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The Insane True Story That Inspired Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist
Detective J.D. Hudson, played by award-winning actor Don Cheadle in Peacock's scripted series inspired by a real event, once told journalists that his investigation into the Atlanta heist ended "when everybody was dead."
There are stories based on actual events, and then there are stories based on some sh-t that really happened, as the trailer of an upcoming Peacock series so boldly proclaims.
Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist is an original series inspired by a real 1970 armed robbery that took place on the night of Muhammad Ali’s historic comeback fight, an event that transformed Atlanta, Georgia, into the “Black Mecca,” per the show’s description. The star-studded series, premiering Thursday, September 5, 2024, exclusively on the NBC streamer, is a scripted adaptation of the iHeart podcast Fight Night, detailing the real-life holdup that made front-page news and changed an entire city.
Get caught up on the true story of the audacious heist ahead of the series premiere.
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WARNING: Spoilers ahead.
What happened during the Atlanta heist?
On October 26, 1970, crowds flocked to Atlanta to watch one of the most celebrated boxing matches of all time, marking Ali’s epic comeback against Jerry Quarry, also known as “The Great White Hope,” according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Celebrities such as Sidney Poitier and Diana Ross were just a few names on the elite guest list, joining other spectators dripping in diamonds and showing up in Rolls Royces delivered from New York City, according to the podcast’s description.
But it was a private afterparty hosted by Atlanta's Gordon “Chicken Man” Williams that became ground zero for a brazen criminal underworld heist that would go down in Atlanta’s history. There, guests in possession of engraved invitations were met by a handful of masked men armed with sawed-off shotguns who surprised hundreds of partygoers — some of whom authorities suspected to be part of Atlanta and New York’s underbelly. The robbers then corralled the victims into the basement and forced them to strip down to their underwear, taking off with no less than $1 million (about $8 million today) in cash and valuables, per the Atlanta outlet.
On the case was J.D. Hudson, one of the city’s first Black detectives on Atlanta’s police force. Hudson said it was a race against time to find out who masterminded the robbery before New York City gangsters got to them first, according to an interview with Hudson played in the podcast.
Ultimately, a Georgia grand jury indicted McKinley Rogers Jr and James Henry Hall on armed robbery charges, reported the New York Times in 1970. Hammond was taken into custody, while Rogers (whose real name was James H. Jackson) and Hall (whose real name was James Ebo) were gunned down in the Bronx in the early morning hours of May 8, 1971, The New York Times reported later that month.
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According to witnesses, the fugitives — plus a third individual — were killed after two men fired 11 rounds into their stolen Cadillac. Inside the vehicle, N.Y.P.D. officers found loaded guns, fake I.D.s, and $700 in cash.
When asked by journalists years later about when his investigation ended, Hudson said, “When everybody was dead,” according to the podcast Fight Night.
Newspapers at the time reported Chicken Man — one of the crime’s central figures — died within days of the heist, a death believed to be a “contract hit,” according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. But years later, Hudson told the podcasters that Chicken Man was actually alive and well and living as a changed man… a pastor, in fact.
An online obituary shows Williams died in 2014.
The Making of the Podcast
Atlanta-based iHeartRadio podcaster Jeff Keating became acquainted with the heist story two decades ago when still a struggling screenwriter, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He first heard the story from his father before heading to the library and using the microfiche to dig deeper into the case.
Keating later teamed up with Atlanta producer Will Packer, who learned the story after hearing about it on local radio.
Both men now serve as executive producers on Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist.
Packer said in a 2020 interview about the podcast that “true crime aficionados and those new to the genre will be enthralled,” according to The Commercial Appeal.
Muhammad Ali's Comeback Fight and the Impact on Atlanta
The heist occurred in the aftermath of the civil rights movement of the 1960s, prompting Keating to call on the expertise of Dr. Maurice Hobson, an African American history professor from Georgia State University, according to the Atlanta outlet.
Hobson referenced then-Mayor Ivan Allen Jr.'s efforts to turn Atlanta into a “sports and entertainment destination. "This fight was a way to showcase the new American South in a city trying to boom,” Hobson stated.
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He noted that poverty plagued the Black community, and many found themselves hustling as a means of making a living. At the time of the heist, many Black Atlantans sought out opportunities in New York City in what was referred to as Atlanta’s “Great Migration,” which was partly why those in the northern state had such a presence for Ali’s fight.
Hobson said, “Atlanta was burgeoning territory,” and “some folks wanted to come down and assert themselves.”
Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist
What transpires in the series is a game of cat and mouse between two of the main characters.
“Suspected of masterminding the crime, Chicken Man is hellbent on clearing his name but must convince his old adversary, J.D. Hudson, one of the first Black detectives in the city’s desegregated police force, who is tasked with bringing those responsible to justice,” per the show’s description.
The show stars Kevin Hart as Chicken Man; Don Cheadle as Det. J.D. Hudson; Samuel L. Jackson as New York-based crime boss Frank Moten; Taraji P. Henson as Chicken Man’s business partner Vivian Thomas; Terrence Howard as rising crime boss Cadillac Richie; and Chloe Bailey as an in-the-know waitress named Lena.
Don’t miss Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist, premiering Thursday, September 5, 2024, exclusively on Peacock.
