joe louis in later life....

He sold poison milk to school chidlren and urinated on the Alamo while dressed in drag.

 

Well, apparently, yes, he suffered from paranoia.

I don't know if it was all drug-caused though. I heard he was more a heroin user than cocaine, and heroin is far far less likely to cause psychosis or acute paranoia. Maybe he got heavy into coke too.

Let's not forget the guy took a lot of punches to the head .... and had shouldered a lot of pressure and expectations, and had flittered away his money, had lbroken marriages, and been hounded by the tax agents.

Besides, maybe mobsters were following him. I mean, it's not like he'd never had any dealings with them.

 

Louis' father also suffered from mental issues of his own; a lot of speculation around that his behavior might have been a result of drug use and hereditary issues. His dad was committed in 1916 iirc.

 

Yes, Joe Louis did have drug problems and paranoia problems later in life. In my opinion he's lucky guys like Marciano, Sinatra, and Liston and others looked out for him. Even though I rate him as the best heavyweight of all time, he had many personal problems. He was known to beat his wife, the drug problems, the big spending problems, being paranoid, etc.

 

Joe Louis was being treated for a 'mental disorder' in Denver, Colarado at the Veteran's Hospital, sometime in
August 1970.

He was in such bad shape, he could not attend a special 'Celebration event' held for him at The Cobo Hall in Detroit, on August 12, 1970.

 

he was a cocaine user

 

Anybody know just when Joe Louis started to become a drug addict.

He was hanging out alot in Los Angeles in 1962.
Then in Las Vegas in 1963.

 

According to Richard Bak's brilliant biography of Louis he started using heroin in 1958.
He had tried cocaine even before that, but started using it more regularly in the mid-60s.

 

Joe's father, Monroe Barrow, was a hardworking sharecropper born ca 1879 in Alabama. Committed to a mental institution in 1916, he died on November 27, 1938, in Mount Vernon, Chambers, Alabama, aged 59. Considering this, Joe may have done well to survive by a margin of eight years longer.

Monroe Barrow married Lilly Reese in Chambers County, Alabama, on October 27, 1901. She was born in 1885, and died in December 1953, aged 68.

Their son died on April 12, 1981, a month short of turning 67. Going by genetic predisposition, his natural life span could be suggested to have been what might have been expected. Yes, he suffered brain trauma, extreme stress and abused some drugs, but this may have been offset by medical advances not available when his father died, prolonging his time on this earth.

Certainly, cocaine use and the ingestion of other unhealthy substances accelerated the progression of heart disease among the various issues which compromised the quality of his later life.

 

I agree that his mental problems were probably genetic and hereditory.

 

WOW!

I knew Louis has problems with Cocaine, but never thought it was Heroin too!

 

Joe liked the girls, just could not help himself. It corupted him as much as many a good man. The kinds of people who entertained him were generous hosts. He was famous for a very long time, if your tastes in fast women continues and you are surounded by hosts who like to party, its only a mater of time before drugs comes into it also. I imagine Its just a progresion when you are on the road and famous. I think in his book Louis blamed a girlfriend who wore a wigg who was involved in all kinds of bad things. He could not resist women, I dont know how heavy he got into drugs but women was his major problem.

 

Today he would probably have been classed as a sex adict.

Back then they just called him a player.