WTF was Sonny Liston born?

I don't think Liston was more than 4 or so years older than his official birth date. Definitely don't think he was well into his 40s in 1965. He would have been born in 1925 to be 40 in 1965 and 1916 to be 49 in 1965.

 

I'll just drop in one additional quote. This is Father Alois Stevens, the prison chaplain who was Liston's original mentor, speaking shortly after his death.

We had a little difficulty proving his age, but we knew he was very young. The stories that tell how much older than 38 he was simply aren't true, or they would never have let him in the Golden Gloves. We were concerned he might be under 21 when he signed his contract.

 

Given Liston was stopping Wepner in 1970 right before he died that kinda is a big difference. It is very unlikely he was born before 1930.

 

Back, back in to the mists of time...

 

Same year my grandparents were born; in the year of “who-tf-knows-cuz-documentation-was-ass”

 

Liston being born in ‘25 is not at all out there. The 1950 census indicates an earlier birth year, as do estimations of doctors who’ve treated him.

 

Woah woah, what? Iv never heard of this… got a link? This could be some awesome evidence.

 

Well, I wouldn't go as far as to say evidence but interesting nonetheless.

 

I don't think it was four years. A year. Two at the most. There were other siblings all around him. 12 of them.

Birth records weren't always readily available out in the country back then. People often had babies at home. But if parents have 12 kids, there aren't a lot of years separating each of those kids.

People weren't that dumb back then that they had ZERO idea how old they were, birth records or not. Especially when they had two parents and a ton of siblings.

People knew where each kid fell in the pecking order.

 

No. The census would say "a" Charles Liston aged 27 lived in that home in 1950. And it would say "a" Charles Liston aged 10 lived there in 1940. That doesn't mean they are the same person.

George Foreman has 12 kids. Five of his sons are named George Edward Foreman. Each was born years apart. All lived with him at one time or another.

A census in 1980 might say "a" George Edward Foreman lived at the house who was 10 years old. And 10 years later, a census might say "a" George Edward Foreman lived at the house who was two years old. Doesn't mean it's the same guy.

Sonny Liston's parents had a dozen kids together. I'm sure two of them easily could've been named Charles Liston.

Common sense goes a long way.

 

The 1930 census:

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The 1940 census.

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Very odd how this mysterious second Charles siblings doesn't appear in either census.

Equally mystifying is there are no birth certificates nor death records associated with a Charles Liston born in 1922/1923 to either Helen Baskin and/or Tobe Liston.

It's almost like there was no second Charles from the Liston bunch.

Common sense goes a long way.

 

Paul is a ****ing weirdo. Did some genealogy work for him..... never again.

 

It's also very odd that they had 12 kids with each other and you don't list 12 kids. Just six of theirs.

And the dad is 30 years older than the mom in one list and 22 years older than her in the other.

All someone at the time had to do was interview some of the siblings and ask what order they all fell in and how old each was.

If he was actually 20 when he was listed as 10, he's the oldest of their kids. Not the second youngest.

I think his 12 siblings would've known if he was the oldest of them or not. But why ask them when you can ask Jack Dempsey?