Well the following day, I appeared with my client in downtown LA at the boxing commission headquarters. The prosecution tried to present evidence to show my client was not the Boxing Champ’s true manager/trainer. I was just a green lawyer, but I knew the law of evidence like the back of my hand. The prosecution got nowhere. Every objection I made was sustained. Looked like I was going to win. Boy, was I naive. The opposition asked to come back with more testimony the following day. Leaving the building, someone, who I don’t remember, sidled up to me and said “The Babe” would like for you to come to his apartment tonight to discuss the matter, and gave me an address to an apartment house located mid LA, very nice neighborhood, and I did, that evening.
I arrived and at the reception desk there sat a tough looking guy who greeted me thus: “Whose Youse?” I said I was there to meet with Mr. McCoy and gave my name and was OK’d through to his rather nice apartment.
Inside was a real cast of characters. First there was Babe and his daughter to greet me, Cal and Aileen Eaton, the then very famous San Francisco criminal lawyer, Jake Eirlich who had written a best-seller “NEVER PLEAD GUILTY” representing Babe; and the Eatons’ son, who was incidentally Governor Goody Knight’s son-in-law.Babe was very large, an impressive figure, one not to be crossed. I was really impressed by Jake Eirlich, elegantly dressed in his tailored blue suit, striking white shirt, spit-shined shoes and his traditional red rose bud in his lapel. The Eat0ns were quiet during the whole discussion, but ended up on top of the world.
After the usual niceties, they got down to business. The subject was that basically Babe was going to go down, i.e lose, but would still be behind promotion, the Eatons would become the promoters of the Olympic Boxing Arena, and my client was going to lose, but will be allowed to return after a period of suspension and continue to train and manage fighters. The impression I got was don’t fight so hard. Quit fighting this thing. I said I would not go along with the program and left the apartment.
What did I know. Like Don Quixote, I was tilting at windmills. Next day, I could not get any objection sustained, all the hearsay evidence was allowed, and, as predicted, the evening before, Babe lost his promoter’s license, the Eatons took over running the Olympic Arena. Mel, AKA Harry Kabakoff, got a short suspension and went back to managing and training fighters and all was well with the world. My lasting impression from this incident was fights were fixed and who wins or loses was decided in New York. A lot of new stuff for a naive young lawyer who never had encountered the real world of boxing. I used to be a fight fan, but never went to another boxing match after this case.
Mel was a good manager and became fairly well-known His specialty was going to Mexico for talent and some of his fighters were champs such as bantamweight Jesus Pimintel. Mel AKA Harry Kabakoff died at the age 0f 82 in 2009.
Aileen Eaton became famous for her boxing and wrestling promotions and was named into The International Boxing Hall of Fame.
I got some local newspaper publicity, and I guess Mel thought that was enough.
If the reader wants to learn more one can google the names and read about the investigation in more detail
Even though there was no fee for my work on the case, I really enjoyed the adventure.
Speaking of fees for work I think I will touch on that subject later on in this Blog if and when the subject comes up
Marshall Schulman
MarshallsKnowledge© 