Kansas City News Blog

Larry Johnson's supposed to be a bad boy because he smacks around women and pours booze on DJs' turntables. What a posturing baby. Just try and compare Johnson to the late Evel Knievel. The FBI Just released Knievel's files, and we're betting that if the two ever came to blows, it would end with Knievel standing over Johnson's body holding a bloody aluminum baseball bat. Then, Knievel would do a couple of small ramp jumps over Johnson's corpse.

Supposedly, at least one Kansas Citian experienced Knievel's wrath.

According to 15 pages of the FBI file obtained by The Pitch, feds were investigating Knievel in the last half of 1973 for his suspected involvement in the beating of someone in Kansas City. We can't tell you the victim's name, because the report has been redacted to protect identities and other information the feds deem sensitive. So, for the rest of this story, we'll just use XXX when we come to a word that's been removed. We'll use a few more Xs when there's a whole paragraph missing. Maybe someone out there will be able to fill in the blanks for us. 

Agents inform Knievel that he's under investigation for violations of anti-racketeering laws, the Hobbs Act and extortion statutes. Knievel claims that the recently beaten XXX was using Knievel's name to promote his business and had claimed to exceed Knievel's jumps. Knievel also claims XXX threatened his wife and children. He claims not to know anything about the people who assaulted XXX, but offers that whoever did probably didn't like him. 

"Knievel stated he also called a press conference in Kansas City and asked reporters in attendance not to mention Knievel's name when reporting anything relative to XXX. Knievel advised that the reporters did not seem receptive to his plea," the report continues. "Knievel continued by stating that after the press conference, he returned to Butte, Montana, and shortly thereafter, received a telephone call from XXX stating he would never use Knievel's name in his advertising again. XXX told Knievel about being beaten and threatened by Knievel's goons. Knievel advised interviewing agents that he told XXX he did not send anyone to beat up or threaten XXX but appreciated the fact that XXX was no longer going to use Knievel's name."

Someone else whose name is also deleted mentions drinking with Knievel at the Continental Hotel while the motorcyclist was in town. 

The only local whose name isn't redacted is Jim Tice, then president of the American Hotrod Association in Shawnee, Kansas. Tice worked with Knievel on Association promotions, but said he wasn't happy with Knievel's performance. "Tice said Knievel was 'crazy and hard to do business with," the report reads. "He stated that Knievel was jealous XXXXXXXXXX.

"Tice said he had heard through hearsay that Knievel had hired some men out of Chicago to intimidate XXX while he was in Kansas City. XXX said that he could not testify to this, but that this was only hearsay."

The investigation apparently concluded after the FBI's Jacksonville, Florida, division requested the matter be turned over to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Kansas City, Missouri. That office declined to prosecute the case.

The entire file details a number of instances tying Knievel to organized crime and suspecting him of ordering assaults. Lest you believe the man was afraid to do his own dirty work, there's also mention of a 1977 incident in which Knievel took a baseball bat to a movie executive in a parking lot at 20th Century Fox. The movie executive had angered Knievel by writing that he was an abusive, anti-Semitic, immoral drug user. The daredevil apparently felt the best way to prove his moral turpitude was to lodge a Louisville slugger in the liar's windpipe.

If Knievel's sense of justice intrigues you as much as it does us, visit the blog at our sister paper in Broward County, Florida, to learn about a beat-down Knievel ordered in Palm Beach. -- Peter Rugg