Prizefighter Muhammad Ali also joined the fight to free Carter, along with leading figures in liberal politics, civil rights and entertainment. The story of his plight attracted the attention and support of many luminaries, including Dylan, who visited Carter in prison, wrote the song "Hurricane" (included on his 1976 album, Desire), and played it at every stop of his Rolling Thunder Revue tour. He read and studied extensively, and in 1974 published his autobiography, The 16th Round: From Number 1 Contender to Number 45472, to widespread acclaim. While incarcerated at Trenton State and Rahway State prisons, Carter continued to maintain his innocence by defying the authority of the prison guards, refusing to wear an inmate's uniform, and becoming a recluse in his cell. Nevertheless, on June 29, 1967, Carter and Artis were convicted of triple murder and sentenced to three life prison terms. During the trial that followed, the prosecution produced little to no evidence linking Carter and Artis to the crime, a shaky motive (racially-motivated retaliation for the murder of a Black tavern owner by a white man in Paterson hours before), and the only two eyewitnesses were petty criminals involved in a burglary (who were later revealed to have received money and reduced sentences in exchange for their testimony). Bradley, who had made positive identifications. Now, the state had produced two eyewitnesses, Alfred Bello and Arthur D. Carter and John Artis had been arrested on the night of the crime because they fit an eyewitness description of the killers ("two Negroes in a white car"), but they had been cleared by a grand jury when the one surviving victim failed to identify them as the gunmen. Arrest for Triple HomicideĬarter was training for his next shot at the world middleweight title (against champion Dick Tiger) in October 1966 when he was arrested for the June 17 triple murder of three patrons at the Lafayette Bar & Grill in Paterson. His flamboyant lifestyle (Carter frequented the city's nightclubs and bars) and juvenile record rankled the police, as did the vehement statements he had allegedly made advocating violence in the pursuit of racial justice. Although he lost his one shot at the title, in a 15-round split decision to reigning champion Joey Giardello in December 1964, he was widely regarded as a good bet to win his next title bout.Īs one of the most famous citizens of Paterson, Carter made no friends with the police, especially during the summer of 1964, when he was quoted in The Saturday Evening Post as expressing anger towards the occupations by police of Black neighborhoods. In December 1963, in a non-title bout, he beat the then-welterweight world champion, Emile Griffith, in a first round KO. After his release, he channeled his considerable anger, towards his situation and that of Paterson's African American community, into his boxing – he turned pro in 1961 and began a startling four-fight winning streak, including two knockouts.įor his lightning-fast fists, Carter soon earned the nickname "Hurricane" and became one of the top contenders for the world middleweight crown. He spent four years in Trenton State, a maximum-security prison, for that crime. In 1957, Carter was again arrested, this time for purse snatching. Almost immediately upon his return, police arrested Carter and forced him to serve the remaining 10 months of his sentence in a state reformatory. He won two European light-welterweight championships and in 1956 returned to Paterson with the intention of becoming a professional boxer. Carter escaped before his six-year term was up and in 1954 he joined the Army, where he served in a segregated corps and began training as a boxer. He claimed the man was a pedophile who had been attempting to molest one of his friends. Carter, who grew up in Paterson, New Jersey, was arrested and sent to the Jamesburg State Home for Boys at age 12 after he attacked a man with a Boy Scout knife. Early LifeĬarter was born on May 6, 1937, in Clifton, New Jersey. His story inspired the 1975 Bob Dylan song "Hurricane" and the 1999 film 'The Hurricane,' starring Denzel Washington. He was ultimately released from prison in 1985 when a federal judge overturned his convictions. During the mid-1970s, his case became a cause celébrè for a number of civil rights leaders, politicians and entertainers. In 1966, at the height of his boxing career, Carter was twice wrongfully convicted of a triple murder and imprisoned for nearly two decades. Rubin Carter was born on May 6, 1937, in Clifton, New Jersey.
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