News & Updates | Shaun Assael

Forbes: A Film Noir Sort Of Trip Into Sonny Liston’s Mysterious Life And Death

October 21, 2016

“This is the book for you.” – Frank Miniter, Forbes

I always had this negative feeling about Sonny Liston, as he had beaten my hero, a man I was too young to ever see fight, but who taught me to box—Floyd Patterson. And Liston’s reputation was never that of a good man, but only of a hard and dangerous man who died in mysterious circumstances perhaps related to his involvement in organized crime.

So I picked up The Murder of Sonny Liston by Shaun Assael, a longtime writer for ESPN, curiously and with trepidation. The reporting Assael weaves together takes us back into the windowless rooms that smell of Vaseline, sweat and leather where fighters hands are taped before gloves are pulled over their fists. You see Las Vegas in the 1960s and early 70s and meet the mobsters and police officers and boxing trainers. Most of all you follow Liston on his violent and tragic ride. Reading this book you feel like you are watching a grainy 1940s film noir whose central character isn’t the hardnosed, yet somehow likable Philip Marlowe, but a despicable thug collecting money for the mob, which is one of the things Liston allegedly did.

Keep reading at forbes.com »

theLeader (UK) Sports Book Review

October 20, 2016

Sonny Liston’s tale should be a compelling, ultimately uplifting, rags-to-riches one; the story of a man who rose from the depths of Depression America to become heavyweight champion of the world. All of the necessary ingredients are all there.

He was one of 25 (no, that’s not an error) children born around 1931 to an Arkansas nut farmer who left to seek a life of crime in St Louis at the age of 14. Charles ‘Sonny’ Liston was illiterate but developed into a powerfulman with huge hands; he would spend time in prison before taking up boxing, turning pro in 1953.

By 1962, Liston was world heavyweight champion, though he was dogged by his apparent association with organised crime and accusations that several of his fights were fixed.

The Murder of Sonny Liston is as far from a rags-to-riches tale as you could get, but it is absolutely compelling…

Keep reading at www.leaderlive.co.uk »

Everlast Talkbox Boxing Episode 14 with Michael Woods

October 19, 2016

Taped at the Everlast Studio in the heart of NEW YORK CITY TALKBOX is your pound for pound podcast prime destination for all matters boxing

Irish Times: Story of Sonny Liston’s death makes good reading

October 19, 2016

“Compelling…the most forensic investigation yet…Excellent book read[s] like an Elmore Leonard novel.” – Dave Hannigan, Irish Times

His final resting place is in Row 1 of the Garden of Peace section of Paradise Gardens Cemetery, hard by the Las Vegas Airport. Inscribed on a one foot by two foot bronze tablet are the words “Charles Sonny Liston, 1932 -1970, A Man”.

A suitably nondescript memorial. No date of birth because he was never exactly sure of that himself. No date of death because he was gone for days before his body was even discovered. Between those two landmark events, there’s plenty we know but so much more we don’t and probably never will about Liston. The enduring fascination of this particular former heavyweight champion.

Continue reading at www.irishtimes.com »

Vice Wants to Know: Who Killed Sonny?

October 16, 2016

Check out my interview with VICE’s Seth Ferranti:

In his new book, The Murder of Sonny Liston: Las Vegas, Heroin, and Heavyweights, out October 18, ESPN journalist Shaun Assael treats the boxer’s death as a cold case and investigates the circumstances that led to Liston’s early exit from life. As the story unfolds, readers get a light into not just the seedy underworld of professional boxing, but also 1970s Las Vegas—a world of glitz and glamor, grit and crime. Assael found that Liston straddled the line between two worlds, walking in the limelight with celebrities like Elvis, but at the same time consorting with criminals, big players in the mob, and dirty cops. VICE chatted with Assael to find out what happened to Sonny Liston, a man who many wanted to silence.

Keep reading at VICE.com »

The Sunday Times (UK) Reviews “Sonny”

October 16, 2016

“Readers of James Ellroy’s Underworld USA Trilogy will feel very much at home.” – Dan Jones, Sunday Times

One night in the 1960s, a Las Vegas police officer was doing his rounds in the well-heeled neighbourhood of Paradise Palms when he was accosted by a female resident. She was a neighbour of the sometime world-champion boxer Sonny Liston, and she did not appreciate the loud parties the heavyweight threw whenever his wife, Geraldine, went away. “He’s a goddamn drunk,” she told the officer. “He’s going to die in the gutter.”

As it turned out, Liston was not merely a drunk but a heroin addict, and he died flat on his back in his bedroom at New Year in 1971, around the age of 40. Drugs were found in his kitchen. An autopsy cited natural causes, but its conclusions and the circumstances surrounding Liston’s…

Continue reading at www.thetimes.co.uk »