Major Coxson

friend of muhammad ali

Muhammad Ali's friend and business partner was murdered in 1973

The Early Years

Major Coxsom was the son of Isreal Coxsom ( born 1897, South Carolina. Died 1991, Philadelphia) and Maybell Coxsom (Born 1899, Greenfield, Georgia. Died 1945, Philadelphia).

The 1930 US Census recorded the family living in Fayette, Pennsylvania where Isreal (aged 33 years) worked as a coal miner. His wife Maybell Coxson was aged 31 years.There are three sons – Isreal Coxsom Jr. aged 4 years; Major Coxsom aged 1 year 10 months and Hosea Coxsom aged 2 months.

The 1940 US Census recorded the family still living in Fayette, Pennsylvania. It further records that the highest school grade completed by Isreal Coxsom was Elementary School Grade 1 and by Maybell Coxsom as Elementary School Grade 4.

The earliest official record of the ancestors of Major Benjamin Coxson is the 1900 US Census which lists the family name as Cooxon or Coaxon. In the 1910 Census this becomes Coxson but the letters after the ‘x’ are overwritten and not clear. The 1920 Census records Coaxon again or maybe Coaxan. The 1930 Census records the family name as Coxooen.

1946, Military Draft

During 1946, Major Coxsom was drafted when he was 18 years old and his military record shows his details as:

Major Benjamin Coxsom; Born: 20th June 1928. Birthplace: Fairbanks, Pennsylvania. Weight: 154 lbs. Complexion: dark brown.Eyes: brown. Hair colour: black.Height: 5′ 7″. Next of Kin: Israel Coxsom.

This is the first record of the use of the name Benjamin by Major Coxsom. Then sometime after 1946 Major Benjamin Coxsom becomes Major Benjamin Coxson.

Career Con Man

A career con man, Coxson’s criminal record included 17 arrests for thefts and frauds, involved one stint in federal prison, and yet no crimes of violence. Perhaps it was for the latter reason he was permitted to be a mainstay on the Philadelphia social scene where he was involved in bars and nightclubs, popular with politicians, sports stars and gangland figures of all stripes.

He was described as having a wide, toothy smile, and the mention of his name often drew chuckles from those who knew him. Law enforcement intelligence and surveillance reports described Coxson routinely hanging with Black Mafia members and affiliates, along with his “drug apartments” which were used alternately as safe houses and by celebrities for various purposes.

Early Business Career

Mr. Coxson said in an interview that his family moved from his hometown of Uniontown, Pa., to Philadelphia so he and his brothers Hosea and Israel would not have to follow his father into the coal mines. While a teenager, Mr. Coxson started and operated shoeshine stands and car washes. He put the profits into used car lots, a new‐car agency, car‐leasing business and other enterprises.

He opened a splashy restaurant in downtown Philadelphia called the Rolls Royce Supper Club and sold it at a considerable mark‐up to Lillian Reis, the city’s most famous madam. Among his friends and patrons were Angelo Bruno, Mafia chief in Philadelphia and in southern New Jersey.

Friend of Muhammad Ali

Despite being a drug financier and the middleman between disparate organized crime syndicates (in Philadelphia and New York), The Maje, as he was often called, was a fixture in the media and commonly graced covers of local publications. Major Coxson’s close friendship with Muhammad Ali was a prime reason for the coverage.

Ali first met Coxson in 1968 when he made a trip to Philadelphia to speak at a fundraiser for a neighbourhood organisation called the Black Coalition which had Coxson as one of it’s board members. At the time Ali was banned from boxing and was free on bail while appealing a conviction and five year prison sentence for refusing to be drafted into the Army.

Drug dealing & Money laundering

Coxson operated as a drug kingpin while running the nightclub in Philadelphia. He helped Muslims establish dummy corporations for money laundering, money coming in from credit card fraud, and extortion. Companies such as Crescent Furniture Company, Pyramid Enterprises, Barry Goldstein Agency and Fairmount Foods who all drew checks that were made payable to Elijah Muhammad’s Mosque No. 12 in Philadelphia.

Candidate for Mayor

In 1970, aged 42, Coxson ran for elected office as the Mayor of Camden, New Jersey. The mayoral run, announced in January 1972, began publicly with a grand party at the area’s largest nightclub, the Latin Casino in Cherry Hill, with Muhammad Ali in attendance and the 2,300 guests treated to performances by The Supremes and the Temptations. Coxson was fond of saying, “Muhammad Ali will add a real punch to the campaign.”

As the New York Times reported: Mr. Coxson is accustomed to success. The evidence includes his 11 Rolls Royces, Lincoln Continentals, Jaguars and other specially built cars loaded to the sun roofs with color televisions, phones, red leather, charcoal mouton carpeting, bulletproof glass and price tags up to $72,000.

The Camden 'White House'

To give himself a Camden, residence in time to run for Mayor, Mr. Coxson bought a rundown house on once‐elegant Cooper Street, put $55,000 into redecorating, painted the house white, set it off with an Astroturf lawn and printed cards calling it the White House.

His prison record appears to be no handicap in Camden, one of the crime capitals of the country. While major crimes were declining in other cities of more than 100,000 population last year, they climbed 11.3 per cent here, putting Camden next to Newark and Stockton, Calif., as worst in the United States. One of the Camden candidates for Mayor this year has served 15 years for murder. Another was jailed for aggravated assault and battery.

The IRS Steps In

However, unfortunately for Coxson, starting in March 1972 the IRS began confiscating his fleet of luxury vehicles because he owed $135,000 in back taxes.
Coxson responded by purchasing a tandem bicycle and placing his chauffeur, Quinzelle Champagne, in the rear for a great publicity stunt.

Muhammad Ali donated a silver Rolls Royce for Coxson to use, and the boxing star was a mainstay throughout the campaign. Furthermore, the February 1973 grand opening of a hardware store in the Germantown section of Philadelphia featured Ali and “the incomparable Major Coxan [sic].”

Ali v Ken Norton

On March 31, Ali mugged for the cameras with Coxson at ringside before his bout with Ken Norton in San Diego, and told the assembled media that Coxson was his “unpaid financial adviser.” Six days before the May 8 election, Ali joined Major Coxson at his “victory” party.

Coxson talks about Muhammad Ali

Interview with South Jersey Magazine

Ali’s been living in the area for most of his exile, right on through his return to the ring. The man most responsible for bringing him here is Major Benjamin Coxson, who is the furthest thing you could find from a Black Muslim. Coxson is a colorful local black businessman. No one is quite sure just what business it is he’s in, but he’s doing very well at it, when he isn’t in trouble with the law.

Coxson is now in the process of running for mayor of Camden, something he considers a necessary step on the road to the governorship. Coxson says he is running on his record. “Most politicians end up in jail anyway,” he says, “so I’ve got a head start.”

Trying to arrange a fight for Ali

Coxson met Ali somewhere around 1968, when Ali couldn’t get a fight. “I wanted to see if I could take on the challenge of getting him a fight,” the Major says. “I called every governor in the country. I got a lot of bull. I figured I’d go down south. At least I’d get a straight answer. I contacted John Williams, the governor of Mississippi. He had one arm. He didn’t know if I was black or white. I went down there with Gene Kilroy. Gene is white. He was selling telephones in briefcases. He sold one to me and I later got him a job with Ali.

Well, we went down to Mississippi and we got into the governor’s office because they thought Gene was me. Anyway, we set up a fight and came back to Philadelphia and called a press conference at the Bellevue to announce it. But the U.S. government stepped in and said if Mississippi let the fight go on, they’d withdraw all their funds. So that killed that.” It didn’t quite happen that way, but the Major has always been good at embellishing stories.

How they first met

Coxson met Ali driving one of his fleet of fancy cars down 52nd Street when Coxson was still living in Philadelphia. There was a lot of hell being raised by the Black Coalition, led by Jeremiah X, a minister and former classmate of Coxson’s at Ben Franklin High. Ali saw Coxson’s car and told him he admired it. Coxson invited him out to his house at 72nd and City Avenue to see the rest of the collection. I had the proper things,” Coxson says. “You just can’t overlook them. We saw more of each other. We’ve become closer than friends. We’re like brothers now.

How Ali bought his house

“It wasn’t only Coxson’s cars that Ali admired. He ended up buying his house. It’s not every house that has carpets and chandeliers in the garage. Coxson, who had demonstrated his dexterity with money matters, became somewhat of an advisor for Ali. “When he was getting ready to fight Frazier,” the Major says, “I saw where the City of Philadelphia was going to take 90-some thousand dollars in city wage tax out of his purse because he lived in Philadelphia. So I saw a way to move him to New Jersey to beat the City out of their money.”I was just finishing up a house in Cherry Hill and it was perfect for him.

He's not an idiot

He’s such an unbelievable man. I should be Muhammad Ali for a week. There’s nothing he couldn’t do or nothing he couldn’t be if he made his mind up about it. And he’s such a good-natured guy, you’ve got to watch out for him. A lot of people will show him things and think he’ll go along.”

“Is he that easy manipulated?”

“No,” Coxson says. “I said he was good-natured. I didn’t say he was an idiot.”

Ali buys Coxson's home

THE COXSON-ALI fondness is mutual. Ali kiddingly refers to Coxson as “the gangster.” At least I think he’s kidding. “The Major made me move to Philadelphia,” Ali says. “At least his house did. I bought the place with money I made from college lectures and TV appearances. And I was really getting set never to fight again. So this was a nice home, nice neighborhood, prosperous-looking, to reside in forever.

Coxson's view of selling his home to Ali

Interview with JET Magazine February 5th 1970

‘Muhammad Ali is leaving his Chicago home of eight years for a $90,000 mansion he bought from black entrepreneur Major Coxson in Philadelphia’s Main Line area. Coxson who says he is Ali’s business advisor told JET that Ali’s purchase of the mansion – with mirrored walls, chandeliers in bedrooms, sunken bathtubs as big as baby swimming pools and 22 telephones in assorted sizes, shapes and colors, one for every room and hallway – was strictly a cash deal. “He paid $60,000 down and will pay the remainder” Coxson affirmed. Coxson, 40, said he paid $115,000 for the house when he bought it in 1968. ‘I’m losing money on the sale. But what the hell is money between friends?” he said. The home is located in the Greenville Farm section in the middle of the Main Line. Coxson is the only black living in the area, populated by some of the city’s political, business and judicial leaders.” Footnote: The reality is that Coxson did not own the home but was living there on a lease. Ali bought the home from the real owner, a local doctor.

Muhammad Ali talks about Major Coxson

"Philadelphia was a good town. I wanted to get out of Chicago because I was in New York twice a week and I found myself living in airplanes, which I hate. "But after I started to fight again, the house got small. We had another child or two. So then the Major showed me another house in Cherry Hill, this big, beautiful Spanish hacienda. I went and looked at it and didn't like it because I figured it was too far from Philly. I like to live around people and everything. But I got to start hanging around with the Major a lot over there he lives down the block and I got to like the peace and serenity of it, being away from the people. "We're working on another deal. Still around Cherry Hill. A 65-acre farm with a house on it, horses, barns and everything. My wife Belinda likes horses and I'd like to have a couple of milk cows. A little garden for myself, maybe. Probably grow cabbage, string beans, tomatoes. Just a hobby like. Maybe the Major'll teach me how to grow money. "The Major's some man, I tell you. I get on Johnny Carson and talk about him. I tell Howard Cosell about him after my fights. My telephone! Where's my telephone? Let me show you something else the Major got me for nothing." An aide brings over one of his briefcase telephones. Ali starts pushing some buttons and yelling, "Mobile operator! Mobile operator! "You can be in your car or just walking around and you can talk to anybody in the world. Major Coxson. I run into him, he had one, he got me one. He's somethin'."

Muhammad Ali

Interview with Philadelphia Magazine

Background to Murder

Not long before Coxson lost the Camden, New Jersey election, a $1 million heroin shipment from the Gambino Crime Family in New York to the Black Mafia was stolen. The Gambinos offered Coxson $300,000 to locate the stolen narcotics and/or the persons responsible. Coxson accepted the deal, and enlisted his Black Mafia pals as subcontractors, so to speak, whereby broker Coxson would only keep $100,000 of the agreement. For reasons that remain unclear, the Black Mafia executed the two men believed responsible for the theft and their bodies were discovered on May 1, 1973. The Gambinos, realizing they would not recoup the drugs or the expected funds and that such high-profile murders would bring law enforcement attention, stiffed Coxson, arguing the services provided weren’t what they requested. Problematically for Coxson, the Black Mafia still expected the promised $200,000. Coxson spent weeks unsuccessfully trying to come up with the cash; the clock was ticking on his life.

Murdered

Coxson is murdered on June 8, 1973, in his home on Barbara Drive in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. He was tied hand and foot and shot three times in the back of the head while kneeling by his waterbed. His companion Lois Luby, her 17-year-old daughter Lita, and her 14-year-old son, were bound and shot, Lois and Toro survived. Toro, the eldest son, was left blind in one eye. Lex, the youngest son at 13, escaped the brutality by breaking through a sliding door and went to a neighbor’s for help. Later he was put in witness protection as well as Toro. He said that four black men in a black Cadillac arrived at 4 a.m. They honked the horn rousing Coxson who let them in. According to Lex ‘he thought they were friends’. The five men talked for a while before the violence started.

Murder Suspects

The two lead suspects in Coxson’s death were Sam Christian, the founder of the Philadelphia Black Mafia and another Black Mafia murderer, Ronald Harvey, who was later convicted for his role in the slaughter of seven people, including the drowning of four infants in Washington, D.C. They were never charged with the death of Coxson and his family but died in prison after other convictions.

Funeral

Extract from New York Times, June 17th 1973

DARBY, Pa., June 16—Major Benjamin Coxson, the self described “entrepreneur” who was murdered one month after losing the Camden mayoral race, was buried in the Mount Lawn Cemetery here yesterday.

Leading the funeral procession of 45 luxury sedans was Coxson’s $40,000 black and silver Rolls‐Royce that had identified him virtually anywhere he drove in Camden or Philadelphia. Coxson, an ex-convict with no visible means of support, was known for the flamboyant manner in which he lived.

A tight security network of plainclothes detectives and private security guards mingled with the crowd of 350 mourners, most of whom consisted of Coxson’s immediate family and close friends. The balcony of the church, which Mr. Lovet said had received bomb threats “just before the viewing began,” was closed to the public and was manned by uniformed police armed with rifles.

Coxson, 43 years old, was murdered June 8 in the $200,000 home he leased at 1146‐A Barbara Drive, Cherry Hill, N. J. He was found bound and gagged with neckties in a kneeling position and had been shot three times in the head.

The woman with whom Coxson lived, Mrs. Lois Luby, 35 years old, and her daughter, Lita, 16, and son, Toro, 15, were found in other parts of the home. They had also been shot in the head. The police said that Lex Luby, 13, escaped the execution and remains in protective custody because he recognized at least two of the four gunmen who invaded the home. Mrs. Luby and Toto remained in fair condition last night in Cherry Hill Medical Center. Lita died on Tuesday.

More than 100 cars in two separate motorcades converged Friday night on the Wayland Temple Baptist Church, 4100 North Columbia Avenue, Philadelphia, for funeral services. Coxson’s father, Israel Coxson, Sr., had been a deacon at the church for 25 years. Detective Lieut. Charles Bush, of the Philadelphia police intelligence squad, estimated that more than 7,000 persons had visited the city block of row homes where the church is situated at various times through out the day.

A second procession, sent from the Camden “White House,” which Coxson leased last year as his Camden residence to qualify for the Mayor’s race, dispatched 60 cars in three shifts spaced 30 minutes apart.

The third motorcade from Camden was led by a maroon, 1973 Lincoln Continental Mark IV sedan that reportedly was one of the favorites in Coxson’s collection.The third motorcade, with one of Coxson’s three brothers driving the lead car, crossed the Benjamin Franklin Bridge into Philadelphia and proceeded slowly along Ridge Avenue through the North Philadelphia slums. When it reached the church, the 15‐car procession circled the block once.

The service lasted for one hour and was attended by 900 persons.The members of the family’ present included Mrs. Elizabeth Coxson, of Philadelphia, from whom Coxson had been separated for 15 years, accompanied by her daughter, Rhonda, 24. Both wore black dresses and veils.

In a 12‐minutes eulogy in which Coxson was mentioned only briefly, the Rev. Mr. R. J. Lovett characterized Coxson as a man “who made it his business to spread joy.”Your presence here endorses that,” he added.

Final Word

The killing unearthed a tangled web of theories as to how Coxson lived and why he was murdered. Law enforcement officials contend that Coxson who lived like a millionaire without any visible means of support was one of the top 'four or five' drug traffickers in Philadelphia. They say that he was killed in retaliation for the execution of two black Philadelphia men which he was supposed to have ordered in a narcotics war.

It is said that Coxson had no assets when he died. His home and all his fleet of cars had been leased.

Acknowledgements and Many Thanks

Penn State Professor Sean Patrick Griffin (seanpatrickgriffin.net); JET Magazine; South Jersey Magazine, Maury Z Levy; New York Times; www.phillymag.com; Ancestry.com; Wikipedia.