Sonny Liston's wife found him dead in their Las vegas home on Dec. 30, 1970. She had been visiting her mother and came home early because she couldn't reach Liston. When she found him it was estimated he had been dead for 6 days. The coroner ruled he died of natural heart and respiratory causes. No one believes that including the police who were at the scene. Needle marks were found on his arm and morpheme was found in his system, although not enough to cause death. This could have been heroine before decomposition. People who knew Liston said he had a needle phobia and would never have shot himself up with drugs. He had been in the hospital in previous weeks due to a car accident. This could account for the needle marks and the morpheme. Three main theories exist as to who killed him and why. 1. Liston was a friend of Joe Louis who also lived in Las Vegas. Louis was a heroine addict and paranoid. Liston would get Louis his heroine and bring it to him. The drug dealer knew it was for Louis and provided it for free. The theory goes that Liston was selling part of it and the dealer found out about it and knocked him off. 2. Liston was hard up for money. The Mob owed him for throwing the 1965 Ali fight and had never paid him. Liston had told them he wanted his money or he would go public with it. 3. Liston's last fight was with Chuck Wepner. Liston was supposed to throw the fighht but didn't. It cost the Mob a lot of money.
There are ways for usually drug dealers or hit men of the underworld to administer a Hot Shot that can go undetected. One way this is done is thru the rectum, another way is through an injection between the fingers with very a fine needle. There are also chemicals than can go undetected that can cause Cardiac Arrest, leading to death. All someone has to do is make needle marks on the arm to indicate past drug use. Sonny Liston was terrified of needles which refutes that he was a drug user. Sonny was beginning to talk about both fights with Muhammad Ali in 1964 and 1965, maybe the underworld had to shut him up.
Liston was already in debt with the mafia thats why he threw the first fight with Ali. Eventually liston was again in debt (for obvious reasons of being a degenerate gambler) And thats when he threw the 2nd fight with Ali. Oh yea, the 'Im afraid of needles' is exactly what someone would say that shoots up. Lol!
He was starting to flap his gums about his underworld connections & threatening to come clean about certain events. Probably had something to do with it.
The mystery of Charles sonny Liston will remain just that, forever. All those involved with him and around him are gone now, nothing new will be revealed, I'm quite certain.
If you haven't seen it yet, There is a great documentary on Showtime right now about Sonny Liston that really focuses on the outside the ring side of him. I have no doubt in my mind that there was foul play involved in his death.
His birth is a mystery His life is mysterious His losses to Ali are mysterious His death is a mystery Sonny Liston was and is the most mysterious and speculated about boxer.
It would probably be easier to discover the truth of the JFK assassinations than to find the truth about the enigmatic Liston.
It's called Parriah, the lives and deaths of Sonny Liston. I just checked and it is still on Showtime on demand.
A lot of people believe Andrew Johnson, who was hired as corner second just six weeks prior, was behind the murder. Me? Well, I say you can never trust number two when you're number one. That's what I say.