I was watching a documentary of Sam Cooke last night on VH1 Soul, and as interesting as it was, it brought some news to light that I hadn't learned about before. I knew that Sam had been murdered and died at a young age (33), but I always thought that it was race related (because he was a supporter of Civil Rights???). I thought that it was because he had picked up a white girl (taboo back in the day) and drove to the wrong part of town in LA, and was shot because he was with her.....now after finding out some of the "facts", that he was in fact shot by a black woman who claimed self-defense. So I took it upon myself this morning to find out more information about his death which till this day is still in dispute (from Wikipedia):

The details of the case involving Sam Cooke's death are still in dispute. The official police record[1] states that Cooke was shot to death by Bertha Franklin, the manager of the Hacienda Motel, where Cooke had checked in earlier that evening. Franklin claimed that Cooke had broken into the manager's office/apartment in a rage, wearing nothing but a shoe and an overcoat (and nothing beneath it) demanding to know the whereabouts of a woman who had accompanied him to the motel. 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 woman's 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. According to Franklin, Cooke exclaimed, "Lady, you shot me," before finally falling, mortally wounded.

According to Franklin and to the motel's owner, Evelyn Carr, they had been on the phone together at the time of the incident. Thus, Carr claimed to have overheard Cooke's 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 coroner's 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 did. Boyer had called the police from a phone booth near the motel, telling them she had just escaped from 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 that he instead took her against her will to the Hacienda Motel. She claimed that once in one of the motel's 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 Cooke's clothing by mistake. She said that she ran first to the manager's 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, stashed Cooke's clothing away and went to the phone booth from which she called police.

Boyer's story is the only account of what happened between the two that night. However, her story has long been called into question. Due to inconsistencies between her version of events and details reported by other witnesses, as well as other circumstantial evidence (e.g. cash Cooke was reportedly carrying that was never recovered, and the fact that Boyer was soon after arrested for prostitution), many people feel it is more likely that Boyer went willingly to the motel with Cooke, and then slipped out of the room with Cooke's clothing in order to rob him, rather than in order to escape an attempted rape.

Ultimately though, such questions were beyond the scope of the inquest, whose purpose was simply to establish the circumstances of Franklin's role in the shooting, not to determine exactly what had happened between Cooke and Boyer preceding that. Boyer's leaving the motel room with almost all of Cooke's clothing in tow, regardless of exactly why she did so, combined with the fact that tests showed Cooke was inebriated at the time, seemed to provide a plausible explanation for Cooke's bizarre behavior and state of dress, as reported by Franklin and Carr. This explanation together with the fact that Carr, from what she said she had overheard, corroborated Franklin's version of events, was enough to convince the coroner's jury to accept Franklin's explanation that it was a case of justifiable homicide. And with that verdict, authorities officially closed the case on Cooke's death.

However, some of Cooke's family and supporters have rejected not only Boyer's version of events, but also Franklin's and Carr's. They believe that there was a conspiracy from the start to murder Cooke, that this murder did in fact take place in some manner entirely different from the official account of Cooke's intrusion into Franklin's office/apartment, and that Franklin, Boyer and Carr were all lying to provide a cover story for this murder.

My brother was first class all the way. He would not check into a $3 a night motel; that wasn't his style.

— Agnes Cooke-Hoskins, sister of Sam Cooke, attending the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 2005 tribute to Cooke.
In her autobiography, Rage To Survive, singer Etta James claimed that she viewed Cooke's body in the funeral home and 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 decapitated from his shoulders, his hands were broken and crushed and his nose was mangled.

Nevertheless, no solid, reviewable evidence supporting a conspiracy theory has been presented to date. However, in Our Uncle Sam: The Sam Cooke Story From His Family's Perspective,the biography written by Cooke's great-nephew, he discusses little-known facts, glaring inconsistencies, and an alternate scenario to the singer's death.

Your thoughts????
[Edited 7/23/07 4:07am]

Etta James once said Sam dealt with some thugs back in the day over money or whatever and said that at the funeral she saw the man registered as Sam Cooke to almost be unrecognizable like he was bludgeoned to death, she said the day before he died or a few hours before, that he had gotten roughed up by these guys before Bertha Franklin supposedly said Sam tried to beat her up. The story's a little twisted. To this day, Sam's family believes he was murdered not because he was shot at for self-defense but that someone really wanted him dead.

Timmy84 said:

A saw a story on some website about the Sam Cooke tragedy. They said something about the death seemed weird. How he was found on the chair in a hotel was was not right.

LittleBLUECorvette said:

Yeah I heard about that too. Which is why I can believe why Sam's family are so convinced he was set up for murder. I can believe that actually. I mean, come on, does anyone really believe Sam was killed because he came rushing to a female hotel manager's office and tried to beat her up because her girlfriend (whom they said walked out because she claimed "rape" or some mess) left him? The man wasn't that much of a bad guy that someone just decided to be the hero in this. I can believe the man was set up.

Wasn't Sam married at the time he supposedly took this woman to a motel?

Lothan said:

Yep, but I think the fact that he was seen with other women while with another woman was commonplace. I think most of the women Sam was with said he was a gentleman. I still don't see how he could just automatically snapped. That just doesn't seem like him.

And you know the messed up thing about it all is how Bobby Womack married Sam's wife months following his death... which didn't go well with Sam's brothers, one of them actually almost killed Bobby with his bare hands, he was knocking his teeth off, his head blew up to a balloon and he was almost in a coma after that! Then the really messed up thing about the marriage: Bobby actually cheated on Barbara with Sam and her 18-year-old daughter Linda, the co-singer behind she and husband Cecil Womack (Bobby's BROTHER)'s "Baby I'm Scared of You". Barbara tried shooting him with her gun too. They divorced in 1970 shortly after that.

Timmy84 said:

How the brothers get mad when Sam was out cheating on his wife?

Lothan said:

Beats me, I think it's a double standard tho. I wonder if Barbara ever threaten Sam's lovers with a gun, she might've been like Big Boi's wife in "Idlewild": "(((BLASTS GUN))) GET THE HELL AWAY FROM MY HUSBAND!".

Lothan said:

I believe they got mad because Sam and Bobby were really close friends

banks said:

Yep. They WERE close so when Bobby married Barbara, they were all pissed.

banks said:

Oh, okay.

Recommend these books





Haven't read this one yet




gotta find it

Lothan said:

exactly. i don't believe that he was beating some lady up, i do believe that he was set up....but at the same time, he WAS with this woman at some point at this shacked up motel. And why was that so...? It sure wasn't to pop popcorn and watch a movie.

banks said:

And Bobby was also the guitarist in Sam's band.

One of the if not the greatest voice/soul singer ever! Love this guy...I've considered writing a play or script of his life....his story needs to be told

popgodazipa said:

I'm with ya. Some of the first music I knew.

GangstaFam said:

Any Favs in particular

The liner notes of one of the Cooke albums I have suggest that the hotel clerk and the prostitute in question were in cahoots with each other. Maybe it was a usual thing for them to rob the johns but Cooke got out of control and they shot him.

Still I wouldnt doubt Etta's story about seeing him mangled. Terrible.

This is interesting, thanks for the book reccomendations Pill.

If anyone ever gets a chance to rent the Remembering Otis, it starts with B/W footage of the Stax tour and Sam & Dave open with Booker T as the backing band. It really opened my eyes to how much power these guys had, how tight their routine was and most of all what great voices of soul they were.

Then how can you go wrong with Otis with the crowd in his hand...just a must see if you love music as much as I do.