"He was a louse."

That was one horse trainer's opinion of Ed Perry, who has been portrayed in innumerable books and news articles written about the champion Australian race horse Phar Lap as a `wealthy California rancher.'

Perry passed himself off to journalists and anyone else who was looking into the mysterious death of Phar Lap, as the owner of the California ranch at which the great race horse was stabled during his ill-fated journey from his homeland to the North American continent. It was there that Phar Lap died on April 5, 1932, just two weeks after his phenomenal victory in the rich Agua Caliente Handicap.

The end came somewhat suddenly with Phar Lap writhing in agony from a massive dose of arsenic.

Ed Perry was hardly the owner of the ranch and he certainly wasn't wealthy – in his own right. He was, originally, the chauffeur for the lady who owned the land and re-developed it into a show-place horse farm and training center for her racing stable of harness horses.

Perry, the chauffeur, was some 30 years younger than his boss, a lady named Suzanne Kohn. Suzanne had inherited something like $10 million, a sizable fortune in 'Roaring Twenties' currency, from her late husband. She used a portion of the money to refurbish her horse farm and put together a potent racing stable of trotters and pacers, which competed primarily on the California Fair Circuit.

Somehow, someway Perry, the chauffeur, it has been reported, weaseled his way into the affections of his lonely, widowed employer and they were married in Hollywood during late May in 1920.

Going from hired hand to the husband of a multi-millionaire-heiress was apparently not a difficult transition for Ed Perry, according to Suzanne Kohn's farm manager and horse trainer, Clarence Hansen, who was the horseman who labeled Perry "a louse."

Hansen obviously did not hold Perry in high regard, considering him an opportunistic, fortune-hunting, con man who feigned an interest in Suzanne's horses. Perry's real interest, Hansen was positive, was in his new wife's more than substantial bank account.

Phar Lap, even though his almost unbelievable feats on Australia's race tracks occurred some eight decades ago, remains firmly implanted as one of the greatest sports heroes in Australia's and New Zealand's rich sporting history.

His death, following his journey across the Pacific Ocean to the North American continent, has been shrouded in mystery, intrigue, conflicting theories, misinformation and innuendoes for decades. Various experts have clashed over the cause of Phar Lap's demise.

But no one, until now, has ever taken the trouble to investigate the role that Ed Perry may or may not have played in the death of a magnificent champion, the greatest race horse – in the opinion of many experts – that ever lived.

All the principals in the case are long dead and what they knew about Phar Lap's passing has gone to the grave with them – with the single exception of Dr. Jay C. Hansen, a retired equine veterinarian and fourth generation horseman.

Dr. Hansen, even though he was just in grade school at the time, remembers well the events surrounding Phar Lap's stay at Suzanne Perry's ranch in Atherton, located on the San Mateo Peninsula in California's San Francisco Bay area. He also has a crystal clear recollection of what his father told him about Phar Lap, his handlers, their fears about traveling to two foreign countries – and especially about Ed Perry.

Reams of paper have been used to contain the writings about the almost unbelievable career of Phar Lap. That career, in Australia, has been well-chronicled in numerous other works. This book covers the final chapter of the great horse's life.

But let's start at the beginning. The beginning in this case is when the decision was made by David J. Davis, majority owner of Phar Lap, to take his wonder horse to the North American continent and away from the merciless people who ran the Victoria Racing Club and who made him carry an unbelievable 150 pounds in the 1931, two-mile Melbourne Cup.

According to The Phar Lap Story by Michael Wilkinson, the November 17, 1931 edition of the Melbourne Herald proclaimed in its front page banner line, "Phar Lap off to America."

On that particular morning, wrote Wilkinson, noted Australian sportsman, John Wren, was walking to his office, past the crowd that was reading the report about Phar Lap posted on the outside the Herald building. According to Wilkinson, Wren heard a woman say, "Those Yanks. They better not do to Big Red what they did to Les."

Her statement had a definite prophetic tone. Although neither the unidentified lady who made the remark, nor anyone else who heard her utterance, realized it at the time.

'Big Red,' of course, was one of the affectionate names Australians attached to the wonder horse – their beloved champion Phar Lap. The reference to "Les" was Les Darcy, a phenomenal 160-pound boxer who was both the middleweight and heavyweight champion of the island nation. He left his homeland in late 1916, went to America to seek some big paydays in order to leave his family well-fixed. After accomplishing that goal, his plan was to enlist and join his countrymen fighting the Germans in World War l.

Instead, because of some underhanded political wheeling and dealing, Darcy never was permitted to box in America and died rather suddenly in Memphis, Tennessee. Some of his countrymen felt, and still feel, Darcy was poisoned. Others were convinced he died of a broken heart because of the aforementioned dirty politics and scorching criticism in the press that helped prevent him from getting the big money fights he had dreamed of in the U.S.

To this day, the majority of Australians and New Zealanders feel Phar Lap was poisoned too. It seems unlikely that Darcy succumbed as the result of a poison plot. But when it comes to Phar Lap, they are most likely correct. Science and logic back them up.

A re-visit to the intriguing tale of perhaps the greatest middle-weight prize-fighter ever to lace on a pair of gloves is in order. The reason the Darcy story is repeated here is that it somewhat parallels the subsequent mysterious deaths of President John F. Kennedy, his brother, presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy and civil rights leader Martin Luther King and gives the Australian and New Zealand reader a better understanding of political influence and crime on the North American Continent during the era that the Phar Lap contingent visited that part of the world.

Their stories – Les Darcy's and Phar Lap's – are somewhat eerily similar. The biography of Les Darcy is a fascinating one. It is probably best told by the studiously thorough research done by author D'Arcy Niland and his wife, writer Ruth Park.

The couple traveled from Australia to the U.S. in 1961 to find the truth about what happened to Darcy. They interviewed famed fight promoters Tex Rickard, `Doc' Kearns, former world heavyweight champions Gene Tunney, Jack Dempsey, James J. Jeffries and a whole passel of other ex- pugs. They also talked to famed New York sportswriter Jimmy Breslin and dozens of his booze-soaked former colleagues.

The Niland-Park team was already acutely aware that Darcy was an Australian national hero and the hero worship exists to this day. In fact, D'Arcy Niland's father named him after the great fighter. Les fashioned a dazzling...