Happy birthday to the late great Samuel Sam Cooke (January 22, 1931 – December 11, 1964) an American recording artist and singer-songwriter, generally considered among the greatest of all time. Influential as both a singer and composer, he is commonly known as the King of Soul for his distinctive vocals and importance within popular music. His pioneering contributions to soul music contributed to the rise of Aretha Franklin, Bobby Womack, Al Green, Curtis Mayfield, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Billy Preston and popularized the likes of Otis Redding and James Brown.AllMusic biographer Bruce Eder wrote that Cooke was the inventor of soul music, and possessed an incredible natural singing voice and a smooth, effortless delivery that has never been surpassed. Cooke had 30 U.S. top 40 hits between 1957 and 1964, plus three more posthumously. Major hits like You Send Me, A Change Is Gonna Come, Cupid, Chain Gang, Wonderful World, and Twistin the Night Away are some of his most popular songs. Cooke was also among the first modern black performers and composers to attend to the business side of his musical career. He founded both a record label and a publishing company as an extension of his careers as a singer and composer. He also took an active part in the Civil Rights Movement. On December 11, 1964, at the age of 33, Cooke was fatally shot by Bertha Franklin, the manager of the Hacienda Motel in Los Angeles, California. After an inquest, the courts ruled Cookes death to be a justifiable homicide. Since that time, the circumstances of his death have been consistently called into question by Cookes family and his wide circle of friends and acquaintances. Cooke was born Cook in Clarksdale, Mississippi. He later added an e onto the end of his name, though the reason for this is disputed. He was one of eight children of the Rev. Charles Cook, a Baptist minister, and his wife, Annie Mae. Cooke died at the age of 33 on December 11, 1964, at the Hacienda Motel at 9137 South Figueroa Street, in Los Angeles, California. Answering separate reports of a shooting and of a kidnapping at the motel, police found Cookes body, clad only in a sports jacket and shoes but no shirt, pants or underwear. He had sustained a gunshot wound to the chest, which was later determined to have pierced his heart. The motels manager, Bertha Franklin, said she had shot Cooke in self-defense after he broke into her office residence and attacked her. Her account was immediately questioned and disputed by friends and acquaintances. The official police record states that Franklin fatally shot Cooke, who had checked in earlier that evening. Franklin claimed that Cooke had broken into the managers office-apartment in a rage, wearing nothing but a shoe and a sports coat, demanding to know the whereabouts of a woman who had accompanied him to the hotel. Franklin said the woman was not in the office and that she told Cooke this, but the enraged Cooke did not believe her and violently grabbed her, demanding again to know the womans whereabouts. According to Franklin, she grappled with Cooke, the two of them fell to the floor, and she then got up and ran to retrieve her gun. She said she then fired at Cooke in self-defense because she feared for her life. Cooke was struck once in the torso and, according to Franklin, he exclaimed, Lady, you shot me, before mounting a last charge at her. She said she beat him over his head with a broomstick before he finally fell, mortally wounded by the gunshot. The motels owner, Evelyn Carr, claimed that she had been on the telephone with Franklin at the time of the incident. Carr claimed to have overheard Cookes intrusion and the ensuing conflict and gunshot. Carr called the police to request that officers go to the motel, telling them she believed a shooting had occurred. A coroners inquest was convened to investigate the incident. The woman who had accompanied Cooke to the motel was identified as Elisa Boyer, who had also called the police that night shortly before Carr had. Boyer had called the police from a telephone booth near the motel, telling them she had just escaped being kidnapped. Boyer told the police that she had first met Cooke earlier that night and had spent the evening in his company. She claimed that after they left a local nightclub together, she had repeatedly requested that he take her home, but he instead took her against her will to the Hacienda Motel. She claimed that once in one of the motels rooms, Cooke physically forced her onto the bed, and that she was certain he was going to rape her. According to Boyer, when Cooke stepped into the bathroom for a moment, she quickly grabbed her clothes and ran from the room. She claimed that in her haste, she had also scooped up most of Cookes clothing by mistake. She said she ran first to the managers office and knocked on the door seeking help. However, she said that the manager took too long in responding, so, fearing Cooke would soon be coming after her, she fled from the motel before the manager ever opened the door. She said she then put her clothing back on, hid Cookes clothing, went to a telephone booth, and called police. Boyers story is the only account of what happened between her and Cooke that night; however, her story has long been called into question. Inconsistencies between her version of events and details reported by other witnesses, as well as circumstantial evidence, suggest that Boyer may have gone willingly to the motel with Cooke, then slipped out of the room with Cookes clothing in order to rob him, rather than to escape an attempted rape. However, questions about Boyers role were beyond the scope of the inquest, which purpose was only to establish the circumstances of Franklins role in the shooting. Boyers leaving the motel room with almost all of Cookes clothing, and the fact that tests showed Cooke was inebriated at the time, provided a plausible explanation to the inquest jurors for Cookes bizarre behavior and state of dress. In addition, because Carrs testimony corroborated Franklins version of events, and because both Boyer and Franklin later passed lie detector tests, the coroners jury ultimately accepted Franklins explanation and returned a verdict of justifiable homicide. With that verdict, authorities officially closed the case on Cookes death. Some of Cookes family and supporters, however, have rejected Boyers version of events, as well as those given by Franklin and Carr. They believe there was a conspiracy to murder Cooke, and that the murder took place in some manner entirely different from the three official accounts. Singer Etta James viewed Cookes body before his funeral, and questioned the accuracy of the official version of events. She wrote that the injuries she observed were well beyond the official account of Cooke having fought Franklin alone. James wrote that Cooke was so badly beaten that his head was nearly separated from his shoulders, his hands were broken and crushed, and his nose mangled. No concrete evidence supporting a criminal conspiracy has been presented to date.
Posted on: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 06:04:39 +0000
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