"For me it was life and death.  Not a make believe whispered threat as in the movie [The Hurricane] from "Della Pesca" [the main detective in the film] outside Trenton prison, but home invasions, cross burnings, job firings, fights, and one phony court case after another full of KKK infested police malfeasance in New Jersey and New York with me targeted specifically."
                                                           -- Ron Lipton

The Untold Story

In 1963, at the age of 17, Ron Lipton was just a homeless kid who liked to fight.  His parents had recently divorced, and Lipton moved away from home, landing wherever he could box or lay his head for the night.  This lifestyle landed him in the Market Street Gym, where the famed middleweight Rubin "Hurricane" Carter trained.

Hoping for a job, Lipton asked to meet with Carter.  "He don't like white guys," they warned him.  But in the words of the famed poet who would later immortalize Carter in an 8 minute ballad, "When you ain't got nothin', you got nothin' to lose."

"How'd you like the chance to beat up another white boy?" Lipton asked.  "I want to be your sparring partner."  Carter laughed, and thus began a friendship between The Hurricane and the newest member of his training camp.
 

Ron Lipton at about 17 years old, when he was training in Carter's camp

photo taken by Ron Lipton as Carter prepares to spar with him

Ron Lipton, moments before a 16-second KO

Lipton ran with Carter's camp for about 3 years, picking up three amateur boxing titles and a couple of back-to-back 16 second knock-outs along the way.  In October of 1966, Lipton heard that his good friend had been arrested.  He knew at once that Carter couldn't be guilty.
 

Lipton fought in the 135-147 lb weight class.	Hurricane autograph for Lipton	82 wide grip chin-ups, 1000 pushups, and a 6 mile run every day...
Lipton was a hard hitter, registering two separate knockouts in AAU competition.  Click here to read about the first one, on May 15, 1966		Click here to read about Lipton's second consecutive 16-second knockout in AAU competition (6 seconds plus the referee's 10 count).

Lipton had never intended to be a fighter all his life, and being a police officer would give him a chance to be on the right side of the law.  So Ron Lipton decided to be an officer of the law...and he would become a good one, too.

Jump a few years later to the mid 1970s, and Officer Ronald Lipton of the Verona, N.J., Police Department is attending an Essex County Revolver League Dinner.  Lipton had always been a competitive shooter, and he was there along with some people from Passaic County (including Paterson Police).  According to Lipton, officers would come from all over the county to attend Revolver League competitions and dinners--drinking, loosening up, and shooting their mouths off.  It is at this dinner that Lipton overhears other officers boasting about how they had framed the great Rubin Carter.

Little did they know they were bragging in front of one of Carter's close friends...a friend who knew the meaning of loyalty.  Lipton vowed never to leave Carter's side.

After Lipton left the Verona Police Department, he soon took the job of County Investigator in Hudson County Prosecutor's Office.  There, Judge Samuel Larner--the very same man who sentenced Carter to three consecutive life sentences--swore Lipton in as investigator.

Lipton had joined the Prosecutor's Office in 1971, and a few years later, the Passaic County team that had built their careers on Carter's conviction came to the Hudson County office where Lipton worked.  They used the Hudson County office to oppose Carter's application for a retrial.  It was then that Lipton heard them boasting about how they would "bury that nigger and keep him buried at any costs," according to Lipton.

Lipton immediately went public in the Daily News and went to convince Muhammad Ali to to join forces with him to free Hurricane Carter.
 

Ali and Lipton years later, when Ali came to testify as a character witness at a trial against Lipton (see below for more details)

"When I went and made my pitch to Ali," writes Lipton, "there was no team [of celebrities involved]. The Carter case was ice cold....I really pitched it to Ali with all my heart and told him I would put my job on the line, which I did by going to the Daily News with what I knew.  After I saw Ali in his training camp at Deer Lake,  and I convinced all the Fruit of Islam that was there that I would put my job on the line, Ali came with me the very next day to Rahway Prison to visit Rubin."

Ali's name drew support from celebrities who then began to get involved in arranging benefits to generate publicity for Hurricane Carter.

But loyalty like this does not come without a cost, and the cost to Ron Lipton has been his career, his family, and his privacy.  Lipton lost his job as a police officer as a result of his efforts, he is now divorced, and he is still harassed to this day by police officers and members of the Ku Klux Klan (in particular, note the last two paragraphs of the article in this link).
 

Ron Lipton is found not guilty of vicious assault and battery and weapons charges after defending his family from attackers.

A 1996 article that talks about the racism and discrimination that ran rampant in the police department where Lipton worked.

Lipton currently lives in New York, and he reports that for years the powers that be in the county where he lives have said that they would make sure he never referees a boxing match again and that his son will never work as a police officer. According to Lipton, they file one false charge after another and then get a judge who will prevent any and all exculpatory evidence from ever being used.
 

This article from 1996 shows how Lipton has faced discrimination to this day because of his involvement...despite the fact that he was a good officer.

Lipton's daughter testifies in court about a group of men coming to attack her father with a knife in 1982.  Earlier, his car was "riddled with bullets" in front of his house.

Lipton, in anger and frustration at the racism and wrongful treatment he received from his local police, has had to file Federal suits against them.

"It has been the same crew of friends in the DA's office and several police," said Lipton.  "[Each time, it's a] case of self defense or me exposing the racism. As soon as I do they go after each family member, girlfriend and job I ever had to break each one down."
 

Ali, Ron Lipton, and Brett Lipton (see articles left and right)

But Ron Lipton has not let the harassment pull him down.  Even after his friend Rubin Carter was finally freed, he has continued to fight for the rights of others.
 

On February 26, 2000, Lipton was awarded the Black Prestige Award for lifetime achievement in civil rights.

Lipton has been highly involved in film and theater, and he has been especially involved in productions about his former sparring partner, Muhammad Ali..

Some Pictures and articles about Ron Lipton's story
(click on the thumbnail for a larger picture)

	Emile Griffith (a six time champ whom Carter knocked out in the first round), Lipton, and Carter	Lipton with Carter after Carter was awarded an honorary Championship belt by the WBC.
	Article that was run immediately following Carter's release in 1985	Lipton, once a professional boxing referee, declares Holyfield the winner
Another article that shows a snapshot of some of the problems Lipton faced because of his "fairness to minorities," in his words.	Officer Ron Lipton	Describes some of the reasons Lipton filed a federal case against the Walden police department.
Lipton was Senior Boxing Consultant for the 2 hour TNT network original movie "Muhammad Ali, The Whole Story" and the 6-tape series of the same name.	Lipton giving Razor Ruddock an 8 count while Tommy "The Duke" Morrison looks on (see story)	A snapshot of Lipton's life outside the ring, giving hope to local inmates
Another article telling about how Lipton helped Carter's cause	Lipton holds Evander Holyfield as Ray Mercer recovers from a punch	Front page of an article Lipton wrote while Hurricane Carter was still in prison. Here's another page from the same article.