Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1756-1963 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. Chronicling America is sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities external link and the Library of Congress. Learn more
Image provided by: Library of Virginia; Richmond, VA
Newspaper Page Text
s True Stories Achievement Stories The Richmond Planet Clean Fiction Human Interest Features \\ |t. zifl Co.. t:«X >. Dearborn St.. Chicago, Foreign Advertising Kepresentatives 11 --—--- —---- — ,J1* " Pictures In the Illustrated Feature Section were poscu. BEN DAVIS, Jr., .LUSTRATED FEATURE SECTION-January 25, 1930 and do not depict principals .unless so captioned. Feature Editor ^ IS THE GLAMOUR OFSUDDENFAME AND WEALTH WORTH THE PRICE? lay sprawled across the sidewalk in a pool of blood. Harlem Still Silent on the Mysterious Murder of the Picturesque Battling Siki, Who Could Not Resist the Lure of Gay Life. By Edward H. Lawson, Jr. FOL R years ago a man was murdered — shot down in cold blood on one of the narrow streets of Harlem. Today his murderer still roams unmolested and unknown, with only the pun ishment of his own con science to pay for the life of the man he killed. Four years ago, Officer John J. Meehan, in making his nightly round of the cab aret district, stumbled over the body of that man, a gruesome sight, sprawled across the sidewalk in a pool of blood. Two gunshot wounds in his back indicated how he had come to grief. An old pistol was found in the gutter. That was all. Officer Meehan recognized the fel low almost instantly. He was a big, husky chap, black as a man could possibly be; kinky hair, flat nose, and a chubby, laughing face. No one could mistake him. It was none other than Battling Siki. once holder of several boxing cham pionships and victor over the great French ace, Georges Carpentier. They removed him to the hos pital. but he was dead and nothing could be done. An investigation was started. Who had fired the allots? Nobody knew. Who had heard them? No one. Who had seen the crime committed? No one. Who had stumbled over the body before the policeman? Not a soul. Evidently Harlem was not awaken ed by shots at four in the morning. The detectives chose another starting point. Where had Siki been that night? Somehow it leak ed out that he had been seen in a certain cafeteria. They questioned the proprietor. Was he drunk? Yep. he was pretty well stewed. Did he argue with anyone, or start a fuss in the cafeteria. Yes. he had engaged in a drunken At ri°iit is a picture of Battling Siki (Louis Fall), the Senegalese_prize fighter, with the Dutch woman he is reputed to have married in and child. Siki was also married in the municipal budding of New Aork Citv to Lillian Werner, 30, of 470 West 2,->rd street, the same ad dres: given by the fighter. Siki gave his age as 23 and declared on his license that it was his first marriage. At right top—Kid Norfolk, American colored light heavyweight cham pion, earned the decision over Battling Siki, the Senegalese warrior, after fifteen fast rounds of fighting at Madison Square Garden The phot > shows the two battlers posed before t'*e fight, Battling Siki on the left, the referee, and Kid Norfolk, at right. Above are shown Mr. and Mrs. Louis Fall. Mr. Fall being none other than Battling Siki, the singular Senegalese prize-fighter. Though Mki s wife was said to be white, when the marriage became public, she was an octoroon. Siki is said to have admitted the paternity of the baby, the son of the woman then in Paris, but denied the woman was his wife. He intended to marry her, it is said, but she ran off with somebody else. brawl with another man. Both had been ousted from the cafeteria. Who were the other men in the brawl? Harlem —shut up like a clam. No amount of questioning could break the silence. No one They questioned the widow. She knew nothing. She offered a single clue, however. Siki had often quar relled with a neighbor over a liquor bill of $100 which Siki refused to pay. Perhaps—. But that neighbor proved an ironclad alibi. Failing on all sides, the detectives looked up the fighter's past his tory in order to unearth some enemy that might perpetrate such a crime. Siki, they found, was a boxer, of Senegalese birth. His fighting career had begun in Paris and, af ter a long series of successive vic (Continucd on pace (wo)