McCoy, Charles "Kid"
[Norman Selby]

Boxing

b. Oct. 13, 1873, Rush County, IN
d. April 18, 1940

Career Record

Other Resources

McCoy's life story sounds like the scenario for a bad movie. Married ten times to seven different women, at various times he starred in silent films, operated a detective agency, was accused of jewel theft and convicted of murder.

He probably began boxing in Montana as a teen-ager, but his first recorded fight was a 4-round decision over Pete Jenkins on June 2, 1891, in St. Paul, MN. McCoy went undefeated in 19 fights before being knocked out by Billy Steffers in the 1st round on May 10, 1894. He avenged that loss by winning a 10-round decision over Steffers on August 29, 1894.

McCoy claimed the welterweight title after knocking out champion Tommy Ryan in the 15th round on March 2, 1896, but Ryan was generally still considered the titlist. After outgrowing the division, he also claimed the vacant middleweight championship when he knocked out Dan Creedon in the 15th round on December 17, 1897.

He had only one recognized title fight, for the light heavyweight championship on April 22, 1903, but lost a 10-round decision to Jack Root. That year Lionel Barrymore starred in a Broadway play, "The Other Girl," that was based on McCoy's life.

McCoy fought only six times in the next seven years but he had five fights in 1911 and two more in 1912 before being arrested in London on a charge of stealing jewels from an Austrian princess. He supposedly fought as the "Masked Marvel" for the next three years because of the notoriety created.

While serving in the National Guard, he had a final recorded fight in Mission, TX, in 1916. Between 1919 and 1924 McCoy lived in Los Angeles and was in a number of movies. He was arrested in August of 1924 for murdering his girlfriend and attempting to kill three other people. McCoy spent eight years in prison, then became a gardener in Detroit. He committed suicide by taking an overdose of sleeping pills in 1940.

International Boxing Hall of Fame