Jack Leonard, 89; fight promoter helped put mob boss in prison

Jack Leonard, a former Los Angeles boxing promoter who withstood mafia threats and a suspicious attack inside his garage to become a key witness in a sensational trial that sent organized crime’s so-called boss of boxing to prison, has died. He was 89.

Leonard, who died Saturday of heart failure in a nursing home in Winter Haven, Fla., was a promoter and matchmaker at the old Hollywood Legion Stadium, where boxing matches drawing an estimated 6,000 fans were routinely scheduled on Saturday evenings.

One of his fighters was Don Jordan, a welterweight who in 1958 won the world welterweight title by defeating Virgil Akins as a 3-to-1 underdog at Los Angeles’ Olympic Auditorium.

Jordan also defeated Akins in a rematch in St. Louis.

In 1959, Leonard told the California Athletic Commission he had been approached immediately after Jordan’s second victory by Frankie Carbo, described by The Times as “a reputed underworld boxing czar.”

Carbo wanted Leonard to serve as an intermediary to Jordan’s manager in an effort to “muscle in” and seize a large percentage of earnings from the fighter’s contract in future bouts.

Two weeks later, Leonard was hospitalized with a concussion and several other injuries after he told police he had been attacked inside his Northridge garage by two men.

Calling the beating retribution for his testimony, Leonard told The Times that a man identifying himself as Carbo had called him before the hearing and said “he’d have my eyeballs torn out if I talked.”

Although police later suggested that Leonard suffered a heart attack and fell to the floor of his garage, he maintained his beating story before a federal grand jury and later reported that his children were threatened.

His home was also subjected to a reported arson.

“I don’t know if you can say the mob did it, but I saw him the day after the attack, and he was pretty bruised and beaten,” said John Hall, a former Times sports columnist.

Carbo, Philadelphia fight promoter Frank “Blinky” Palermo, Los Angeles boxing figure Joe Sica and two others were ultimately indicted for crimes including conspiracy and extortion.

In the 1961 trial, Leonard, under 24-hour police protection, testified that Carbo had told him he had controlled the welterweight champion’s earnings for 25 years, “and no punk is going to take it away from me.”

Leonard said Carbo told him, “You’re going to get hurt, and when I mean hurt, I mean dead.”

The intimidation “was tough on him,” said Leonard’s friend and boxing promoter Don Chargin.

“I’d see him daily during that time. He was very nervous, and he had every right to be,” he said.

Boxing publicist Bill Caplan said Monday that the trial illuminated that “this group of mafioso had controlled the lightweight and welterweight titles for years.

When Jordan upset Akins, Jackie Leonard said, ‘Oh no, we’re L.A. people, we don’t go for that stuff.’ I think they sent a message to him when they got to him in the garage, that ‘We could’ve killed you. . . . ‘ But he still didn’t back down.”

A jury convicted Carbo and four others, and federal prosecutors called it the most significant court decision against national underworld operations in more than 20 years.

“It was almost unfair how these mob guys just looked like mob guys, and the jury looked like it was out of Kansas -- mild-mannered, church-going,” said boxing promoter Don Fraser, who testified for the defense during the trial.

“Carbo, Palermo, Sica -- they were so menacing-looking. You could tell just by looking at them that they didn’t get where they were by looking like a banker.”

Carbo was sentenced to 25 years in prison, with U.S. Judge George Boldt telling the courtroom, “Never in [Carbo’s] life has he been associated with any useful activity. . . he has been a menace to humanity and a hardened and degenerate criminal.”

A former boxer who studied engineering, Leonard left the sport for several years after the trial and worked on construction projects in Guam, Saudi Arabia and South Vietnam before relocating to Winter Haven in 1982.

He helped train fighters in a Police Athletic League there, including current unbeaten welterweight Andre Berto.

In 1998, Leonard was inducted into the U.S. Boxing Writers’ Hall of Fame, and he received a longevity award from the World Boxing Assn. His Winter Haven boxing club also reportedly produced several amateur champions in Florida.

Chargin said Leonard’s legacy is the blow he struck against boxing’s mob influence.

“After that, it scared them all off,” Chargin said.

Leonard is survived by his wife, Jeanne.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.