Billy Fox - Jake La Motta fight

Had Joey testified before the Senate that there had been no fix, then Jake would be tried for perjury. But if Joey kept silence, he could not be tried for it in any case, because nobody is obliged to testify against close relatives.

 

Here's exact quote, from Sports Illustrated, July 11, 1960, based on interview the reporter took during summer 1956, but couldn't publish until after LaMotta testified before the Senate.


"The first thing funny happened when I fought this Larry Kellum, who I had already beat under his own name. This time he called himself Andy Holland. I didn't like it, but I kept my mouth shut.
"Now, I'll tell you, looking backward, the fights I think where they might have laid down for me. First, there was the second Ossie Harris fight. I threw some punches in there, but I wasn't in the best condition. I remember I was behind on points. Blinky was in my corner. In the 10th he said, 'Throw a lot of punches. Throw a lot of punches.' It was then I thought it might be a fix. It's funny, I think I remember, I think I remember Blinky in the other guy's corner, in Harris' corner, before the 10th round started. I threw a lot, but I didn't think I had any power in my punches. I was surprised when he went down. 'Blinky,' I said afterwards, 'did you fix that fight?' 'No,' he said, 'don't pay those guys no mind who tells you things like that.' I believed him then. I mean I was slightly doubtful, if you know what I mean, but I believed him.
"Then there was Nate Bolden. Him I knocked out in two. That's another one I feel funny about. Now you knew, I can't be sure. It's just the way I feel. Sometimes you can tell. Bolden, I was a little suspicious of him. He was too elusive, dodging, ducking all the time, to get caught like I caught him. But I can't be sure. Then there was Joe Reddick. He was tough in the gym, but I don't know. I don't think he was as serious as I was. He might have been dissipated. And, of course, that Larry Kellum. He couldn't beat me anyhow anyway. He was just fighting for money. He drank whisky all the time.
"Now about those 49 knockouts I was supposed to have had before the La Motta fight. Blinky made up six of them. Asked him why he did it. Blinky, he told me he was doing it for publicity. Said it would look better that way. He told me, 'You do the fighting, I'll do the managing.' That was his line, and I accepted it. Now, here are the fights I don't think I ever had. There was Jimmy Davenport. I don't remember him. Billy Smith , he's in there twice. I don't remember him, either. Who's this Kid Wolf? Johnny Furia, Wesley Hayes, I never heard of those guys.
"It was in 1946 when I first asked Blinky to get La Motta for me. I told him, I said, I got to beat some well-named guys. I got to get better recognition.' I didn't admit to myself that I was going too fast. The picture which I showed my daddy of the million-dollar gate was dancing in my mind.
"Before I went to camp Blinky tells me he's going to give the referee $1,000. He said he was going to beat La Motta to the punch and get the referee first. I said, 'Blinky, either get yourself a neutral referee or one you don't have to pay.' He said that was the way he was going to do it and that the $1,000 would come out of my share. I'm thinking how maybe he put the $1,000 in his pocket, that's what I'm thinking, because it looked like the referee was giving us equal breaks during the fight.
"Now, that La Motta was strong, but he was a little slow. I mean, if I had rassled him I couldn't have beat him. I had to keep him moving. To me it looked as though he was trying to knock me out. I couldn't budge the guy. Throwing fast jabs into his eyes and nose five at a time. Then he started protecting his face, and I started giving him shots to the body hard as I could. Felt the bone in there on one shot. Think I might have broken his rib. I knew it hurt by the expression on his face. It could be he wasn't trying. I don't know. I kept throwing all the time, though. I couldn't afford to get punched. My punching's my defense. I thought he was out to get me. I remember one time, though, that was kind of funny. He kind of caught me off balance, started to throw a punch, then he held back. Oh, there were boos from ringside. Somebody said 'boo,' just like that. I didn't know what La Motta was trying to do."
The cops on the corners
"Oh, they booed after the fight. On my way to Philly I stopped off at the corner and bought the papers. 'Fix, Fix,' said the headlines. I showed them to Jimmy Reed. Jimmy didn't say anything but 'Yeah, I see that.' He was a little disappointed but not as disappointed as I was. I was really brokenhearted. I asked Blinky. Blinky said no. He swore on his wife and children. He said, 'No, he didn't take no dive.' But I'd keep hearing guys talking about it in boarding houses where I lived and bowling alleys and places where I worked. If you keep hearing something over and over again, it must be right. Got where I used to go up to cops on corners on the street. I didn't tell them my name. I'd say, 'Say, officer, I want to ask you a question. Do you remember the La Motta-Fox fight?' They'd say yeah, they remember it. I'd say, 'Did La Motta take a dive?' The cops'd say, 'Yeah, La Motta took a dive in that fight.' And then I believed it.
"I still feel hurt. It affected my whole life. Made me feel despondent, downhearted, disgusted. I had such good intentions. I have a conscience, and it works on my mind. Why did he have to do it to me? Why couldn't he have done it to a guy who didn't give a damn?
"I used to brush my teeth twice a day, not only in the morning but in the night, too. Was a time there, I think it was three weeks, I didn't brush my teeth at all. Just didn't feel like doing anything, the way I felt. Didn't start back smoking until I read in the papers my fights were fixed. I mean, what's the use of my going through all that sacrifice when guys take advantage of you? So I started smoking. Might as well get some enjoyment out of life. You know how serious I'd been. First thing in the morning I'd get up, shadow-box. I'd shadow-box last thing at night. I wasn't no jitterbug ever. I was always very serious.
"I couldn't pull myself together after the La Motta fight. Thought I'd just wasted my time. For the second Gus [Lesnevich] fight I couldn't train right. Everything I did was halfhearted. I felt lonely and disgusted. I was stopped in the first round and that was it."

 

Joey could testify about what he knew - that he was involved in working out a fix, or that he wasn't involved in such a thing. A bribe has a statute of limitation, there could be no prosecution from him admitting to taking a bribe or assisting in such thing in some way. Only more significant crimes don't have statute of limitation, a bribe is not one of them.