Combat Sports Historian and Martial Artist
On Thursday, January 23, 1902, St. Louis awakened to the news millionaire A. Deane Cooper was found murdered in the Vista Bathhouse at Franklin Avenue and North Grand Boulevard. Cooper, one of St. Louis’ wealthiest men, owned residential real estate and other assets valued at 2 million dollars. Cooper aspired to be the biggest property owner in St. Louis. He
On July 2, 1921 in Jersey City, New Jersey, reigning World Heavyweight Boxing Champion Jack Dempsey met light heavyweight boxing king Georges Carpentier. Boxing fans flocked to event resulting in the first million dollar gate in boxing history. The match would prove the old boxing adage, “A good big man always beats a good little man.” Even though Georges Carpentier
On March 19, 1942, RKO Radio Pictures released the second film starring the Old Time Radio comedy team Lum and Abner. The Bashful Bachelor (1942) starred Chester Lauck as Lum Edwards and Norris Goff as Abner Peabody, the owners of the Jot’Em Down Store in Arkansas. In this film (affiliate link), longtime bachelor Lum Edwards wants to become a hero
On Tuesday, January 19, 1909, Dr. Benjamin Roller, a Seattle physician and pro wrestler who was good enough to win the American Heavyweight Championship, inexplicably decided to try his hand at professional boxing. His opponent was friend and sparring partner, “Denver” Ed Martin, who would win the Colored World Heavyweight Boxing Championship. Dr. Benjamin Franklin Roller was a unique athlete
John Berg was a good enough wrestler to beat Martin “Farmer” Burns twice but was mostly thought of as a good lighter wrestler. Berg held the World Light Heavyweight Wrestling Championship in the late 1910s and competed for the Middleweight Title, which was contested at 158 pounds. Berg missed weight by four pounds but won the match. Berg wrestled in
On January 26, 1934, United Artists released Palooka (1934), a feature film based on the popular comic strip. Stuart Erwin plays Joe Palooka but Jimmy Durante steals the show as his manager Knobby Walsh. Joe Palooka is the son of former world boxing champion Pete Palooka. When Joe was a baby, his mother Mayme, played by Marjorie Rambeau, takes him
Tom Allen was born in Birmingham, England but fought some of his most famous fights in America. In 1867, Allen moved to St. Louis, the largest city west of the Mississippi. Allen never left and would use St. Louis as his home base to train for prizefights. Allen fought mostly in bare knuckle prizefights as American boxing would not be
Eduard Mosblech is my maternal great-grandfather. Eduard was born in St. Louis, Missouri on October 24, 1884, to German immigrants Gustave Mosblech and Bertha Mosblech nee Monse. Often written as Edward but pronounced like putting together aid and ward, Eduard was as unique as his name. I struggled with writing much about him because the stories I heard about him
When it comes to machine politics and organized crime, Kansas City has always outshone St. Louis. Kansas City’s Pendergast political machine helped land Harry S. Truman in the White House. Kansas City was also home to several high-profile gangland shootings. St. Louis’ last organized crime leader was arrested for playing cards. We did have a Democratic party political machine around
21-year old Charles Merrell had already served a term in the Missouri Penitentiary for stealing a car in Scotland County, when he got the idea to hold up the Morris Packing Company on Saturday, April 22, 1922. Merrell could not pull the job by himself, so he recruited another ex-convict, 33-year-old Hugh Pinkley. Merrell was employed as a mechanic at