Papke, the 'Kewanee Thunderbolt,' once held boxing’s International Middleweight title

It was Thanksgiving Day, 1936, in greater Los Angeles. There was a knock at the door. Frightened, the neighbor nevertheless opened it. “I was terrified,” she later said, “because I know of the threats [he] had made to his ex-wife.”

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As the man entered his ex-wife’s apartment, he asked the neighbor, “is ‘Mommy’ here?” Then, seeing her behind the neighbor, he drew a .38-caliber revolver, pressed it against his ex-wife’s chest, and fired.

The neighbor fled the apartment after the first shot, running down a flight of stairs. At least two more shots rang out as she hid in the garage.

When the police arrived, they found former Kewaneean Billy Papke dead with three bullet wounds to the chest, still clutching the revolver, his slain ex-wife by his side.

Papke had been trying to reconcile with his ex-wife, but had told a friend, “I’ll get her back if I have to use a gun on her and me.”

Who was Billy Papke?

William Herman Papke was born in 1886 in Spring Valley in eastern Bureau County. He was the fifth of eight children born to his German immigrant parents. By 1900, he was working as a day laborer along with his older brothers.

But Papke soon took up boxing, and it did not take long for his fiery disposition to convert him into a terror in the ring. Observers called him a terrific puncher with an incredible left hook and an abundance of courage.

Papke began his career by winning 23 bouts along with four draws. He initially boxed in and around Spring Valley, La Salle, Peru, Peoria, and the Quad Cities.

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By 1907, Papke moved to Kewanee to live with an older brother and his wife on Helmer Street. Papke soon joined the Y.M.C.A. in order to use its gymnasium for his training regimen.

From his base in Kewanee, Papke traveled the nation, with fights in Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, along with a sojourn to Brazil.

In March 1908, Papke defeated Hugo Kelly in Milwaukee in a 10-round points decision. While billed as the world and American 158-pound middleweight championship, it was not a universally sanctioned bout. However, Papke’s win set up a series of matches with Stanley Ketchel for the acknowledged world middleweight title. Papke and Ketchel met three times that year.

In the first bout in June, Ketchel won in 10 rounds. But in September, Papke scored a 12th round technical knockout for the world title. The fight was not without controversy, however. Stories circulated that when the two boxers met in the center of the ring to shake hands before the fight, Papke “sucker-punched” Ketchel. But the stories have subsequently been debunked.

Two months later, embarrassed by his loss, Ketchel punished Papke in a November bout to win back the title. Some say that Papke was virtually unrecognizable to his wife from the never-ending blows meted out by Ketchel.

The next year, Papke once again was beaten by Ketchel.

Following Ketchel’s death in 1910, Papke claimed the world title and beat Jack (Twin) Sullivan and Frenchman Georges Carpentier before unsuccessfully challenging Frank Klaus for the vacant title in 1913.

For the years after the Klaus fight until 1919, Papke fought only four bouts, losing them all. He officially retired in May 1919. Papke, his wife, and children then permanently moved to California.

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Boxing historian David Martinez wrote that Papke was one of the most underrated middleweights. According to Martinez, Papke won 40 fights (32 by knock out), had 17 losses and six draws. Martinez said that Papke was only knocked out once in his professional career, in the third Ketchel fight.

Nat Fleischer, Ring magazine founder and publisher, rated Papke number seven of the greatest middleweights of all time. In 2001, Billy Papke was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

In 1910, Papke and Edna Elouise Pulver eloped. The couple had three sons, William (b. 1911), Clifford (b. 1914), and Robert (b. 1915).

Papke’s son William also became a boxer and the elder Papke helped him develop. However, the son never reached the heights achieved by his father.

Shortly before her murder in 1936, Edna Papke had asked a friend to go with her to the police the Friday after Thanksgiving. The day following her death, her friend said,

“[d]esperate because of repeated threats against her life, Mrs. Papke was to go to Los Angeles this morning to get authorities to protect her. Not knowing of the tragedy, I called her home to ask when she wanted to leave. I found out it was too late. Mr. Papke had killed her and himself.”

Papke’s former manager and friend told the Los Angeles Times after the tragedy that

“[t]he same stubborn will which took him to the heights in the prize ring made it impossible for him to accept defeat in his domestic affairs.”

However, I suspect that it was more than mere stubbornness which led to that fateful Thanksgiving Day tragedy. The blows Papke suffered over a lifetime of boxing likely took their toll, with Billy and Edna Papke both paying the ultimate price.

This article originally appeared on Star Courier: Papke, the 'Kewanee Thunderbolt,' once held boxing middleweight title