Warning: This post contains some spoilers for Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist.
On Oct. 26, 1970, Muhammad Ali made a historic return to the boxing ring after being sidelined for three and a half years due to his refusal on religious grounds to be inducted into the U.S. military during the Vietnam War. Ali’s defiance led to his indictment and conviction for draft evasion—a charge later overturned by the Supreme Court—and he was stripped of his titles. His stand against the war was simultaneously lauded and vilified, turning Ali’s comeback fight in Atlanta against heavyweight boxer Jerry Quarry into an international sports spectacle.
The sold-out bout at Atlanta Municipal Auditorium drew what late boxing writer Bert Sugar described as “the greatest collection of Black power and Black money ever assembled up to that time,” attracting high-profile attendees ranging from celebrities to civil rights leaders to politicians to mob men. So when Ali won the fight by technical knockout following a dominant three rounds, Atlanta erupted into a citywide celebration. The night would turn out to be a major cultural milestone for the city, cementing its place as a “Black Mecca” of the American South.
“It was more than a fight, and it was an important moment for Atlanta,” civil rights activist Julian Bond recalled of the evening’s impact. “That night, Atlanta came into its own as the Black political capital of America.”
Peacock’s new limited series Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist, the first three episodes of which are now streaming, centers on the events surrounding one particular after-party that saw hundreds of guests robbed, stripped of their clothes, and forced to hand over their cash and jewelry. Based on the acclaimed 2020 iHeart podcast of the same name, Fight Night chronicles how a local hustler named Gordon “Chicken Man” Williams (played by Kevin Hart) went from organizing the party at the behest of notorious kingpin Frank Moten (Samuel L. Jackson), the “Black Godfather” of New York’s criminal underworld, and his New Jersey associate, Richard “Cadillac” Wheeler (Terrence Howard), to becoming one of the prime suspects in the case.
How the heist went down
In the hours after Ali won, around 200 partygoers flocked to a private residence in Atlanta for what was supposed to be a lavish, Vegas-esque, blowout bash. Instead, they were taken hostage by masked men armed with sawed-off shotguns who corralled them down into the house’s basement and robbed them of their money and belongings.
Creative Loafing, an Atlanta alternative newspaper, reported in 2004 that floor space in the basement eventually became so scarce the gunmen ordered the victims to lie on top of each other. “Cash and jewelry was swept into pillowcases,” the story read. “That went on for hours as more and more people kept showing up. By 3 a.m., the half-naked victims were stacked like cordwood on top of each other.”
After J.D. Hudson (played by Don Cheadle), one of the first Black detectives on Atlanta’s desegregated police force, was assigned to the case, he discovered many in attendance at the party were reluctant to talk to the cops. Although only five victims filed official complaints, it was determined that the robbers made off with at least $1 million in stolen valuables.
Chicken Man, who hosted the party and had a lengthy criminal record, quickly came under suspicion of orchestrating the heist in order to pay off a debt, putting him at risk of becoming a target of the crime bosses seeking revenge for the move against them. On Nov. 18, 1970, three men—McKinley Rogers Jr., James Henry Hall, and Houston J. Hammond—were ultimately indicted on armed robbery charges. While Hammonds was taken into police custody, both Rogers and Hall were gunned down in the Bronx in May 1971 in what was believed to be a retribution killing.
“We said last fall it was just a matter of who caught up with them first, the police or the victims,” Hudson said in a 1971 New York Times story. “It appears the victims got there first.”
What happened to Chicken Man?
While Chicken Man was believed by many to have been killed in a contract hit in the days following the robbery, 30 years later, in a 2002 interview with Fight Night podcast writer and host Jeff Keating, Hudson revealed that Williams had actually survived the whole ordeal and was still living in Atlanta as a pastor. “Chicken Man is alive now,” he said. “He is Rev. Gordon Williams, at Salem Baptist Church.”
Two years later, during a meetup between Hudson and Williams at the latter’s church arranged by Keating, Hudson explained why he had come to believe that Chicken Man was innocent.
“I knew he wasn’t dumb enough to pull a stunt like that,” Hudson said, according to Creative Loafing. “This was a man who ran a million-dollar operation from a pay phone on a street corner. He was smart. He could’ve run IBM or Coke. There’s no way he would’ve risked all that to pay somebody off. This was pulled off by a bunch of young thugs who were trying to knock over a party, and when they got there and saw how big it was, they improvised.”
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