Flukey Stokes

Notwithstanding the $200,000 anniversary bash Flukey arranged for his wife, nor the wedding vows they renewed on that occasion, he was with a mistress the day he was murdered. Stokes was killed by two men who lay in wait for him as he stopped to drop off his girlfriend, Diane Miller, outside her residence on 79th Street and S. Ellis Avenue. On November 19, 1986, at 12:38 a.m., a gunman armed with a 12-gauge pump shotgun, pointed at the windshield and shot out the glass. He then proceeded to fire off more shells through the vehicle's passenger side. Stokes died from gunshot wounds in his mouth and upper chest. His driver, Ronald Johnson, was killed by a second gunman; firing a 9mm semi-automatic pistol. The woman ducked the assailant's line of fire sprawling the back seat and survived the attack; uninjured.

Bill Carter first released the song as "Willy The Wimp (And His Cadillac Coffin)" on his 1985 album, Stompin' Grounds Jimmie Vaughan played lead guitar on Carter's album, and his brother, Stevie Ray Vaughan, released his version, titled: "Willie the Wimp" on his Live Alive album in July 1986. The blues-rock standard begins: "Willie the Wimp was buried today, They laid him to rest in a special way" which leads into a full description of the decadence that was Willie the Wimp's funeral. The song mentions "the casketmobile, Willie the Wimp's red suit, the money between his fingers, [and] the headlights" – into the catchy refrain, "Talkin' 'bout Willie the Wimp in his Cadillac coffin." Stevie Ray Vaughan performed the song live in concert at the Midtfyns Festival in Denmark in 1988.

Compared to his son's funeral, "Flukey" Stokes' arrangements were considerably modest. The service was held at the A.R. Leak Funeral Home on 78th Street and S. Cottage Grove Avenue, which also conducted the ceremony for the younger Stokes. Over 7,000 people filed past Flukey's casket for a final glimpse of the slain mobster. Stokes was mostly spoken of with reverence by the crowd in attendance—one young mourner said of Flukey: "I was walking on the same street he was walking, I went up to him. I spoke to him. He spoke back. I introduced myself. He shook my hand and everything." Mothers were seen lifting their young children above the coffin so they could see Stokes; adorned for his final viewing. He was laid "in a mahogany coffin with a custom-designed powder-blue interior". Stokes wore tinted sun-glasses, "a blue suit, blue silk shirt, blue tie and handkerchief and blue python shoes" and he was holding a portable telephone. The floral arrangements that surrounded him included "cars and dice fashioned from polystyrene foam, illustrating his passion for luxury automobiles and his claim on his income tax returns that his riches came from gambling."

William Morris "Flukey" Stokes (December 12, 1937 – November 19, 1986) was an American reputed mobster from Chicago, Illinois. Stokes was from the South Side and well known for his silk suits, diamond rings, and flamboyant lifestyle as a drug trafficking kingpin and pool hall owner. Stokes immortalized himself in Chicago by throwing a US$200,000 party on his 30th wedding anniversary in 1985 and for the decadent funeral he arranged for his murdered 28-year-old son, Willie "the Wimp" Stokes, Jr. in February 1984. The elder Stokes had his son buried in a Cadillac-style coffin with $100 bills stuffed between his diamond ring-laden fingers. Two years later in November 1986, Flukey would also be murdered, along with his chauffeur, sitting inside a 1986 Cadillac limousine while talking on his wireless telephone. Stokes was 48 years old.