Murder on Federal Street: Tyrone Everett, the Black Mafia, Fixed Fights, and the Last Golden Age of Philadelphia Boxing

Journalist Nam delivers a knockout debut that shines a light on the underbelly of the boxing industry in 1970s Philadelphia. In 1976, 23-year-old Tyrone “the Butterfly” Everett was a rising star in the ring. His reputation suffered, however, when he lost the WBC super featherweight crown in a shocking upset that some reporters and boxing insiders attributed to a ref who was paid off by the Mafia. In the spring of 1977, before Everett could fight Escalera in a rematch, he was killed. Everett’s girlfriend, Carolyn McKendrick, confessed to shooting him in her bedroom, claiming she did so in self-defense. Due in part to the unexplained presence of 39 heroin packets at the scene, however, people close to Everett suspected that Carolyn’s husband, Ricardo, who was believed to have ties to the drug-running Black Mafia, was involved in the murder. Drawing on interviews with Everett’s manager, promoter, brother, and even McKendrick herself, Nam brings ’70s Philly to vivid life and manages to reignite interest in a decades-old mystery. The result is a remarkable melding of true crime and sports history. (Self-published)