The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-07-07
LED into A TRAP.
w. E. ID. Stokes, the Millionaire
Hotel Man, in Court.
Tells How He Was Almost Killed
by Two Girls.
BUNDLE OF LETTERS
Cuts a Prominent Figure in the
Preliminary.
He Gave Miss Graham Much
BUNDLE OF LETTERS
He Gave Miss Graham Much
Money and Advice.

New York, July w. E. D. Stokes
testimony was still unfinished "neh
court convened today for further ex-
animation of the charge that an at
tempt to murder Stokes was MADE
month ago by Miss Lillian Graham ana
Miss Ethel Conrad. The purpose Oh
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 that it amounts prac-
tically to trial. On the stano yesteI
day. Stokes gave his version OF the al
legged attempt on his life when he VS.
tied the young women's apartments at
Miss Conrad's invitation to recover let
ters he had written to Miss Graham
These letters were found by detec-
tives in the girls room few days aIter
the shooting and since then have been
in the possession of the district attor-
ney In them Stokes, who said on the
stand yesterday that he was 81 years
old for the most part adopted toward
the young girl an attitude of fatherly
counsel, advising her against the stage,
against Intoxicating liquors and apouI
life in general.
The two defendants and Miss era
hams sister, Mrs. John Singleton, wife
of a wealthy California mining man,
who accompanies them in court, listen
ed to Stokes testimony with frequent
derisive smiles. All three dress in the
daintiest of summer costumes and pre-
sent a refreshing sight in the torrld
court room.
A package of IS letters written in by
gone years to Miss Lillian Graham, was
handed up to the judges bench. They
had been found, the detective said, I
whose keeping they had been, in the
young women's rooms, and constituted
the prize to recover which Stokes said
he had risked his life.
He was Angry.
Stokes, pale and worn told his story
Of the shooting. He had been sum
moned to the apartments, he said, by
Miss Conrad, who told him that Miss
Graham had left for Europe. He was
angry, he said, when he saw he had
been deceived, and declined to sign an
alleged statement setting forth that he
had DETAINED Miss Graham and her
relatives. He had also declined to pay
$4,000 under threat of death, he added,
and thereupon Miss Graham began to
shoot.
Stokes said that he told the girls that
blaclSmail was a prison offense and
that Miss Graham said: "Ill say I'm
crazy" while Miss Conrad asserted.
according to Stokes:
Wen say he came to our apart
ments and attacked US and we killed
him in self defense. We have three
witnesses listening to all this. who
never would let him out alive
When Stokes disarmed Miss Graham
after sustaining two wounds. Miss Con-
rad, he said, was in the parlor, and as
some one began firing then, he assum-
ed 1t was she. He was shot again IN
the calf of the leg. There were four
more shots, but they all went wild, he
said.
Stokes started for the han then.
There, he said. first the two girls and
later three Japanese seizel him and
throttled him. while short, stout man
aided them The police finally rescued
him and, he said, he handed a patrol
man the revolver he had taken from
Miss Graham.
On discrimination. opposing
counsel attempted to have Stokes tell
of his attentions to Miss Graham dur
ing the four years he had known her.
but he proved an unwilling witness
and the lawyer met with constant OBJ
jections
Met Her in kentucky.
Stokes met Miss Graham at dinner
in Lexington. KY. he said. He had
taken her out automo biling, had writ
ten her while she was at Memphis
Chicago and other points and also mad
entertained her at his Lexington farm
Once. he said, she had come from
Memphis to Lexington at his tele-
graphic request. She left the next
day. Stokes said. The first cash that
he said he gave her was $3.50 or $500
he did not remember which-on the
occasion of one Of her visits to Lexing-
ton, he said
The bundle of letters that drew
Stokes to the girls apartment, was
made public by the court. They al
began with the salutation:
MY Dear Miss Graham or my
Dear Miss Lillian" and most of them
concluded with, yours sincerely ol
yours truly"
In the letters from Stokes to Mis-:
Graham there were many bits of ad
vice for the young woman. One sen
early in December. 1909. warned hei
that the stage held but "a heartless Sc
cial Hfe' and urged her instead, Il
''narry some rich young fellow whose
companionship will be worth more