Montreal's Johnny Greco: great at boxing, bad at driving

   Montreal's Johnny Greco, aka Giuseppe Antonio Giovanni Greco, aka The Million Dollar Kid, was a great Montreal boxer but not such a great driver.

Cedar and Mountain

   Not only was he busted in the army for a fatal driving incident, he went on to die in a fatal one-car accident on Cedar and Mountain in Westmount at the young age of 31 on Dec. 12, 1954.
   He was reportedly on his way to attend a charity dinner for poor kids.
   Greco was raised in NDG and started boxing at age seven or 12,  depending on your source. He was a product of the Griffintown club.
   Abe and Murray Elkin made him a star in New York City where he had his first fight in 1941 and attracted record gates as a lightweight.
   He served a year in the Canadian army but that didn't go great, as his bad driving was fingered in the death of fellow soldier Romeo Dagenais in a drive from Montreal to Farnham in January 1944 while he was serving in St Jean south of Montreal.

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   He won the Canadian welterweight title against Dave Castilloux at the Forum in Aug. 1946 and held it until 1952 when Armand Savoie snatched it from him.
   Greco retired after winning back that crown on Aug. 26, 1952.
   His bout against Laurent Dauthuille on Aug. 9, 1949 at Delorimier
Stadium attracted 19,580 fans, which stood as the all-time largest crowd in Montreal for a boxing match until Sugar Ray took on Duran at the Big O in 1980.
   Greco lost that bout.
  Greco also lost a famous bout in Montreal on May 21, 1951, after Rocky Graziano knocked him out with a sock in the jaw in the third round. The photo from that moment is considered one of the great sporting shots.
   He also fought a massively-big drawing saw-off in New York against Beau Jack, a Georgia shoeshine boy.
   He had a career record of 105-13 and retired after winning back his Canadian welterweight crown from Armand Savoie on Aug. 26, 1952. He attempted a comeback in 1954 but it was frowned upon by local boxing insiders.
   Johnny Greco lived at 4539 Draper at the time of his death.
    He died a bachelor and left behind two brothers and his parents, to whom he was very close.
   Rivals Castilloux and Savoie were among his pallbearers.
    It's unknown whether Grego was related to Luigi Greco, who was one of the city's top mob bosses at around this time.
   We know that mobster Luigi Greco's father Angelo reportedly died in 1922.
   Boxing Johnny's middle name was Angelo, so might imply that Johnny Greco was maybe a nephew to the big time mobster.
   Luigi was getting divorced in the early 50s from his wife Berthe, who divorced Luigi (aka Louis Greco) and remarried.
  She, by some coincidence, also died tragically in Westmount on February 12,1953. Circumstances unknown.
   Mobster Luigi Greco died famously at his restaurant at 3212 Jarry after his floor cleaning fluid caught fire in 1972.