New York, Feb. 18.
There really is a Svengali who stares boxers and other athletes into defeat—for a price, I mean, you can hire him to "hex" an opponent into submission, The "Evil Eye" is Ben Finkle, known to the sports world as "The Evil Eye, Inc."
Many in the sports world who have heard or seen references to this will-'o-the wisp character believe that he is a fictitious person trotted across various sports prosceniums by imaginative scribes.
But I have met the "Evil Eye" in person and obtained a full report on his optic opulence, I met the "Eye" in the Twentieth Century Sporting Club offices, I said, "hello, Finkle, how's things?" He said, "you'll have to talk to my manager, Im not allowed to make any statements to the press." Who was his manager? None other. than Lew Diamond, nationally known boxing promoter, who crystallized Finkle into "The Evil Eye, Inc."
"The Eye" Booked Up Diamond, a big bluff fellow said, if you want to hire the Eye, there's nothing doing right now, We're all tied up with contracts. Oh—you're from the press—alright, go ahead, talk to him."
So I talked to "The Eye"—an impassive mousey-looking individual— who said he was born in St. Louis 39 years ago, is five feet eight inches tall and scales about 165. pounds, This Svengali of sports said he started "hexing" years ago when he was jumping about the country doing circulation work for newspapers and managing boxers on the side, He said so many of his boys were beaten that he had to resort to his particular brand of staring—a cross between spiritualism and voodooism, He perfected it, he said, and has not known a defeat in the past six years, Finkle admitted that his accomplishments with Solly Krieger, veteran Brooklyn middleweight, brought him up to the top level recently. Krieger fought Bill Conn in Pittsburgh a month or so ago. At that time Conn was coming along like a fast express through green lights, Krieger's manager, Hymie Caplin, brought "The Eye" to Pittsburgh, scene of the battle.
Finkle walked into Conn's dressing room on the night of the fight, lifted his green-rimmed dark glasses, squinted his right eye and left that deadly left eye blaze out, "I could see Conn wilting, as I looked at him," Finkle recalled, Then "The Eye" was placed near Krieger's corner and it blazed across the ring during the bout, and Conn, the heavy betting favourite, was beaten handily, He did it by remote control."
Manager Lew Diamond interrupted, He said, "everyone Finkle stares at with that eye just has to lose. We've got a month of boxing work ahead of us. After that I'm going to take "The Eye' to the race track and let him work on the favourites, Oh— sure, he works in football and baseball too, We'll clean up a million dollars before we're through, This man has really got something. 1 didn't believe it at first."
Must Train id he liked his work and s not very tiring, although he had to keep in training to do it proper "I can't drink any liquor before going into action," he con-fes: "Once I did that, and I opened and closed the wrong eyes, Nothing happened.
The work is dangerous too, Finkle said, "One night, in Washington, I hexed a fighter named Ray Ingram. He lost, unexpectedly, and his manager was so angry that he chased me with a knife. I was lucky to escape."
Finkle told about more than 50 bouts, mostly in Miami, Washington, Baltimore, where "The Eye" had "hexed" heavy favourites into defeat, Just how he did it, he was not quite sure, He said it must be a gift from "the spirits." I looked at his eyes and saw nothing unusual about them—except that the left eye seemed a bit smalled than the right and that both eyes are framed with heavy brown brows, "Are you married?" I asked *No—" said Finkle, "Well—don't you find that eye helpful in making friends with the girls?"
*"No—," said Finkle, offended. "That would be ungentlemanly, After all—this is a business," United Press.
With hunting over for the season the attention of those with small purses and bow legs naturally turns to steeplechasing and this afternoon there are to be run the traditional Jorrocks and Challenge Cup.
The latter, unfortunately, owing to the shortness of the season, will have only four starters and badly though he jumped yesterday, Going Slow has only to stand up to win quite easily. The best class pony in the race, of course, is Lo Farceur, but the old warrior is getting desperately long in the tooth and is a pretty slow jumper, so he is likely to do no better than potter round and hope that those in front will fall. It may prove to be a very thrilling race, if things do not g@ as expected, but once Cinema Morn has declined to jump any further it is imagined that it will develop into a procession with Going Slow in front, White Minor next and the old plodder bringing up the rear,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.