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| Sam Cooke |
Samuel Cook was born on January 22, 1931 in Clarksdale, Mississippi, one of eight children of a Baptist minister. Starting in gospel music, Cooke (who later added the "e"), became known as the King of Soul. His music led to the rise of Aretha Franklin, Bobby Womack, Curtis Mayfield, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Otis Redding and James Brown.
Cooke had 29 top-40 hits in the U.S. between 1957 and 1964, including You Send Me, Chain Gang, Wonderful World, Another Saturday Night and Cupid. Cooke was among the first black performers to found both a record label and a publishing company as an extension of his career as a singer-composer. He also took an active part in the American Civil Rights Movement.
On December 11, 1964, Cooke was shot dead by the manager of the Hacienda Motel in Los Angeles, California at the age of 33. At the time, the courts ruled that Cooke was drunk and distressed, and the manager killed Cooke in what was later ruled a justifiable homicide. Since that time, the circumstances of his death have been widely questioned.
Bertha Franklin, manager of the motel, told police that she shot and killed Cooke in self-defense because he had threatened her. Police found Cooke's body in Franklin's apartment-office, clad only in a sports jacket and shoes, but no shirt, pants or underwear. The shooting was ultimately ruled a justifiable homicide. However, the circumstances surrounding his death are still in dispute.
Cooke had checked into the Hacienda Motel early in the evening of December 11. Franklin said that Cooke broke into her office in a rage, wearing only a shoe and sports coat. He demanded to know the whereabouts of a woman who had accompanied him to the motel. When Franklin said that she didn't know, Cooke grabbed her and again demanded to know her whereabouts. Franklin and Cooke struggled and fell to the floor. Franklin got up to get her gun, which she then fired at Cooke. Franklin claimed that it was in self defense because she feared for her life. She shot Cooke once in the torso. Cooke apparently said, "Lady, you shot me," then charged at her one last time. Franklin beat him over the head with a broomstick before he fell dead of the gunshot wound.
Apparently, Franklin and the motel owner were on the telephone when Cooke entered the office. The owner overheard the conflict and gunshot and called the police.
A coroner's inquest determined that the woman who accompanied Cooke to the motel, Elisa Boyer, had also called the police shortly before the motel owner. She called from a telephone booth near the motel and claimed that she had just escaped being kidnapped and raped. She claimed she had met Cooke at a nightclub and asked him to take her home. Instead, he took her against her will to the motel, where he tried to rape her. When Cooke went to the bathroom, she grabbed up her clothes and, accidentally, his clothes and fled. Some believe she willingly went to the motel, as she was later arrested for prostitution. It is possible that she took Cooke's clothing to rob him.
The inquest determined that Cooke was drunk at the time, which would explain his behavior. Because Franklin and Boyer had passed lie detector tests, the jury accepted Franklin's version of the incident and declared the shooting justifiable homicide.
Others believe that Cooke's death was part of a murder conspiracy. For example, in her autobiography, singer Etta James claimed that Cooke's head was so badly beaten that it was nearly separated from his shoulders, that his hands were crushed, and his nose mangled. This was all based on her viewing of his body at the funeral home.
Whatever the cause of death, it was certainly tragic, robbing the world of one of the greatest soul singers of all time.
Watch Cooke sing You Send Me on an early TV show with Dick Clark, probably American Bandstand.
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