Muhammad Ali Talked a Man Off a 9th-Floor Ledge

On January 19, 1981, a 21-year-old man known only as Joe climbed onto the fire escape of a nine-story building on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles and refused to come down. Police had been there for hours. A psychologist tried to reach him. A chaplain tried too. Nobody could get through.

The Call That Changed Everything

Howard Bingham - Muhammad Ali's closest friend - was in the crowd watching. He picked up the phone and called Ali. Ali arrived at the scene less than five minutes later. He did not deliberate. He went straight up.

Nine Floors Up

Ali leaned out of a ninth-floor window and called across to Joe. "You're my brother," he told him. "I love you and I couldn't lie to you. You got to listen." Joe - a 21-year-old described by witnesses as disoriented and distressed, a man who was shouting about the Viet Cong and appeared to believe he was in combat - recognized Ali immediately. He opened the fire escape door. Ali stepped out. He put his arm around Joe's shoulders and, after about twenty minutes, walked him back inside. Photographer Boris Yaro captured the moment from the street below.

What Happened Next

Ali walked Joe to his Rolls-Royce and drove him himself - first to a nearby police station, then to a Veterans Administration hospital for a 72-hour psychiatric evaluation. At a press conference two days later, Ali told reporters he planned to buy Joe clothes, help him find a job, and travel with him to Michigan to reconnect with his family. Walter Cronkite reported on the CBS Evening News on January 20, 1981: "Muhammad Ali was never your garden-variety champion of all the world. Yesterday in Los Angeles, he responded like a superhero."

Who Joe Was

The man Ali walked off that fire escape was 21 years old. He was unemployed and estranged from his family. Witnesses described him as deeply disoriented - shouting military jargon and appearing to believe he was in a war zone. He had not responded to anyone. Ali did it in twenty minutes, with nothing but words he meant.