The Murder of Sonny Liston, Shaun Assael
The Murder of Sonny Liston, Shaun Assael
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The Murder of Sonny Liston
Las Vegas, Heroin, and Heavyweights

Author: Shaun Assael

Narrator: R. C. Bray

Unabridged: 6 hr 42 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/18/2016


Synopsis

On January 5, 1971, Sonny Liston was found dead in his home—of an apparent heroin overdose. But no one close to Liston believed that his death was accidental. Digging deep into a life that Liston tried hard to hide, Shaun Assael treats the boxer's death as a cold case. The result is a riveting whodunit that evokes a glorious and grimy era of Las Vegas.

Elvis Presley was playing two shows a night at the International. Howard Hughes was running his empire from the penthouse suite of the Desert Inn. And middle America was flocking to the Strip, transforming it from an exclusive playground for the mob to a mecca for corporate dollars. But the city was also rotting from within. Heroin was pouring over the border from Mexico, and the segregated Westside was on the cusp of a race war.

Driving through town with the top of his pink Cadillac down, Liston was the one celebrity who was unafraid to bridge the two sides of Las Vegas. Cashing in on his fading notoriety in the casinos, he was dealing drugs, working for a crime syndicate, and trying to break into Hollywood—all with a boxer's faith that he could duck any threat, slip any punch. Heroin addiction was the only knockout blow he didn't see coming.

About Shaun Assael

Shaun Assael, who has been with ESPN The Magazine since its launch in 1996, is a member of ESPN's investigations unit and a regular contributor to the prime-time show E:60. He is also the New York Times bestselling author of Wide Open, Sex Lies and Headlocks (with Mike Mooneyham), and Steroid Nation.


Reviews

Goodreads review by J.

*Review originally published in the New York Journal Of Books: [URL not allowed]-... Charles “Sonny” Liston, former heavyweight champion turned drug dealer, was found dead in his Las Vegas home on January 5, 1971. It was the ending of a life that had been steadily veering toward ro......more

Goodreads review by Joseph

The Laura Palmer of the Fight Game (Sonny was born dead) The subtitle of this book says it all. This is not a book about Sonny Liston; it's a book about the seedy Vegas milieu where Sonny settled after his boxing career ended in ignominy. And even though the book is titled "The Murder of Sonny Liston......more

Goodreads review by Hewitt

The title is misleading. The author doesn't offer any evidence that Liston's heroin overdose was murder. But the book did provide some interesting background on Liston, Vegas, Ali, boxing, etc, that made the book worth reading.......more