Rubin “Hurricane” Carter spent nearly two decades behind bars for a triple murder he always insisted he did not commit. After finally winning his freedom, he received a devastating diagnosis of terminal prostate cancer. The person who stood by him during those final months turned out to be the same man who had been convicted alongside him decades earlier. Carter was born in Clifton, New Jersey, in 1937, the fourth of seven children.
His father was notoriously strict and physically abusive. At just 11 years old, Carter was sent to a juvenile reformatory after attacking a man with a knife, claiming the man had tried to assault him. The judge disregarded his explanation, and Carter spent nearly six years confined before escaping and joining the Army. He served in West Germany, where he discovered boxing and excelled at it, despite a troubled military record that ended with a discharge after four courts-martial.
Back in New Jersey, he committed two robberies and returned to prison for roughly five years. When he got out, he emerged as a more polished fighter and quickly turned professional. Fans took notice of his aggressive style and powerful punches, giving him the nickname “Hurricane. ” He defeated notable opponents such as Florentino Fernandez, Holly Mims, Joey Brennan, and George Benton.
By 1963, he was ranked among the top ten middleweights in the world. That same year, he married Mae Thelma Baskett. Carter remained a provocative showman, often taunting his opponents. When he faced world champion Emile Griffith, few gave him a chance, but he stunned the boxing world by dropping Griffith twice in the opening rounds.
He was now ranked third in contention for the middleweight title. On December 14, 1964, Carter stepped into the ring against Joey Giardello. He dominated the early rounds, but Giardello regained control in the fifth round and took the decision. The loss marked the beginning of a decline.
In 1965, Carter won only five of nine fights. His bout against Dick Tiger was particularly brutal, with Tiger flooring him three times. Carter later called it the worst beating of his career. On August 5, 1966, Carter fought his final professional match, losing a decision to Juan Carlos Rivero.
His record stood at 27 wins from 40 fights, with eight knockouts and eleven technical knockouts. Without boxing, however, his life began to unravel. In the early hours of June 17, 1966, Carter was riding in a rented car with his friend John Artis and another man, John Royster. Police stopped them near a club called the Night Spot.
Officers recognized Carter, known for causing trouble, but released all three men after questioning. That same night, a far more serious incident had occurred. Two men had entered the Lafayette Bar and Grill and opened fire. A bartender and a customer were killed, and two other patrons were wounded; only one of the wounded survived.
Police had received a description of the getaway car, which matched the vehicle Carter had been driving. Officers raced back into the city and apprehended Carter and Artis after they had dropped Royster at his home. Two witnesses, Patricia Valentine and Alfred Bello, provided the description of the car. Bello, however, had a questionable reason for being outside the bar.
He admitted he was watching the building while a friend robbed a warehouse. He later claimed he discovered the bodies after walking in to buy goods, and instead of calling for help, he stole money from the cash register. When police stopped him, Bello said he had seen two armed Black men fleeing the bar in a white car. Valentine, who lived above the Lafayette Bar, heard a loud noise and looked out her window.
She and Bello both said the white car had a butterfly-shaped design on its rear. A third witness, Ronald Ruggiero, gave a similar account. The authorities never recovered the murder weapons, but they determined the type used. For reasons that were never fully explained, the lead investigator did not order drug tests on Carter and Artis to establish their involvement, later citing a lack of time.
Police also waited five days before searching Carter’s rented car, then announced they had found guns similar to those used in the shooting. Neither weapon, however, matched the ones actually used that night. The witnesses did not initially provide complete descriptions of the men who left the bar. Then Bello suddenly identified Artis as one of them.
Another witness, Arthur Bradley, placed Carter at the scene. On the strength of these new accounts, authorities charged both men. Valentine also changed her story, saying the butterfly shape was not taillights but an aluminum structure, a description that better matched Carter’s rented car. Carter’s defense team, led by Raymond A.
Brown, focused the jury’s attention on the strange inconsistencies in the eyewitness testimony and the witnesses’ shifting stories. The defense also called its own witnesses, all of whom swore Carter and Artis were still at the nightclub when the crime occurred. An all-white jury convicted both men, and Carter received three life sentences, with two of them to run concurrently. In 1974, eight years after the murders, both Bello and Bradley recanted their identifications of Carter and Artis.
Carter’s defense requested a new trial, but Judge Samuel Larner denied the motion. While still imprisoned, Carter decided to make productive use of his time and wrote a book titled “The Sixteenth Round,” recounting his journey from middleweight contender to prisoner. It was published in 1974. The book changed his fortunes by bringing his story to a wider audience.
Advertising executive George Lois launched a campaign demanding his release. Muhammad Ali also voiced support, mentioning Carter by name during an appearance on The Tonight Show. Bob Dylan read the book, met with Carter, and later wrote the song “Hurricane,” which reached number 33 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1976. The song drew national attention to Carter’s case.
That year, the New Jersey Supreme Court approved a retrial for Carter and Artis. The defense obtained an audio recording showing investigators making promises to Bello in exchange for testimony supporting their case. Nevertheless, the prosecutor concluded that the court could trust Bello’s account. During the retrial, Carolyn Kelley, a member of the group working for Carter’s release, helped raise money for his bail.
She and Carter were frequently seen together, and rumors of a romantic relationship circulated. Around the same time, a local newspaper printed a photo of Kelley in a hospital bed after being beaten. Kelley accused Carter of the assault, saying they had argued over a hotel bill in Maryland. Carter denied the allegation and claimed Kelley was angry because he had rejected her romantically.
Kelley refused to press charges, but the damage to Carter’s reputation was considerable. Several celebrities who had supported him backed away. The jury deliberated for nine hours and convicted Carter and Artis once again. Throughout this ordeal, Carter’s wife had remained loyal, but she later discovered he had carried on affairs with some of his supporters while still in prison.
Despite having recently given birth to their second child, she filed for divorce. In 1980, a Canadian teenager named Lesra Martin visited Carter after reading his book. Martin was living with a group of people dedicated to fighting wrongful convictions. In 1985, acting on the group’s initiative, the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey ruled that racial bias had influenced Carter’s trial and retrial.
At 48 years old, Carter walked free, a dramatic reversal of fortune. After nearly two decades behind bars, Carter settled in Toronto, Canada, living in a community with Martin and the activists who had helped secure his release. He married Lisa Peters, one of the campaigners. Eventually, he felt the communal living arrangement was too restrictive and left with just 125 dollars, becoming something of a wanderer.
He soon became the executive director of the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted and played a crucial role in securing the release of Canadian prisoner Guy Paul Morin. The boxing world continued to honor him. In 1993, he received an honorary championship belt from the World Boxing Council, and years later he was inducted into the New Jersey Boxing Hall of Fame. In October 2005, York University in Toronto granted him an honorary doctorate of law, and Griffith University in Brisbane did the same in recognition of his work with the association and the Innocence Project.
In 2012, while attending an international justice conference in Booragoon, Western Australia, Carter paused to deliver painful news. He was suffering from terminal prostate cancer, and his doctors expected him to live only another three to six months. In the months before his death, Carter continued working on behalf of the wrongly convicted. He published an article in the New York Daily News supporting David McCallum, describing McCallum’s release as his dying wish.
McCallum was exonerated in October 2014. On April 20 of that year, John Artis, who had been caring for Carter in his final days, announced the heartbreaking news: Carter had died at the age of 76.