Columnist Dean Juipe: Ref’s death mystifies, and angers

Dean Juipe

Friday, Aug. 25, 2000 | 10:26 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or 259-4084.

Mitch Halpern will be buried today in Newport Beach, Calif.

Solemn as that occasion will be, and as heartbroken as the mourners will feel, some who knew the late boxing referee have reacted with anger. Not so much that he took his own life, which is his prerogative, but in the manner he chose to do it.

Without getting into the grisly details, Halpern returned to his Las Vegas residence last Sunday following an argument with his girlfriend -- a lingering argument, perhaps we're led to believe -- and shot himself in the head. Left to never forget the damage was not only the girlfriend, who was his fiancee, but Mitch's 4-year-old daughter from a previous marriage.

It wasn't a pretty way to go and it's one his immediate survivors will never be able to erase from their memories. It was a terrible, awful thing to do to the little girl in particular.

In the intervening days, those who knew him have struggled to explain or rationalize his behavior on that last, dreadful day.

Given the lack of advance notice and our lack of knowledge pertaining to contributing circumstances, it is, of course, impossible for outsiders to justify Halpern's actions.

Was it a "terminal impulse" as psychologists call it? Or had something been gnawing at him for days or years?

A boxing referee by trade but also a man involved in radio and communications, Halpern wouldn't seem to have had a professional motivation for killing himself. Yet, by chance, it's possible he was pestered by the last two fights he refereed and maybe even by one he officiated five years ago.

His final fight -- Rosendo Alvarez vs. Beibes Mendoza, Aug. 12 at Paris Las Vegas -- ended with Halpern disqualifying Alvarez, the favorite in this junior flyweight title fight, after repeated warnings for low blows had been ignored. Earlier on that same card he had been the referee for a heavyweight fight -- Rich Melito vs. Thomas Williams -- that was allegedly fixed and is now being examined by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Five years earlier, May 18, 1995, at Caesars Palace, Halpern was the referee for a Gabe Ruelas vs. Jimmy Garcia junior lightweight title fight that ended with Ruelas winning and Garcia later dying at a local hospital.

While it's doubtful any of those fights unnecessarily weighed on Halpern's mind, consider this: He wasn't the first Nevada referee to kill himself following a fight in which a man more or less died in the ring. Richard Greene, who refereed the Nov. 12, 1982, fight at Caesars between Ray Mancini and Duk Koo Kim, also took his own life, although, here again, it seems unlikely it had anything to do with Kim's death following the 14-round outdoor slugfest.

Whatever was bothering Halpern may have been bothering him forever. For instance, one of his former roommates said this week he thought Mitch had a "dark side" bubbling beneath the surface.

It certainly wasn't evident to most of us, as Halpern came across as a cheerful-yet-businesslike young man with a world of talent as a boxing referee and years of prosperity in front of him.

Apparently those prospects were insufficient and he decided he had seen enough.

But it would be easier to sympathize and cry if he had picked a better way to end it.