Despite this display, his manager 'Froike' (Benjamin Katz, but he had boxed under the name of Frankie Kane and Froike is the Yiddish equivalent of Frankie), always championed and excused Davis. "Bummy wasn't a bad kid," he once said. "He was really a good kid, but his life was mixed up and nothing ever worked out right for him. They put him in with Tony Canzoneri, which they shouldn't have done, because Tony had been a great champion but now he was washed up. And when Bummy knocked Canzoneri out everyone hated him.
"Everything went wrong for him right down to the night four stickup guys walked into the bar that Bummy had just sold to his pal Dudy. No local hood would of thought of sticking up what had been Bummy's joint. The tough guys knew him and respected him and the joint was off limits. But some out-of-towners have to come and Bummy told them they shouldn't stick up Dudy. You know the rest."
One of the gunmen told Davis—in very offensive language—to mind his own business and to get over to the wall and put his hands up. No man talked to Bummy Davis like that and got away with it. So the graceful left hook made an arc through the air accurately for the last time. The stickup man dropped, his jaw broken in two or three places, but he held onto his gun. He retaliated with a slug that pierced Bummy's throat. The gunmen lammed out the door with Davis going right after them. He died outside on the sidewalk.
(BY IRVING RUDD)
