Editing Jake LaMotta (section)

==Early life==
LaMotta was born on the [[Lower East Side]] of New York City on July 10, 1922, to Italian parents, Elizabeth (Merluzzo) and Giuseppe "Joseph" LaMotta.<ref name="nyt" /><ref>{{cite web |url=http://officialjakelamotta.com/biography |title=Biography : Official Jake Lamotta Website |publisher=Officialjakelamotta.com |access-date=June 2, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131109133457/http://officialjakelamotta.com/biography |archive-date=November 9, 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://northjersey.newspapers.com/clip/84012864/elizabeth-lamotta-obit/|title=elizabeth LaMotta Obit - Newspapers.com|newspaper=The Record|date=July 11, 1984 |page=54 }}</ref> Many sources had reported his year of birth as 1921,<ref name=ausobit /> but his daughter Christi claimed it was in fact 1922.<ref name=ausobit>{{cite news|url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-21/jake-lamotta-boxings-raging-bull-dies/8966094|title=Raging Bull boxing legend Jake LaMotta dies|newspaper=ABC News|date=September 21, 2017}}</ref> His mother was born in the United States to Italian immigrants, while his father was an immigrant from [[Messina]], Sicily, who came with family including Jake's older brother Joseph. The family lived briefly in Philadelphia before returning to New York City and settling in the [[Bronx]].<ref name="nyt" />

Jake's father forced the boy to fight other boys in order to entertain neighborhood adults, who threw pocket change into the ring. LaMotta's father collected the money and used it to help pay the rent.<ref name="AftertheFall">{{cite web|url=http://www.ibhof.com/pages/about/inductees/modern/lamotta.html |title=International Boxing Hall of Fame profile |publisher=Ibhof.com |access-date=June 2, 2014}}</ref> One of LaMotta's cousins on his father's side was [[Richard LaMotta]], who became an entrepreneur and creator of the [[Chipwich]] ice cream treat.<ref name="NYTOBITUARY">{{cite news|first=Dennis|last=Hevesi|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/16/business/16lamotta.html|title=Richard LaMotta, Creator of Chipwich Ice Cream Sandwich, Dies at 67|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=May 15, 2010}}</ref>

LaMotta learned to box while in a [[reformatory]] in upstate New York, where he'd been sent for attempted robbery.<ref name="nyt" /> Afterward he fought undefeated in amateur bouts, turning professional at age 19 in 1941. During [[World War II]], he was rejected for military service due to a childhood [[Mastoid process|mastoid operation]] on one of his ears which affected his hearing.<ref name="nyt" /><ref>''Raging Bull: My Story'' (p. 112)</ref>