Frank "Blinky" Palermo was an organized crime figure who surreptitiously owned prize-fighters and fixed fights best known for fixing the Jake LaMotta

Jake LaMotta

Giacobbe LaMotta , better known as Jake LaMotta, nicknamed "The Bronx Bull" and "The Raging Bull", is a former American world middleweight champion boxer...

-Billy Fox

Billy Fox (boxer)

"Blackjack" Billy Fox is a former American light heavyweight boxer. He is best known for having won a fix fight against future middleweight champion Jake LaMotta.- Boxing career :...

 fight in 1947. An associate of the Philadelphia crime family

Philadelphia crime family

The Philadelphia crime family, also known as the Scarfo crime family, Bruno crime family, Philadelphia Mafia, or Philly Mob, is an Italian American criminal organization based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is one of the most active American Mafia families outside of the Five Families of New York...

, Palermo also ran the City of Brotherly Love's biggest numbers racket. In addition to Billy Fox, the professional fighters that Palermo owned under the table included World Welterweight champion Virgil Akins

Virgil Akins

Virgil Akins was an American boxer who won the undisputed Welterweight Championship of the World in 1958. Nicknamed ‘Honeybear’, Akins was the first World Champion boxer from St. Louis.-Career:...

 , heavyweight contender Clarence Henry, World Welterweight Champion Johnny Saxton

Johnny Saxton

Johnny Saxton was an American professional boxer in the welterweight division. He was born in Newark, New Jersey, learned to box in a Brooklyn orphanage and had an amateur career winning 31 of 33 fights, twice becoming World Welterweight Champion.- Professional career :Saxton turned professional...

, heavyweight contender Coley Wallace

Coley Wallace

Coley Wallace was an American actor and heavyweight boxer who outpointed by Rocky Marciano in a three-round amateur fight....

, and Lightweight Champion Ike Williams

Ike Williams (boxer)

Ike Williams was a former lightweight world boxing champion. Williams was known for his great right hand, and was named to the Ring Magazine's list of 100 greatest punchers of all time as well as Ring Magazine Fighter of the Year for 1948.-Professional Career:During his career, Williams faced and...

. Palermo would cheat members of his stable out of their share of the purses of their fights.

Blinky's partner was Mafiosi Frankie Carbo

Frankie Carbo

Paul John Carbo better known as "Frankie Carbo" was a New York City Mafia soldier in the Lucchese crime family, who operated as a boxing promoter and a gunman with Murder, Inc....

, a soldier in New York's Lucchese Family

Lucchese crime family

The Lucchese crime family is one of the "Five Families" that dominates organized crime activities in New York City, United States, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the Mafia . The family originated in the early 1920s with Gaetano "Tommy" Reina serving as boss up until his murder...

 who had been a gunman with Murder, Inc.

Murder, Inc.

Murder, Inc. was the name given by the press to organized crime groups in the 1920s through the 1940s that resulted in hundreds of murders on behalf of the American Mafia and Jewish Mafia groups who together formed the early organized crime groups in New York and...

.

Sonny Liston

By 1959, Blinky and his partner, Mafiosi Frankie Carbo

Frankie Carbo

Paul John Carbo better known as "Frankie Carbo" was a New York City Mafia soldier in the Lucchese crime family, who operated as a boxing promoter and a gunman with Murder, Inc....

 owned a majority interest in the contract of heavyweight boxer Sonny Liston

Sonny Liston

Charles L. "Sonny" Liston was a professional boxer and ex-convict known for his toughness, punching power, and intimidating appearance who became world heavyweight champion in 1962 by knocking out Floyd Patterson in the first round...

, who went on to win the World Heavyweight Championship in 1962. From the start of his pro career in 1953, Liston had been "owned" by St. Louis mobster

St. Louis crime family

The St. Louis crime family, also known as the Giordano crime family, is an American Mafia crime family based in St. Louis, Missouri, United States.-Prohibition era:...

 John Vitale

John Vitale

John Vitale was an All-American American football center for the University of Michigan Michigan Wolverines football team from 1985 to 1988....

, who continued to own a stake in the boxer. At the time Palermo and Carbo acquired their interest in Liston, the notorious Carbo was imprisoned on Riker's Island, having been convicted of the undercover management of prize-fighters and unlicensed matchmaking.

According to both FBI and newspaper reports, Vitale and other mobsters "reportedly controlled Liston's contract", with Vitale owning approximately twelve percent.

Liston fought 12 fights under the control of Carbo and Palermo.

Senate investigation

Following his release from jail in 1960, Carbo was subpoenaed to appear before a Senate investigation committee to testify on his involvement in professional boxing. Carbo took the Fifth Amendment

Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution

The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights, protects against abuse of government authority in a legal procedure. Its guarantees stem from English common law which traces back to the Magna Carta in 1215...

 25 times. Palermo and Vitale also appeared before the Committee and pleaded the Fifth."Charles "Sonny" Liston Memorandum, May 1, 1962.". Retrieved July 18, 2011.

Imprisonment

The following year, Palermo and Carbo and Palermo, along with Los Angeles mobsters

Los Angeles crime family

The Los Angeles crime family is an Italian American criminal organization based in Los Angeles, as part of the American Mafia . Since its inception in the early 1900s, it has spread throughout Southern California. Like most Mafia families in the United States, the L.A. family gained power...

 Joe Di Sica and Louis Dragna, were charged with conspiracy and extortion against National Boxing Association

World Boxing Association

The World Boxing Association is a boxing organization that sanctions official matches, and awards the WBA world championship title at the professional level. It was previously known as the National Boxing Association before changing its name in 1962...

 Welterweight

Welterweight

Welterweight is a weight class division in combat sports. Originally the term "welterweight" was used only in boxing, but other combat sports like kickboxing, taekwondo and mixed martial arts also began to use it for their own weight division system...

 Champion Don Jordan

Don Jordan

Don Jordan was a boxer born in Los Angeles, California and was the undisputed Welterweight Champion of the World from 1958 to 1960. His nickname was ‘Geronimo’...

. After a three month trial, in which U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy served as prosecutor, Carbo and Palermo were sentenced to 25 years in prison. Palermo served seven and one-half years.