I wrote this article on Jack Kearns and his colorful life and career. I think historical articles should be shared for debate, illumination, interpretation, etc. Visit Hannibal Boxing for the entire piece. ******* It could only be considered fitting that Jack “Doc” Kearns pulled his last scam from beyond the grave. In 1963, Kearns, the amoral flimflam man in floral shirts and ties, was already dead when an excerpt from his forthcoming autobiography, The Million Dollar Gate, ran in Sports Illustrated. In it, Kearns gleefully recounted how he had prepared a plaster of Paris mix for Jack Dempsey to use against Jess Willard. The myth of loaded gloves had shadowed Dempsey ever since he had left Willard resembling the by-product of a meat grinder in Toledo, and here was Kearns, more than forty years later, confessing to that sinister feat in one of the most popular magazines in America. It was one of the few shams that failed Kearns in toto: Dempsey successfully sued Sports Illustrated for defamation and the plaster of Paris bit never made it into the book. But his last gambit—an attempt to sell copies of The Million Dollar Gate via slander—underscored just how low Kearns was willing to go for a paying lark.
Shame, I'm pulling around 100k views an article and can't get a writing job. Ain't that a *****. https://imgur.com/gallery/JQ2s6pA
