Other names Billy Cook Role Criminal Name Billy Cook | Occupation Drifter | |
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Full Name William Edward Cook Conviction(s) Homicide of Robert Dewey Died December 12, 1952, San Quentin State Prison, San Quentin, California, United States | ||
Criminal status Deceased (execution) | ||
William Edward "Billy" Cook Jr. (December 23, 1928 – December 12, 1952) was an American spree killer who murdered six people on a 22-day rampage between Missouri and California in 1950–51.
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Early life
William Edward Cook Jr. was born in Joplin, Missouri, in 1928. His mother died when he was five years old. Soon after, his father relocated the children to an abandoned mine, eventually leaving them to fend for themselves with a few supplies. They were discovered there by the authorities and all the children were placed into foster care except William. A deformed eye and belligerent attitude stopped him being adopted by any family so he became a ward of the state. Cook was eventually placed in the care of a woman who accepted State money to look after him but they had a poor relationship.
He soon drifted into petty crime and was eventually arrested for truancy. At the age of 12 he told a judge he would prefer a reformatory to more foster care. Cook spent several years in detention before he was transferred, aged 17, to the Missouri State Penitentiary. While in prison he assaulted another inmate with a baseball bat.
When Cook was released from prison in 1950 he returned to Joplin to be briefly reunited with his father. He told him his intention was now to “live by the gun and roam.” Cook then drifted to the small desert town of Blythe, California, where he worked as a dishwasher until just before Christmas 1950. In late December he headed east again; on the way he acquired a snub-nosed .32-caliber revolver in El Paso, Texas.
Killings
On December 30, 1950, Texan mechanic Lee Archer was driving his car near Lubbock, Texas, when he picked up Billy Cook who was hitchhiking. Shortly afterward, Cook robbed Archer of $100 at gunpoint and forced him into the trunk of his car. Later, Archer escaped by forcing open the trunk with a tire iron.
After the car ran out of fuel between Claremore and Tulsa, Oklahoma, Cook posed again as a hitchhiker. This time, he was picked up by farmer Carl Mosser from Illinois, who was en route to New Mexico with his wife, three children, and a dog. At gunpoint, Cook forced Mosser to drive around aimlessly for 72 hours. At one point, Mosser nearly overpowered Cook at a filling station near Wichita Falls, Texas; but Cook was too strong for him. Cook shot the entire family and their dog shortly afterward. He dumped their bodies in a mine shaft near Joplin, Missouri.
Cook headed back to California after abandoning the Mosser car in Oklahoma. The vehicle was discovered full of bullet holes and covered in blood. The receipt for Cook's gun was found in the car.
Just outside Blythe, California, deputy sheriff Homer Waldrip became suspicious of Cook and went to the motel where he'd earlier lived with a friend. Hoping to question the friend, he was instead taken by surprise when Cook himself jumped from behind the door and took his revolver. Waldrip was taken hostage by Cook. As with the Mossers, Cook forced the deputy to drive around aimlessly. During this drive Cook bragged about murdering the Mossers. After some forty miles, Cook ordered the deputy to pull over and lie face down in a ditch, saying he would shoot him in the head; however, Cook instead got back into the police car and drove away. Cook then kidnapped another motorist, Robert Dewey, from Seattle. Sometime later the traveling salesman tried to wrestle the gun from Cook but was wounded in the process. The car left the road and careened into the desert. Cook murdered Dewey with a shot to the head. Dewey's body was found in Waldrip's abandoned car near Ogilby, California; Cook abandoned Dewey's car in Mexicali, Mexico.
By now all law enforcement agencies throughout the U.S. Southwest were on the lookout for Cook, who had returned to Blythe. He kidnapped two other men, James Burke and Forrest Damron, who were on a hunting trip. He forced them to drive across the Mexican border to Santa Rosalia, where he was recognized by the Santa Rosalia police chief, who walked up to Cook, snatched the .32 revolver from his belt, and arrested him.
Execution
Cook was returned to Oklahoma City to answer for the Mosser killings, and sentenced to 300 years in prison. In 1951, a California jury sentenced him to death for killing the salesman from Seattle, Robert Dewey. On December 12, 1952, Cook was executed in the gas chamber at San Quentin Prison. "I hate everybody's guts," he said at the time of his arrest, "and everybody hates mine."
Cook's body was returned to Joplin, Missouri, to be buried in Peace Church Cemetery.
Cook was known for the words "H-A-R-D L-U-C-K" tattooed on the fingers of his left hand and for a deformed right eyelid that never closed completely.