What do you think?
Rate this book
Murderers' Row
NEW EDITION WITH 25 PHOTOGRAPHS
"I see at least two movies in Murderers' Row, maybe four, each one a Tom Joad journey through the Heart of Darkness."-Charlie Newton
There used to be a particularly dangerous and crime-ridden alley located in what is now the SoHo district of NYC; it ran between ramshackle tenements in a black neighbourhood known as Darktown in the early 19th Century. "Murderers' Row" was no place for the decent or the delicate. By the 1870s, the term was used in direct reference to the second tier of the Tombs prison , which loomed a half mile from the alley. In 1918, New York was cheering six sluggers in the Yankees batting order who were bringing fans to their feet; "murderers' row" they called them.
Boxing is to baseball what film noir is to a musical. It's the bad neighbourhood of sports. It's no place for the decent or the delicate. It too has a murderers' row: eight elite and notorious fighters from the 1940s who evoke the shadowy origins of the name. One of them was mobbed-up to his eyebrows, another was an unsolved mystery until Springs Toledo exhumed and escorted him into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. The oldest, an ex-con, ended his prime in a San Francisco jail after shooting ar vival in an all-night restaurant; that rival stood five feet five and fought light-heavyweights - while drunk. Two of them were killers.
They were the best of boxing's underclass, barred from titlle shots because of the danger surrounding them and the colour of their skin. No less than Sugar Ray Robinson and Henry Armstrong steered clear of them. Their remarkable stories before, during and after their bloody ring careers are quintessential Americana - after hours.
"I see at least two movies in Murderers' Row, maybe four, each one a Tom Joad journey through the Heart of Darkness."-Charlie Newton
There used to be a particularly dangerous and crime-ridden alley located in what is now the SoHo district of NYC; it ran between ramshackle tenements in a black neighbourhood known as Darktown in the early 19th Century. "Murderers' Row" was no place for the decent or the delicate. By the 1870s, the term was used in direct reference to the second tier of the Tombs prison , which loomed a half mile from the alley. In 1918, New York was cheering six sluggers in the Yankees batting order who were bringing fans to their feet; "murderers' row" they called them.
Boxing is to baseball what film noir is to a musical. It's the bad neighbourhood of sports. It's no place for the decent or the delicate. It too has a murderers' row: eight elite and notorious fighters from the 1940s who evoke the shadowy origins of the name. One of them was mobbed-up to his eyebrows, another was an unsolved mystery until Springs Toledo exhumed and escorted him into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. The oldest, an ex-con, ended his prime in a San Francisco jail after shooting ar vival in an all-night restaurant; that rival stood five feet five and fought light-heavyweights - while drunk. Two of them were killers.
They were the best of boxing's underclass, barred from titlle shots because of the danger surrounding them and the colour of their skin. No less than Sugar Ray Robinson and Henry Armstrong steered clear of them. Their remarkable stories before, during and after their bloody ring careers are quintessential Americana - after hours.
312 pages, Hardcover
First published July 4, 2017
2 people are currently reading
31 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
October 18, 2017
Without access, writing careers are short. So, Bud Schulberg wrote THE HARDER THEY FALL as fiction. Rod Serling’s REQUIEM FOR A HEAVYWEIGHT came nine years later, again as fiction. Because there’s a price for telling the truth, then labeling it as such.
MURDERERS’ ROW is the truth, labeled as such, written by a guy who knows what he’s talking about. Books on boxing rarely get to the real violence of the sport, of the life, or the life after, such as it is. Like NCAA football, there’s a presumption that if it’s on TV, it’s governed in accordance with the American moral compass—wave the flag, sing the Anthem, praise the Lord, and it’s all good.
The NCAA is a long way from “good,” but it’s paradise and 72 virgins compared to these pages.
MURDERERS’ ROW is street grit, blood-cake, backroom money, men-as-animals in a $50-a-seat slaughterhouse. The courage and persistence displayed from cover to cover is stunning, much of it outside the ring and endlessly unreported. Yes, the men you’ll meet were flawed and ferocious, but no more so than the sanctioned racism, extortion, and exploitation perpetrated under the watchful eyes of the sporting press and boxing commissions.
Each these fighters comes off the page as a person with hopes and dreams, but theirs so astonishingly low it’s almost laughable given what most of us have learned to take for granted. Reading each story crushed me, yet on the next page, these guys don’t quit, get up, and face it again. I see at least two movies, maybe four, each one a Tom Joad journey through the Heart of Darkness. A trip I wouldn’t have the backbone to take past the second step.
If the sociologists really want to know what birthed Malcolm X, most of the Black Panthers, and the bi-polar division in today’s racial dialogue, it’s clearly depicted in MURDERERS’ ROW. I read MR three times—once because Springs Toledo can write, a second time because of the boxing history I’d never heard, and a third time because I kept wanting the fighters and their families to finish better, to get the same shot I got in a country that’s as much theirs as mine.
MURDERERS’ ROW is remarkable detective work coupled with prodigious self-restraint. Springs doesn’t pass one-tenth the judgements that I would, or shade the truth about his combatants. He puts us in our corner on the stool, beat half-to-death and rings the bell. We get to decide what to do. Bravo.
MURDERERS’ ROW is the truth, labeled as such, written by a guy who knows what he’s talking about. Books on boxing rarely get to the real violence of the sport, of the life, or the life after, such as it is. Like NCAA football, there’s a presumption that if it’s on TV, it’s governed in accordance with the American moral compass—wave the flag, sing the Anthem, praise the Lord, and it’s all good.
The NCAA is a long way from “good,” but it’s paradise and 72 virgins compared to these pages.
MURDERERS’ ROW is street grit, blood-cake, backroom money, men-as-animals in a $50-a-seat slaughterhouse. The courage and persistence displayed from cover to cover is stunning, much of it outside the ring and endlessly unreported. Yes, the men you’ll meet were flawed and ferocious, but no more so than the sanctioned racism, extortion, and exploitation perpetrated under the watchful eyes of the sporting press and boxing commissions.
Each these fighters comes off the page as a person with hopes and dreams, but theirs so astonishingly low it’s almost laughable given what most of us have learned to take for granted. Reading each story crushed me, yet on the next page, these guys don’t quit, get up, and face it again. I see at least two movies, maybe four, each one a Tom Joad journey through the Heart of Darkness. A trip I wouldn’t have the backbone to take past the second step.
If the sociologists really want to know what birthed Malcolm X, most of the Black Panthers, and the bi-polar division in today’s racial dialogue, it’s clearly depicted in MURDERERS’ ROW. I read MR three times—once because Springs Toledo can write, a second time because of the boxing history I’d never heard, and a third time because I kept wanting the fighters and their families to finish better, to get the same shot I got in a country that’s as much theirs as mine.
MURDERERS’ ROW is remarkable detective work coupled with prodigious self-restraint. Springs doesn’t pass one-tenth the judgements that I would, or shade the truth about his combatants. He puts us in our corner on the stool, beat half-to-death and rings the bell. We get to decide what to do. Bravo.
July 24, 2017
There are many narratives in boxing. Some of those stories, like the underdog tale, are familiar enough to even the most casual fan thanks to Stallone's "Rocky" series. Anyone who's seen "Raging Bull" knows that there was a period in which the mafia stranglehold on boxing was as assured as the Combination's control of Las Vegas.
The story Springs Toledo tells, of black fighters avoided by the top boxers of their era (sometimes also black) is a story whose bare bones hardcore fight fans know in bold outline. The author, through diligent gumshoe-work, research, and with no small store of poetry, has filled in a lot of the blanks on the struggles (inside and outside of the ring) endured by the likes of men like Cocoa Kid and Charley Burley.
Toledo seems to grasp that to investigate is to honor, and that by tracking down the heirs and friends of these great unheralded fighters, he can bring a bit of long-overdue recognition to men who outfought the supposedly greatest fighters of their era (sometimes in sparring sessions, and in one case in the street.) It's a sublime bit of investigative reportage, as well as an elegy for men who labored as porters and garbage men when, if there was any justice in the world, they would have been waking up in silk pajamas each day around 2 p.m.
It's like Charles Bukowski said in "Ham on Rye." Someone is always controlling who gets a chance. Sometimes it's the man upstairs but more often it's men in smoky backrooms."Murderers' Row" serves as grim testament that even the most dogged determination and talent cannot sometimes overcome the political machinations of a corrupt, well-oiled machine. "Rocky", it ain't, but "Rocky" is a fairy-tale and this is reality. Highest recommendation.
The story Springs Toledo tells, of black fighters avoided by the top boxers of their era (sometimes also black) is a story whose bare bones hardcore fight fans know in bold outline. The author, through diligent gumshoe-work, research, and with no small store of poetry, has filled in a lot of the blanks on the struggles (inside and outside of the ring) endured by the likes of men like Cocoa Kid and Charley Burley.
Toledo seems to grasp that to investigate is to honor, and that by tracking down the heirs and friends of these great unheralded fighters, he can bring a bit of long-overdue recognition to men who outfought the supposedly greatest fighters of their era (sometimes in sparring sessions, and in one case in the street.) It's a sublime bit of investigative reportage, as well as an elegy for men who labored as porters and garbage men when, if there was any justice in the world, they would have been waking up in silk pajamas each day around 2 p.m.
It's like Charles Bukowski said in "Ham on Rye." Someone is always controlling who gets a chance. Sometimes it's the man upstairs but more often it's men in smoky backrooms."Murderers' Row" serves as grim testament that even the most dogged determination and talent cannot sometimes overcome the political machinations of a corrupt, well-oiled machine. "Rocky", it ain't, but "Rocky" is a fairy-tale and this is reality. Highest recommendation.
May 6, 2025
Another extraordinary book by Springs that gives the 8 fighters of Murderer’s Row the recognition they deserve. These forgotten fighters were at times the best at their weight yet never got a shot at the title (only in boxing…). So, instead, they fought each other.
They have every right to be remembered as vividly as the famous champions of Robinson, Lamotta and Moore are.
They have every right to be remembered as vividly as the famous champions of Robinson, Lamotta and Moore are.
January 25, 2023
Springs Toledo is my favourite author. He has a style that leaves lovely little phrases stay in your mind .
He roots for the little guy . The ones the internet don’t know about . The ones the boxing world dismiss then and now .
These men deserve to be known .
These men are all champions .
These men are all legends .
Thanks for doing the research and writing to bring them back to life , springs .
He roots for the little guy . The ones the internet don’t know about . The ones the boxing world dismiss then and now .
These men deserve to be known .
These men are all champions .
These men are all legends .
Thanks for doing the research and writing to bring them back to life , springs .
October 31, 2021
Brilliant book. So sad how talent was over looked due to the colour of someone's skin. The whole book is sad but taking the positives from it I'm glad these legends are finally getting their story told and Springs does a great job telling the story.
August 12, 2017
As good as anything I've read in boxing.
July 22, 2019
The research Toledo has undertaken in order to give life to characters like Lloyd Marshall, Cocoa Kid, Bert Lytell and Aaron Wade is astounding!
February 22, 2022
Phenomenal book. The amount of research required for this combined with Mr Toledo's wonderful prose and storytelling ability make for a fitting tribute to these forgotten fighters.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews