Supposedly born in 1932, Sonny Liston overcame an abusive father, poverty, and a criminal past to become heavyweight champion. Eight years later, he was dead

Former heavyweight champion Sonny Liston is perhaps best known as the man sprawled across the canvas and looking upwards at Muhammad Ali in one of the most celebrated moments in boxing history.

The immortalized photographs were taken at a small gymnasium in Lewiston, Maine, where Liston's rematch with Ali was famously held after being moved from Boston Garden amid fears of organized crime – a presence throughout most of Liston's life.

For Ali, who is seen taunting Liston to 'get up and fight, sucker,' the image has become a symbol of The Greatest's unabashed self-confidence.

For Liston, who was once thought to be invincible, the controversial first-round knockout defeat marked the beginning of the end.

Within six years, a 40-something Liston would be found dead by his wife Geraldine in their Las Vegas home, the victim of an apparent heroin overdose - even though he was afraid of needles.

But much like his first and second bouts with Ali, which some believe to have been fixed by gamblers, Liston's death is colored by his well-documented connections to the Mafia and other criminals.

A former fight fixer claims Liston was supposed to take a dive in his last fight, but didn't, and lost the mob a lot of money. A coroner who examined the evidence has also suggested that the amount of heroin in his system wouldn't have caused an overdose.

The true stories behind his supposed overdose, his enigmatic life, and his connection to organize crime are examined in Showtime's documentary, 'Pariah: The Lives and Deaths of Sonny Liston,' which premieres Friday.

Directed by Simon George and based somewhat on Shaun Assael's investigative book: 'The Murder of Sonny Liston: Las Vegas, Heroin, and Heavyweights,' the film does more than simply rattle off a few conspiracy theories.

'Pariah' may not provide any singular conclusion, but does challenge the official record on nearly every aspect of Liston's infamous story.

'There was enough to recommend two or three different suspects,' Assael told the Daily Mail. 'I was unable to land on one definitive [suspect].'

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Former heavyweight champion Sonny Liston is perhaps best known as the man sprawled across the canvas and looking upwards at Muhammad Ali in one of the most celebrated photographs of the 20th century

The true stories behind his supposed overdose, his enigmatic life, and his connection to organize crime are examined in Showtime's documentary, 'Pariah: The Lives and Deaths of Sonny Liston,' (right) which premieres Friday. Directed by Simon George and based somewhat on Shaun Assael's investigative book: 'The Murder of Sonny Liston: Las Vegas, Heroin, and Heavyweights,' (left) the film does more than simply rattle off a few conspiracy theories

Sonny Liston eats with his wife Geraldine at home in December 1961 in Philadelphia

The Las Vegas Police Department conducted an investigation into his death and concluded there was no foul play.

Officially Liston was born in 1930, although Assael and many others believe him to be five or six years older, which would help to explain his sudden downfall at the end of his career.

In any case, no birth certificate exists for Liston, who is believed to be the 24th of 25 children born to an abusive Arkansas sharecropper.

As told by legendary Newark Star-Ledger sports writer Jerry Izenberg, Liston worked in the fields from a young age.

'The mule dies, and his father says, "You're the mule," and hooks him up to the harness and he's plowing furrows with him,' Izenberg says in 'Pariah.'

Sick of abuse, Liston hitchhiked up to St. Louis, where his mothers and sisters found work. But without any education, the barely literate Liston quickly turned to crime.

'He saw how poor people get money,' said former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, who is often compared to Liston. 'They rob and steal.

'Being beaten as a child will really affect your outlook on how you see things. If he had hope for a better life, he would have lived his life differently. He didn't have hope for a better life.'

A remarkable 39 of Liston's 50 wins came by knockout, and although his arrest record delayed an inevitable title shot, Liston eventually did fight Floyd Patterson (left) in 1962, dethroning the popular champion in just over two minutes. The rematch would take only four more seconds, and suddenly, Liston was boxing's most ferocious figure, although hardly its most beloved

Eventually Liston was given five years for robbing a gas station and restaurant with a gun, which ultimately proved to be a good thing.

It was at the Missouri State Penitentiary where Liston met Rev. Alois Stevens, who turned him onto boxing.

Liston proved so talented that a local heavyweight named Thurman Wilson visited the prison for a bout, only to be defeated in two rounds.

Frankie Carbo, a convicted criminal, held a majority interest in Sonny Liston's contracts

Wilson's manager quickly signed Liston, and upon the boxer's parole in 1952, introduced him to mobster Johnny Vitale, who in turn introduced him to fellow mobster Frankie Carbo, one of the most powerful forces in the sport.

'Sonny had an abusive father, and he ran away from him as fast as he could,' Assael said. 'So he never had a father figure. A succession of mobsters became his father figures. Sonny was very much raised by the mob.'

Soon Liston was earning a living as an enforcer against unions and a collector for loan sharks, all while becoming the most feared heavyweight of the era.

It certainly didn't hurt that his reputation in the ring was preceded by his status on the streets.

'Sonny Liston was the first intimidating fighter, with the mean scowl and the mean grin,' said Tyson. 'He was a real bad ass; real menacing force.

'[Liston's opponent] was really beaten before he got into the ring,' Tyson continued. 'Sonny could pull it off. I could pull it off. Not a lot of people could pull it off.'

His jab is described as 'a nose-cracking, teeth-busting, jaw-dropping experience' by another of the film's contributors, Purdue University professor and author Randy Roberts. And although Liston wasn't enormous, standing just 6-feet tall, he was still able to land that punishing jab against anyone, thanks to his 84-inch reach.

'If you wanted to build the perfect heavyweight, you would use Sonny Liston as your model,' said former fight fixer Charles Farrell, and admitted fight fixer and the business manager of former heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson. 'He heralded in the era of giant heavyweights, without, in fact, being a giant heavyweight himself.'

Liston takes a break while training for his first fight against Muhammad Ali in 1964

American boxers Floyd Patterson and Sonny Liston during the first round of their fight in Chicago, Illinois. Liston went on to win the match after just 126 seconds

A remarkable 39 of his 50 wins came by knockout, and although his arrest record delayed an inevitable title shot, Liston eventually did fight Floyd Patterson in 1962, dethroning the popular champion in just over two minutes.

The rematch would take only four more seconds, and suddenly, Liston was boxing's most ferocious figure, although hardly its most beloved.

'Not only is he not the guy that white America dislikes, but black America hates him,' Assael said. 'Everyone hates Sonny.'

This became eminently clear after Liston's first victory over Patterson.

He expected to return to a hero's welcome in Philadelphia, where he was living at the time. But when Liston got off the airplane, there was no recognition of his greatest accomplishment.

'When he expects a parade and it doesn't happen, he just says f*** it,' Assael said. 'He turns his back on polite society.'

Unlike Patterson, Liston was seen by many white Americans as a criminal. For that matter, many African-Americans viewed him the same way, and others were turned off by his resistance to the civil rights movement.

'I think it's a simple matter, but a lot of peoples are carrying this thing a little too far,' Liston said of the civil rights movement in 1963.

Muhammad Ali (then Cassius Clay) punches Liston (right) in their first fight in 1964

By that time, Liston had become the singular obsession of a young Cassius Clay, who had dubbed the heavyweight champion 'the bear.'

After months of 'bear hunting,' which was essentially just prolonged public harassment of Liston, Ali got his title shot in 1964.

'I think he should be locked up for impersonating a fighter,' Liston told reporters at the time.

For once, the media was in Liston's corner, if only because of Ali's connection to the Nation of Islam, which was viewed with suspicion by white America.

'Pariah' offers an abundance of perspectives on the two Ali-Liston bouts.

Tyson, who many have compared to Liston, believes Ali's 'phantom punch' connected and likely dropped the former champion

The first fight took place in Miami Beach in 1964 and ended when Liston, who had been battling a shoulder problem, refused to answer the bell for the seventh round.

'Did he give up because he was in such terrible agony he couldn't move?' legendary sports writer Robert Lipsyte says in 'Pariah.'

'Did he give up because he suddenly realized he couldn't win this fight? Did he give up because he had been paid to dump it at some point? Who knows?'

The belief that the first fight was fixed stems largely from the betting odds, which were heavily in favour of a Liston victory.

'There were two Clay-Liston fights; the first one was the real fix,' said Farrell, considered one of the preeminent authorities on fixing fights.

'The mob isn't in the boxing business to do anything, other than to make money,' he continued. 'The odds were 8 to 1. They could make a tremendous amount of money betting against Liston. That was where the money really was.'

Ali spent most of the first fight backpedaling away from Liston, who struggled to connect

The problem with that theory is that Liston may have actually cheated to win the fight by secretly 'loading' his gloves with some chemical before the fourth round in an effort to blind Ali.

Although the accusation has never been proven, Ali was clearly struggling to see in the fourth and fifth rounds, before re-establishing himself in the sixth and final frame.

'I think it's utter nonsense to say that first fight was fixed,' said Roberts. 'If Sonny was trying to fix the fight, why was he loading up his gloves before Round 4? He was loading up the gloves to blind Clay and win the fight.'

In any case, his failure to answer the bell in the seventh cemented Liston's reputation as a quitter.

'I think it's unacceptable that Sonny didn't get off the stool,' Tyson said. 'He should have carried on.'

The second fight took place in Maine the following year, and famously ended on Ali's 'phantom punch,' a quick right hook that appeared to topple Liston, although some like Assael do not believe it connected.

Liston allegedly once bragged about making an agreement with Ali to fix the second fight, with the former getting a percentage of the latter's future earnings

'The second fight, I'm sure, was a fix, although I don't think it started out that way,' Assael said. 'He was down to his lean, muscular essence [preparing for the rematch in 1964]. And then Ali got a hernia and the fight had to be postponed [six months].

'And at [Liston's] age - I always say he's at least five or six years older than his birth certificate - he couldn't get back into that shape.'

Without being in good shape, Liston may have been open to other financial arrangements.

Assael reported in his book that Liston once bragged about making an agreement to fix the second fight, allowing him to earn a percentage of Ali's future earnings.

'The second fight was a fix, but I would argue that it was Sonny maybe taking control of his life for the first time,' Assael continued. 'He just thought of it as a way of making himself a retirement fund.'

If that were true, Liston would have been disappointed, as Ali was soon exiled from the sport for his refusal to fight in Vietnam. (State boxing commissions began licensing Ali again in 1970, shortly before Liston's death)

Others believe that Liston was knocked down cleanly and was simply the victim of the confusion in the ensuing panic.

Referee Joe Walcott, himself a former heavyweight champion, struggled to get Ali to a neutral corner and lost track of the count. Eventually, after Liston returned to his feet and attempted to continue, timekeeper Francis McDonough ruled that he had been down for ten seconds and that the fight was over.

'I think the punch that Muhammad Ali hit Sonny Liston with in the second fight was enough to knock him down, especially if he didn't see the punch,' said Tyson.

Liston's life deteriorated from there.

Living in Las Vegas, Liston became involved with gambling kingpins, like Ash Resnick (right)

Living in Las Vegas, Liston became involved with drug dealers and gambling kingpins, like Ash Resnick.

'He thought like a mobster,' Assael said. 'And when things kind of went south for him at the end, he reverts back to that.'

He nearly made a successful comeback attempt, which could have put him in line for a title shot against Joe Frazier in 1970. Unfortunately Liston was knocked out by Leotis Martin. (Martin was fighting with a detached retina after a nearly devastating blow by Liston earlier in the bout)

Liston's final fight was in New Jersey against Chuck Wepner, who would go on to become the real-life inspiration for Sylvester Stallone's 'Rocky.'

American heavyweight champion boxer Sonny Liston looks over his shoulder while pulling the handle of a slot machine to which a small photograph of Muhammad Ali is taped

Wepner, known as the 'Bayonne Bleeder,' was completely overwhelmed and quit after the ninth round, which may have turned into an existential problem for Liston.

According to Farrell, Liston had been instructed to take a dive that night.

'I was told that Liston was killed because of the Wepner fight,' Farrell says in 'Pariah.'

'The mob lost a lot of money and I know that it's something that everybody involved would have done.'

Liston was discovered by his wife Geraldine when she returned from a trip to visit relatives.

Officially Liston died of lung congestion and heart failure, likely caused by heroin, according to the Las Vegas coroners who examined his bloated corpse after it had decomposed over the better part of a week.

He did have needle marks on his arm, and a bag of heroin was found in the kitchen, but all that evidence is scrutinized in 'Pariah.'

Liston certainly knew drug dealers and may have been sleeping with a cocktail waitress who used heroin, according to Assael.

On the other hand, Geraldine was home for several hours before calling the police, and had ample time to clean the kitchen table, which is where an officer claims to have found a bag of heroin.

Furthermore, Coroner Mark Herman said the amount of heroin in Liston's system was likely too small to have caused an overdose.

Whether he injected it or snorted it is another matter. Despite the presence of needle marks, no syringe was ever found at the scene.

'Sonny was deathly afraid of needles,' said Philadelphia Daily News sports writer Jack McKinney, as quoted in 'The Devin and Sonny Liston.'

'He and I had the same dentist... he wouldn't even take Novocain.'

Liston appeared in an episode of 'Love, American Style' in 1970 - a month before his death

If Liston was murdered in a staged overdose, it's possible that his killer was unaware of his needle phobia.

'I am willing to entertain the idea that it was an overdose, but not an accidental one,' Assael said. 'The preponderance of evidence I found suggests that it is more than likely he was killed than not.'

Assael's own 2016 book offered one of the more compelling explanations, stemming from an unsolicited, anonymous tip that Liston had been killed by a policeman working as a hired killer.

'I was about two thirds of the way through the book, and I thought I was done and I get an unmarked manila envelope addressed to me,' Assael said. 'Inside is this transcript that really changed my thinking.'

Liston pictured with wife Geraldine, who later found him dead of a suspected overdose

That transcript contained the testimony of a police informant, claiming that Liston's 1970 death was the work of a police hit man, Larry Gandy, who was working for Resnick.

Gandy, one of the reporting officers the night of Liston's death, is actually interviewed in 'Pariah.'

'Killing people really does something to you,' he said. 'It scars you for life. It may be sick that somebody would accuse you of killing for hire. I am not a contract killer and never would be.'

Gandy, meanwhile, suggests that Liston may have been killed for talking to police about local gangster Earl Cage.

There are no shortage of other theories.

Drug dealers, bookies, and Mafia kingpins have all been tossed out as possibilities, but rather than wild speculation, 'Pariah' focuses on the testimony of Liston's contemporaries, first-hand accounts, and the journalists who have spent years unraveling the mysteries of his life.

'I don't know,' said Lipsyte. 'I really don't know.'

The best vague answer anyone can offer is that Liston was killed by his past.

It's hard to say which aspect of his life came back to get him in the end, but Liston serves as a cautionary tale about American culture and values.

Born into poverty and raised by criminals, Liston's success was never enough to change the public's perception of him.

'To me, Sonny Liston was one of the greatest, yet most misunderstood and vilified sports figures of all time,' said director Simon George. 'He was born into a time of great turmoil and upheaval in America, and became the scapegoat for a nation in flux. He was a man who aimed for the stars but instead got torn apart by the factions warring for their places in post-war America. His story is one of race, prejudice and injustice.

'It is a film about how America chooses its heroes and how it never lets anyone forget their past.'