The crazy true story behind Peacock's “Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist”

Fight Night: The Million Dollar Robbery is now streaming on Peacock. The series tells the true story of Muhammad Ali's return to boxing in 1970 and the infamous robbery at an Atlanta after-party gone wrong. Read on to learn more about the true events that inspired the historical drama.

Peacock's new original series, which premiered Sept. 5, is based on iHeart Radio's true-crime podcast “Fight Night,” created and hosted by Jeff Keating. The podcast explores how an after-party celebrating Ali's victory took a dark turn when hundreds of guests were robbed, stripped of their clothing and forced to hand over their cash and jewelry.

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Kevin Hart leads the star-studded cast, which includes Samuel L. Jackson, Taraji P. Henson, Don Cheadle and Terrence Howard, as well as guest stars Chloe Bailey, Marsha Stephanie Blake, Dexter Darden, Lori Harvey and Sinqua Walls.

Read on to learn what happened in real life, including the significance of the Muhammad Ali-Jerry Quarry fight, whether any of the robbers were caught, and the fate of Chicken Man.

Why was the fight between Muhammad Ali and Jerry Quarry in 1970 so important?

Muhammad Ali had not fought for more than three years due to his controversial decision to opt out of the Vietnam War as an Islamic conscientious objector. Ali was stripped of his boxing titles and banned from the sport, leading to a bitter legal battle. Twenty-two states reportedly denied Ali a boxing license, including California, whose then-governor Ronald Reagan said, according to Atlanta Magazine, “That conscientious objector will never fight in my state, period.”

By 1970, the Vietnam War had become increasingly unpopular and Ali had established himself as an influential figure in both the anti-war and civil rights movements. Georgia State Senator Leroy Johnson, described by the Atlanta-Journal Constitution as “the most powerful black elected official in the South at the time,” granted Ali a boxing license and hosted his highly anticipated comeback on October 26, 1970, against one of the best heavyweights in the world at the time, Jerry Quarry, dubbed the “Great White Hope.”

Fight City founder Michael Carbert later wrote, “Ali's comeback fight in 1970 was about much more than sport, much more than just another professional prize fight. In fact, it was about more than boxing. It was about justice and vindication and human rights and, perhaps more than anything else, black pride.”

The boxing match attracted considerable media attention and high-profile attendees, including celebrities such as Bill Cosby, Sidney Poitier and Diana Ross, sports stars such as Hank Aaron and political leaders such as Coretta Scott King, Andrew Young, Julian Bond and Reverend Jesse Jackson.

The historic match also attracted mink-coat-clad rogues and their lavish entourages. Ali won the match by technical knockout, but the real drama unfolded later at one of the event's after-parties, turning the night of celebration into a hectic one.

What happened in the Muhammad Ali-Jerry Quarry robbery after the 1970 fight?

After Ali's victory, fans in fur coats and diamonds flocked to an after-fight party at a private home in their Rolls Royces. Police said at the time that robbers – armed with sawed-off shotguns and walkie-talkies – herded the 200 partygoers into a basement, forced them to strip and stole cash, jewelry and other valuables, according to the New York Times.

Blake Guthrie described the scene for Creative Loafing, Atlanta's largest weekly newspaper in 2004. “As more victims arrived, space in the basement became scarce, so the shooters ordered the victims to lie on top of each other. Cash and jewelry were swept into pillowcases,” he wrote. “This went on for hours as more people showed up. By 3 a.m., the half-naked victims were piled on top of each other like firewood.”

Based on interviews with victims and anonymous tips, police estimated the robbers had stolen about $1 million worth of money, according to Guthrie. Police Chief Herbert Jenkins assigned JD Hudson, one of the first black detectives in Atlanta's desegregated police force, to handle the case.

“If there is such a thing as the Black Mafia, then the Black Mafia was robbed,” Hudson told the press shortly after his assignment. “These people don't take this kind of thing lightly. They will also send men out to look for them. And if they get there first, there will be no arrest and no trial.”

Who was Chicken Man?

Gordon Williams, known by his nickname “Chicken Man” (played by Kevin Hart), was the prime suspect in the infamous 1970 robbery. Investigators targeted Williams, the owner of the house where the robbery took place, after an anonymous tip suggested the party had been a set-up. According to reports in the New York Times, police believed Williams had allegedly staged the robbery to raise money to pay off a sizable debt.

Chicken Man had a long criminal record before the robbery. He was being investigated by the FBI in connection with Gilbert “Dad” Beckley, a Miami and New York resident once known as the “King of the Get-Out-of-Bets.” Two days after the robbery, Williams was allegedly murdered by Mafia men as part of a murder-for-hire plot, investigators said.

Were the robbers for the 1970 robbery found?

On November 18, 1970, a Fulton County grand jury indicted three men – McKinley Rogers Jr., James Henry Hall and Houston J. Hammond of Atlanta – for robbing more than 200 people of $100,000 at a party following the Muhammad Ali-Jerry Quarry brawl, the New York Times reported. The men were each charged with six counts of armed robbery. Ultimately, only five of the hundreds of robbery victims filed official charges.

Six months after the robbery, Hall and Rodgers were gunned down outside a pool hall in the Bronx. The New York Police Department concluded that it was a revenge killing. “We said last fall it was just a question of who got them first, the police or the victims. It seems the victims got there first,” Hudson was quoted as saying in a New York Times article about the murders.

Did Chicken Man really die?

More than three decades later, Jeff Keating, the author and presenter of the Fight Night Podcast, Hudson was tracked down at his home in 2002. While speaking with the former Atlanta detective lieutenant, Hudson surprisingly revealed that “Chicken Man” was alive. “He is Reverend Gordon Williams of Salem Baptist Church,” Guthrie explained in his post.

Hudson and Chicken Man met again in 2004 at Williams' church, International Ministries 2000, to discuss the unsolved case. Hudson said that after all this time, he was convinced that Chicken Man was innocent.

“I knew [Williams] wasn't stupid enough to pull a stunt like that. This was a man who ran a million-dollar business out of a pay phone on a street corner. He was smart. He could have run IBM or Coca-Cola. There was no way he would have risked all that to bribe somebody. This was pulled off by a bunch of young thugs trying to hijack a party, and when they got there and saw how big it was, they improvised,” Hudson said, according to Guthrie's blog.

When asked why the press was reporting his death, Chicken Man shook his head. “I don't know where they got that from. They've been saying I'm dead for years, but I've been here in Atlanta the whole time.”

Williams added that he was the reason he survived. “I knew I was dead when I saw my picture in the newspaper because they made it look like I had something to do with it.” Chicken Man added, “I survived because I wasn't involved.”

Where are Chicken Man and JD Hudson now?

Chicken Man died on December 1, 2014, according to his obituary. JD Hudson died in June 2009.

Fight Night: The Million Dollar Robbery is streaming on Peacock. Watch the official trailer below.