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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781496902559 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | AuthorHouse |
| Publication date: | 04/14/2014 |
| Pages: | 116 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.28(d) |
Read an Excerpt
KILLING PHAR LAP
An Untold Part of the Story
By BIFF LOWRY
AuthorHouse
Copyright © 2014 Biff LowryAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4969-0255-9
CHAPTER 1
"He was a louse."
That was one horse trainer's opinion of Ed Perry, who has been portrayed in innumerable books and news articles written about the champion Australian race horse Phar Lap as a 'wealthy California rancher.'
Perry passed himself off to journalists and anyone else who was looking into the mysterious death of Phar Lap, as the owner of the California ranch at which the great race horse was stabled during his ill-fated journey from his homeland to the North American continent. It was there that Phar Lap died on April 5, 1932, just two weeks after his phenomenal victory in the rich Agua Caliente Handicap.
The end came somewhat suddenly with Phar Lap writhing in agony from a massive dose of arsenic.
Ed Perry was hardly the owner of the ranch and he certainly wasn't wealthy – in his own right. He was, originally, the chauffeur for the lady who owned the land and re-developed it into a show-place horse farm and training center for her racing stable of harness horses.
Perry, the chauffeur, was some 30 years younger than his boss, a lady named Suzanne Kohn. Suzanne had inherited something like $10 million, a sizable fortune in 'Roaring Twenties' currency, from her late husband. She used a portion of the money to refurbish her horse farm and put together a potent racing stable of trotters and pacers, which competed primarily on the California Fair Circuit.
Somehow, someway Perry, the chauffeur, it has been reported, weaseled his way into the affections of his lonely, widowed employer and they were married in Hollywood during late May in 1920.
Going from hired hand to the husband of a multi-millionaire-heiress was apparently not a difficult transition for Ed Perry, according to Suzanne Kohn's farm manager and horse trainer, Clarence Hansen, who was the horseman who labeled Perry "a louse."
Hansen obviously did not hold Perry in high regard, considering him an opportunistic, fortune-hunting, con man who feigned an interest in Suzanne's horses. Perry's real interest, Hansen was positive, was in his new wife's more than substantial bank account.
Phar Lap, even though his almost unbelievable feats on Australia's race tracks occurred some eight decades ago, remains firmly implanted as one of the greatest sports heroes in Australia's and New Zealand's rich sporting history.
His death, following his journey across the Pacific Ocean to the North American continent, has been shrouded in mystery, intrigue, conflicting theories, misinformation and innuendoes for decades. Various experts have clashed over the cause of Phar Lap's demise.
But no one, until now, has ever taken the trouble to investigate the role that Ed Perry may or may not have played in the death of a magnificent champion, the greatest race horse – in the opinion of many experts – that ever lived.
All the principals in the case are long dead and what they knew about Phar Lap's passing has gone to the grave with them – with the single exception of Dr. Jay C. Hansen, a retired equine veterinarian and fourth generation horseman.
Dr. Hansen, even though he was just in grade school at the time, remembers well the events surrounding Phar Lap's stay at Suzanne Perry's ranch in Atherton, located on the San Mateo Peninsula in California's San Francisco Bay area. He also has a crystal clear recollection of what his father told him about Phar Lap, his handlers, their fears about traveling to two foreign countries – and especially about Ed Perry.
CHAPTER 2Reams of paper have been used to contain the writings about the almost unbelievable career of Phar Lap. That career, in Australia, has been well-chronicled in numerous other works. This book covers the final chapter of the great horse's life.
But let's start at the beginning. The beginning in this case is when the decision was made by David J. Davis, majority owner of Phar Lap, to take his wonder horse to the North American continent and away from the merciless people who ran the Victoria Racing Club and who made him carry an unbelievable 150 pounds in the 1931, two-mile Melbourne Cup.
According to The Phar Lap Story by Michael Wilkinson, the November 17, 1931 edition of the Melbourne Herald proclaimed in its front page banner line, "Phar Lap off to America."
On that particular morning, wrote Wilkinson, noted Australian sportsman, John Wren, was walking to his office, past the crowd that was reading the report about Phar Lap posted on the outside the Herald building. According to Wilkinson, Wren heard a woman say, "Those Yanks. They better not do to Big Red what they did to Les."
Her statement had a definite prophetic tone. Although neither the unidentified lady who made the remark, nor anyone else who heard her utterance, realized it at the time.
'Big Red,' of course, was one of the affectionate names Australians attached to the wonder horse – their beloved champion Phar Lap. The reference to "Les" was Les Darcy, a phenomenal 160-pound boxer who was both the middleweight and heavyweight champion of the island nation. He left his homeland in late 1916, went to America to seek some big paydays in order to leave his family well-fixed. After accomplishing that goal, his plan was to enlist and join his countrymen fighting the Germans in World War l.
Instead, because of some underhanded political wheeling and dealing, Darcy never was permitted to box in America and died rather suddenly in Memphis, Tennessee. Some of his countrymen felt, and still feel, Darcy was poisoned. Others were convinced he died of a broken heart because of the aforementioned dirty politics and scorching criticism in the press that helped prevent him from getting the big money fights he had dreamed of in the U.S.
To this day, the majority of Australians and New Zealanders feel Phar Lap was poisoned too. It seems unlikely that Darcy succumbed as the result of a poison plot. But when it comes to Phar Lap, they are most likely correct. Science and logic back them up.
A re-visit to the intriguing tale of perhaps the greatest middle-weight prize-fighter ever to lace on a pair of gloves is in order. The reason the Darcy story is repeated here is that it somewhat parallels the subsequent mysterious deaths of President John F. Kennedy, his brother, presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy and civil rights leader Martin Luther King and gives the Australian and New Zealand reader a better understanding of political influence and crime on the North American Continent during the era that the Phar Lap contingent visited that part of the world.
Their stories – Les Darcy's and Phar Lap's – are somewhat eerily similar. The biography of Les Darcy is a fascinating one. It is probably best told by the studiously thorough research done by author D'Arcy Niland and his wife, writer Ruth Park.
The couple traveled from Australia to the U.S. in 1961 to find the truth about what happened to Darcy. They interviewed famed fight promoters Tex Rickard, 'Doc' Kearns, former world heavyweight champions Gene Tunney, Jack Dempsey, James J. Jeffries and a whole passel of other ex- pugs. They also talked to famed New York sportswriter Jimmy Breslin and dozens of his booze-soaked former colleagues.
The Niland-Park team was already acutely aware that Darcy was an Australian national hero and the hero worship exists to this day. In fact, D'Arcy Niland's father named him after the great fighter. Les fashioned a dazzling boxing record of 52 victories in 56 bouts (a couple of the four losses included some odd officiating). Thirty two of his victories were by knockout, many of them against much bigger opponents.
CHAPTER 3Les Darcy's boxing career was peaking at the time Australia became embroiled in a bitter conscription controversy during the height of World War I. He already held his country's versions of the world middleweight crown and beat Dave Smith twice to win and then successfully defend the Australian heavyweight championship. All of this, despite the fact that earlier in his career he fought at the 140-pound weight limit.
Darcy previously had twice tried to enlist in the Army, but was denied because he was underage. When he did become old enough, Darcy was offered a cushy 'Elvis Presley-type' service assignment, but turned it down because he wanted to go to the front lines. First, however, he wanted to get to America and have four or five big money fights to secure his family's future. Then he planned to enlist. He assumed he wouldn't return. The Good Lord had endowed him with a huge supply of courage.
Les applied to go to America and although other boxers, entertainers and performers, all of draft age and both from Australia and England, were granted governmental permission to go to the U.S., he was denied.
Prime Minister Billy Hughes interjected himself in the proceedings to keep Les at home because he wanted Darcy, who was revered by his countrymen as a national treasure, to enlist, set an example for other young men, and to assist the Prime Minister sway the nation's voters to get the draft referendum passed.
When Darcy and a roustabout named E.T. O'Sullivan, who knew his way around the docks, "stowed away" on a tramp steamer bound for America, Prime Minister Hughes went ballistic. He was even angrier when he lost the vote on the draft, and instead of blaming his own failures in his campaign to institute mandatory conscription, like many politicians, he blamed someone else. In this case, Darcy.
Hughes, it is said, publicly called the boxer everything from a cowardly deserter to a traitor and apparently vented his umbrage to the American ambassador, who in turn relayed his feelings to those in lofty positions stateside.
Niland, after his and his wife's American research venture, started a book on Darcy's short life entitled Home Before Dark. Niland died before he could finish it. After some time had elapsed, Ruth Park took her husband's notes and, in concert with her son-in-law, Rafe Champion, she completed the book.
"There are high smells in every trade ..." wrote Ms. Park. "... It is impossible," she continued, "to dismiss the conclusion that both state and federal governments (particularly the latter) were involved."
The 'involvement' she was referring to was the Prime Minister's alleged underhanded international moves to prevent Darcy from getting fights in America. The 'smells' came from both sides of the Pacific. And the stench was terrific.
Darcy's and O'Sullivan's first contact when they arrived in New York was with premier boxing promoter Tex Rickard, who had visions of a million dollar gate in Madison Square Garden, pitting Darcy against reigning middleweight champ Al McCoy or world light heavyweight title- holder Georges Carpentier from France.
But it was not to be. New York Governor Charles Whitman, who was anti-boxing anyway and had tried to get the sport banned in New York but failed, got the word from some Washington DC higher–ups and his administration's boxing commission refused to license Les.
From there, things went from bad to worse. Bouts were arranged in other states, but were mysteriously canceled. And then O'Sullivan, who had tried to pass himself off as Darcy's manager and claimed a third of whatever Les would earn in the ring, had a falling out with the fighter. When Les informed O'Sullivan he was not his manager, but that he would take care of him with a much smaller cut than 33%, E.T. turned from friend and travelling companion into a mouthy, almost maniacal, enemy.
Already there had been negative pronouncements about Darcy in the New York press and some national outlets generated mainly, it is suspected, by Prime Minister Hughes' vitriol, echoed by his minions in the U.S.
Things got even worse when O'Sullivan got into the act. He vented to every American sports writer who would listen, that Darcy was everything Hughes accused him of being – and worse. O'Sullivan found a willing ear in the sports editor and columnist of the New York Morning Telegraph, a character named Bat Masterson, who sometimes failed to let facts interfere with a good story.
This was the same Bat Masterson, who was a product of America's lawless, gun-toting, wild-west of the 1880s and 90s. Masterson was later immortalized in books, films and a TV series in the mid-twentieth century, as a fearless lawman and the fastest gun in the west. Some of his early associates were Wyatt Earp, Wild Bill Hickcock and Doc Holliday, all larger than life figures of America's old west.
As a youthful gun-slinger, Bat worked variously as a buffalo hunter, Indian fighter, U.S. Army Scout, county sheriff, U.S. Marshal, gambler, race horse breeder and owner, fight promoter and referee. He was also noted as a free-wheeling boozer, notorious lady's man and a friend of U.S. President Teddy Roosevelt and New York's Governor Whitman.
Once during a courtroom hearing, Masterson was asked how many men he had shot. He answered the question with a question.
"You mean not counting Indians and Mexicans?"
Masterson was a self-trained writer who gained experience by authoring press releases for boxing matches he promoted in Denver and elsewhere. He was acutely aware that yellow journalism helped sell newspapers and sensed sizable circulation rewards for the Morning Telegraph in the harpooning of Darcy and painting a true Australian icon as a draft-dodging, sniveling, cowardly deserter.
O'Sullivan fed Masterson a steady stream of outrageous untruths about Darcy and the former gun-slinger's columns, along with the pressure already coming from Australia through powerful people in the U.S. Capitol, helped the heads of boxing jurisdictions throughout the country to ease their consciences about denying a license to the fighter.
Darcy and a couple of friends tried for bouts in Louisiana, Ohio, Illinois and elsewhere, but the answer was always a resounding "NO," by the state boxing commissions, and always on orders from higher up.
Discouraged and all but destitute, Les Darcy finally applied for U.S. citizenship, which was granted, and enlisted in the Air Force's signal corps. But suddenly the Mayor of Memphis, Tennessee thumbed his nose at the pressure from on high and told the fighter he was okay to engage in a bout in his city.
Les applied for and received a deferment from the Air Force to train for the bout, but shortly before the scheduled fight he fell ill and was admitted to a hospital with severe joint pain and a high fever. In less than four weeks he was dead. The official cause of death was pneumonia, but later more scientific evidence indicated a streptococcus infection apparently brought on by an infected tooth and the removal of badly inflamed tonsils.
A strep infection is insidious, but in this day can be tamed by anti-biotic sulfa drugs. In 1917 those drugs were non- existent.
Was Les Darcy poisoned? Perhaps by the 'fight mob,' fearful he was too good? Perhaps by angry politicians? Anything is possible when crooks or incredibly powerful, vengeful political figures are involved. One has only to examine the relatively recent assassinations of three prominent Americans to understand the truth of the foregoing statement – President John F. Kennedy, his brother and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy and civil rights leader Martin Luther King.
There is extremely strong, lingering suspicion that all three assassinations were entangled with politics, but with the passage of years, it becomes more and more difficult to sort through the web of intrigue that surrounds each case.
And so it is with Phar Lap.
CHAPTER 4President John F. Kennedy was shot on November 22, 1963 as he rode through the streets of Dallas, Texas in the presidential limousine, on his way to a rally. Lee Harvey Oswald, a one-time American resident of the Soviet Union, was arrested for the killing shortly thereafter.
Two days later, an unsavory Dallas night club owner named Jack Ruby, shot and killed Oswald in the basement of the Dallas Police Headquarters as the latter was being transferred to the county jail.
Ruby, who in the late 1920s and early '30s had been an errand boy in Chicago for notorious mobster Al Capone and, later in life, was a gun-runner for both pro and anti Fidel Castro forces in Cuba, was tried, found guilty and sentenced to death for the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald. His defense attorney, famed Melvin Belli, screamed "foul" and got his execution stayed and a new trial granted.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from KILLING PHAR LAP by BIFF LOWRY. Copyright © 2014 Biff Lowry. Excerpted by permission of AuthorHouse.
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