"Popeye" Walter Woods?

I'm interested in Woods too, mostly why was he out of the ring for 5 years between 1939 and 1944 ?
Jail time would explain that but I haven't found anything on that, unfortunately.

 

This is my great grandpa. I will ask his daughter later today and post back up.

 

Here is the conversation with my grandma today. Just doing a quickly typed note here so bare with me -


He was boxing and doing very well. Making his way up the ranks. Lots of betting was going on but he was just proud of himself / wanted to make a name. Gamblers started pressuring him to throw the fights here but he wouldn’t budge.


When he was coming up on a big fight, the mob threatened to hurt his mother who he adored. She was living on the lower east side and he knew that they could get to her, so he finally caved (sort of). It’s our understanding that this fight did not happen and he walked away from his career, for some time at least.

Maybe unrelated but jail time story is:

He did one year in Sing Sing. He spoke about it frequently and was always willing to help anyone who was having issues after coming out of jail / prison. (Giving job etc). Supposedly he was charged with something that happened as a teenager. She doesn’t have the details on this. Also not sure if this was before his boxing career started or after the mob incident.

We do know after he got out we think he was working down at the docks for a little bit. We also know that he decided to travel to Australia to fight (without the influence of the mob). That might better explain the 5 year gap; but I expect those fights in Australia may still be on his professional record?

That’s what I got today. If you see this and have anymore questions just reply.

 

"The Uncrowned Champ," W.C. Heinz's tribute to welterweight Billy Graham, provides this insight into Walter Woods. This excerpt starts out in Heinz's voice before he moves to quoting Graham:

"He [Billy Graham] weighed sixty-five pounds then, when he started to box for the club, and in more than 80 fights, of which he won all but two or three, he learned the rudiments. His hero was Walter "Popeye" Woods, who was out of the neighborhood [on the East Side of Manhattan] and who, they used to say in boxing, could have been the middleweight champion of the world if he had just worked harder at it and lived right.

"'I'd see him hanging around the corner or at the Boys' Club,' Billy said. 'I'd say, "What round are you gonna knock him out in?" When he fought at one of the clubs in town I'd save up. A seat was seventy-five cents upstairs, and to get there I'd sneak on the subway or hitch on a bus or a taxi or any car that stopped for the light.

"'He used to bust guys up with his jab. Once he told me something I never forgot. He said, "You can watch a bum, and he may do one thing you can use." I never forgot that.'"

Later in the same article Heinz writes about another conversation he had with Graham:

"'Billy Graham, the fighter,' I said [this is Heinz speaking to Graham].' 'Growing up, that's what you wanted to be known as. You wanted to be like Popeye Woods. I remember you telling me that after you'd beaten some other little kid at some club tournament you put tape over your eye before you went to school the next day. You weren't cut, but you wanted to look like a fighter.'

"'That's right,' he said...

"'Whatever became of Popeye Woods?'

"'I never called him that,' he said. 'I called him Walter. He's around Queens, a steam-fitter [this article was written in the 1970s]. I was fighting Sammy Mastrean, and Walter was up in the gym, at Stillman's, and he said,"Billy, look at what you're doin' in there." I said, "What?" He said, "When you knock that jab aside with your left, you're moving the guy over here. You'd have to square around to hit him with your right. Look. Take a jab, slip the next one, and he's movin' into your right hand. Practice it." So I practice it and tried it in the gym and practiced it some more, and I said to myself, "Aw, I can't do it. Forget it."

"'So I fought this Sammy Mastrean, and at the end of the sixth round I'm ahead, but it's getting tough. At the start of the seventh round, Whitey [Bimstein, Graham's trainer] is sayin', "Do this, do that, you Irish this." I said, "Listen you. I know what I'm doin'." 'I'm not even listening to him. I said, "Just wash out the mouthpiece, and put it back in."

"'The next round he comes out storming, and I figure I've got to do something here. He hit me a jab -- bang -- on the forehead. When he started the next one, I slipped it and threw the right and down he went. When he got up he was wobbling, and the referee is wiping his gloves under his arms, and he's dragging the referee around with him. When he motioned me to come back I figured I got to do it now, and I laid it on him -- boom, boom, boom -- and down he went and out.'"

 

Great stuff there, thanks for this!

 

No problem!

 

He was in jail for child molestation. It was a favorite pastime of his.

 

Sources for both sentences, please.

 

If there was a spinach heist around that time, he’d be the No. 1 suspect.

 

That must be it, he favored baby spinach! Pretty serious business.

 

Well we now he liked ‘em:

Young (fought Young Brown Bomber)

Late (fought Midnight Bell)

Pious (Deacon Logan, Al Priest)

And feline (Tiger Roy Williams, Amos Tiger, Tiger Lou Jones)

 

I knew somebody would know enough about Mr. Woods to provide some documentation!

 

Not to be off subject.. But when I heard Popeye's Chicken all I could think about was the Spicy Sandwich.