Rubin Carter, boxer who inspired Bob Dylan’s “Hurricane”, dies aged 76

Rubin ‘Hurricane’ Carter, the boxer whose wrongful murder conviction was the subject of Bob Dylan song “Hurricane”, has died.

Carter, who had prostate cancer, died in his sleep at home in Toronto, aged 76. The news was confirmed by his friend and former co-defendant John Artis, reports BBC News.

Carter spent 19 years in prison for three murders which took place in 1966. His imprisonment in the same year ended a promising boxing career. He was eventually freed in 1985 after years of appeals and public protests, including Dylan’s 1975 song.

Dylan met Carter before writing “Hurricane”, which he performed on his Rolling Thunder Revue tour in 1975. The song includes the lines: “That’s the story of the Hurricane/But it won’t be over till they clear his name/And give him back the time he’s done/Put him in a prison cell but one time he could-a been/The champion of the world.”

Later in life Carter campaigned for wrongfully imprisoned people to be freed, most recently advocating the release of David McCallum, convicted of a kidnapping and murder in 1985.

Billboard reports that Thom Kidrin, who became friends with Carter after visiting him several times in prison, has confirmed that Carter would be cremated, with some of the ashes given to his family.

Meanwhile, Bob Dylan will no longer face charges of incitement to hatred in France following comments he made about Croatians in a 2013 interview with Rolling Stone France. Dylan is no longer the focus of the charges with French law officials turning instead to the publication for publishing the remarks.