The Unforgettable Sam Cooke ~~~ Home. Sams Final Day: In 1963, Cookes 18 month old son, Vincent, wandered away from his mothers supervision and drowned in their front yard pool while Sam was away from the home. With their marriage already in trouble largely due to extramarital affairs by both Sam and his wife, Barbara, the distance between them deepened as Sam blamed Barbara for their sons death. Cooke retreated into a deep depression, and asked that no one wear black to the childs funeral. He found his escape in out-of-town performances, which he agreed to at every opportunity. Death: 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, with it later determined that the bullet had pierced his heart. The motels manager reported that she had shot Cooke in self-defense after he broke into her office residence and attacked her. However, the details of the case involving Cookes death have remained in dispute. Controversy: Bertha Franklin, manager of the Hacienda Motel, told police that she shot and killed Cooke in self-defense because he had attacked her. The official police record[16] 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 that 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 that 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 that she beat him over his head with a broomstick before he finally fell, mortally wounded by the gunshot. According to Franklin and the motels owner, Evelyn Carr (whose last name is identified by some sources as Card, rather than Carr), they had been on the telephone together at the time of the incident. Thus, Carr claimed to have overheard Cookes intrusion and the ensuing conflict and gunshots. Carr called the police to request that they go to the motel, informing them that 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. 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 that 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 the motel altogether before the manager ever opened the door. She claimed she then put her own clothing back on, hid Cookes clothing, and went to the telephone booth from which she called police. Boyers story is the only account of what happened between the two 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 (e.g., thousands in cash that Cooke was reportedly carrying were never recovered, and Boyer was soon after arrested for prostitution), invited speculation 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. Such questions were ultimately deemed beyond the scope of the inquest, whose purpose was to establish the circumstances of Franklins role in the shooting, not to determine precisely what had transpired between Cooke and Boyer preceding the event. Boyers leaving the motel room with almost all of Cookes clothing, regardless of exactly why she did so, combined with the fact that tests showed Cooke was inebriated at the time, provided what inquest jurors deemed a plausible explanation for Cookes bizarre behavior and state of dress, as reported by Franklin and Carr. This explanation, in conjunction with the fact that Carrs testimony corroborated Franklins version of events, and the fact that police officials testified that both Boyer and Franklin had passed lie detector tests, was enough to convince the coroners jury to accept Franklins explanation, and return 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 that 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 wrote that her viewing of Cookes body, prior to his funeral, led her to join those who question the accuracy of the official version of events. She reported that the injuries she observed were well beyond what could be explained by the official account of Franklin alone having fought with Cooke. James described Cooke as having been 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 conspiracy theory has been presented to date. Aftermath: The first funeral service for Cooke was held in Chicago at A.R Leak Funeral Home, where thousands of fans had lined up for over four city blocks to view his body. Afterward, his body was flown back to Los Angeles for a second service at the Mount Sinai Baptist Church, which included a much-heralded performance of Angels Keep Watching Over Me by Ray Charles. Cooke was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California. Some posthumous releases of Cooke recordings followed, many of which became hits, including A Change Is Gonna Come, an early protest song that is generally regarded as his greatest composition. After Cookes death, his widow, Barbara, married Bobby Womack. Cookes daughter, Linda, later married Bobbys brother, Cecil. Bertha Franklin said that she was the recipient of numerous death threats after the slaying of Cooke. She left her position at the Hacienda Motel and did not publicly disclose the location to which she had moved. After her exoneration by the coroners jury, she sued Cookes estate, citing physical injuries and mental anguish suffered as a result of Cookes attack. Her lawsuit requested $200,000 (USD) in compensatory and punitive damages. Barbara Womack countersued Franklin on behalf of the estate, seeking $7,000 (USD) in damages to cover Cookes funeral expenses. Elisa Boyer provided testimony in support of Franklin in the case. In 1967, a jury ruled in favor of Franklin on both counts, awarding her $30,000 (USD) in damages.
Posted on: Tue, 18 Nov 2014 23:40:29 +0000