Hunt, Herman

Hunt, aged 33, of New Haven, a brakeman on the New York Central railway and exhibition swimmer, tried to raise the $700 to pay for his travel to England and a Channel attempt in 1923 but failed to raise enough funding. Shortly after, on August 6th 1923, Sullivan succeeded and won the £1000 prize money.  On the 10th August Hunt shot himself in the chest in the home of his girlfriend Dorothy Ashford in New York, but survived. The reason, he said, was the despair of having his dreams to swim the Channel crushed.

Later that year became coach/manager at the Capitol Park Pool in Hartford, Conn., and then moved to Hollywood in 1929 to organise 10 shows for the Hollywood Beach Casino Pool. At the end of the 1929 season he moved to Miami where he was trainer/manager for a number of professional swimmers, including Miss Babs Beckwith and Miss Ann Benoit.

He began a relationship with marathon swimmer Benoit and they moved to Toronto, Ontario, for competitions in 1931 but in October 1931 he stabbed her with a hunting knife and then attempted suicide with poison. Benoit survived but Hunt died in hospital a few days later, aged 40