I've read two biographies on Rocky, neither mentioned the fact that he was courmartialed, imprisoned ,and dishonorably discharged from the Army. The third biography I'm in the process of reading,Mike Stanton's "Unbeaten" delves into this murky bit of Rocky's past. Rocky was in the Combat Engineers stationed in the UK . On 15th June 1944 Rocky's squad were informed they were confined to camp pending going to France, others in the Division had already landed there .Disobeying orders Rocky and another soldier ,a James Murphy sneaked out for a night on the town.In a hotel bar they were joined by two locals who had already made the acquaintance of Rocky's pal. Versions of what caused the subsequent fracas differ .Back at one of the two Brits rooms Murphy asked the local whose rooms they had ended up in for some money,after being refused he became threatening the local host asked them to leave but they refused The local guest went downstairs to get his briefcase on returning upstairs he found Rocky barring the door and warning him not to try and go in.The local whose place it was emerged from the room with his eye blackened and his face bloody he told the two outside that Rocky's pal had punched him several times and stolen his wallet.Rocky and Murphy decided to leave but needed to retrieve their hats and coats from the Brits car. Outside in the street Rocky grabbed the local by the arms and he was punched several times in the face.The two soldiers went through his pockets taking his wallet,a fountain pen,and £22 in Savings Certificates. The GI 's hitched ride back to camp , getting in before bed check. The following afternoon both soldiers were brought before their CO,present was the local Inspector of Police.After initially denying they had even been out of the camp a search of Murphy' s bed revealed the fountain pen and the wallet with the money inside and the men confessed they had been with the locals in the apartment,they claimed the two guys were gay and that they had been sexually propositioned by them,and had taken their wallets to obtain their I D 's so they could report them to the authorities.Rocky claimed one of the men had followed him into the bathroom and grabbed his ***** and that he had pushed him way going back to the room he said he saw the other local doing the same to Murphy. Asked about the assault on the local in the street Rocky said the man had grabbed him first and that he had merely retaliated by punching him and knocking him unconscious. Whatever the rights and wrongs of it, whether as seems likely it was a shakedown of couple of gay guys by two bigger men,[ Murphy was 6ft 185lbs and had a rep in camp as a bully,and Rocky said he weighed 190 lbs in his statement,] we don't know but both soldiers were convicted.Murphy was described in court as a dominating bully and Marciano as ," an unreliable and unsatisfactory soldier ,know to his officers as untrustworthy". Both men were convicted of felonious assault and robbery.Rocky was acquitted of the attack on the apartment owner since he hadn't been in the room when it occurred. Murphy was sentenced to 10 years hard labor,Marciano to 7 years.Marciano as detained at Chillicothe Federal Reformatory Ohio. After his courtmartial Marciano' case was reviewed and his sentence reduced from 7 to 3 years. He received a dishonorable discharge and his classification was changed from private to general prisoner.Rocky was later transferred to Fort Benjamin Harrison Indiana and reinstated from prisoner to private serving out his army time at Fort Lewis, ending it in1946. Marciano finally got an honorable discharge which showed that of his 3 and half years of service he had lost 663 days of active service for which he was not paid.
No, Rocky missed that. The week he was confined to the Ohio Reformatory the Aliies liberated Paris . Apart from two fights in UK pubs , beating up a Brit civilian and a couple of amateur army fights, Rocky didn't see any action.
