Frank 'Blinky' Palermo is a name infamous in boxing for his criminal connections and fixed fights. But he also organized a lot of high-level fights. Would it ever be possible for Palermo to get inducted into the hall of fame? What do you think?
I have never read a detailed account of his life and criminal career. I believe he ran the numbers racket in Philly. He worked behind the scenes in concert with Frank Carbo in managing fighters including Ike Williams, Johnny Bratton and Sonny Liston. He was a partner with Sam Margolis in the Sansom Delicatessen near the University of Pennsylvania campus. Liston used to eat at the restaurant often.That's most of what I've read. Blinky outlived Carbo by decades and died in his early 90s. Geraldine Liston spoke highly of him.
He was a huge figure and contributed a lot to boxing as trainer, manager, promoter, matchmaker, etc... He was great at developing fighters and invested a lot of money in fighters other managers and the press had written off and helped a lot of fighters reach great success that they wouldn’t have without his involvement. However, like any person he wasn’t perfect and had a very short fuse like a lot of guys do in the boxing industry and his short fuse was the main reason he was often in legal trouble.
It's not like anyone is clamoring for him to get in the HOF and all this would do would be to highlight his criminal past. All risk with no reward.
I also don’t know enough about him - whether he deserves entry or not based solely on contributions to boxing. However, IF he was precluded only due to a criminal and shady past - well, wouldn’t that open up a Pandora’s Box re many pre-existing admissions and they’re not being deserved also? Boxing often operates on very shady mechanisms and includes/invites many participants willing to move with less than righteous actions and activities. If we preclude all those in question, the only fighters in the HOF would be guys who were also eligible for being canonised and decreed to be Saints. Also, it takes a couple of miracles to be duly recognised- Ali had Liston, Foreman and perhaps the Spinks rematch. Not bad. More than enough miracles, but I don’t know that Muhammad could be recognised as a Saint otherwise.
When Palermo quit fighting he trained amateurs for years in Ohio and Philly before becoming a full-time manager in the early to mid 30's.
