by Eric Armit
In the 1940s, a group of brilliant black fighters, led by the fabled Charley Burley, were avoided by the boxing elite. This is their story.
IT IS understandable that the term “Murderers’ Row” might conjure up a vision of a prison landing, running around a series of cells housing condemned murderers or other extremely violent prisoners. Indeed, the term originated as a description of the second floor of the long since demolished “Tombs” prison in New York. However, the phrase has also been used in a sports context, initially in baseball and then in boxing.
Back in the late 1920s, the term Murderers’ Row was used to described the batting line up of the New York Yankees widely considered to be the greatest ever Major League Baseball team. It featured Hall of Fame names such as Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Herb Pennock, Earle Combs, Waite Hoyt and Tony Lazzeri and the Yankees batting order was labelled Murderer’s Row for the way it destroyed other team’s pitchers.
It was originally applied to boxing by the author Budd Schulberg to described a group of black fighters in the 1940s who were feared and respected but also dodged by the champions of their era. They were never awarded a title shot.
The initial members listed by Schulberg in the 1940s Murderers’ Row were Eddie Booker, Charley Burley, Jack Chase, Bert Lytell and Lloyd Marshall, but over the years Cocoa Kid and Holman Williams came to be accepted as part of the membership of this much-feared club. Burley, Cocoa Kid, Williams and Booker were viewed as those most deserving of a title shot but Chase, Marshall and Lytell all had legitimate claims.
Sportswriter Jim Murray described it as “the most exclusive men’s club the ring has ever known. They were so good and so feared that they had to have their own tournament”.
If a fighter never won a world title, or never even challenged for one, you would think it was highly unlikely he would find himself in the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF). Indeed, from the list above, only Booker, Burley and Williams have been inducted. Belated recognition for boxers who were robbed of the opportunity to reap the rewards their talent deserved. Even when the champion was black, they were still shut out by white promoters, managers or other power brokers on the basis that white vs white sold more tickets, that in some States mixed race bouts were banned and, of course, fear their fighter would lose.
There were differences and similarities between the members of the exclusive club. Jack Chase was the eldest being born in January 1914 with five others born between 1914 and 1917 and Bert Lytell was the ‘baby’ of the group born in 1924. They all had over 80 fights with Eddie Booker having ‘only’ 81 fights and Cocoa Kid having 250 fights. Between the seven of them, they had a total of 939 fights and incredibly only 25 inside the distance losses were suffered by them in those 939 fights.
Those statistics highlight the commercial fact that in their era you had to fight often to make any kind of living as a boxer. To do that you had to take whatever fight you were offered no matter who, where or when, and you had to have the skill and resilience to avoid any stoppage or injury that might make you unavailable. Today, if a boxer had six or 10 fights a year, it would count as a busy year. Jack Chase had 24 fights in 1936, his first year as a pro, and Cocoa Kid in years 1932 and 1933 combined had 42 fights-all before he was 20 years old.
If there had been a hierarchy in Murderers’ Row, Charley Burley would have been the leader, the kingpin, and yet the reaction by most boxing fans today when hearing Burley’s name would be ‘Charley who’? I doubt if one in a thousand fans today knows anything about Burley and yet, despite never winning or even fighting for a world title by his peers, he was hailed as one of greatest fighters of all-time.
Archie Moore fought Burley in April 1944. Moore was 29 and Burley 28, Moore was having his 74th fight and Burley his 73rd and Burley was giving away 6lbs so both at or near their peak. Burley knocked Moore down four times and Moore only just made it to the final bell.
Later Moore said: ‘Burley gave me a boxing lesson. He was the best fighter I ever fought, and the best fighter I ever saw. If anyone was the perfect fighter it was Burley. When I fought Burley he was already a legend”.
Burley had outpointed fellow Murderers’ Row boxer Jack Chase just two weeks before the Moore fight and he took the Moore fight at just three days’ notice. International Hall of Fame inductee Eddie Futch, whose career spanned eight decades, said Charley Burley was the greatest all-round fighter he ever saw and Sugar Ray Robinson doubled his price demand to fight Burley, virtually ensuring the fight would never happen.
Burley was born in Bessemer, Pennsylvania on September 6, 1917. His father was a black miner and his mother an Irish immigrant and he was the lone boy in a family of seven children. His success in the amateur ranks in 1936 qualified him to compete at the US Trials for the Berlin Olympics but Burley refused to participate due to the Nazi’s racist politics and instead he turned professional.
He had his first professional fight on September 29, 1936 and won his first 12 fights before losing to the more experienced Eddie Dolan-who would be unbeaten in his next 28 fights. In 1938, Burley lost a split decision to future welterweight champion Fritzie Zivic but outpointed Zivic in a return. He won over Cocoa Kid for the ‘Coloured welterweight title’ – his first of many fights against other members of Murderers’ Row. He also outpointed future middleweight champion Billy Soose and had risen to number three in the Ring Magazine welterweight ratings. He scored another win over Zivic in 1939, and lost to another Murderers’ Row boxer Holman Williams.
The following year he had 11 fights scoring nine wins drawing with Georgie Abrams, who would lose to Tony Zale in a title challenge in 1941, and being outpointed by Jimmy Bivins. Burley won his seven fights in 1941 and then had a busy 1942 with 17 fights. The opposition was outrageously tough. He went 3-1 in fights with Holman Williams, lost twice on points to Ezzard Charles – giving away weight each time – and was outpointed by Lloyd Marshall. The time between his second win over Williams and his second loss to Charles was just six days. It was a Murderers’ Row jamboree in 1943 as Burley beat Jack Chase, drew with Cocoa Kid and fought a No Decision with Williams when they were both thrown out for lack of effort.
From 1942, the Second World War began to have a growing impact on boxing. Some world titles were frozen and approximately 460 professional fighters served in the military. The large majority of those serving were white leading to more black-on-black fights. The Murderer’s Row members were fighting for pride only. Welterweight champion Freddie Cochrane had won the welterweight title in 1941 beating Fritzie Zivic and then in 1942 enlisted in the US Navy and the title was frozen. Cochrane did not defend the title until February 1946 when he was knocked out by Marty Servo.
Burley, Williams, Chase and Cocoa Kid had all moved up to middleweight in 1944 but the champion there Tony Zale had also enlisted and did not fight for four years between 1942 and 1946. Burley had a very good year in 1944 winning all nine fights including a points win over Aaron Wade, twice beating Jack Chase inside the distance and knocking Archie Moore down four times on the way to that decision victory.
Burley was winning but the fights were drying up. You only fought Burley if you had to or because the money was good, and more and more he found he had to turn to other Murderer’s Row members to get fights. He was 6-1 in 1945 including losing to Williams and had only five fights in 1946 winning them all and beating Lytell. He had just two fights in 1947 and only one fight in 1948. Burley’s desperation for a pay day saw him fight and outpoint Uruguayan Pilar Bastidas in Peru on July 22, 1958-Burley’s last fight. He walked away with a career record of 98 fights, 83 wins (50 by KO/TKO) 12 losses-all on points – five of them against Murderers’ Row members – two draws and one No Decision.
Burley received very little recognition on his retirement but gradually that changed and he was belatedly given the recognition his magical talent deserved being inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame in 1987 and the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1992. Ring Magazine ranked him number six in the list of ‘The 80 Greatest Middleweights of All-Time in 2004’ and number four in the list of ‘The Greatest Welterweights of All-Time’ in 2008.
Just how good Burley was is impossible to judge other than the praise heaped on him by his peers. The only footage available of Burley in action is around three minutes of a fight against Oakland Billy Smith in April 1946, which was fight 87 for Burley so nearing the end of his 99 fight career.
In some ways, Cocoa Kid was the most enigmatic of the Murderers’ Row club. Obviously, Cocoa Kid was an assumed ring name which he said he adopted to honour Cuban Kid Chocolate who won the World junior lightweight title in 1931. He fought under other names before becoming Cocoa Kid and changed his name and background at various times. It took some detective work before it was established that his real name was Herbert Lewis Hardwick and he had been born in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, on May 2, 1914. His father was a sailor in the US Navy and in 1918 was part of the USS Cyclops crew which sailed out of the Bahamas on March 6, 1918 and was never seen again. Despite all of the efforts to discover what had happened to Cyclops no trace was ever found. Cocoa, his mother and brother were destitute and the years of struggle proved too much for Cocoa’s mother and she died when he was 12.
Cocoa was quoted in a newspaper in 1940 that he turned professional at the age of 14 as a featherweight without ever having a fight as an amateur but his official record starts in Atlanta on May 13, 1929 just 11 days after his 15th birthday. He quickly advanced to fighting 10-round bouts beating former champions Louis ‘Kid’ Kaplan and Johnny Jadick whilst still only 18 and suffering some losses along the way against more experienced fighters.
In 1936, he won the recently reintroduced Coloured Welterweight title by stopping Young Peter Jackson and twice outpointed fellow member of the Murders’ Row Holman Williams. He was floored and outpointed by Charley Burley in 1938 but by 1940 had risen to number one in the Ring Magazine welterweight ratings. Even though at the start of the year the welterweight title was held by fellow African American Henry Armstrong it was lower ranked white fighters who got the title shots. In fact, Armstrong never faced a black boxer in any of his 26 title fight across three divisions.
Various offers were made to Armstrong to defend against Cocoa Kid but his management ignored them all. The National Boxing Association (which would eventually morph into the World Boxing Association) stated that Armstrong would have to defend against the winner of Cocoa Kid vs. Phil Furr or they would withdraw recognition. In July 1940, Cocoa Kid outpointed Furr and in September Armstrong floored Furr three times and knocked him out in the fourth round of a title defence. Furr was white!
In October 1940, Fritzie Zivic beat Armstrong for the welterweight title and Zivic’s manager made it clear Zivic would not be defending at any time against Cocoa Kid and his chance of a title shot had gone. He did fight for a version of the welterweight title but that was only recognised in Maryland and he lost a split decision to Izzy Jannazzo. He then had a spell where he went 25-2-1 in 28 fights. He was still rated in the Top 10 middleweights despite losing to Archie Moore and Murderers’ Row members Burley, Williams, Jack Chase and Bert Lytell but he was reported to have floored Sugar Ray Robinson in a sparring session.
He had crowded 250 fights into a 14-year career. He had enlisted in the Navy in 1942 but was honourably mustered out after just a few months. It was not uncovered until much later that the grounds for mustering him out was that he was suffering from dementia puglistica and yet he fought on for another six years and had 50 more fights. He was later reported to be living homeless on the streets and died in a Veterans Association Hospital in Chicago on December 27, 1966 at the age of 52.
Although they fought each other 13 times Holman Williams and Cocoa Kid had very different starts to their time in boxing. Williams was born in Pensacola, Florida on January 30, 1915 but his family moved to Detroit when he was just two years old. He was an outstanding amateur winning the Detroit Golden Gloves tournament and the US National AAU championships. He also competed unsuccessfully at the Trials for the US team for the 1932 Olympic Games and turned professional in August 1932 at the age of 17.
He made an inauspicious start being 5-2 in his seven fights but was then unbeaten in his next 27 before losing the first of his 13 fights against Cocoa Kid in 1936. He rebounded to lose only one of his next 30 fights including a win over Charley Burley when Williams climbed off the floor three times in the fourth round to win the decision but over their seven-fight series both had three wins with one fight ruled a No Decision. His run of wins saw him rated the number two welterweight in the world but there was no sign of a title shot. He moved up to middleweight and again put himself in the title picture with a 26-1-1 run including a win over Cocoa Kid before losing to Burley in February 1942. He maintained his high level of activity against top quality opposition, having 20 fights in 1944 all of which were scheduled for 10 rounds or more and all went the distance.
They say timing is everything and between 1939 and 1945 both the National Boxing Association (NBA) and the New York State Athletic Commission (NY) saw their version of the title batted around between Al Hostak and Tony Zale for the NBA version and Ceferino Garcia, Ken Overlin and Billy Soose for the NY version while Williams was ignored. What complicated the situation was that both versions of the title were frozen from 1942 onwards due to the Second World War and fighters such as Soose and Zale joining the US Services.
Williams continued to be active and had 16 fights in 1945 going 13-2-1 with wins over club members Cocoa Kid, Burley and Lytell and outpointing Archie Moore with the ‘The Old Mongoose’ winning a return match. Zale was inactive for three years due to his time in the Services and, when he returned, his focus was a on unifying the NBA and NY versions which he did by knocking out Rocky Graziano in September 1946.
With Graziano stopping Zale in a title challenge in 1947 any slim chance Williams had of a title shot had gone. Williams was just 31 at the end of 1945 but had completed his 15th year as a professional and already had 167 fights on his record and the wear and tear from that finally began to show. In 1946, he lost decisions against Bert Lytell, Marcel Cerdan and Jake LaMotta. He won only three of his 11 fights in 1947 and 1948 and had his last fight in June 1948 losing to Gentle Daniel, a fighter with a 11-2-3 record.
Williams helped train youngsters at a gym for a while but was struggling with his health and eventually took a job as a janitor at a club. He was homeless and slept at the club but the club burned down in 1967 and Williams died in the fire at the age of 52. Williams only lost inside the distance three times in his 189 fights, once against Archie Moore, once against Charley Burley and against Jose Basora due to a badly cut lip. He scored 20 inside the distance victories in his first 40 fights but only 16 in his next 106 fights. Brittle hands forced that change to his approach but Williams was one of the most gifted boxers to ever pull on a pair of gloves.
Hall of Fame trainer Eddie Futch who worked with Williams at the Brewster gym, said, “I’d rather watch Williams shadow box than watch most other fighters in the ring.” and fellow Murderer’s Row boxer Lloyd Marshall said of Williams, “Best technical boxer I was ever in with, hell, best I ever saw.” Williams was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2008.
Burley, Cocoa Kid and Williams were the three highest profile fighters in Murderers’ Row but Booker, Chase, Marshall and Lytell were all outstanding fighters.
Although inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame and the World Boxing Hall of Fame Hilton Edward (Eddie) Booker (nick-named Black Dynamite) had the worst luck of all of the members in that his career was cut short after just nine years when he had to retire with severe eye problems attributed to an illegally doctored glove.
After a successful time as an amateur, Booker had his first professional fight in January 1935 at the age of 17 and went 39-0-4 in his first 43 fights before suffering consecutive losses against Fritzie Zivic and Cocoa Kid in 1939. He had only one fight in 1940 as he was sidelined with hand injuries. He then won 16 and drew two of his next 18 fights with the draws coming against Archie Moore and 43-2-1 Shorty Hogue. He would fight Hogue four times going 2-1-1 and also knocked out Hogue’s brother Big Boy Hogue. In 1942, he outpointed Lloyd Marshall then drew again with Archie Moore before losing to Jack Chase in January 1943.
Booker had eye surgery after the Chase fight and did not fight for eight months although it was suspected that his eye problems pre-dated the Chase fight and he had been fighting with impaired vision for a few years. When he returned in August 1943, he stopped Harry Matthews in August, Matthews would go 51-0-1 in his next 52 fights before being knocked out in two rounds by Rocky Marciano in 1952 in a heavyweight title eliminator. Booker lost on points to Holman Williams in November 1943 and his career would cruelly end in 1944 at the age of 26.
In January 1944, he stopped Archie Moore in eight rounds flooring Moore four times. Just two months later, after outpointing Holman Williams he could no longer conceal his deteriorating eye sight and he was forced to retire. His record was 68 wins (34 by stoppage), eight losses (with three coming against Murderers’ Row members Cocoa Kid, Jack Chase and Holman Williams) and five draws. Archie Moore said of Booker, “He was one of the great fighters of my time. He had me fighting for dear life”. Booker went blind later and died in January 1975 at the age of 57.
Lloyd Marshall.
Jack Chase and Lloyd Marshall, while not having as high a profile as Burley, Cocoa Kid, Holman and Booker, were all denied title shots that they had more than earned.
Marshall fought from 1936 to 1951 and compiled a 100-bout record of 71 wins, 25 losses and four draws. He beat Charley Burley, Ezzard Charles, Jake LaMotta, Joey Maxim, future middleweight champion Ken Overlin, former champion Teddy Yarosz, two-division champion Lou Brillard, light-heavyweight champion Anton Christofordis and England’s Freddie Mills. Late in his career, he came to Britain where he lost twice to Don Cockell and outpointed Tommy Farr before retiring in July 1951.
Isiah James ‘Jack’ Chase fought under the name of Young Joe Louis at the start of his career but then as Jack Chase from 1942. He had an 81-24-12, 2 ND record and, at one time, was rated the number two middleweight, but again was never given the chance to fight for the title. He beat Eddie Booker, Harry Matthews, Archie Moore, Lloyd Marshall, Aaron Wade and also drew with Moore. He was in and out of the juvenile system from the age of 12 and there is a gap in his career from 1937 to 1941 when he spent time in jail and he was arrested for shooting and wounding Aaron Wade (another who some list as a member of the Murderers’ Row club). He had his last fight in 1948 but boxing had helped him change. He worked for a non-profit organisation that helped youths, including those recently released from prison, and even appeared in a couple of Hollywood movies. He died from heart problems in 1972.
Bert Lytell tuned professional later than the others as he had his first fight in 1944 but he went on to have a record of 71-23-7 & 1ND. He sometimes used the nickname of Chocolate Kid and, being black and a southpaw, fought with two strikes against him but in 1948 was rated number one middleweight in the Ring Magazine ratings and was 6-1-1 in fights with his fellow Murderers’ Row club members.
