Los Angeles herald., 1907-02-22
STARTER CALLS
II A PLOT To
EXTORT MONEY
Hoffman Divorce Case
in Court
Letters Filed as Evidence with Earl
Rogers Deposition Apparently
Disclose Attempt to De-
fraud Horseman

What appears to be the last curtain
IN the sensational "melodrammer" in
which Louise Bullock of Louisville,
KY, otherwise known as "Maysvile
Lou, the Fairy Tout" has been play
ing the leading role and incidentally
stirring up considerable unpleasantness
for Jake Hoffman, starter at Ascot
park, has been rung down.
Letters filed recently in the courts
of Covington, Ky, and a deposition
from Earl Rogers tend to bear out
Jake Holtman's statements that the
allegation that he had married Louise
Bullock in Los Angeles a year ago
was an attempt to blackmail him.
Louise Bullock arrived in Los An
geles shortly after the opening of the
racing season and since that time she
has been in the public eye as a result
of her attempt to prove that she is
the wife of Jake Hoffman, an already
much-married man.
The following correspondence, pub
1ished In the Cincinnati Enquirer, re-
Veals a new phase of the case:
Louise Bullock or Louise Bullock
Hoffman has come to grief in her liti-
cation against the well known race
starter, Jake Hoffman. She instituted
suit against him in the Kenton circuit
court last fall, seeking to recover heavy
alimony, claiming that Hoffman had
married her in Los Angeles on January
23 1906, and had then deserted her.
AT the time the suit was filed in the
Kentucky courts the plaintiff claimed
that the evidence of her marriage with
Hoffman, the marriage certificate, was
in the possession of her California at
torney, Earl Rogers of the Los Angeles
bar. Upon a preliminary motion for
temporary alimony she took the stand
q 9 IN n IA
resources, declaring him to be worth
upward of 100000, but when Holt
mans attorney, Hon. Harvey Myers,
started to interrogate her as to the
time and circumstances of her mar
riage the court sustained the objection
of the plaintiff to this line of interro-
cation because she had not testified
to, anything concerning the marriage.
The motion for temporary alimony
was overruled and the plaintiff was
given thirty days to produce her Cali
fornia evidence. She testified herself
to the marriage and produced a paper
purporting to be a marriage certificate
sigped by G. II. Spalding, magistrate,
but bearing no signature of witnesses.
There is on file in the case a certificate
of G. G.. Keyes, county clerk of Los
Angeles county, to the effect that there
was no such justice of the peace or
that county. Also a certificate from
the clerk of the superior court of that
county to the effect that no marriage
license was ever issued for the mar
riage of j. j. Hoffman and Louise
Bullock
Yesterday the deposition of Earl
Rogers, her former attorney at Los
Angeles, reached the clerks office in
Covington and wassfil This deposit
ton was taken on behalf of Hoffman
and attached to it are letters which
Mr. Rogers testifies he received from
his former client which indicate that
the woman made most desperate ef-
forts to manufacture evidence of a
marriage with Hoffman for the pur-
rose of securing money from him.
Earl Rogers Deposition
Mr.. Rogers deposition was taken be-
fore Hon. w. p. James, judge of the su-
perior court of Los Angeles county. The
first letter filed with the deposition Of
Mr. Rogers was that written from
Christ hospital Mt. Auburn, Cincinnati
and is as follows:
Dear Mr.. Rogers: For Gods sake, if
not for mine, send me some sort of evil
dence of this marriage Anything will
go. so they tell me. and 1 will swear 1
gave you the evidence with the letters
/ had an operation in September and
one in August Expect to leave this
place next Sunday. I used your name,
and do bear me out in this. If you do
refuse which 1 pray you don't, send
me letter and tell me what county
Los Angeles is in, and send me blank
marriage certificate If you won't send
anything else. Will expect to hear
from you.
Louise Bullock Hoffman.
"Direct to the Palace hotel, Cincinnati"
Mr.. Rogers then testified: 1 desire for
my own position to be thoroughly ex-
planned This letter which have hand
ed you was accompanied by letter
from Judge Tarvin, as follows:
'Covington. KY, Sept. "a, 1906.
" Mr.. Earl Rogers, Los Angeles, Cal
My Dear Sir: / received some time
ago your answer to my letter concern
ing the suit of Mrs. Louise Bullock
Hoffman VS. Jake Hoffman, but Mrs.
Hoffman still insists that you have and
can procure the evidence of her mar
riage to Jake Hoffman. agreed to file
the suit when shown your statement
that you possessed the evidence, and
would not have acted as attorney with
out that statement or without some
showing that the evidence existed I
have written to Mrs. Hoffman today
that unless l am furnished with the
evidence within a short time / must
withdraw as her attorney, and have
told her that l would write you again.
If you have not the evidence, or If you
have it and are unwilling to send 1t to
me. | will have no other course than
withdrawal. / will not knowingly act
as the attorney for plaintiff in such a
case as this in the absence of evidence
of the marriage, and where such an
action might well be construed as only
an effort TO force payment OF money
from the defendant, If Mr.. Hoffman
simply sustained relations no doubt
pleasant, but illegal. with Mrs. Holt
man, without marriage or pretended
marriage, and without overreachng
or deceiving her into those relations,
would not care to have anything to do
with an attempt to make him pay in
money for his enjoyment. l will appre-
clate an early answer from you Very
truly yours, James p. Taryin. -"
Attorney Makes Denial
The witness continued: II desire to
say that l never made, signed, caused
TO be written or dictated or in any wise
hneW OF statement made by me to the
eIIGNI mAnfInnnA Ia