Man Kills Middleweight King

After averaging 9 fights a year over the past 7 years, World Middleweight Boxing Champion Stanley “The Michigan Assassin” Ketchel was exhausted.  Ketchel took a vacation on the Missouri ranch of his friend Colonel R. P. Dickerson in an attempt to regain his strength and enthusiasm for fighting.  Ketchel never returned from vacation as he was shot and killed at 24-years-old.

The young champion maintained an active schedule particularly for a fighter who fought so ferociously.  Legend says Ketchel used his close relationship with his mother to fuel his anger in fights.  Ketchel imagined his opponent had insulted his mother.  Ketchel would enter the ring and try to knock out his opponent with every blow.

However, this style of fighting can be very exhausting.  By 1910, after several years of tough bouts with the best in boxing from welterweight to heavyweight, the 24-year-old fighter was exhausted.  When his friend Dickerson suggested he spend a few months on his ranch to relax and regain his vigor, Ketchel readily agreed.

On the ranch, Dickerson hired a cook named Goldie Kurtz, whose real name was Goldie Smith, and her husband Walter Kurtz.  Smith was not married to Kurtz, whose real name was Walter Dipley.  According to law enforcement after the murder, Goldie Smith was a bigamist who married twice before.  However, she did not marry Dipley, who she met one month before coming to work for Dickerson.

Dipley and Smith later claimed Ketchel made inappropriate advances to Smith including at least one rape allegation.  However, some sources claim Ketchel struck Dipley for abusing a horse.  At least one source claimed Dipley intended to rob Ketchel.

Whatever the circumstances, Goldie Smith led Ketchel to a kitchen chair with its back to the door, while she prepared his breakfast.  Walter Dipley entered the room through the door with a rifle and ordered Ketchel to throw up his hands.  When Ketchel stood up and refused to put up his hands, Dipley squeezed the trigger and inflicted a fatal wound.

Before leaving the kitchen, Dipley removed a .45 caliber revolver from Ketchel and fled the ranch.  Dickerson put up a $10,000 reward for Dipley’s capture, dead or alive.  Fortunately for Dipley, a local rancher took him into custody before Dickerson’s posse caught up with him.

Dickerson rented a train and took Ketchel to the Springfield Hospital.  It was too late though.  The champ died at 7:00 p.m. about 11 hours after he was shot on October 15, 1910.

Stanley Ketchel was born Stanislaus Kiecal on September 14, 1886 to Polish parents Tomasz Kiecal and Julie Kiecal nee Oblinska.  Dickerson put Ketchel on a train back to Michigan for his internment.

The trial of Walter Dipley and Goldie Smith was conducted in January 1911.  Both Dipley and Smith were sentenced to life in prison.  While Goldie Smith would be released 17 months later, Dipley served 23 years in prison.

In May 1934, Missouri Governor Gus Parks paroled Dipley after 23 years in prison.  R. P. Dickerson was furious when Dipley was released on parole.  Neither he nor State Senator James A. Reed were notified of the parole hearing.  Dickerson and Reed showed up at all the previous parole hearings and successfully kept Dipley in prison.  Walter Dipley stayed out of prison and lived quietly until his death in 1956.

His untimely death only added to the legend of Stanley Ketchel.  Murdered in his prime, the boxing public never saw Ketchel’s skills deteriorate.  Ketchel would remain the ultimate World Middleweight Boxing Champion until “Sugar” Ray Robinson came on the scene in the 1940s.

You can leave a comment or ask a question about this or any post on my Facebook page, Twitter profile and Google+ page.

 Sources: The New York Times, October 17, 1910 edition, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 17, 1910 edition, October 18, 1910 edition, January 22-24, 1911 editions, January 29, 1911 edition, May 24, 1934 edition

Pin It