Description
Ace Hudkins was born Asa Hudkins, according to the 14th United States Census, when he was 14 years old and living in Lincoln, Nebraska. This census also states that he was born in Illinois, that his father was born in West Virginia, and his mother in Illinois. Siblings Arthur, Albert (not Alphonso), Clyde, and Katherine lived in the same household. Katherine was evidently adopted, as her mother and father were Russians who spoke Russian. Asa lived with his step-father, a 38-year-old laborer named Charles “Whited” and his mother, Mary, who was 54-years-old at the time.
Hudkins fought competitively from lightweight to light-heavyweight. He won the California State Heavyweight Title. He was Southern California’s most popular fighter during the late 1920s. He later owned a tavern in Hollywood, California, as well as a string of race-horses. Many of his horses were used in Hollywood westerns
In January 1932, Hudkins was charged with “Assault with a Deadly Weapon” in Los Angeles for hitting T. Leonard Park, 38, with his bare fist, fracturing his skull. Hudkins claimed that he and a friend, Ellen Dorsey, were standing at an intersection when Park and a companion, Edward B. Martin, approached and insulted the woman.
In early August 1933, Hudkins suffered two bullet wounds (and soon after received two blood transfusions) during a cafe brawl. August 10 Tacoma News-Tribune.
