GENE TUNNEY LOYAL TO FRIEND

Southland Times, Issue 23255, 19 July 1937, Page 7

GENE TUNNEY LOYAL TO FRIEND

FREAK GOLFER DEFENDED (Received July 18, 6.30 p.m.) NEW YORK, July 17. Gene Tunney, former heavyweight boxing champion of the world, referring to John Montague, who is threatened with extradition, castigated the authorities for making a “martyr of Montague.” Tunney said it would be an outrage if Montague were imprisoned for something he may or may not have done seven years ago. He was a gentleman and a prince of fellows, and would not allow anyone to pay his night club bills but himself. On July 11 it was reported that film friends had rallied to the support of John Montague, who is awaiting an extradition hearing resulting from an indictment charging him with the theft of 700 dollars. Bing Crosby, who was beaten by Montague in a golf match in which the latter used a baseball bat, a shovel and a rake instead of clubs, said that Montague's film friends were backing him "100 per cent." Oliver Hardy, at whose home Montague once stayed, offered to furnish 10,000 dollars for bail. The police say that Montague, whose source of livelihood has been a Hollywood mystery, is actually Laverne Moore Montague. They say the charge resulted from a prank when he was just a boy, but they intend to ask him about other robberies.