How did Liston die?

Tommy gun was right. He allegedly had an overdose but the police got their so late they couldn't say for sure. His body was decomposed beyond the point that they would find a needle mark. I find it hard to believe Liston was a user because this is the kind of thing that would show up on video especially someone engaging in the viguorous activity of boxing where lots of sweat and rubbing of your arms are involved. If Liston was an addict, we should be able to make out needle marks on his arms in some of his previous fights. I don't see any.

Liston had alot of involvement with the mob and I could see them thinking that he through some fights they may have bet on. None of this is conclusive. It is just speculation.

 

Ibes may be correct, and I'd certainly like to back him on it. However, I have also cause to give credence to the theory that what really had happened was just a bizarre gardening accident.

 

john_garfield(user name) could probably shed some light on what actually happened...

 

I've had an alternative theory for a long time which I haven't expressed outwardly until now. Leotis Martin was the killer of two Sonnys, Liston after Banks.

This idea poses Leotis as Gene Fullmer to Liston's Benny Paret, or what Max Baer supposedly was to Ernie Schaaf [a thoroughly debunked myth by autopsy in the case of the influenza infected Schaaf against Carnera].

Martin had already done the fatal damage, but Chuck Wepner was certainly not the man to exploit it. Regardless, it was just a matter of time before a delayed punch induced neurological event dropped Liston, which he had no chance of surviving without wife Gerry or anybody else present to call an ambulance.

After being revived from the knockout by Leotis, Sonny seemed fine during his post fight interview with Cosell, but so too did the just dethroned Springfield Rifle Davey Moore after getting stopped by Sugar Ramos.

Paret was reported to have had personality changes after Gene Fullmer, yet nearly knocked out Emile with a single hook to conclude round six. Only the bell ending the round saved Griff from losing that rubber match. Only Hurricane Carter likewise knocked him silly like that. Emile was still shaking off cobwebs when round seven began. It definitely looked as if Kid would have successfully defended the WW Title via knockout if he'd had any amount of time left in round six. Yet Benny was already dying, and had been for at least three and a half months, when Kid handed Griffith the first knockdown of his career.

Chuck Wepner was no Emile Griffith. Even if Liston was similarly brain damaged as Paret was entering Griffith III, the Bayonne Bleeder was not any kind of puncher to expose a terminal injury like that, not against the kind of fighter Sonny was.
[Liston-Cleveland Williams III in 1970 or 1971 might have been a different story, and George Chuvalo in January 1971 could also have been strong enough and dangerous enough a puncher to do this by wearing down and killing or seriously injuring an aging and brain compromised Sonny.]


Later on, I may supplement this by adding the possibility of long standing lifestyle practices, both "healthy" and "unhealthy," combining with possible genetic predispositions like a cumulative time bomb. Signs of what his autopsy later revealed were apparent in his win over Henry Clark, and he may have already been dying of disease then.

 

I read an article from a supposed "insider" that claimed to know how and why Liston died.

Liston didn't use drugs, but Joe Louis was a heroin addict and a close friend of Liston. They lived in Vegas about a mile apart.

Joe was too paranoid to go out and get the stuff himself so Liston did it for him.

Liston got it from his Mob contacts. They gave to to him because they knew it was for Joe Louis. Liston started selling part of it to try to make a few bucks.
He was found out and the rest of the story is obvious.

I have no idea if this is true or not.

 

The story that I heard in Las Vegas was that Liston was broke and very angry. He threatened to go public about the Ali fights or whatever and the mob forced him at gunpoint to take a hot load of heroin. The mob always liked Listen's wife Gerarldine who was conveniently visiting relatives in Texas at the time of Sonny's demise. When the Las Vegas police asked her why she never phoned her husband for nearly two weeks, she replied "I guess I never thought of it". Does that make sense to you? According to one of those crime drama's, I think it was Unexplained Mysteries, Liston was seen arguing with a mob boss very loudly in a Las Vegas Casino. I think he was threatenng to go public.

 

I understand they found needles in his back. No matter how you fell about needles. It's almost imposible to give yourself a shot in the back. Rather it was murder or an acedentle overdose. Someone other than Liston was involved.

 

Delayed reaction?

 

He had a nonlethal amount of morphine in his blood.

 

The only problem in hindisght I have with the forced drug theory, is imo, it could never happen. Boxers are brave people, to get to that level you must think and feel superhuman. If someone pulled a gun out on him and forced him to take the needle, he was more likely to stab to guy in the neck with the needle or try to take the gun (boxers have quick hands compared to average nobodies, just to duck punches your brain moves alot faster). I don't see anyone making liston take anything but a bullet. And I thought liston regularly carried a gun does anyone know this for certain?

I could see the mafia killing him, especially after an argument. But the manner of death seems inconsistent. It is like the arturo gatti thing. Arturo was seen hitting his wife in a bar, about 6-7 guys or something like that came and confronted him and basically started a fight with him, he whipped ALL of their asses. Arturo is just like 5'7 he is only a welterweight and like a small guy (but entirely muscle). They claimed he fought like superman (they probably did not know who he was when they picked a fight with him).

This is why I have a problem believing the stories of boxers being killed in suspect ways. I certainly want to believe the mafia killed him, but the only way they were going to inject Liston was if he was asleep, very drunk or stoned or something. I guess that is why it is in his back.

 

Liston got very drunk frequently. He also consorted with prostitutes and brought them home when his wife was gone.
It would not have been hard to set Liston up.

 

If he was murdered, the killer(s) removing his shoes trousers and underpants was not cool.

 

Many italian mafia are known to engage in homo***uality, so hey, if he was killed and the killer was a gay mafioso...

 

i don´t know how he died exactly but according to the liston fans he died at age of 80... i would say that he born in the late 1800s he was in his prime in the era of jack johnson but he was in the jail at this time, probably he was friend of john .l too