World champion boxer was ‘murdered by the mob’

IT IS a mystery that has endured for more than 50 years: who killed Freddie Mills?

The British former light heavyweight champion of the world, who went on to become a showbusiness star and a Soho nightclub owner, was found dead in the back seat of his car in 1965, with a bullet through his eye.

The official verdict was suicide but his family always maintained he was murdered, and there were rumours that the Kray twins were involved.

Now the son of a London casino boss has come forward to the BBC to claim that his father masterminded the killing in collusion with Meyer Lansky, a notorious American mobster.

The claim is made in a BBC Four documentary, to be shown on Wednesday. Roger Huntman says his father Benny was a boxing manager who helped arrange Mills’s 1948 title fight against Gus Lesnevich, and later moved into the casino business.

When Mills’ nightclub began running up debts in 1965, he attempted to blackmail his old associate, the programme claims. Roger Huntman said: “Freddie came to Benny’s flat and said his nightspot was going skint. He said, ‘I need £2,500, Benny, or I’m going under. I know who these guys are you’re associating with. If you don’t give me the money, I’m going to Fleet Street.’ Freddie tried to blackmail my father, not thinking of the consequences.”

Huntman was involved with Lansky, known as “the Mob’s accountant”, and was taking a stake in the London casino business. Mr Huntman said he was instructed by his father to take a message to Mills, arranging a meeting to hand over the money on July 25.

In the early hours of July 26, Mr Huntman said he was in his father’s casino. “At four in the morning, my father walked in with this old guy, an Italianamerican. I didn’t think anything of it. It didn’t cross my mind that anything could happen to Freddie.

“All of a sudden this massive guy has come over to my father and whispered in his ear, then turned around and told the table, ‘Mills is dead. He’s gone. He’s finished.’

“The old guy had a smirk on his face. Later I found out it was Meyer Lansky. Coincidence? I don’t think so. He was there on the night Mills was shot.”

Mr Huntman said he was coming forward because all involved were now dead, and he wanted Mills’s three children to know the truth.

The programme also features an interview with Prof David Wingate who, as a young doctor, examined Mills’s body on the night of his death. He said he recalled that Mills’s eyes had been open when he was shot, rendering the suicide verdict highly unlikely.

“I think he was looking down the barrel of the gun but somebody else was holding it,” Prof Wingate said.