California, Prison and Correctional Records

An interesting source of information is the California, Prison and Correctional Records, 1851-1950 database on the paid genealogical website, Ancestry.com. In the records, I found some very good information about former and future fighters who were incarcerated in California state prisons or reformatories. Moreover, the records include mug shots of a number of the fighters. On the database, I found records of the following under their real names:

1. Neil/Neal Clisby (real name: Cornelius N. Clisby)- a black heavyweight from Riverside, California who was active during the 1920s and 1930s. He was incarcerated as a minor in the reformatory located in Whittier, California. The record didn't include mug shots.

2. Kid Reese (real name: Clarence Reese)- a black middleweight based in Modesto, California who was active during the 1920s and 1930s. He was convicted of second degree murder during 1933.

3. Red Watson (real name- James Corbett Watson), a fighter based in San Diego who was active as early as 1909 and as late as 1923 during a very interesting career. About 1910, he sent to the reformatory in Whittier for eighteen months. During 1919, he was sent to San Quentin State Prison after being convicted of burglary. In his mug shots, he certainly looks far older than a man who was only about 25 years old.

4. Kid McCoy (real name- Norman Selby), a fighter who doesn't need any introduction on this forum. He looks absolutely terrible in his mug shots.

5. Hank Hankinson (real name- Ellsworth Hankinson), a fairly well-known heavyweight who was active from 1928 to 1938.

6. Kid Kopecks (real name- Chris Kruse), a fighter from Fresno who was active from 1920 to 1929. He had two stints in state prison during the 1930s with the last one being for manslaughter. By the way, he is listed in prison records as being a native of California, but it appears that he was of German descent and was born in the Volga area of Russia about 1908.

7. Charley Turner (real name- Charles Turner), a black middleweight from Stockton, California who was active from 1889 to 1904. He was sent to prison after being convicted of larceny during 1890s. There weren't any mug shots of Turner included. It appears Rufe Turner (real name- Rutherford Rodgers/Rogers), a well-known black lightweight from Stockton, was his half-brother.

- Chuck Johnston

More to Come

 

Other former and future fighters who were found on the California, Prison and
Correctional Records, 1851-1950 database include:

1. K.O. Kruvosky (real name- Edward Kruvosky) and Spud Murphy (Edmund Murphy) were fairly well-known 4-Round fighters from San Francisco. Kruvosky and Murphy were reputed members of the Howard Street Gang which was implicated in a case in which two young girls were lured to a house in San Francisco, where they were "brutally assaulted" on December 2, 1920. Three members of the gang left the city and went to Santa Rosa, where two San Francisco detectives and a Sonoma County Sheriff were killed trying to apprehend the three members. After being caught and put in a jail in Santa Rosa, the three members were dragged out and lynched in a local cemetery by a mob.

Both Kruvosky and Murphy were arrested and tried for the attack on the two girls. After being convicted, both were sentenced from 0-to-50 years in state prison. According to their prison records, they were convicted of a **** charge. It appears that both were incarcerated for more than ten years before being released.

Since Kruvosky and Murphy were fairly well-known fighters in California, the boxing game came under attack from the public and authorities in the state because of the Howard Street Gang Case being in the news. As a result, the boxing was shut down in much of the state for at least several months. After boxing shows resumed, San Francisco had a list of fighters who were banned from boxing in the city for at least three years because they were regarded as professionals. But they generally were allowed to box in other California locales, notably in Vernon and Oakland.

- Chuck Johnston

 

I couldn't find any prison records of Jack Chase.

- Chuck Johnston

 

Take a look at the records of Neil Clisby, Kid Reese and Red Watson on the BoxRec website. Yes, they were club fighters or journeymen, but their boxing careers were interesting.

- Chuck Johnston