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Standoff: The Story of Jose Stable, from Contender to Inmate

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The next time Stable made headlines was in 1980, when his increasingly erratic behavior led to a scene that might have been an outtake from a Monty Python film. Back in New York City as a result of a civil suit, Stable made a surreal appearance at a Bronx courthouse. From a brown paper shopping bag, Stable produced, like some sort of midway act, a live chicken, which he proceeded to twirl above his head, sending feathers fluttering throughout the courtroom. In a non-sequitur as bizarre as the circumstances surrounding it, Stable announced that he would sacrifice the chicken, there, on the spot, in order to rid his wife of asthma. "You will not be allowed to kill the chicken or shed any blood in this courtroom," judge Anthony Mercorella told him.