Droitwich News, Droitwich Sport, Droitwich Leisure - From The Droitwich Spa Advertiser

Boxing clever in life story

From the archive, first published Wednesday 21st Feb 2001.

Hurricane The Life of Rubin Carter, Fighter by James S Hirsch (Fourth Estate, £6.99)

HOLLYWOOD loves nothing better than a wrongful imprisonment story and Rubin Carter's was ripe for the picking.

Convicted of a gruesome triple murder in a New Jersey grill when he was on the brink of the Middleweight Championship in 1966, he spent 19 years inside.

And true to all triumphant stories, the heroes were unlikely sorts - a small Canadian hippie commune, who took the fighter's corner and won. But the biographical film of Carter earlier this year attracted trouble for being liberal with his shadowy past.

Fortunately, Hirsch's richly-detailed biography of the boxer avoids dodging these uncomfortable truths to portray Carter as he really was. A juvenile criminal with a volatile temper, he became a paratrooper at 17 to escape borstal before later serving a four-year conviction for armed robbery.

But the murder case against him and co-defendant John Artis was a whitewash, convicted as they were, on the crooked testimony of a notorious criminal, who admitted climbing over the victims' bodies to rob the Lafayette Grill's till.

It was another example of an era corrupted by racism, when Carter's guilt was presumed because he was black and had a bad record.

And yet Hirsch isn't afraid to level criticism at those including Bob Dylan and Candice Bergen - who gave him false hope by turning him into a cause celebre before ditching him when he was accused of assaulting a supporter prior to his retrial and second conviction.

Carter's story has been hailed as a case of triumph in adversity, but what emerges is a picture of ugly corruption and amazing levels of cynicism, even by today's standards.

Owen Fairclough

Archive Home