Frank "Blinky" Palermo (January 26, 1905 – May 12, 1996) was an American

organized crime Organized crime (or organised crime) is a category of transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally th ...

figure and

boxing promoter A promoter works with event production and entertainment industries to promote their productions, including in music and sports. Promoters are individuals or organizations engaged in the business of marketing and promoting live, or pay-per-view ...

who surreptitiously owned prize fighters and

fixed Fixed may refer to: * ''Fixed'' (EP), EP by Nine Inch Nails * ''Fixed'', an upcoming 2D adult animated film directed by Genndy Tartakovsky * Fixed (typeface), a collection of monospace bitmap fonts that is distributed with the X Window System * ...

fights; he was best known for fixing the Jake LaMotta– Billy Fox fight in 1947. An associate of the

Philadelphia crime family The Philadelphia crime family, also known as the Philadelphia Mafia, the Philly Mob or Philly Mafia, the Philadelphia-South Jersey Mafia, or Bruno-Scarfo family is an Italian-American Mafia family based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Formed and ...

, Palermo also ran Philadelphia's biggest

numbers racket The numbers game, also known as the numbers racket, the Italian lottery, Mafia lottery or the daily number, is a form of illegal gambling or illegal lottery played mostly in poor and working class neighborhoods in the United States, wherein a be ...

. Palermo's partner was Mafioso

Frankie Carbo Paul John "Frankie" Carbo (born Paolo Giovanni Carbo, ; August 10, 1904Bureau of Narcotics, Sam Giancana, The United States Treasury Department. ''Mafia: The Government’s Secret File on Organized Crime''. 2007(pg. 85)/ref> – November 9, 1976) w ...

, a

soldier A soldier is a person who is a member of an army. A soldier can be a conscripted or volunteer enlisted person, a non-commissioned officer, or an officer. Etymology The word ''soldier'' derives from the Middle English word , from Old French ...

in New York's

Lucchese family The Lucchese crime family (pronounced ) is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City, in the United States, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as ...

who had been a gunman with

Murder, Inc. Murder, Inc. (Murder, Incorporated) was an organized crime group, active from 1929 to 1941, that acted as the enforcement arm of the National Crime Syndicatea closely connected criminal organization that included the Italian-American Mafia, the ...

Palermo's fighters

In addition to Billy Fox, the professional fighters that Palermo owned outright or under the table included World Welterweight champion

Virgil Akins Virgil Akins (March 10, 1928 – January 22, 2011) was an American boxer who won the Welterweight Championship of the World in 1958. Nicknamed ‘Honeybear’, Akins was the first World Champion boxer from St. Louis. Career Akins was born and d ...

, number three-ranked heavyweight contender Clarence Henry, World Welterweight Champion

Johnny Saxton Johnny Saxton (July 4, 1930 – October 4, 2008) was an American professional boxer in the welterweight (147 lb) division. He was born in Newark, New Jersey, learned to box in a Brooklyn orphanage and had an amateur career winning 31 of 33 fight ...

, heavyweight contender

Coley Wallace Coley Wallace (April 5, 1927 – January 30, 2005) was an American actor and heavyweight boxer who once outpointed Rocky Marciano in a very close split decision three-round amateur fight. Although Wallace, a Jacksonville, FL native, had a respect ...

, and Lightweight Champion

Ike Williams Isiah "Ike" Williams (August 2, 1923 – September 5, 1994) was a lightweight world boxing champion. He took the World Lightweight Championship in April 1945 and made eight successful defenses of the title against six different fighters prior to ...

. Palermo would cheat members of his stable out of their share of the purses of their fights.

Billy Fox

Known as "Blackjack", Fox started off his career in a fashion reminiscent of the rise of heavyweight champ

Primo Carnera Primo may refer to: People *DJ Premier (born 1966), hip-hop producer, sometimes goes by nickname Primo *Primo Carnera (1906–1967), Italian boxer, World Heavyweight champion 1933–1934 *Primo Cassarino (born 1956), enforcer for the Gambino cri ...

(owned by mobster

Owney Madden Owen Vincent "Owney" Madden (December 18, 1891 – April 24, 1965) was a British-born gangster of Irish ancestry who became a leading underworld figure in New York during Prohibition. Nicknamed "The Killer", he garnered a brutal reputation within ...

) and of future welterweight champ Johnny Saxton (whose contract was owned by Palermo) by winning 36 consecutive fights, all by knockout, before he was knocked out by

Gus Lesnevich Gustav George Lesnevich (February 22, 1915 – February 28, 1964) was an American boxer who held the World Light Heavyweight Championship. Boxing career Lesnevich was born and raised in Cliffside Park, New Jersey. He turned pro in 1934 and in 193 ...

for the world light heavyweight title. He would rack up seven more wins, including a win in a notorious bout allegedly thrown by Jake LaMotta.Jeff Merron, ESPN.com. Page 2
"Reel Life: 'Raging Bull'"
Accessed 7 January 2008. The LaMotta fight was fixed by Palermo, who owned Fox under the table. Many boxing aficionados did not consider Fox a fighter talented enough to have obtained his lofty ranking without the help of Palermo. After the LaMotta debacle, which was immortalized in

Martin Scorsese Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November 17, 1942) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. Scorsese emerged as one of the major figures of the New Hollywood era. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominatio ...

's movie ''

Raging Bull ''Raging Bull'' is a 1980 American biographical sports drama film directed by Martin Scorsese, produced by Robert Chartoff and Irwin Winkler and adapted by Paul Schrader and Mardik Martin from Jake LaMotta's 1970 memoir '' Raging Bull: My St ...

'', Fox lost to

Red Willis Applegate Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondary ...

and

, to whom he lost in the first round by a knockout in 1:58 seconds.

Ike Williams

Ike Williams, the world's lightweight boxing champion from 1945 to 1951, was managed by Palermo for part of his career. According to Williams, he was blackballed by the boxing managers guild when he sought to manage himself. Palermo informed him he could resolve his problems with the guild, and Williams agreed to let Palermo manage him. In 1960, Williams testified before the

Kefauver Carey Estes Kefauver (; July 26, 1903 – August 10, 1963) was an American politician from Tennessee. A member of the Democratic Party, he served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1939 to 1949 and in the Senate from 1949 until his d ...

Commission investigating Mob control of boxing. Williams told the commission that he was broke and working for $46 per week despite having won $1 million in purses. He claimed Palermo refused to pay him his share of the purses from two fights worth approximately $40,000, on which he had to pay taxes. He said he had never tried to collect the monies owed him by Palermo. According to ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twic ...

'':

He is a circumspect fellow and clearly to this day has no wish to anger Blinky. Thus, though he told how Blinky brought him offer after offer to throw fights for bribes as big as $100,000, he insisted that Blinky advised him to turn the offers down. It was a fatherly picture but it did seem out of character.

Williams did claim to have taken a dive against

Chuck Davey Charles Pierce "Chuck" Davey (May 3, 1925 – December 4, 2002) was an American welterweight boxer and boxing commissioner for the state of Michigan. Career Davey's official record contains 42 winning bouts (including 26 knockouts), 5 losses ...

, a much hyped contender for the

welterweight Welterweight is a weight class in combat sports. Originally the term "welterweight" was used only in boxing, but other combat sports like Muay Thai, taekwondo, and mixed martial arts also use it for their own weight division system to classify the ...

crown.

Clarence Henry

On June 4, 1954, Los Angeles-based heavyweight boxer Clarence Henry, who was managed by Palermo, was arrested in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

for attempting to bribe Oakland, California middleweight Bobby Jones to throw his June 11

Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as The Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh and Eighth avenues from 31st to 33rd Street, above Pennsylva ...

match with

Joey Giardello Carmine Orlando Tilelli (July 16, 1930 – September 4, 2008) was an American boxer who was the world middleweight champion from 1963 to 1965,. He adopted the name Joey Giardello (the name of a cousin's friend) in order to join the U.S. Army whil ...

. Henry allegedly offered $15,000 (equivalent to approximately $ in today's funds) to Jones to throw the fight. Once the third-ranked heavyweight contender, Henry was released after posting $2,000 bail and subsequently retired from the ring. Giardello beat Jones in a close decision. A future middleweight champion, Giardello was blocked from a shot at the title by Palermo and the underworld figures who controlled the sport in the 1950s and early '60s. Giardello finally won the title in 1963, after Palermo and Carbo had been jailed.

Johnny Saxton

Johnny Saxton was a promising amateur fighter who won 31 of his 33 amateur bouts. He was twice a National AAU champion and won a Golden Gloves title. When he turned professional in 1949, he was managed by Bill “Pop” Miller, but Miller sold his contract to Palermo for $10,000. In his first 40 pro fight, he racked up a record of 39 wins and one draw. Palermo had once manipulated Billy Fox to a similar record early in his career to make him a contender. Some of Saxton's opponents in the ring in his journeyman days put in such pitiful performances, they angered not only the crowd but ring officials. Saxton became an unpopular fighter. Saxton lost his first pro bout to

Gil Turner Gil Turner (born Gilbert Strunk; May 6, 1933 – September 23, 1974) was an American folk singer-songwriter, magazine editor, Shakespearean actor, political activist, and for a time, a lay Baptist preacher. Turner was a prominent figure in the G ...

in 1953, dropped a decision to Del Flanagan and drew against Johnny Lombardo. After beating Joey Giardello and

Johnny Bratton Johnny Bratton, also known as Honey Boy Bratton, (September 9, 1927 – August 15, 1993) was an American professional boxer and briefly reigned as the NBA welterweight champion in 1951. He fought many of the best fighters of his era in the ...

, he met world welterweight champion

Kid Gavilán Gerardo González (January 6, 1926 – February 13, 2003), better known in the boxing world as Kid Gavilan, was a Cuban boxer. Gavilán was the former undisputed welterweight champion from 1951 to 1954 having simultaneously held the NYSAC, WBA ...

(often spelled Kid Gavilan) in 1954 in a title bout and defeated him in a fifteen-round decision. That fight was widely thought to be fixed. Bookies reportedly had refused to take wagers on the fight. Gavilan—no stranger to fixed fights—cried and said that he had been given “the business.” Twenty of 22 ringside reporters believed Gavilan won the fight. In a 2002 interview with ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...

'', was one of the ringside observers.

"...Frankie Carbo, the mob's unofficial commissioner for boxing, controlled a lot of the welters and middles.... Not every fight was fixed, of course, but from time to time Carbo and his lieutenants, like Blinky Palermo in Philadelphia, would put the fix in. When the Kid Gavilan-Johnny Saxton fight was won by Saxton on a decision in Philadelphia in 1954, I was covering it for ''
Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twic ...
'' and wrote a piece at that time saying boxing was a dirty business and must be cleaned up now. It was an open secret. All the press knew that one - and other fights - were fixed. Gavilan was a mob-controlled fighter, too, and when he fought
Billy Graham William Franklin Graham Jr. (November 7, 1918 – February 21, 2018) was an American evangelist and an ordained Southern Baptist minister who became well known internationally in the late 1940s. He was a prominent evangelical Christi ...
it was clear Graham had been robbed of the title. The decision would be bought. If it was close, the judges would shade it the way they had been told."

Saxton lost his title the following year via technical knockout to

Tony DeMarco Tony DeMarco (January 14, 1932 – October 11, 2021), born Leonardo Liotta, was an American boxer and World Welterweight Champion. Born to Sicilian immigrants from Sciacca (AG), Vincent and Giacomina, DeMarco grew up in the North End neighborh ...

, then won it back in 1956 with an upset win over

Carmen Basilio Carmen Basilio (born Carmine Basilio, April 2, 1927 – November 7, 2012) was an American professional boxer who was the world champion in both the welterweight and middleweight divisions, beating Sugar Ray Robinson for the latter title. An iro ...

, another fight that was thought to be fixed. Basilio said of losing his title to the referees' decision, “It was like being robbed in a dark alley.” He lost the title again in a rematch with Basilio later in the year. His wins against Gavilan and Basilio were both controversial and unpopular with many in the boxing world. He retired in 1958. Unlike other boxers exploited by Palermo, Saxton expressed loyalty to him. A statement issued in 1955 declared:

"Since my first professional fight in 1949 Frank Palermo has been my manager, friend, and adviser. He has been honest and trustworthy in every dealing we have had during my career. I now hold the welterweight championship of the world. I am going along with Palermo."

After having his property seized by the

IRS The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting U.S. federal taxes and administering the Internal Revenue Code, the main body of the federal statutory tax ...

, Saxton wound up penniless. While being treated at a state mental hospital after being arrested for robbery in his retirement, he said, "I was supposed to have got big money from fighting on TV, but I never saw it. No one ever gave me more than a couple of hundred dollars at a time."

Sonny Liston

By 1959, Blinky and his partner, Mafioso

, owned a majority interest in the contract of heavyweight boxer

Sonny Liston Charles L. "Sonny" Liston ( 1930 – December 30, 1970) was an American professional boxer who competed from 1953 to 1970. A dominant contender of his era, he became the world heavyweight champion in 1962 after knocking out Floyd Patterson i ...

, who went on to win the World Heavyweight Championship in 1962. From the start of his pro career in 1953, Liston had been "owned" by St. Louis mobster John Vitale, who continued to own a stake in the boxer. At the time Palermo and Carbo acquired their interest in Liston, the notorious Carbo was imprisoned on

Rikers Island Rikers Island is a island in the East River between Queens and the Bronx that contains New York City's main jail complex. Named after Abraham Rycken, who took possession of the island in 1664, the island was originally under in size, but has ...

, having been convicted of the undercover management of prize-fighters and unlicensed matchmaking. According to both

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...

and newspaper reports, Vitale and other mobsters "reportedly controlled Liston's contract", with Vitale owning approximately twelve percent. Liston fought 12 fights under the control of Carbo and Palermo.

Senate investigation

In 1960, Palermo and Carbo, who had just been released from jail after serving time for managing boxers without a license, were subpoenaed to appear before Senator Estes Kefauver's investigation committee into Mob control of boxing. Palermo pleaded the Fifth Amendment to avoid testifying, as did Carbo, who took the Fifth 25 times. Kefauver recommended that Palermo and Carbo be cited for

Contempt of Congress Contempt of Congress is the act of obstructing the work of the United States Congress or one of its committees. Historically, the bribery of a U.S. senator or U.S. representative was considered contempt of Congress. In modern times, contempt of Co ...

Imprisonment

The following year, 1961, Palermo and Carbo, along with Los Angeles mobsters Joe Di Sica and

Louis Dragna Louis Tom Dragna (; July 18, 1920 – November 16, 2012) was an Italian-American mobster, nephew of Jack Dragna and son of Tom Dragna. He was active in the Los Angeles crime family from the 1940s until the early 1980s. Early life Louis Tom Dragna ...

, were charged with

conspiracy A conspiracy, also known as a plot, is a secret plan or agreement between persons (called conspirers or conspirators) for an unlawful or harmful purpose, such as murder or treason, especially with political motivation, while keeping their agree ...

and

extortion Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence; the bulk of this article deals with such cases. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, ...

against

National Boxing Association The World Boxing Association (WBA), formerly known as the National Boxing Association (NBA), is the oldest and one of four major organizations which sanction professional boxing bouts, alongside the World Boxing Council (WBC), International Boxi ...

Welterweight Welterweight is a weight class in combat sports. Originally the term "welterweight" was used only in boxing, but other combat sports like Muay Thai, taekwondo, and mixed martial arts also use it for their own weight division system to classify the ...

Champion

Don Jordan Don Jordan (June 22, 1934 – February 13, 1997) was an American boxer born in Los Angeles, California and was the Welterweight Champion of the World from 1958 to 1960. His nickname was ‘Geronimo’. He was of Mexican and African American desce ...

. After a three-month trial, in which

U.S. Attorney General The United States attorney general (AG) is the head of the United States Department of Justice, and is the chief law enforcement officer of the federal government of the United States. The attorney general serves as the principal advisor to the p ...

Robert F. Kennedy Robert Francis Kennedy (November 20, 1925June 6, 1968), also known by his initials RFK and by the nickname Bobby, was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 64th United States Attorney General from January 1961 to September 1964, a ...

served as prosecutor, Carbo and Palermo were convicted in May 1961 and sentenced to 25 years in prison. Palermo went free on $100,000 bail as he launched a series of unsuccessful appeals against his conviction.Scorecard
''

'' (January 20, 1964) He was released from

United States Penitentiary, Lewisburg The United States Penitentiary, Lewisburg (USP Lewisburg) is a medium-security United States federal prison in Pennsylvania for male inmates. It is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Justice. ...

on November 8, 1971 after serving seven and a half years of his sentence.‘Blinky’ Palermo Released
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' (November 9, 1971)

Later years and death

By the late 1970s, Palermo was working with young fighters at the Montgomery County Boys' Club in suburban Philadelphia. On March 13, 1978, he withdrew his request to the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission for a for a manager's license in connection with the boys' club due to what his lawyer alleged to be harassment by the "awesome power of the press". Palermo said "I think the news media is very unfair" and asked "I paid my debt to society, so what do they want?".Palermo Retracts Bid for License
''

'' (March 14, 1978) Palermo died in obscurity in May 1996, aged 91.Frank 'Blinky' Palermo
phillyboxinghistory.com He was laid to rest at

Holy Cross Cemetery Holy Cross Cemetery may refer to: United States California *Holy Cross Cemetery (Colma, California) *Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City, California * Holy Cross Cemetery (Menlo Park, California) * Holy Cross Cemetery (Pomona, California) *Holy C ...

Yeadon, Pennsylvania Yeadon is a borough in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. It borders the city of Philadelphia. The population was 11,443 at the 2010 census. Geography Yeadon is located in eastern Delaware County at (39.932862, -75.251540). It is bordered on the sou ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Palermo, Frank 1905 births 1996 deaths 20th-century American criminals American male criminals American gangsters of Italian descent American boxing promoters Philadelphia crime family Gangsters from Philadelphia Mafia extortionists American prisoners and detainees Prisoners and detainees of the United States