Beyond the Boxer: Ali and the Humanitarian Within
Cassette tape recording of Muhammad Ali's interaction with the young man. Donor Helene Brown was in her office during the ordeal and recorded the event as it was happening.
Cassette tape and digital recording donated to the Muhammad Ali Center by Helene Brown, 2018.
1981
Eleven months before the last fight of Muhammad Ali's prolific career, and while he was living in the Hancock Park neighborhood in Los Angeles, California, he aided in saving a young man from committing suicide. By witness accounts, it was solely Ali who saved him.
News sources from the time stated that the young man, who was 21 years old, was threatening to jump from a ninth story window in the business district in L.A. and had locked the door behind him. When Ali arrived on the scene, he went to a near window and told the young man that he loved him, that he was his brother. As they spoke, Ali moved from the window to the fire escape and convinced the young man to join him. After a half hour, he followed Ali to safety, immediately following Ali to his Rolls Royce and, then allowing himself to be taken to a Veterans Administration Hospital.
Ali is reported as having said, "Now I'll visit him every day for the next two or three days and go home and meet his family." And, as far as we know, he did.
