The Wilmington morning star., 1947-10-03
AS Pegler Sees 1t
BY WESTBROOK PEGLER
Copyright, 1947, By King Features Syndi-
cate. Inc.)

cate, Inc.)
NEW YORK, - The case of Rocky Ora
ziano, the middleweight champion prize
fighter, is another in which the reaction OF
elements of our journalism to revelations
of s%ordidness has been a default of the
trust reposed in a free press.
That is very high-sounding language, to
be sure, and I hope that from here on We
may slip down our braces, open our pores
and be informal.
The Department of National Defense has.
disclosed that Graziano was sentenced to
one year in Fort L~eavenworth, the Army
prison, and a dishonorable discharge in
1912. He was a slum kind, like many of the
served ten months and was given the D. D.
The charge was absence without leave,
but, as everyone knows, AWOL ordinarily
is a mild offense and the fact that Ora
ziano got a year and did ten months sug-
gests that he was a bad actor, in the Army.
He was. He was a bad actor before the
Army took him in the draft in January,
1912. He was a slum kid, like many of the
best and the worst natives of the city of
New York, and, in 1882, when he was only
II years old, he made his first court ap-
pearance charged with delinquency. He
was put IN probation but turned up twice
more in the next two years on further
charges and was sentenced twice to a pro-
tectory.
At the age of 1s he was charged with
bur glary. This was reduced to petty lar
robbed a school of a movie protector and
some other stuff and hooked it or fenced
it. He was sentenced to a EDUCATIONAL in
stitution," but another little job was in the
works in the courts at the time 50 the SEN
tence was suspended. The other charge al
so was burglary. Rocky and his friends
had broken into a night club called the
~1~k >f~- @JN~s~ ~ --~I
some wine and cigarettes. For this and
the other trick, Graziano, under his right
name Of Barbello, was sent to a reforma-
tory for an indeterminate sentence.
The district attorneys office, then under
Thomas E.. Dewey, tried patiently with this
kid. He was Bladder than the others in the
neighborhood, but 1t was on the recon-
of j. L. Mcdonnell, the assist
ant D.. A, that he got lenient treatment on
just a boy, and a soft sentence for two
rather serious misbehaviors.
But, in November, 1899, he and three
others were arrested by detective Pros
pero Pestrosino, charged with a stickup
with a gun The victim was sitting in an
automobile and they stole the car. The
fellow said he couldn't be sure Of his iden-
however, and the boys walked
out. That was close.
On Jan. 9, 1941, about a year before he
went into the Army, Graziano was a%rraign-
ed on a complaint of the children's society
charged with a crime against a girl Is
years old. Confederation is required in such
cases and for lack of confederation Rocky
was dismissed.
When you break it down 1t isn't so bad,
but when you put it together, it doesn't be-
speak the sort of character that respon-
sible journalists should defend at the ex-
pense of a decent, conscientious and dill
gent public servant. Nevertheless. last win
ter, when Frank S. Hogan found out that
Graziano had been offered 500, 900 to throw
a fight this was before he won the
middleweight title you might have
thought from the holler in the sport pages
that Hogan was a criminal.
The indignation against Mr.. Hogan ran
high and it was by no means the illiterate
righteousness that you hear from the gut
tersnipes of the gambling house beat in
defense of the likes Of George
Raft, Sinatra and Luciano. The sport
side essayists are educated stock who, with
their college learning, ought to know that
a citizens duty is on the side of the law,
not the underworld. Moreover, there is a
sort of theory, perhaps one of our foibles,
that the sport page is a primer in the
good, clean life for young America. On
that assumption. Tom Clark, the attorney
general of the United States, called a con-
ference of sports writers in WA, D. c.,
last winter soon after the football bribery
Job, which also was a New York case, and.
breaking on the news side, as it did. made
the sport department look none too bright.
The conference was to lay plans. I guess it
did.
Graziano Is a desc, dose and dem guy
and a fine figure of a low-brow for the
fight racket of song and story. If we had
no boxing law and if we would only let
nature take her course and realize that
prizefighting is low and rough the harm
done might be negligible. But after the
other war we 1egalized and attempted to
regulate and discipline the racket and
adopted certain laws and rules. Of course
it is a rogue sport, or racket, and incor-
rigible, but when under government you
encourage and protect an activity, then
government takes some responsibility.
Hogan and Alfred Scott, his assistant,
were discharging their responsibility when
they were caught red-handed, as you might
say, and accused of making cheap political
notorietv for themselves at the expense of
the manly art of self-defense. They caught
Graziano having truck with a fixer who
offered him $10G, 900 on two occasions to
throw fights that he could win easily. And
he said he didn't know who the fellow
was they just said he was a liar. He I'm
doubtedlv was and is a liar so they turned
in to Eddle Eagan, tne CHAIRMAN "
prizefight commission. who suspended
him. But the sport journalists, far from in
vestigating corruption on their daily beat.
abused Hogan and Scott and depicted Ora
ziano as an underprivileged boy.
Even the Department of National Defense
was guilty of some smelly trickery in be-
half of Graziano for about 10 days before
the story finally broke. The Department
of National Defense tried to suppress his
bad military record, and in so doing re-
vealed a practice of shielding a select cir
c1e of miscreants because they are promi-
nent.
OuOtafiOnS