The Sad Days of Pal Moran in Shanghai, 1935

Posted: September 24th, 2021 | 3 Comments »

In the 1920s Pal Moran was a noted lightweight boxer in the USA. There are endless accounts of his fights against most of the great American lightweights of the decade. Fighting out of New Orleans, 5’6″ described as a ‘strong, rugged boy’ Moran, was born Francis Paul Miorana and known by the 1930s as Paul Morgan. He was a pro between 1914 to 1929 – he won 48 (with 13 KOs), lost 40 (KOed 4 times) and drew 14 – not a bad record. he fought all over the USA.

And then, after retiring from the ring in 1929 he somehow ended up in Shanghai. How he got from New Orleans to Shanghai and what he was doing in the city I do not know. But in February 1935 he was given a 30-day sentence for vagrancy to be served at the Amoy Road jail. There, on about March 13th 1935 he was found having tried to hang himself with a knotted pillow slip in his cell tied around his neck and around a window bar. He then kicked away chair beneath him. However, thre guards got to him before he expired.

I know nothing of what happened to Pal Moran after this incident. One boxing site on the internet records that he died in 1977 at 79 – I hope so, but i don’t know for sure why he was in Shanghai, how he ended up vagrant and what happened to him in the years after his suicide attempt.

But a slice of old Shanghai history all the same… I’m posting anyway to see if any more comes to light….

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