For weeks, recorded invitations had been circulating in New York and Atlanta. In gold letters, the cards indicated that a guy named “Fireball” was throwing a birthday party for “Tobe” at 2819 Handy Drive in the Collier Heights segment of Atlanta’s West End. The festivities were scheduled to begin in the early morning of October 27, 1970, without delay after the historic return of boxer Muhammad Ali, who in Atlanta will face Jerry Quarry after a three-year absence from the ring.
The invitations covered any of the cities because organizers knew that Ali’s return would attract enthusiasts from New York and elsewhere would also attract fraudsters, pimps, drug dealers and other men and women with other means of making a living. expensive cash and jewellery.
Even if boxing enthusiasts were used to seeing flights in the ring and on the judges’ scoreboards, this time it would be different: As they celebrated Ali’s victory, they would be the victims of one of the biggest blatant armed robberies ever. had the city of Atlanta. known.
Atlanta was not a traditional selection to serve as a place for Ali’s return. From 1967 to 1970, the boxer formerly known as Cassius Clay had fought the federal government after pointing himself out as a conscientious objector and refusing to devote the Vietnam War to military service. He was sentenced to five years in prison for recruitment fraud.
After being released on bail, Ali appealed his sentence, but the stigma persisted: the boxer stripped himself of his heavyweight championship and blacklisted the sport, and the states refused to grant him a license to compete for the 28-year-old. Racial tensions remained high, it seemed unthinkable for an official to approve Ali’s return to the ring.
Robert Kassel devised another way. The New York-based lawyer had helped announce a fight opposed to Joe Frazier and knew Ali’s return would be a lucrative event, so he asked his father-in-law, Atlanta businessman Harry Pett, to call Georgia State Senator Leroy Johnson. Pett and Johnson were friends; Johnson, one of the few black elected officials in the state, felt Ali’s remedy was unfair and agreed to see what he could do.
Johnson discovered that Georgia did not have legislation governing the game of boxing, leaving permission to celebrate occasions for local municipalities. Johnson contacted Atlanta Mayor Sam Massell, who allowed the fight to continue, on the condition that Kassel donate $50,000 of the proceeds to a local detox program.
Ali’s return is scheduled for October 26, 1970 in opposition to Jerry Quarry, who had recently eliminated top heavyweight competitor Mac Foster. This weekend, locals and tourists visited the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Atlanta, as well as the 5,000-seat Civic Auditorium. and paid up to $ 100 for a seat at the edge of the ring. (Fans in other cities can simply watch the match on closed-circuit television. ) Celebrities like Diana Ross have been spotted at the Hyatt. As did the visitors who wore elaborate costumes and extravagant jewelry. Other recorded invitations were distributed for the Fireball Party, which would begin without delay after the match.
Shaking years of rust, Ali declared the winner by technical knockout in the third round, when a cut forced Quarry coach Teddy Bentham to cancel the fight.
As Ali celebrated his victory at the Hyatt, surrounded by friends and celebrities, cars filled with not-so-famous events began to gather at 2819 Handy Drive. As they entered through the front door, they hoped to find a booming party. , were greeted through men dressed in balaclavas brandishing cropped shotguns.
One by one, revelers were taken to the basement and ordered to throw their cash and jewelry into a pile. Then they were told to take off their underwear and lie on the floor. As more and more people appeared, according to some estimates up to two hundred visitors, the stack of valuables grew. The sick were forced to pile on the most sensitive to each other. The robbery, slow and deliberate, lasted for hours; thieves filled the goods in yellow and white pillowcases.
Finally, around 3 a. m. , the gunmen crawled away to two hostages with them, three hours later they were dropped off on the other side of town and given $10 for the taxi, called the police and an investigation was soon launched. a robbery in which most of those affected were the criminals themselves would not be easy.
Authorities have subjected the owner, a criminal named Gordon “Chicken Man” Williams, to harsh tests. (He earned the nickname buying bird sandwiches, which he then distributed to horny women in hopes of seducing them. ) In the case, a detective lieutenant named JDHudson knew that Williams was relatively clean. Hudson had been assigned to serve as Ali’s bodyguard during the match and had seen Williams, whom he had known for decades, at the same time as Williams’ girlfriend, Barbara Smith, said she was helping prepare for the party when the men armed broke. in. Williams had only given a criminal associate known as Fireball permission to use the space for a party.
The clues were scarce and the witnesses’ accounts were difficult to obtain. Most of the victims of the robbery were afraid to talk to the police and arrived from outside the city. Only five have filed formal complaints. Most left Atlanta without even giving the government their personal information. The only genuine recommendation came through an un nameless phone call from someone who said the robbery had been arranged to pay for a drug deal that had gone wrong in New York this year.
The first genuine rupture came two days later, when a shotgun and a yellow and white pillowcase were discovered near the space in a leather purse. The gun has been traced to a guy named Jimmy “Houston” Hammonds, who said he bought it for two friends: James Jackson and James Ebo. The two men had pseudonyms and both were known to be involved in criminal activities. Hudson went to Jackson’s apartment, but there was no one home. Still, he was lucky: Jackson’s bed had white and yellow sheets.
A month later, a Fulton County grand jury accused Hammonds, Jackson and Ebo, who was named under his alias James Henry Hall, of six counts of armed robbery each. Hammonds was already in custody, but there was no sign of the other two men. Hudson’s idea that one of the two things would happen: either the police would place them or their victims would, especially now that they had been named in the papers. If the victims found out, there would be no trial.
Hudson was right. On May 8, 1971, Jackson and Ebo were found shot to death inside a Cadillac parked in the Bronx. A third man, Donald Phillips, also died. The theft did not seem likely, as the weapons and $ 700 in cash remained at the scene. New York City detectives may not perceive why until Jackson and Ebo were known as suspects on Hudson’s flight in Atlanta, which flew to New York to consult authorities. “We said last fall that it was just a question of who supported them first – the police or the sick,” Hudson told the New York Times. “Turns out the sick came first. “
Although a total of five to eight armed men were reported through the victims, no one else was arrested. A third crime-related individual, “Bookie” Brown, was also discovered dead. Hudson assumed that street justice had come for others.
By mistake, Gordon “Chicken Man” Williams allegedly killed for his assumed role in the robbery. Local newspapers even reported that Williams was killed just two days after the party when he was actually alive and healthy. Williams had cooperated with the police and then informed some affiliates in New York that he had not been concerned at all. Her friend had even been one of the hostages taken when the thieves fled. Williams eventually left the drug industry and became a minister.
Ali about his plan to be convicted of evasion being overturned by the Supreme Court in 1971 and claim his heavyweight name in a match opposed to George Foreman in 1974. For the race match, he paid $250,000 instead of 42. 5% of the winnings. the thieves escaped with about $1 million.
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When it premiered in 1990, Director Francis Ford Coppola’s Godfather: Part III was acclaimed by critics and publicity. In telling the story of Michael Corleone (Al Pacino), who last realized in 1974, The Godfather: Part II, many enthusiasts were disappointed.
Now they’d probably have to take a look at the movie. Variety announced that in December, Paramount will release a newly released edition of the film, overseen through Coppola, which will also come with a new ending.
The new version, titled Mario Puzo’s Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone, would be closer than Coppola and godfather and screenwriter Mario Puzo had in mind for the final bankruptcy of the film series. According to Coppola, the film will provide a new version. beginning, a new finish and scenes that have been “reorganized. “Coppola calls it a “more appropriate conclusion” of the saga, which he never thought of as a trilogy. The third film, he says, was intended to be more of a coda, which is now reflected in the title.
Coppola also said the edition could simply replace the public’s belief in the functionality given through his daughter, Lost In Translation director Sofia Coppola, who at the time played with Mary Corleone, Michael’s daughter. at the time of the film’s release.
Due to the ever-changing theatrical scene, it is known whether the new edition will reach theaters, as Paramount has suggested, or whether it will be screened in movie parks. Anyway, the studio is also making plans for a virtual release and a DVD.
Paramount had spent years taking off a third film, suggesting at one point that Sylvester Stallone wrote, directed and acted, but Stallone refused.
[Variety h/t]