Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-03-29
Digs Up Data
On 'EviIes+'
Man in US.
Ring Expert Tells Of Pug
Spy and Evangelist
BY DAMON RUNYON

TRUST Nat Fleischer to dig up
picturesque American char
acters, as he has done in little
pamphlet entitled THE Flam-
ing Ben Hogan" who also was
known in his time. and perhaps
not appropriately. as THE
Wickedest Man in America"
Hogan was a pugilist, pirate,
gambler, >Civil War spy. oil mag
nate. and finally an evangelist.
We have read of him before,
but not in the detail that
Fleischer offers. Some day some
one will write a book on Fleis-
cher himself as a picturesque
American character.
He is editor and publisher OF
a magazine devoted to boxing
called The Ring, but on the side
he is athe best known collector
in the United States of books
and trophies relating to fistiana.
He also is the author of nu-
merous Volumes on the heroes
of what the old-time writers
called the roped arena.
HOGAN was a terrific man.
II He was born Benedict
Hagen. at Wurttemberg. Ger
many. 81 years ago of a mother
who had been a noted acrobat
and a father who was an anna
teur athlete.
He took the name of Hogan
after coming TO the United
States in a period when the Irish
politicians were in flower.
He stood 6 feet Z inch and
weighed around 200 pounds in
his prime. or about the size of
Dempsey.
His prize fighting was wholly
incidental to his career of adj
venture. though he is supposed
10 have engaged in about 43
bare knuckle battles, of which
the most important was a fight
with Tom Allen, for the heavy
weight championship at Council
Bluffs. Ia. with a $1,000 side
bet.
HOGAN. according to E'lei-
H scher. BET $4,000 on him
self. In the third round, Allen
gave Hogan the knee. and the
latter rolled on the turf claim
ing foul. but he had no Joe
Jacobs in his corner to assist
him. as his fellow countryman,
Max Schmeling, did in later
years. and the referee, Tad
Ryan, refused to allow the
claim and declared Allen still
champion.
However. Ryan also declared
all bets off. and Hogan's friends
thought that suspicious cir
cumstance and tantamount to
an admission that Allen had
done something wrong.
The spectators were so sore
about the decision that they
took TO fighting among them
selves and one was killed.
Hogan's entire career seems
to have been marked by blood
she'd
He killed four men in a scrap
in the Pennsylvania oil fields and
was exonerated on the grounds
of Self-dpfpnSp
uOGAN'S stamping ground
IL for a time was upstate
New York-Syracuse, Oswego,
Albany and Saratoga.
He was a member of the SYRIA
cuSe fire department. He en-
listed in the Union Army and
became a spy IN which role he
got to be member of the Con-
federate Intelligence depart
ment.
AS a spy he met in Charles
ton, S. c.. the greatest charac-
ter in E1eiScher's story -
French Kate" She was also a
Union spy, and thereafter Ho-
CANS partner and pal in nearly
all his ventures.
She fought atshiS side in the
row in which he killed the four.
CHE was his business asso-
~ ciate in gambling enter
prises in the oil region, and IN
THE Floating Palace" which
probably was the first big gamb-
ling boat.
How a vengeful lady enter
tainer named Lizzie Topping
finally wrecked the boat after
French Kate" broke up fiirta-
Ton DCtvCrr tzfzZrr- anti Ben
detailed by FleiScheT.
1t seems French Kate" did
not love Ben and refused TO
marry him, but she esteemed
him as a business associate and
brooked no rivals.
Ben felt the same way about
her. A chap named Jim Knee
land fell in love with Kate and
Ben was going to shoot it out
with him over her, but Kate
herself insisted that they play
poker to decide the matter.
DEN won, and Kate Rugged
- him and then kissed Knee
ILL thor, 10th tA for