CHICAGO -- Thousands of people passed Friday by the glass-covered mahogany coffin of flamboyant drug kingpin Willie 'Flukey' Stokes, who buried his son a year ago in a coffin made to look like a Cadillac.
Stokes, 49, and his chauffeur, Ronald Johnson, 48, were shot to death early Tuesday as they sat in a leased 1986 black Cadillac on a South Side street near where Stokes' girlfriend lives.
Stokes received national attention when he buried his son Willie 'Wimp' Stokes in 1985 in a coffin constructed to look like a Cadillac replete with flashing lights and authentic grille. The younger Stokes had $1,000 tucked between each of his fingers.
The elder Stokes was dressed in a sky-blue suit, blue silk shirt and tie and blue python snake shoes. A portable, white telephone was placed on his chest between his hands.
More than a dozen police officers directed clogged traffic outside of the A. R. Leak Funeral Home while several hundred people waited outside to view Stokes. Police said 2,000 people had passed the coffin by 5 p.m. and an additional 8,000 were expected to pass through before the night was over.
Most of the thousands who streamed past Stokes' velvet-lined coffin appeared to be merely interested in catching a glimpse of one of the South Side's most notorious figures than to pay their respects. Few had tears in their eyes.
'Curiosity. That's why I'm here,' said Carolie Gibson, 17, who knew of Stokes through local folklore.
The prime suspect in the Stokes slaying, Charles E. Bey, 41, a former top lieutenant to Stokes before the two had a falling out, is believed to have returned to Chicago Tuesday from Cleveland, police investigators said. He is the target of an intensive search in his South Side haunts.
The Stokes family specifically wanted the wake to be 'elegant,' said James Burns, president of the company that made Stokes' casket, and requested a custom-designed interior.
