Famous motorcycle stuntman loses liver fight. Robert Craig “Evel” Knievel was born in Butte, Montana, in 1938, the first of two children born to Robert E. and Ann Kehoe Knievel. His surname is of German origin; his great-great-grandparents on his father’s side emigrated to the United States from Germany.[3] Robert and Ann divorced in 1940, after the birth of their second child, Nic. Both parents decided to leave Butte. Evel was raised by paternal grandparents, Ignatius and Emma Knievel. At the age of eight, Robert Knievel attended a Joie Chitwood Auto Daredevil Show, which he gave credit to for his later career choice, to become a motorcycle daredevil. Almost every jump he did was on a Harley Davidson motorcycle. Knievel ended high school after sophomore year and got a job in the copper mines with the Anaconda Mining Company as a diamond drill operator . He was then promoted to surface duty where he drove a large earth mover. Knievel was dismissed when he made the earth mover do a motorcycle-type wheelie and drove it into Butte’s main power line. The incident left the city without electricity for several hours. Idle, Knievel began to find himself in more and more trouble around Butte. After a police chase in 1956 in which he crashed his motorcycle, Knievel was taken to jail on a charge of reckless driving. When the night jailer came around to check the roll, he noted Robert Knievel in one cell and William Knofel in the other. Knofel was well known as “Awful Knofel …