Services Today For Gypsy Patriarch Grover Marks Jimmy Marks Says His Father Cursed City Officials From His Deathbed
Services will be held today for Grover Marks, a Gypsy patriarch and plaintiff in a civil rights lawsuit against the city of Spokane.
Marks, 72, died late Saturday at Deaconess Medical Center, where he had been since suffering a stroke May 8.
A 40-year Spokane resident, he was a former king of the Northwest Gypsies.
Jimmy Marks said his father came out of his coma on his deathbed and cursed three city officials: Mayor Jack Geraghty, City Attorney James Sloane and Assistant City Attorney Rocco Treppiedi.
“This is a man who wouldn’t be bullied by authority,” Jimmy Marks said.
Born in Wichita, Kan., Grover Marks was a farm laborer, “picking tomatoes and peaches and apples before he became a car salesman,” his son said.
Marks became Gypsy king in 1982 after his brother Miller Marks died in 1978. Gypsies from a nine-state area attended the swearing-in ceremony in Vancouver, Wash.
Police raids at the homes of Grover and Jimmy Marks in 1986 led to the continuing legal fight between the Markses and the city of Spokane.
Police seized $1.6 million in cash and $500,000 in jewelry in the raids. The state Supreme Court later ruled the raids were illegal because they were conducted before a search warrant was issued.
Grover and Jimmy Marks and other Gypsies sued for $40 million, contending they had been targeted for the burglary investigation because of their ethnic background.
A U.S. District Court judge recently ordered lawyers for both the city and the Gypsies to try to work out a settlement with a federal magistrate as a mediator.
“He’s a plantiff in a lawsuit. What’s there to say about him?” Treppiedi said.
But Jimmy Marks said his father “will be more helpful to us dead than alive. He will haunt the city always.
“Now he’s going to be looking over their shoulder. They can’t plan in secret because they will tell us their plans in our dreams.”
Grover Marks is survived by his wife, Marie; three sons, Jimmy, Bobby and Pete, all of Spokane; and four daughters, Linda Smith of Salem, Ore., Laura Zeko of Boise, Helen Marks of Wichita, Kan., and Peggy Marks of Las Vegas.
Marks is also survived by 23 grandchildren and 29 great-grandchildren.
Services today begin at 6 p.m. at Hazen and Jaeger Funeral Home, N. 1306 Pines.
“Anyone is welcome to send flowers,” Jimmy Marks said. “This will be a traditional Gypsy wake with around-the-clock eating, drinking and weeping.
“We as Gypsies cry when the children are born because we know the child is going to have problems. But when they die they get peace. They’re going to the Kingdom.”
Grover Marks will be buried in Holy Cross Cemetery.
The following fields overflowed: BYLINE = Janice Podsada Staff writer The Associated Press contributed to this report.