WAS JACK DEMPSEY POISONED?

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 78, 27 December 1926, Page 3

WAS JACK DEMPSEY POISONED?

DOCTORED CREAM IN TRAINING CAMP.

A little dash of poison dropped in a bottle of cream by a sinister, designing hand wrested the world’s

heavyweight championship from Jack Dempsey (says a recent cable from New York to the Melbourne “Morning Post”).

That’s the real inside story of why Dempsey was not the same old Dempsey on the ill-fated night when he fought Gene Tunney. At least, so says Captain Charles Mabbutt, generalissimo of the Dempsey training camp.

“On the Saturday preceding the fight Dempsey and his bodyguard breakfasted together,” said Mabbutt. “Trant did not use jireani in his coffee, but all the rest of us did. The following day I became violently ill. So did jerry the Greek and Dempsey. But Trant did not.

“Realising that Dempsey had more troubles and worries than was good for a man in his position, I carefully avoided telling him of iny illness. "Jack didn’t get wise until he met me in Baltimore on the Sunday after the fight. Then he saw a rash on my face and body, and began to ask questions. “He had the same kind of rash, but not quite as bad as mine. We compared notes, and decided that our illness dated back to the morning we both took the poisoned cream in our coffee.

“We have nobody under suspicion. Only one person cooked andi served our food at the training tablet

"She was Miss Pauline Labodda, a reputable woman, who acted in the same capacity for President .Wilson at the White House for four years. Jack trusted her as he would his mother.”

Tex Rickard, the promoter of the fight, brands Mabbutt’s story as “a lot of bunk.”

“The poison story,” he declared, “was circulated some time after the bout, but I know nothing of it. Dempsey as well as the others told me that it was bunk.” , Gene Tunney comments: “Having known Mabbutt in France, I also happen to know his mental depth. Nobody who knows him will take the charges seriously.” It is a lact, however, that Dempsey was treated for rash immediately after the fight. Jack O’Brien said: “The only poison Dempsey got was Tunney’s first righthand punch on the jaw.” He added that he would have bet 500 U to 1000 dollars on Dempsey three minutes before the Tight started, but not a nickel three minutes after it had started.