Jack Birtley

I review this book on my blog:

http://paulstott.typepad.com/i_intend_to_escape_and_co/2006/07/freddie_mills_h.h...

A sympathetic account of a great fighter, Jack Birtley's history of Freddie Mills life and death is a worthy introduction for anyone looking to find out more about one of Britain's gamest fighters.
Birtley examines Mills' early life, his teenage obsession with boxing and charts his rise from Bournemouth milkman to World Light Heavyweight Champion. Birtley is not shy to address issues that may detract from Mills' image as a popular celebrity - his somewhat odd private life and the damage to his health caused by his robust fighting style are both examined in some detail.

Curious
This is at times though a curious book. Birtley rarely quotes directly from anyone in Freddie Mills' family or circle - information simply emerges, and we are left to simply take Birtley's word on many things.
Birtley seems to have been curiously unable to address the issue of the legacy of Freddie Mills the fighter, making no attempt to examine where he sits in the pantheon of British boxing, or how his fleeting fame, and financial worries after retiring, were part of a pattern that has involved many great boxers.
On the issue of Mills' suspicious death, Birtley makes little attempt to speculate about possible gangland involvement, even though he cites enough evidence in passing to allow the reader to consider it a possibility.

Inquest

A firm believer in the inquest verdict that Mills committed suicide with a fairground gun that he had somehow adapted to become a deadly weapon, Birtley links Mills' financial problems, headaches caused by boxing, and a tendency to "do a runner" if under pressure, into a position where suicide became a logical answer.
Although far from complete, Jack Birtley's book should be read by fans of boxing, and fans of Freddie Mills in particular. It may not however do much towards answering the questions that remain, forty years later, about his death.… (altro)