Los Angeles herald., 1905-01-15
R FRM@US @RLTF@RWIR RRN@HER@
The Herald by Coll Joseph ID. Lynch

! Il wish to God some one else had
f." he replied.
! am about to relate fact which
will be looked upon as almost incred-
ible When Stokes assassinated Jim
Fiske his hair was as black as a ra-
vens. The next day in sherif's Bren-
mans office ] could see that his hair
had begun to change. Two or three
days after the scene I have described
! took Col. j. J. Kerr of Pittsburg, a
brother of Hon. Michael G. Kerr, speak
er of the house Of representatives, to
the Tombs to see Stokes and his black
locks were perfectly white. He was
still in state of great excitement. lie
thought his lawyers, who were fighting
for delay, the only thing under the
heavens that could save him, had be-
trayed him. Col. Kerr, who was a very
distinguished lawyer himself, tried
good naturedly to combat this wild
idea, but without avail.
left New York for California about
four months after the murder, AMI
thought very little of the Stokes case.
My recollection is that his lawyers
fought off the trial till the pubis ex-
citement had died down, and that the
jury brought I'm a verdict under which
he was sentenced to the penitentiary
for seven years.
Whatever the period of his deten-
tion, he thought IL best to spend some
time on the Pacific coast after his re-
lease. In quiet way, John w. Mackey
was good deal of a high roller--that is
to say, he controlled such enormous
amounts Of money that they would ap-
pear like a bagatelle to him which
would be a big game to a well-to-do
Southern California ranchero like Rose.
Stokes was always the center of a
crowd of men as the bonanza king
ran with. That it was not thing OF
profit to Mackey was shown by his at
tempt to recover six or seven hundred
thousand dollars in the courts which
he claimed Stokes owed him.
The proprietor of Sunny Slope was
away beyond his financial depth in try
ing to run with such leviathans OF
Stokes consorted. After his meteoric
career in California, Fiske's assassin
went back east and got hold of the
Hoffman house. Soon it was announced
that the Hoffman had the most gor-
geously embeliished bar in the world
1t was not said, but was well under
stood, that added to his bar were other
facilities for pleasure.
Ned Stokes never forgot his friends
and was always solicitous for their
weIlbeing. He was doubtless quickly
informed that his friend had sold his
Sunny Slope ranch for million or So
spot cash. One thing is undoubted.
and that is that l.. j. Rose dropped, in
a single night, in brace game OF
poker in Ned Stokes Hoffman house
the snug sum of $4,000.
1 was exceedingly well acquainted
with Mr. Rose. One day we had con-
versation about Stokes and about his
(Rose's) own career. 1t was in no
sense confidential, but it was highly
tinged with regret, as much so as
any booded man who does not ad-
nit much of the religious cult, ever in
dulges in. During that talk he inti-
mated to me that at critical stage
the whole course of his life was
changed and marred by his association
with the versatile and vicious New
Yorker. Before he took me into his
confidence knew the lamentable stoig
well. Handsome Ned Stokes was the
bane of both sides of the continent.