UGLY RUMORS

NZ Truth, Issue 1208, 24 January 1929, Page 9

UGLY RUMORS

Mysterious Death of Boxer WalLMiUer 1 MURDER OR SUICIDE? American boxing 1 went close to getting" a serious jolt when Walk. Miller met an untimely end recently. The police accepted a suicide theory, but a probe into the affair elicited a few facts that gave colqr to the murder aspect m a rather' startling manner.

•"THE body of Miller was discovered 1 at his health farm, Walk Mill, by t Jess McMahon, late matchmaker t for the Madison Square Garden Corl poration. A bullet through the head • and one through the heart had. caused i his death. But when an investigation into the , case was instituted, some took the 3 stand that suicide was an ' impossible - feat. One bullet was fired from the 1 right side into the head. The other ' was fired from the left side and tore ■ away the lower section of the heart. Taking this angle an American j paper says: "To have accomplished _ his own death Miller would, have j had to fire one shot, then change hands to fire the second." , "Physicians say either bullet would I have caused instantaneous death. ) " 'He was murdered,' declared Mrs. , Annette Miller, his widow. 'Ever , since the Flowers— Walker fight m Chicago he had been m fear of his • life.' ' ' . ' t "That Miller had ~" 5 man y dangerous '.. enemies m Chicago t was a fact that his , associates m the , i health farm have .. ■. • . ~" : 7" t been brooding over since his death. l "About two years ago Miller's *pro-. tege, ■ Flowers, lost his championship to Mickey Walker .m Chicago. Miller 'squawked that the: referee had been intimidated -by a gang of gunmen m the pay of a gambling ring. That squawk seems to have -pursued him to his grave.' ... < "Miller had enemies m New York, too. His periodic threats to expose a gambling ring that was fixing fights there were known to have been bad for his health. . . "Flowers died on the operating table with the Lord's Prayer on his lips. Miller was heart-broken because lie had lost his champion, and swore yen- ■ geance on a circle m the ring racket | that he repeatedly asserted had been [ instrumental m the destruction of '. Flowers* : "Reciting the Chicago bout, when ! Mickey Walker was given a guesI tionable decision over Flowers, Miller openly declared a 'ring' had . 1 robbed his boy of his' title. Miller ■ went so nin as to gather affidavits to substantiate his claims. 1 ■ "Uater, unable to again get Walker ! into a ring with Flowers, Miller began rebuilding Flowers at New York. He

Gambling Ring

was a great attraction. He was a consistent winner. He again loomed as a threat for the title, for Flowers was. rated a drawing card the equal of Walker. But Miller met obstacle after obstacle. "Finally, Miller decided to place Flowers under the care of a surgeon for a minor operation " on what was said to be a scar-tissue growth over his eye. ■ •-' . • / "He 'went on the tabje— and there he died. It was openly alleged by Miller, and he attempted to prove; that Flowers' death was not altogether accidental. "He declared on several occasions that he had affidavits concerning the cause of his fighter's death that would break up boxing m New York. "He never produced them m court, though he did make a special trip to Georgia to verify one or more of the statements of expert testimony he then said he had m his possession, that would break the fight racket wide open m New York. He never . produced them. • "T h c night of Tiger Flowers' death Miller openly cried on a Broadway corner: ' 'They have killed my champion. I knew they'd do it. Now they HAVE; done, it.' - "When friends attempted to comfort and cheer him, they found him a broken man. No longer was he the cheery-voiced Southern boy, with ; a voice as clear as a bell and a smile that shone m reverses as it did m success. Tiger Flowers was dead and Walk Miller was out on ; his feet, as the boys of the boxing racket described him and his actions. - . , "As he boarded the train for Atlanta to bury 'his champion,' Walk Miller said .to a party of friends:— • . \ ."'Folks, I. wish you all good luck. I may not come back. They are on my trail, but I'll beat them at their own game, . They killed Tiger, but if 1 live we will ferret them out.'.' But as . startling as the thing seemed to be, it was all finally smothered m the suicide argument, and the lot laid against Miller's reputed financial 'diffl-, culties since the death of Flowers.: The Chicago bout m which . the "Tiger" lost his title was certainly followed by plenty of discussion, 1 and Miller insistently stated that his man had been rbbbecL