Man Kills Middleweight King

After averaging 9 fights a year over the past 7 ani, 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 nu sa mai întors din vacanță așa cum a fost împușcat și ucis la 24 de ani-vechi.

Tânărul campion mentinut un program activ în special pentru un luptător care a luptat atât de feroce. Legenda spune ca Ketchel folosit relația sa strânsă cu mama sa pentru a alimenta furia lui în lupte. Ketchel imaginat adversarul său a insultat mama lui. Ketchel ar intra în ring și să încerce să bat adversarul cu fiecare lovitură.

Totuși, acest stil de luptă poate fi foarte obositor. De 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. Totuși, 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. Totuși, some sources claim Ketchel struck Dipley for abusing a horse. cel puțin o sursă a pretins Dipley intenționat să jefuiască Ketchel.

Oricare ar fi circumstanțele, Goldie Smith a condus Ketchel la un scaun de bucătărie cu spatele la ușă, în timp ce ea a pregatit micul dejun. Walter Dipley a intrat în cameră pe ușă cu o pușcă și a ordonat Ketchel să arunce în sus mâinile. Atunci când Ketchel sa ridicat în picioare și a refuzat să pună mâinile, Dipley squeezed the trigger and inflicted a fatal wound.

Înainte de a părăsi bucătărie, Dipley a îndepărtat un .45 calibru revolver de la Ketchel și a fugit de la ferma. Dickerson a pus o $10,000 recompensa pentru capturarea lui Dipley, mort sau viu. Din fericire pentru Dipley, un fermier local, l-au luat în custodie înainte de poteră Dickerson a prins cu el.

Dickerson a închiriat un tren și a luat Ketchel la Spitalul Springfield. It was too late though. Campionul a murit la 7:00 p.m. about 11 ore după ce a fost împușcat octombrie 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.

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Sources: The New York Times, Octombrie 17, 1910 edition, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Octombrie 17, 1910 edition, Octombrie 18, 1910 edition, Ianuarie 22-24, 1911 editions, Ianuarie 29, 1911 edition, Mai 24, 1934 edition

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