Dempsey Sues For 3m Dollars

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30406, 3 April 1964, Page 13

Dempsey Sues For 3m Dollars

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) NEW YORK, April 2. Jack Dempsey, a former world heavy-weight boxing champion, yesterday brought a 3,000,000-dollar (£1,339,286) libel suit against a leading sports magazine which said he won the title in 1919 by using “loaded gloves,” Associated Press reported.

Dempsey took the title from Jess Willard at Toledo, Ohio, on July 4, 1919. In an action against Time Inc., publishers of “Sports Illustrated,” Dempsey said: “In truth and in fact, my gloves were not ‘loaded’ I when I defeated Jess Willard and won the heavy-weight boxing championship of the world.

“I won the championship fairly and the published matter was, and is, false, malicious and defamatory.” The article appeared In the January 13, 1964, issue. Dempsey’s suit was filed in the State Supreme Court in Manhattan. In his complaint, Dempsey said that the cover of the magazine bore the headline

“Dempsey’s Gloves Were Loaded,” and a sub-beadline which read “Doc Kearns’ Own Story of the Bloody Willard Fight.” The story, Dempsey said, was titled “He didn’t know the gloves were loaded. By Jack Doc Kearns with Oscar Fraley.” Kearns, Dempsey’s manager during the fight, died in July, 1963.