The Murder of Sonny Liston

July 11, 2016
Writing with the flair of a mystery writer and the attention to detail of an investigative journalist, longtime ESPN staffer Assael (Steroid Nation) dissects the suspicious death of former heavyweight boxing champion Sonny Liston, whose body was found in his home on Jan. 5, 1971, having been dead for several days. Liston, who according to the coroner’s report died from natural causes, was no stranger to criminal activity in gritty and volatile Las Vegas in the 1960s, and many theories emerged over the years that he was murdered. The engrossing depiction of Sin City’s corrupt cops, malevolent mobsters, and drug dens follows in the footsteps of Nick Tosches’s The Devil and Sonny Liston and features fresh interviews with investigators, politicians, and criminals who ran the city at the time, including a key suspect who reveals his own theory about Liston’s death. Assael reports diligently on Liston’s life and inner demons as well as the Las Vegas scene and uses his investigation to frame the narrative, writing in the first person without overtly inserting himself. Though the inconclusive ending may disappoint readers, Assael’s journey into the seedy underworld of the Las Vegas’s past is worth the ride.

ESPN investigative reporter Assael (Steroid Nation, 2007, etc.) builds a strong case that the boxer was murdered, but why and by whom remains a mystery.As the author makes clear, there were plenty of people in Las Vegas who might have wanted Sonny Liston (1932-1970) dead. He was dealing drugs with a recklessness that would have made him a prime target to turn informant, and he had long insisted that he would have a big payday coming from any purse Muhammad Ali won, renewing suspicions about his own losses to Ali. But who marked him for death? Was it the drug-dealing beautician who had been busted along with Liston only to see Liston set free? Was it the celebrated trumpeter who dealt heroin and used Liston as a collector until he worried about surveillance? Was it the casino mogul whom the FBI considered "the fix point" of the two losses to Ali? Was it the Nation of Islam? Much of the account of Liston's decline into a former champ "strung out on junk and pouring drugs into the bloodstream of a sick neighborhood" is old news, as are the accounts of his life and his fights (and those of others) that fill much of this book. But the last third raises some provocative questions and possibilities, based on the charges of an informant about a cop gone rogue who might be the key to it all. The informant later died under mysterious circumstances, as did Liston, and the author concludes, "finding the killer of [the informant] will unravel the real story of what happened to Sonny Liston." In the meantime, we have the coroner's conclusion that the 38-year-old boxer "died of natural causes," thus precluding further investigation at the time. We also have the earlier published report that his death "may have been caused by an overdose of heroin," which in these pages doesn't seem like an accident. Assael offers a good starting point for another book to build on his revelations. COPYRIGHT(1) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

July 1, 2016

It is hardly news that heavyweight champion Sonny Liston (d. 1970) was also a career criminal, serving prison time in his youth and never completely divesting himself of mob connections. Neither is it news that upon his death many conjectured that Liston was murdered. Sportswriter Assael (ESPN The Magazine) raises few new questions as to Liston's character and demise. He does, however, shine a glaring light on Las Vegas, the ex-champ's adopted home. In the 1970s, Las Vegas was a city of studied glitz that had a dark underbelly, including its police and political leaders. It was in this climate that Liston thrived once his wrestling glory days were over, both dealing and using drugs and providing muscle for gamblers. The author doesn't give readers Liston's alleged killer but suggests several persons who might have been involved, including a rogue cop, a low-level snitch, a big-time gambler, a musician, and a beautician. VERDICT While Assael doesn't solve a murder if there was one, he offers a vivid look at America's adults-only playground in the later 20th century, creating an engaging read for fans of boxing history.--Jim Burns, formerly with Jacksonville P.L., FL

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2016
Assael, an ESPN reporter, isn't the first to raise the specter of foul play in the mysterious 1970 death of former heavyweight boxing champion Sonny Liston; nor is he the first to explore the seamy, Mob-driven underside of Las Vegas in which Liston circulated. Nick Tosches did both of those things in his celebrated The Devil and Sonny Liston (2000), but Assael is the first to assert unambiguously that Liston was murdered. He shows us Liston (when he was still ostensibly a boxer) accompanying the son of heroin dealer Robert Chudnick (better known as jazz trumpeter Red Rodney ) on a collection call. He discourses authoritatively on Vegas politics (perhaps a factor in Liston's death), on local crime and cops (another possibility), and, especially, on the fight game. But almost 40 years have passed since Liston's death, and despite Assael's confidence in his conclusions, the book itself fails to make the case for murder, though the drug connection seems unassailable. Still, there is much here that will appeal to anyone interested in the intersection of crime and boxing.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)