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Hurricane Carter signed 1962 boxing license, with Carmen Tedeschi his manager
Hurricane Carter signed 1962 boxing license, with Carmen Tedeschi his manager
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Description:

Carter Rubin "Hurricane" 1937 - Hurricane Carter signed 1962 boxing license, with Carmen Tedeschi his corrupt manager, along with attached photo!

Signed Boxing License renewal application. Blue card stock, 5" x 3"., completely hand filled, with Name address, Ring Weight, Date of Birth, Manager name, Contract expiration etc. Singed by Hurricane Carter at the bottom as "Rubin Carter", with the date of the fee received as "10/25/62" located on verso along with Carters small black and white photo attached by a staple. The application has two punch holes and is lightly creased, else near fine. Additionally signed by a notary public, and the Medical Examiner.


An amazing piece of boxing history, occurring just before the Carter's intense rapid rise to fame and his subsequent equally intense rapid demise to jail and financial ruin (of which Carter's life was immortalized in Bob Dylan's song 'Hurricane"). This handsome example of Hurricane Carters Boxing license renewal was executed while boxing under his contentious manager, Carmen Tedeschi. His license showed him with a "Ring Weight" of "160" lbs, with the manager of "Carmen Tedeschi", and answering "No" to the question of 'Have you been convicted of a crime since the last license?"

However, everything in Carter's life was about to change, from being arrested for the Lafayette bar murders to losing everything he built financially at the hands of his slick, deceitful manager.

Hurricanes first rise in the world of boxing first began in 1957. Carter had been arrested a second time in his life, this time for purse snatching; and had spent four years in Trenton State, a maximum-security prison, for that crime. 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.

By October 1962, a little more than a year after he left Trenton state prison, Carter made the big time, and by the end of 1963/ early 1964 he was the number one contender in the middle weight division vying for the championship crown. For his lightning-fast fists, Carter soon earned the nickname "Hurricane" and became one of the top contenders for the world middleweight crown.

However at the hands of his then manager, Tedeschi, Carter no longer flourished. Also spoiling the concentration Carter needed to thrive as a boxer was the betrayal of his manager, Carmen Tedeschi. Short and rotund, Tedeschi wore shiny silk suits, kept a cigar in his mouth, and talked a good game. He lived in Saddlebrook, New Jersey, and raised pigeons for a hobby and profit. Carter met Tedeschi in 1962 through one of his uncles, and he befriended Tedeschi wife and three children, chaperoning the oldest daughter to a high school dance. Hut Carter had mis-placed his trust. Like many boxers, he allowed his manager to hold his winnings, then the manager doled out cash as the fighter needed it. Tedeschi drummed up fights for Carter, paid the trainers, cut men, and sparring partners, and gave the boxer plenty of money to lavish perks on his family and himself. But Carter didn't keep track of how the winnings were being spent and saved. After he had been with Tedeschi lor more than a year, the manager wrote Tommy Parks a S25 check — which bounced. Parks knew his fighter was in trouble. "Rubin, you better watch your money, man," Parks told him. "What do vou have in the bank?" "I've got $70,000," Carter replied. "You don't got a dime," Parks said. And he didn't, but Carter kept Tedeschi around as long as he was getting him fights and giving him spending money. The ruse came to an end in 1964 when an agent from IRS told him he owed $95,000 in back taxes. That was impossible said Carter who insisted that his manager paid taxes after every fight. But Tedeschi had kept the money for himself. Carter finally fired him a few moths before the Giardello fight. The chicanery deepened his distrust of others and taught him that he could not let anyone else control his fate. The squandered earning cost Carter dearly when his legal fees depleted his savings and his wife and daughter were forced to live off welfare checks. In the end, the back taxes were never paid. Short of cash, and then incarcerated, carter left the ring owing money - fitting coda to a promising career that ran painfully short

But things turned from bad to worse for Carter ...

Carter 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. 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.

Now, the state had produced two eyewitnesses, Alfred Bello and Arthur D. Bradley, who had made positive identifications. 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). Nevertheless, on June 29, 1967, Carter and Artis were convicted of triple murder and sentenced to three life prison terms.

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. He read and studied extensively, and in 1974 published his autobiography, The 16th Round: From Number 1 Contender to Number 45472, to widespread acclaim.

The story of his plight attracted the attention and support of many luminaries, including Bob 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. Prizefighter Muhammad Ali also joined the fight to free Carter, along with leading figures in liberal politics, civil rights and entertainment.

An incredible piece of Boxing history by a legend both in and out of the ring

BOB DYLANS'S LYRICS REGARDING THE EVENT, written to make the Carter case known to a broader public and was credited with harnessing popular support to Carter's defense:

Pistols shots ring out in the bar room night
Enter Patty Valentine from the upper hall
She sees the bartender in a pool of blood
Cries out, "My God, they killed them all!"

Here comes the story of the Hurricane
The man the authorities came to blame
For something that he never done
Put him in a prison cell but one time he could-a been
The champion of the world.

Three bodies lying there does Patty see
And another man named Bello moving around mysteriously
"I didn't do it", he says and he throws up his hands,
"I was only robbing the register. I hope you understand.

"I saw them leaving," he says and he stops,
"One of us had better call up the cops."
And so Patty calls the cops
And they arrive on the scene
With their red lights flashing
In the hot New Jersey night.

Meanwhile far away in another part of town
Rubin Carter and a couple of friends are driving around
Number one contender for the middleweight crown
Had no idea what kinda shit was about to go down

When a cop pulled him over to the side of the road
Just like the time before and the time before that
In Patterson that's just the way things go
If you're black you might as well not show up on the street
'Less you wanna draw the heat.

Alfred Bello had a partner and he had a rap for the cops
Him and Arthur Dexter Bradley were just out prowling around
He said, "I saw two men running out. They looked like middleweights.
They jumped into a white car with out-of-state plates."

And Miss Patty Valentine just nodded her head
Cop said, "Wait a minute, boys, this one's not dead."
So they took him to the infirmary
And though this man could hardly see
They told him he could identify the guilty men.

Four in the morning and they haul Rubin in
They took him to the hospital and they brought him upstairs
The wounded man looks up through his one dying eye
Says, "Why'd you bring him in here for? He ain't the guy!"

Here's the story of the Hurricane
The man the authorities came to blame
For something that he never done
Put in a prison cell but one time he could-a been the champion of the world.

Four months later the ghettos are in flame
Rubin's in South America fighting for his name
While Arthur Dexter Bradley's still in the robbery game
And the cops are putting the screws to him looking for somebody to blame

"Remember that murder that you happened in a bar?
Remember you said you saw the getaway car?
You think you'd like to play ball with the law?
Think it might-a been that fighter that you saw running that night?
Don't forget that you are white".

Arthur Dexter Bradley said, "I'm really not sure."
The cop said, "A boy like you could use a break.
We got you for the motel job and we're talking to your friend Bello.
Now you don't wanna have to go back to jail, be a nice fellow.

You'll be doing society a favor.
That son of a bitch is brave and getting braver.
We want to put his ass in stir.
We want to pin this triple murder on him.
He ain't no Gentleman Jim."

Rubin could take a man out with just one punch
But he never did like to talk about it all that much
"It's my work," he'd say, "and I do it for pay.
And when it's over I'd just as soon go on my way

Up to some paradise.
Where the trout streams flow and the air is nice.
And ride a horse along a trail."
But then they took him to the jailhouse
Where they try to turn a man into a mouse.

All of Rubin's cards were marked in advance
The trial was a pig-circus. He never had a chance
The judge made Rubin's witnesses drunkards from the slums
To the white folks who watched he was a revolutionary bum

And to the black folks he was just a crazy nigger
No one doubted that he pulled the trigger
And though they could not produce the gun
The DA said he was the one who did the deed
And the all-white jury agreed.

Rubin Carter was falsely tried
The crime was murder 'one'. Guess who testified?
Bello and Bradley and they both baldly lied
And the newspapers—they all went along for the ride

How can the life of such a man
Be in the palm of some fool's hand?
To see him obviously framed
Couldn't help but make me feel ashamed
To live in a land
Where justice is a game.

Now all the criminals in their coats and their ties
Are free to drink martinis and watch the sun rise
While Rubin sits like Buddha in a ten-foot cell
An innocent man in a living hell

Yes, that's the story of the Hurricane
But it won't be over 'til they clear his name
And give him back the time he's done
Put in a prison cell but one time he could-a been
The champion of the world.

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