drug dealers.

"Sonny comes to Vegas after this unimaginable public humiliation," says Shaun Assael, who investigated the final year of Liston's life for his book: The Murder of Sonny Liston. "It's either a public humiliation of his own doing, meaning that he took a dive for whatever gains had been negotiated, or he was felled by Ali's huge hook. Either way, the public's verdict was that Sonny was a bum."

Despite his lowly public standing, Liston was hopeful he could resurrect his career. He went on an impressive run of victories after his two defeats to Ali - winning 14 fights in a row. He even spoke of recapturing his heavyweight title. But, in 1969 - about a year before his death - he fought his old sparring partner LeotisMartin and was knocked out in brutal fashion. It extinguished any lingering title hopes and he was left penniless and adrift.

"Vegas is a deeply segregated town at that point," Assael explains. "Sonny starts to spend more time in the segregated west side and begins to lead a double life."

On the one hand there was the family time he would spend at his home in Paradise Palms. This would be interspersed with occasional public appearances at the city's casinos, where he would cash-in on his celebrity status by shaking hands and signing autographs.

Liston was known to cruise around Las Vegas at night in his conspicuous pink cadillac

But a different side to Liston would come out at night. He would cruise over to the west side in his conspicuous pink