Ive heard in the past that DOn King had some connections with the mob,but cant find a lot of info bout the situation,so i took various parts from various articles...

The one-time Yuppie Don(Michael Franzese) said he decided to go to Sharpton to introduce his new business partner to King.
His involvement with Sharpton came about in 1983 when he was snagged by the FBI sting investigating mob control of boxing. Franzese says he thought he was steering a reformed South American drug dealer into the boxing business.

"It was really about the [boxing] business and getting into a deal with [promoter Don] King," Franzese recalled, of his talks with Victor Quintana, who turned out to be an undercover FBI agent.

Guy wanted to invest

Franzese said Quintana presented himself as a former cocaine dealer who wanted to go legit and invest his money in boxing "at a very high level."

Don King refused to clarify what his relationship was with Mafia Godfathers Paul Castellano and John Gotti.
Michael Franzese, testified that he was present when King told Castellano, who then ran New York City, they'd "Never lose money on any deal they had together."
There are facts also showin that King was in the illegal numbers business in Cleveland with organized crime figure Moe Dalitz and Cleveland Mob.Heres a small part from an article on sportsillustrated.cnn.com...

"These people were looking to launder illicit cash—to run their gains from gambling, thievery and the like through the spin cycle of some legitimate enterprise so they could pull them out later, clean and fresh, and declare the money as earned income. And two, boxing, of all the sports, was perhaps the most accommodating laundromat, what with its international subculture of unsavory characters who play by their own rules and its multimillion-dollar promotions ever in need of some major financing.

As I sat at my desk through the final hours that day, going through those intelligence reports, I believed that King was involved with the wiseguys."

King is a slick dude, hes outlived and outsmarted alot of people and come out of it rich and on top. Dont get me wrong hes probably done some bad shit in his time but ill give credit where its due. I read somewhere he even had dinner and got into a heated discussion with john gotti.

Heres the story about the meeting franzese arranged with king with franzese giving his side of the events.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1140334/1/index.htm

Don King did business with Shondor Birns in the Cleveland numbers racket. Birns was the Jewish old-timer who oversaw the numbers for the Cleveland family. If you watch the movie "Kill the Irishman", there's a scene where Danny Greene walks into a black guy with crazy hair about to lay a beating on him when Greene walked in the room and took over administering the beating.

In Rick Porello's book about Greene, they talk of King and how he was a kind of renegade numbers operator who ran his business without taking into regard the existing numbers establishment in Cleveland at the time, black and Jewish. He was given life for killing somebody but got out on a technicality, what followed was boxing's slow death at his hands, haha.

I see a mention of Al Sharpton. Is it true he was once taped trying to make a drug deal with an undercover agent ? I heard a story of him being in big hat sitting at desk with man he thought was drug dealer, and he is both on camera and tape. I find it hard to believe, yet story still is around. Anyone know of it ?

Thats the meeting the first post is referring to.

I don't think Castellano had anything to do with Don King or Sharpton, they dealt with Franzese. Or at least Don King did.

I found this on Shaprton, still am looking for tape of him at the meeting.

http://www.strangecosmos.com/content/item/23284.html

The Mob was involved in sports since the begining of sports,so i dont know whats true or false...but i would say that anything is possible,btw cool post,thnx

It does sound like he knew it was a set up but then why would he feel comfortable taking a meeting with a drug dealer in the first place.

seems like a million years ago but king was essentially the biggest black gangster in cleveland during the 50's. He had the largest numbers operation going on and dealt with shonder as he was responsible for paying shonder for back up from rival blacks. He owed shonder money and didnt want to pay him, so shonder arranged for king to be killed. There was a bomb placed under his porch that went off , and he was shot at multiple times before king eventually retired and under police pressure of at trial he eventually left town. Also in the mix shonder has his own problems as he was killed, and the mini war between them ended.

I'm a big boxing fan and I'm telling you King is a straight up crook, he has stole countless millions from fighters down the years. Admittedly he is (was) a great promoter, but he stole millions from Tyson etc.

Yeah Mike hates him here he calls him a reptile .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8whe3J7w4Q&feature=player_embedded

There was something I recall where Tyson actually got physical with him, maybe a push, I'm sure King wouldn't be alive if a prime Mike clocked him lol

I'd pay to watch Mike do this to him

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goE0zHYx2r4

LMAO!

Before there was "Iron Mike", how 'bout Ernie Shavers? Don literally took him off of Blackie Gennaro, a paving contractor from PA.

DK has been involved in countless lawsuits most have been settled out of court. He's supposed to have stole alot of money off alot of famous fighters including Ali,Tyson and Larry Holmes.

I know that there are rumours Tyson kicked Don King's ass but DK was a cold blooded killer...

King held off the wise guys and his power grew. He was both beloved and feared. Then came 1966 when an employee, Sam Garrett, “ran off with (some) money,” according to King.

King hunted Garrett down at a local bar, dragged him outside and proceeded to engage in what police charged was a hellacious battle. Garrett wound up dead, his head smashed against the sidewalk.

“We were fighting,” King said Tuesday. “(It was) what I call the frustrations of the ghetto expressing themselves. And when you’re fighting in the ghetto, as you can see nowadays, and it was even worse then, you don’t (back down). So you go out there, you’re kicking and fighting and you have a tragic occurrence.

“His head hit the ground. Those are the things that happen.”

King wound up having his charge reduced to manslaughter (a sweetheart deal) and was shipped to the Marion Correctional Institute for just four years.

For King, it was enough. He was done with running numbers.
source... http://www.clevescene.com/scene-and-hear...ngs-that-happen

Don King also ratted out Shonder Birns for the bombing of his house

That's great is that why is hair always stood up

Don King fucked over a lot of ppl...no honor among thieves

This mentions Don King and Al Sharpton, and says that Sharpton was expected of being informer.

http://themilwaukeedrum.com/2011/06/17/rev-sharpton-fbi-informant-old-news-or-relevant-today/

Don King got his start/connections to the mob in Cleveland, OH. He was indicted for murder in his younger years.

In 1996, Klitschko brothers, Ukrainian boxers met Don King. The meeting was arranged by Viktor "Rybka" Rybalko, who was one of Ukraine's top crime bosses at the time and also had influence in USA. There's been rumors that Rybalko received a half of what Klitschko earned.

Here's the video.


Here's a picture of them, that was made right before entering Don King's office.
From left: Vitaly Klitschko, Viktor Rybalko, Andrey Borovik(Rybalko's right hand) and Vladimir Klitschko.
http://www.kriminal.lv/upload/picture/picture/2012_05/210950/11-article.jpg?1363661231

^ ^ ^ Thanx for this one PolakVet,i never heard of Viktor Rybalko,but ive heard that Klitschko had some mob ties

Don King ran the policy game for the black part of Cleveland in the 60's, Shondor Birns ran the general policy rackets but allowed King to operate in neighborhoods he wanted no part of. King was successful in this as it was one of his earliest hustles. He would later go on to become a SCUMBAG boxing promoter...which he is slightly better known for

Al ''I have a scheme'' Sharpton

One of the biggest pos's there is !!!