Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1911-07-07
stokes TELLS OF
GIRLS VISIT TO
HIS OFFICE, MAY q
Admits Eight of Letters Elk.
hibited Yesterday Were
From Him.

NEW YORK, July w. e. D.
Stokes's testimony was still unfinished
when court convened today for further
examination of the charge that an at
tempt to murder Stokes was made a
month ago by Miss Lillian Graham and
Miss Ethel Conrad. The purpose of
these proceedings is to determine
whether the evidence is sufficient to
warrant sending the case to the grand
jury, but the examination and cross
examination is conducted with such
~thoroughness hat 1t amounts practi-
cally to a trial.
The two defendants and Miss Ora
hams sister, Mrs. John Singleton, wife
of a wealthy California mining man,
tened to Stokes's testimony with fire.
quent derisive smiles.
The pretty young defendants were
dressed alike today in striking gowns
of white serge trimmed with satin.
Stokes wore sombre black and carried
a boat-shaped straw hat of the coolie
fashion.
When Mr.. Stokes resumed his testi-
mony he said he was not sure how
many letters exhibited yesterday were
his. He thought about eight.
Tells of Girls Visit.
He told of a visit made to his office
on May q last by Miss Conrad, which
was the first time the letters were
brought to his notice. She came into
his office, he said, highly excited and
was unable to speak for some time.
when she became calmed." Stokes
continued, "she told me she had been
out to dinner the night before. She
met Miss Graham, she said, at the din
ner, and the young lady was in dis
tressed circumstances, with little
money and no clothes. and hat she had
taken her to her rooms.
"'When | went out this morning to
business said Miss Conrad, L left
Miss Graham in bed. 1 forgot my pen
ell and returned for 1t. When l got
into the room l was shocked to find a
note on the table together with a bum
die of letters, the note saying that
Miss Graham had committed suicide,
and she had addressed the letters to
the press
Miss Conrad also told me-" on
tlnued Stokes, that some of the let
tiers were mine and some belonged to
other men. She said she rushed into
the bedroom and found Miss Graham
In bed, her face all blistered AND
burned, where she had spilled carbolic
acid. A doctor was called and pumped
her out, Miss Conrad said, and saved
her life.
Her Father a Russian Prince.
Miss Conrad told me then that her
father was a Russian prince, and that
nineteen years ago he came from
Venezuela to Louisville, Ky, where he
eloped with her mother. Miss Conrad
told me that she was born In Blue
fields, Venezuela. She told me that
her father, the prince, owned a mine
orth 5000, 900, but that he had been
killed in riots there and that he
mother sold the mine for $4,000, which
sum she invested In real estate, but
revolution n bloodshed caused the
burning up of the real estate, and she
her mother came to New York
and collected $4,000 insurance.
"Then Miss Conrad told me that her
mother had married an ugly man who
had squandered the insurance money
and left her poor. She had to work.
Miss Conrad said. Her brother. she
told me, would come from Mobile and
take her back to Mobile with him. She
said she had come to see me on her
lawyers advice to tell me about the
letters she found on the table with the
suicide note"