By Allan Lengel
ticklthewire.com
FBI documents show that someone wrote letters to boxing legend Rocky Marciano threatening to kill his wife and child if he didn’t lose a fight to underdog Ezzard Charles on June 17, 1954, according to the Enterprise of Brockton.
“Listen Cocky Rocky,” one letter dated March 9, 1954 began, according to the publication. “We mean business.”
It went on to urge him to lose the fight or “or we will bump off your wife and little child…We’ll get them sooner or later…You bet on that.”
It was signed “Desperate Duo.”
The paper went on to report that FBI documents showed Marciano’s father received an an extortion letter, and his manager Al Weill received repeated calls threatening to kill him and Mariano.
The documents show a man named Joseph Hannigan, 23, of Glenolden, Pa., was arrested for writing the letters. He explained that he wrote them because he was for the underdog.
Marciano won the bout in 15 rounds.
