t care about titles. Or history. Or legacy. After all, you said you had proved all you needed to prove. What else could keep you fighting? Not the challenge of Miguel Cotto or Antonio Margarito at welterweight. Let them fight each other, you told yourself. Not Paul Williams. He was too big, a freak of nature. Not anyone that presented too much risk, you told yourself.

You saw an opportunity in Ricky Hatton. The junior welterweight from Britain was undefeated but a little crude. He was a huge draw like you, though, and you knew it. You signed the fight, and had him come up to welterweight to do it. You wanted all the advantages you could get. As boxing’s new golden goose, you deserved them. Hatton came out fast. He knocked you off balance with a jab, but you settled in. He was no match for you. By the middle of the fight, you were dominating. You knocked him out in picturesque fashion in round number ten. He had rushed at you like a bull, and you made him pay.

After defeating Ricky Hatton in December of 2007, you decided to do that thing fighters do where they say they’re retiring from the sport only to resurface a year or so later. Everybody knew it. You wanted some time off. It’s understandable.

That’s when you saw him for the first time really. Everybody did. He was smaller than you. He had all those losses. But he was mesmerizing now. How did he destroy Oscar De La Hoya like that? How? How could he be so fast, so strong, so terrifying? That’s when you decided to come back. Was it that he was taking attention away from you? Did you intend to fight him? It certainly seemed so at the time.

You returned in September of 2009. You picked the guy he had all that trouble with, Juan Manuel Marquez. You needed a tune-up first, and what better way to prove your superiority over him than by using his big nemesis as a tune-up? You made Marquez jump a couple weight classes to do it, but he took the fight. He was no match for you, especially after you didn’t even bother to make weight. You won a wide, unanimous decision victory. You promised to fight him soon.

You decided to go after Shane Mosley first. Mosley was older than you, but he was one of the best of his era. He caught you with a huge right hand in the second round and almost put you down. You recovered nicely though. You still had your legs. His were gone. You out boxed him like everyone thought you would. It was a nice win, but it wasn’t the win people wanted for you. You knew it. You promised to fight him next. You just wanted him to take drug tests. That’s all. You’re cleaning up the sport. He had to be on PEDs, you reasoned. He just had to.

You didn’t fight again for sixteen months. When you decided to come back this time, you chose Victor Ortiz reasoning it’d be good preparation for who you really wanted to fight. At least it seemed that way. Why else would it have been Ortiz? Was he on your level? He had lost to Marcos Maidana. Still, both Ortiz and the one you said you really wanted to fight if only Bob Arum weren’t stopping it, were hard-hitting southpaws. Ortiz was young and strong, but you would handle him. He proved to be dumb in that he let his hands down in front you after he tried to intentionally foul you. You starched him without mercy and won by knockout. It was all set up again.

You didn’t fight again until May of the next year. You decided not to fight him this time because he wouldn’t take the drugs tests or something. People started to lose track of the reasons. You decided to take on Miguel Cotto instead. You didn’t want to fight him at MSG. After all, one of his opponents likened it to fighting the devil in hell. Why would you do that? You took home court in Las Vegas, just like the big money guy should. It was a big event. Cotto wasn’t the same Cotto you didn’t fight all those years ago. Antonio Margarito had suspiciously beat much of that out of him. What was left was demolished by the fighter you said you wanted to fight but never did. Still, Cotto had rebounded nicely of late. He’d won three in a row, including a redemption match against Margarito.

The fight was more than you bargained for. He bloodied your nose. Nobody does that, but he did. He out-boxed you at times. You were winning, but you started to look your age. You seemed slower, more tired. You beat him with grit and determination. It was a good win. You closed the show like you should have. You swept him over the championship rounds. That’s what you do. Those were your rounds, champ. In the last round, you staggered him. He looked like he was ready to fall. But there was that risk there. You saw it. You knew you had the fight won. Why risk losing your undefeated record? You didn’t have anything to prove, you said to yourself. You’d play it safe. It doesn’t matter what that other guy did against him. You were still undefeated. He wasn’t.

Your outside the ring lifestyle may have gotten out of control a little bit. You liked partying with people you shouldn’t be around. You liked going to the club and making a scene. You loved the attention, the worship of the sycophants. The Money Team, you called them. They’re still with you. They’re still your people. They weren’t there when you went to jail, though. You were alone. That’s okay. Everybody makes mistakes. It happens. You had a lot of time to think in there. No one messed with you. They knew who you were. You liked it.

When you got out, you didn’t rush right back into boxing. Why would you? You’d been behind bars for three months. You weren’t in a rush. Your legacy was secure, at least to you. You didn’t need to fight him. Not yet.

He lost that December. That guy you beat easily a few years before, his nemesis Juan Manuel Marquez, knocked him out cold in the fifth round. See? You didn’t need to prove anything against that guy. See?

You’re getting ready for your return now. Time for you to fight again. You’ve targeted Cinco de Mayo weekend. After all, that’s the most lucrative date in the sport, and you’re boxing’s big money star. You have to fight. You’ll make more than anyone else in the world that night, and that’s what it’s all about, you say. You don’t have anything else to prove. You’ve done it. You’re the money man, now. Money Mayweather. And you’ll make plenty of it fighting guys like Robert Guerrero or Devon Alexander, guys who you’ll be heavily favored against just like always, for as long as you want. What else does a guy fight for?

But to some it seems that it should have been for more than just money. You could’ve been the greatest, just like Steward said, but you’re not. And it’s too late for it now. Too late. That’s why you’ve affected people so. You can’t help it if a whole lot of people feel lousy every time you fight now. But they do. They do.

 

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Avila Perspective, Chap. 313: Global Cooperation — Golden Boy and Matchroom

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Boxing always spreads the wealth globally.

This weekend, in particular, powerhouse promotions Golden Boy and Matchroom Boxing connect in a super lightweight main event with world title implications on Saturday, Feb. 15. First in Manchester, England, then moving on to Anaheim, California in the USA.

DAZN will stream both cards.

Saturday morning begins in England where native son Jack Catterall (30-1, 13 KOs) meets Southern California’s Arnold Barboza (31-0, 11 KOs) in a super lightweight eliminator to decide who meets champion Devin Haney later this year.

Yes, Haney still retained the super lightweight world titles though starched badly by Ryan Garcia last April in New York. PED results forced the titles to remain with Haney.

Catterall, 31, who fights for Matchroom Boxing, just recently fought and defeated Regis Prograis last October in Manchester. Both traded knockdowns with the clever southpaw from Lancashire emerging the victor.

Barboza, 33, who fights for Golden Boy, recently won convincingly against former world champion Jose Carlos Ramirez when they battled in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia this past November.

Also, on the Matchroom Boxing card, will be an interesting super featherweight title match between Reece Bellotti (19-5. 14 KOs) and Michael Gomez Jr. (21-1, 6 KOs) for British titles.

SoCal

As soon as the British boxing card ends on DAZN, the Southern California portion begins with the main card featuring Oscar Duarte (28-2-1, 22 KOs) against late replacement Miguel Madueno (31-3, 28 KOs) in another super lightweight clash.

Oscar Duarte

Oscar Duarte

The Golden Boy boxing card takes place at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif. Doors open at 1 p.m. Pacific Time.

Duarte was supposed to fight Regis Prograis, but the former world champion was forced to withdraw due to injury. A week ago, Madueno was selected to take the place of Prograis. It’s now a battle between Mexican sluggers.

Madueno, 26, last fought and lost by decision against Keyshawn Davis. The Sinaloan also lost to Canada’s Steve Claggett. Audiences in Southern California are very familiar with Madueno who fought several times on Thompson Boxing shows in Ontario and Corona, Calif. He likes to bang.

“Duarte is a tough, aggressive fighter who comes forward with power, But I’m prepared for that style,” Madueno said. “This is going to be a battle of two Mexican warriors.”

Duarte, 29, has back-to-back wins over Jojo Diaz and Botirzhon Ahkmedov since losing by knockout to Ryan Garcia on December 2023. The late replacement appeals to Duarte because of his similar fighting style.

“I’m ready for this fight and for this war,” said Duarte at the press conference on Thursday. “He is going to stand in front of me.”

Oscar De La Hoya said that though they regret Prograis was unable to fight, the replacement Madueno offers a stylistic matchup that appeals to fans.

“He’s a very exciting fighter and a hard worker,” said De La Hoya of Duarte. “He is in a tough fight.”

Some of the other interesting fights include welterweight phenom Joel Iriarte, an undefeated fighter from Bakersfield, Calif. Also, super middleweight Darius Fulghum of Houston meets Winfred Harris Jr. of Detroit in the semi-main event. Twelve bouts are planned in Anaheim.

Mohegan Sun – Love and War

On Saturday, at the Mohegan Sun, a solid fight card by CES Boxing is led by Rashidi Ellis (25-1) meeting Jose Angulo (16-9) in a welterweight fight. Also, featherweights Carlos Gonzalez (14-0) fights Alexander Espinoza (23-6-2). DAZN will stream the fight card.

Ellis is based in nearby Massachusetts and has wins over So Cal’s Alex Acosta and New York’s Eddie Gomez. He is a stylish fighter who relies on technique, but can pop.

Felix Sturm

In Germany, former world champion Felix Sturm (44-6-3, 19 KOs) at 46 is fighting Benjamin Blindert (14-1-2, 10 KOs), who is 38 on Saturday at Bayern, Germany.

Yes, it’s the same Sturm who fought Oscar De La Hoya back in 2004. It brings back memories to see the German fighter’s name. I remember when he was first supposed to fight De La Hoya back around 2001 or so. The promoters staged a welcome home media day at the Santa Monica Airport. I remember that day vividly because I forgot to check my gas and barely made it to the airport parking lot. When I returned to the car it would not start. I was out of gas. It took me two hours to get the car started again.

That fight did not happen that year due to an injury by De La Hoya. They later fought in a quasi-middleweight world title tournament a couple of years later. De La Hoya won a squeaker in Las Vegas. Then he fought Bernard Hopkins to unify the middleweight division. Hopkins won.

Sturm was always a very solid fighter. Not a big puncher, but a strong fighter with technique. That’s what has kept him in the game.

Fights to Watch

Sat. DAZN 11 a.m. Jack Catterall (30-1) vs Arnold Barboza (31-0).

Sat. DAZN 4:30 p.m. Rashidi Ellis (25-1) vs Jose Angulo (16-9).

Sat. DAZN 5 p.m. Oscar Duarte (28-2-1) vs Miguel Madueno (31-3).

Oscar Duarte photo credit: Al Applerose

 

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Vito Mielnicki Hopes to Steal the Show on Friday at Madison Square Garden

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Vito Mielnicki Hopes to Steal the Show on Friday at Madison Square Garden

Olympic silver medalist Keyshawn Davis headlines Top Rank’s St. Valentine’s Day card on Friday in the Theater at Madison Square Garden. Davis (12-0, 8 KOs) seeks to win his first world title as a pro at the expense of fellow unbeaten Denys Berinchyk (19-0, 9 KOs). An amateur teammate of Oleksandr Usyk and Vasiliy Lomachenko, Berinchyk, 36, became the latest boxer from Ukraine to capture a world title when he upset defending WBO lightweight champion Emanuel Navarrete in his last start.

Xander Zayas makes his seventh appearance at this venue in the co-feature, opposing Germany’s obscure Slawa Spomer. But although Zayas has built a following among Gotham’s substantial Boricua population, the boxer who will almost certainly draw the loudest ovation on his ring walk is Vito Mielnicki Jr. whose bout – his debut as a middleweight — will kick off the three-fight portion of the card that will air on ESPN’s main platform.

The 22-year-old Mielnicki, nicknamed White Magic, hails from the town of Roseland across the Hudson River in Northern New Jersey, a 35-minute drive from Madison Square Garden assuming optimal weather and traffic conditions. He’s been attracting eyeballs since he was seven (but reportedly eight) years old. A photo of him hitting a speed bag appeared in the July 10, 2010 issue of the Newark Star-Ledger. The accompanying story said he was having trouble finding sparring partners.

The photo was taken at an amateur boxing club in Newark where Vito trained under the watchful eye of his father. A former high school sports star, the elder Mielnicki would become a fixture on the local scene as an amateur boxing coach and eventually a co-manager and co-promoter at the professional level.

Vito Mielnicki Jr is a throwback to the days when Italian-American boxers were well-represented in the community of prizefighters and the Garden State produced more than its share. World title challengers Tippy Larkin (Antonio Pilliteri), Charlie Fusari, and the colorful Tony Galento all came to the fore within a few miles of each other in Northern New Jersey.

Mielnicki Jr brings a 20-1 (12 KOs) record into his bout with Connor Coyle. He’s won 12 straight since his “hiccup” in Los Angeles when he lost a close decision to James Martin. A rematch on July 31, 2021 in Newark fell out when Martin came in far over the contracted weight at the weigh-in.

Connor Coyle fights out of Pinellas Park, Florida, by way of Derby, Northern Ireland. A 34-year-old father of three who has a job remodeling kitchens when he’s back home in Derby, Coyle is ranked #3 at 160 pounds by the WBA whose champion is Erislandy Lara.

Although Coyle is undefeated (21-0, 9 KOs), his high ranking says more about the WBA than about him. However, on paper this is a good match-up, a bit of a step-up fight for Mielnicki who wasn’t particularly impressive in his last outing – his first at Madison Square Garden – although he won every round of the 10-round fight on one of the scorecards.

This is Connor Coyle’s first appearance at MSG as a pro. The Irishman won’t lack for rooters and although he lacks a big punch, he will assuredly bring his “A” game.

The tripleheader on ESPN starts at 9 pm ET / 6 pm PT.

Undercard

The gifted, baby-faced lightweight Abdullah Mason who has a very high ceiling will appear on the undercard as will former Olympians Rohan Polanco and Tiger Johnson in separate bouts. Nico Ali Walsh returns to the ring after avenging his lone defeat, gutting out a 6-round decision over Sona Akale in June of last year, a match in which Walsh fought the last two rounds with a dislocated shoulder. Per boxrec, the card will also mark the return of heavyweight Jared Anderson who meets a sacrificial lamb imported from Greece, but the most recent Top Rank press release does not indicate if this bout will be televised.

Undercard action streams on ESPN+ beginning at 5:15 ET / 2:15 PT.

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With Valentine’s Day on the Horizon, let’s Exhume ex-Boxer ‘Machine Gun’ McGurn

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With Valentine’s Day on the Horizon, let’s Exhume ex-Boxer ‘Machine Gun’ McGurn

Feb. 14, which this year falls on a Friday, is Valentine’s Day, more formally St. Valentine’s Day. It’s a day identified with romance, but for students of organized crime, it summons up an image of a different sort. On Valentine’s Day in 1929, at a warehouse in the Lincoln Park district of Chicago, seven men were lined up against a wall and murdered in cold blood by four intruders with machine guns and shotguns. The infamous St. Valentine’s Day Massacre was the most sensational news story during the Prohibition Era when many of America’s cities, most notably Chicago, were roiled by deadly turf wars between rival bootlegging factions.

It shouldn’t surprise us that a former boxer was one of the alleged perpetrators. During the Prohibition years, bootleggers were well-represented among the ranks of boxing promoters and managers. Philadelphia’s Max “Boo Boo” Hoff reportedly had the largest boxing stable in the country. In New York, Owney Madden was purportedly the brains behind the consortium that controlled future heavyweight champion Primo Carnera.

That brings us to Jack McGurn, but first a little context. Prohibition was the law of the land from 1920, when the Volstead Act took effect, until 1933 when the ill-conceived law was repealed. Prohibition did not fetter America’s thirst for alcoholic beverages but arguably encouraged it. Confirmed beer drinkers didn’t stop drinking beer because it was illegal. Restaurateurs at high-end establishments didn’t stop selling cognac and brandy; they just did it more discreetly. Speakeasies became fashionable.

Big money awaited entrepreneurs willing to risk arrest by flouting the law, either by opening distilleries and breweries or importing alcohol with Canada the leading supplier.

In Chicago and environs, circa 1929, two of the kingpins of the bootlegging trade were “Scarface” Al Capone and George “Bugs” Moran. They were bitter rivals. The warehouse at which the seven men were assassinated housed some of Moran’s delivery trucks. The victims were members of his gang.

Al Capone wasn’t directly involved. On Feb. 14, he was in Florida where, among other things, he was finalizing arrangements to host a bevy of A-list sportswriters at his lavish Miami Beach estate; the scribes were coming to town to cover the heavyweight title eliminator between Jack Sharkey and Young Stribling. But the hired guns, who stormed into Moran’s warehouse at 10:30 on a snowy Valentine’s Day morning, were presumed to be working for Capone and the one henchman whose name stood out among the usual suspects was Jack McGurn. He had purportedly saved Capone’s life on two occasions by intercepting would-be assassins out to kill his boss and shooting them dead. Of all his underlings, Capone was said to be especially fond of McGurn.

Maching Gun McGurn

Machine Gun Jack McGurn

It had long been the custom of Jewish and Italian boxers to adopt Irish-sounding ring names. McGurn was born Vincenzo Gibaldi in 1902 in the Sicilian seaside city of Licata and lived in Brooklyn before moving with his widowed mother to Chicago. He had his first documented prizefight in 1921. The bout was held on a naval training ship, the U.S.S. Commodore. Prizefighting was then illegal in the Windy City, a residue of the malodorous 1900 fight between Terry McGovern and Joe Gans, but the ship was docked outside the Chicago city limits.

McGurn would have five more documented fights, the last against Bud Christiano on a strong card in Aurora, Illinois. Their six-round bout was the semi-windup. The main go was a 10-round contest between bantamweights Bud Taylor, the Terre Haute Terror, and Memphis Pal Moore, both of whom are enshrined in the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

By law, these were no-decision fights with wagers resting on the opinion of one or more ringside reporters. McGurn really had no business in the same ring with Christiano, an 84-fight veteran who had won two of three from future world lightweight title-holder Jimmy Goodrich. He took the worst of it, but was still standing at the final bell. And that was that. After only six pro fights, he hung up his gloves to pursue other endeavors and, in time, when his name appeared in the newspapers, it invariably appeared as Machine Gun Jack McGurn, the reference to the newfangled Thompson Machine Gun, colloquially the Tommy Gun, a tool with which McGurn was said to be very proficient.

The police found McGurn holed up in a Chicago hotel where he was staying with his girlfriend, Louise Rolfe, a 22-year-old “professional model and cabaret entertainer” with a 5-year-old daughter from a previous relationship that was being raised by her mother.

Louise testified that on the day of the massacre, they were in bed until noon. She said that she and McGurn had seldom left the room during their 13-day stay, having their food brought up from the hotel’s kitchen.

Louise held tight to her story and the police never did have sufficient evidence to charge the ex-boxer in connection with the crime. However, whenever the authorities were frustrated in sending a perp to prison, they had other weapons at their disposal to get their pound of flesh.

In the case of Scarface Al Capone, it was the 1913 law that authorized a federal income tax. The feds had enough circumstantial evidence to show that Al hadn’t been paying his fair share of taxes and succeeded in removing him from society. (After serving almost eight years in federal prisons, mostly Alcatraz, Capone returned to civilian life a sick man and passed away in Florida at age 48.)

In the case of Machine Gun Jack McGurn and his paramour, later his wife, the wedge was the Mann Act of 1910.

The Mann Act, most famously used to waylay heavyweight champion Jack Johnson, was aimed at brothel-keepers and immigrant flesh peddlers but was worded in such a way that it could be deployed when there was no commerce involved. It prohibited the interstate transportation of “any woman or girl for the purpose of prostitution or debauchery, or for any other immoral purpose.” (The law remains on the books but has been watered-down to decriminalize sexual activity between consenting adults.)

The feds spent thousands of hours digging up evidence to show that the couple had violated the Mann Act. They eventually got hotel receipts showing that they had registered as Mr. and Mrs. under assumed names at hotels in Florida and Mississippi during a motor trip down south. Jack was sentenced to two years in Leavenworth and Louise to four months in the county jail, but their convictions were later overturned by the Illinois Supreme Court.

What comes around, goes around, goes the saying, and it figured that Machine Gun Jack McGurn would die a violent death. The ex-boxer met his maker at 1 a.m. on Feb. 15, 1936, at a second-floor bowling alley in Chicago where he was fatally shot by two gunmen who opened fire as his back was turned. There were at least 20 people present said the story in the Chicago Tribune, but “the wall of silence, traditional among the gangsters and the people who know them, was erected high and tight.”

Was McGurn’s murder retaliation for the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre? The answer appears to be a resounding “yes.” Had the deed happened before the stroke of midnight, it would have happened on a St. Valentine’s Day, the seventh anniversary of the infamous event.

The police found a crumpled comic Valentine’s card next to McGurn’s body. On the front of the card were the figures of a man and a woman in their underwear. The verse inside read:

You’ve lost your job, You’ve lost your dough;

Your jewels and cars and handsome houses;

But things could still be worse you know

At least you haven’t lost your trousers.

Was this card intentionally left there by the assassins? We don’t know, but the view from here (pardon the wisecrack) is that if one were to receive a card on Valentine’s Day bearing this poem, perhaps it would be best not to leave the house.

Postscript #1: Jack McGurn’s wife, the former Louise Rolfe, routinely referenced in the press as his blonde alibi, continued to have her name pop up in the news after he died. In February of 1940, police found a gun used in a burglary in a drawer in her apartment. In 1943, she was arrested on a charge of disorderly conduct after police found her in the company of a 25-year-old Army deserter.

Postscript #2:

Al Capone refused to pose for photographs, but made an exception for his friend Jack Sharkey, the future heavyweight champion. Sharkey is pictured on the right next to Capone in this 1929 photo.

****

The Mob Museum, officially the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement, opened 13 years ago on Feb. 14, 2012 in an old three-story building in downtown Las Vegas that was originally a federal courthouse. So, each Valentine’s Day is a special occasion at the Mob Museum, an anniversary celebrated with special events, free admission for Nevada residents, and steep discounts for tourists. (On other days of the year, a single admission during peak hours is $34.95, but there are always discounts available on-line.)

A permanent display is a reconstructed portion of the wall where the seven victims were murdered.  The garage where the killings happened was demolished in 1967, but before it was torn down a collector rescued many of the bricks, some with blood-stained bullet holes, which the Mob Museum acquired. Other artifacts on display this Friday will be the two Tommy Guns used in the assault, a one-day loan from the Berrian County Sheriff’s Department in Michigan which recovered the weapons from the home of a bank robber.

For the record, there is also a mob museum, called the Gangster Museum of America, in Hot Springs, Arkansas.

A recognized authority on the history of prizefighting and the history of American sports gambling, TSS editor-in-chief Arne K. Lang is the author of five books including “Prizefighting: An American History,” released by McFarland in 2008 and re-released in a paperback edition in 2020.

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