Rubin Carter

In 1963, he married Mae Thelma Basket. They had two sons. After the birth of their second son, Mae Thelma divorced him on the grounds of infidelity. After his release in 1985, Carter married his supporter Lisa Peters, in Canada. However, they separated later.

In 2012, he revealed that he had been suffering from terminal prostate cancer. He died on April 20, 2014, at his home in Toronto, Canada.

Rubin Carter was born on May 6, 1937, in Clifton, New Jersey, US, and grew up in Passaic and Paterson, New Jersey. His parents, Lloyd and Bertha, were originally from Georgia. His father ran an ice-delivery service and worked in a rubber factory. Carter was the fourth of the seven children in his family.

He attacked a man with a knife when he was 11. According to him, the man he attacked was a pedophile who was trying to molest his friend. He was sent to the ‘Jamesburg State Home for Boys.’ In 1954, he ran away from the reformatory before the completion of his term and went to Philadelphia.

In Philadelphia, he joined the ‘United States Army’ and started training in boxing. He played several bouts for the ‘United States Army.’ He faced four courts-martial for various discipline-related offences and was discharged from the army after being branded “unfit for service.”

On his return to Paterson in 1956, he was arrested for his escape from the reformatory and was sent to the ‘Annandale Reformatory’ for 10 months. After his release in 1957, he again got into trouble and was arrested for assault and theft. At the ‘Trenton State Prison,’ he revived his interest in boxing.

After his release from prison, he entered the professional boxing arena and won his first fight on September 22, 1961. He exhibited a very powerful left hook, and his aggressiveness in the ring soon earned him the nickname “Hurricane.”

Of his first 21 fights, he won 13 by knockouts. His past criminal record and his solid frame (5 feet 8 inches and 155 pounds) added to his forceful image. His boxing abilities were recognized in 1963, and he featured among the top ten middleweight contenders on a list compiled by the boxing magazine ‘The Ring.’

The biggest victory of his career was his win against Emile Griffith in December 1963 at Pittsburg. He then ranked third on ‘The Ring’s list for the contenders of the world middleweight title. In 1964, he fought for the middleweight title against the reigning champion, Joey Giardello, in Philadelphia, but lost the match. In 1965, he fought 9 matches and won 5 of them.

On the night of June 17, 1966, two black men shot and killed three white people at the ‘Lafayette Bar and Grill’ in Paterson. Earlier that night, a black bar owner in Paterson was murdered by a white man. This made the police suspect that the shootout was arranged in retaliation.

The police stopped Carter’s car, a white Dodge, and started interrogating him and an acquaintance, John Artis. The bartender of the ‘Lafayette Bar and Grill’ and a customer had died on the spot. Two others were injured (one of whom died a month later). Both the surviving victims reported that the shooters were black males, but they could not identify Carter or Artis. No facilities to test for gunshot residue were available then, and no fingerprints were taken. Carter and Artis were released later.

While in the jail, he wrote and published his autobiography, ‘The Sixteenth Round,’ which was published in 1975 by ‘Warner Books.’