Sonny Liston Learned Boxing in Missouri Prison
Former Heavy Weight Champ Spent Two Years In State Peniteniary
Sep 1, 2009
Cell number 33 is just as small, confining and depressing as every other cell in the former Missouri State Penitentiary, but it was here that former Heavy Weight Champ Sonny Liston spent time for two years while learning to box.
Who Was Sonny Liston
Born near Forrest City Arkansas, one of an estimated 25 children between his mother and father, Sonny moved with his mother to St. Louis 1946. No one knows exactly how old Liston was at the time of his move to St. Louis or how old he was when he started robbing grocery stores and gas stations, a crime that eventually earned him two years at the Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City.
While in prison, from 1950-52, Liston became active in the prison athletic program and particularly enjoyed the company of a priest who taught him to box. His skills in the ring eventually won him an early parole and set him on the path to a Golden Gloves title in 1953 and a heavy weight championship in 1962. He later lost his title to Cassius Clay/Muhammed Ali.
Missouri State Penitentiary
At one point, the prison on the banks of the Missouri River was the largest prison in the world, housing more than 5200 inmates. It earned the nickname "the bloodiest 47 acres in America" for the many riots and altercations that took place here in the 1950s and 60s. It operated from 1836 until September 2004, housing some of America's most notorious criminals. Among them were gangsters Pretty Boy Floyd and Blanche Barrow of the Bonnie & Clyde gang.
Stagger Lee, made famous in a blues folk song written by W.C. Handy, served time her. James Earl Ray was also a prisoner here and assissinated Martin Luther King just six months after his escape.
Forty people were executed in this prison.
Prison Tours
The Missouri State Penitentiary closed in September 2005. Some of the older buildings were destroyed to make way for a new federal courthouse, but in May 2009, the state authorized guided tours of the prison. The tours, which cost $12, last about two hours and include a visit to Sonny Liston's cell, the prison athletic field where a mural of Liston, painted in 1960 by an inmate, is still visible on the stone walls. The tour also includes the gas chamber, the chapel and information about the prison industries program that produced shoes, work clothes, furniture and other items sold to the public.
Also in Jefferson City, travelers might appreciate a tour of the Missouri Highway Patrol Museum and drinking a local beer at the Prison Brews, inspired by the location of the prison.
Only Eastern Pennsylvania State Prison in Philadelphia and Alcatraz in San Francisco offer similar tour.
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