WTF was Sonny Liston born?

1. They had far more than 12 kids. In addition to the children, they had together they also had children with other spouses.

2. The reason those children aren't listed in the later censuses is because they'd grown up and moved out. This is the 1920 census where more children are listed

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Even all three censuses don't list all their children. Liston's mom, didn't think Tobe would accept one of her children (not his) Ezra (EB Ward), and sent him to live with her mom (Liston's maternal grandmother) Martha.

EB ward was actually the stepfather of blues legend "King Of The Blues" B.B King.
I'm absolutely puzzled as to why you would make lambast others for not having "common sense" with your utter lack of knowledge on the subject.

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They had 12 kids together.

Those 12 they had together would know who was first, second, third, fourth, etc.

 

Not sure where you're going with this Jack Dempsey reference.

Did you ever find that second Charles Liston by the way?

 

Where I'm going regarding Jack Dempsey is people quoting other heavyweight champions asking how old they thought Liston was ... when all they had to do was ask one of his DOZEN freaking siblings ... is dumb.

Like I said, sports writers weren't exactly investigative journalists back then.

Ask someone (Dempsey) who had no idea how old Liston was instead of the people who would know, since they grew up with him (his dozen brothers and sisters).

That's all. Quoting census records when they couldn't even get the parents' ages correct from one census to another isn't the way to go.

I grew up with a guy who was one of 14 kids in his family. If one of them claimed to be 10 years younger than they were, that would reshuffle the birth order quite bit.

It's not like Liston was an only child.

 

No offense but I'll take census records, police records, and doctor's estimates over a family with 24-25 children who've made many inconsistent statements on the matter.

Actually one of their brothers (IF the story is true) said that Sonny wasn't actually Charles, but one of the older brothers. The real Charles supposedly visited Sonny one time at one of his camp's for one of the Patterson bouts and was subsequently rebuked. I'll have to find it.

Anyways, are any of the siblings still around? Maybe you can ask them about the second Charles in the family that you made up, um I mean brought up.

 

Adding to Dempsey’s claim that Liston was in gyms in the 40s Tony Galento used him as a sparring partner and was sure Liston was an older guy then written on the tin.

 

Are you guys talking about the same "Paul?" or is one of you talking about Jake Paul and the other about Paul Gallendar who wrote that screwy biography about Liston?

 

You’re right on it DC… pretty much everyone is basing it on appearances and very little in the way of reliable sources on claiming he’s some ancient spirit of Babylon, Liston was an alcoholic and probable drug user with a crappy child hood and overall life… he’s gonna look old, I’ve known people who abuse themselves and they look a decade older then they are.

 

Jake I assume, I have to read PG’s bio it’s legendary territory for being awful, little bit homo erotic in tone and even features speaking to the ghost of SL I’m told lol.

 

The 49 year old Foreman who fought Briggs would have smashed up Paul, as would have the 52 (53?) year old Larry Holmes who fought Butterbean. Hell, the Tyson who fought RJJ probably would have. Guess aging is a ***** in your 50s (although if I go off my father, it's all good until 70 or so).

 

**** I thought he was talking about Gallender when he mentioned the exhumation part. Given Paul’s obsession with Liston, I can absolutely see him exhuming Liston’s corpse. Didn’t even read the rest where he mentioned fighting.

 

I find this very convincing. Two official sources entrely consistent from the best independent evidence now available. What more can you ask in the absence of a birth ceritificate, a family bible or a family member's direct testimony? These censuses taken together make any other of the opinions raised in this thread just so much noise. By the way, Swag, how many threads does this make about Liston's age on this forum?

 

lol at least a good 15.

 

The right answer wouldn't be before 1930, 1930-1932 is the answer.

 

@Dubblechin Any luck finding that second Charles Liston?